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Harris will make a stop in Madison, a college town filled with
young voters critical to Biden and Harris's re-election efforts,
to talk about apprenticeship programs and "good-paying union
jobs," the White House said.
Wisconsin is a political battleground state that the Biden team
wants to win in November to get to the 270 state electoral votes
required to be reelected. Biden won the state of nearly six
million people in 2020 by less than 1% of votes; in 2016
Wisconsin supported Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Democrats have been frustrated by polling that shows voters
unhappy with the economy and giving higher marks to former
President Trump on the issue, despite robust job growth, low
unemployment and record high stock markets under Biden's tenure.
Harris's visit shows the Biden campaign plans to continue to
tout the president's 'Bidenomics' platform - without always
using that moniker - while highlighting what Biden and his
supporters see as a threat to democracy posed by Trump, the
Republican presidential frontrunner and Biden's likely opponent.
Harris's trip comes after a high-profile visit on Sunday to
Selma, Alabama, where she made a sharp call for Israel to do
more to allow aid in to Gaza, which she said was experiencing a
humanitarian catastrophe.
U.S. officials and other allies are seeking to negotiate a
six-week ceasefire in Israel's war with Hamas, which was sparked
by the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 attack that killed
some 1200 people.
More than 30,000 people in Gaza have died as a result of
Israel's military response, according to Palestinian
authorities, and the war has angered some of Biden's core group
of voters, including young people and left-leaning progressives.
Harris's remarks calling for an immediate ceasefire echo demands
from some of those supporters, who are staging 'uncommitted'
protest votes in Democratic primaries across the country.
Harris, whose early tenure as vice president did not win over
the Democratic establishment in Washington, has become the
administration's leading voice to promote abortion rights, an
issue that resonates with women and young voters.
The issue has helped fuel Democratic successes in Wisconsin,
including the election of a liberal judge to the state Supreme
Court last year.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Heather Timmons and Deepa
Babington)
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