PHILADELPHIA — Vice President Kamala Harris, under pressure to broaden her appeal to Republicans and conservatives with Election Day fast approaching, is sitting for a high-stakes interview with Fox News on Wednesday and holding an event with GOP leaders in Philadelphia’s battleground suburbs.
The interview with Fox chief political anchor Bret Baier represents a calculated gamble for Harris, given Fox’s role as a conservative-leaning network that is one of the top news sources for Republicans. It comes in the midst of a media blitz in which the vice president has appeared on nontraditional forums such as SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show” and a live radio town hall with Charlamagne tha God, co-host of “The Breakfast Club.”
The Harris campaign argues that the vice president has an opportunity to win over a portion of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents who are alarmed by former president Donald Trump’s rejection of the 2020 election results, his threats to unleash government powers against his political opponents and his unusual behavior in some of his recent appearances.
The campaign has been reaching out to voters who supported former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley. In an effort to signal that Harris merits Republicans’ votes, her aides have also highlighted her support from prominent Republicans including former congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who urged Americans during a recent appearance with Harris to reject the “depraved cruelty” of Trump.
This week, Harris has stepped up her efforts to portray Trump as an unstable and dangerous leader who would damage the Constitution and democratic institutions for his personal gain. She plans to amplify that message Wednesday at an afternoon rally in Bucks County, Pa., where she will appear with more than 100 Republicans who have endorsed her campaign.
Speakers at the rally will include former congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who like Cheney was a member of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Harris is expected to speak about Trump’s conduct during that assault and his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election. She plans to ask Republicans to back her if they care about democratic ideals, according to a campaign aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview remarks that she had not yet delivered.
Other Republicans planning to attend the Buck County event include former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman, former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan and former members of Congress such as Barbara Comstock of Virginia, Jim Greenwood of Pennsylvania, Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma, Denver Riggleman of Virginia, Chris Shays of Connecticut and David Trott of Michigan.
Trump, as the GOP presidential nominee, is expected to win Republican voters by large margins in every state. But if Harris can improve her standing among these voters even slightly in hard-fought battlegrounds such as Pennsylvania, it could make the difference between winning and losing, according to analysts on both sides.
Harris adviser David Plouffe told New York magazine this week that there are signs Harris is making inroads with GOP voters.
“We see both registered Republicans — and a bigger group of people who are not affiliated with a party but largely consider themselves Republicans — who we’re showing great strength with,” Plouffe said. “That’s not the only way we’re going to get to our win margin, but that’s part of it.”
Harris and Trump have been essentially tied in Pennsylvania, a state that is a critical piece of the Democrats’ potential path to victory. Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 but lost to Joe Biden in 2020.
The Harris campaign is touting its turnout operation in the Philadelphia suburbs, where it has 10 offices, including three in Bucks County. Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee, defeated Trump in Bucks County by about 2,700 votes, and Biden won it by about 17,000 votes.