Harris to travel to Michigan, North Carolina during RNC Week
The vice president will speak in both states as the Biden campaign attempts to make inroads with independent voters.

12:16 PM
The Biden campaign announced Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Kalamazoo, Michigan, tomorrow and Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Thursday in her latest efforts to connect with swing voters before the November election.
At the Michigan stop, Harris will speak at a campaign event and participate in a moderated conversation with Olivia Troye, a former Trump administration national security official, and Amanda Stratton, a Michigan mother and former Republican whom the campaign says has a personal reproductive health story to share.
The vice president has traveled to Michigan four times this year and seven times since taking office.
Harris will speak at a campaign event in North Carolina during her seventh visit to the state this year and 15th since becoming vice president. (She was in Greensboro last week.)
The Biden-Harris ticket won Michigan in 2020 by 2.8 points, a margin of nearly 155,000 votes. The campaign views the state as critical to its path to victory this year. According to polling averages, Trump is up by almost one point.
North Carolina hasn’t voted for a Democrat since former President Barack Obama in 2012, but the Biden campaign has invested heavily in the state recently. The president is trailing Trump by more than six points.
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DNC launches first paid media campaign after Vance nomination
Tuesday happenings: Biden to sit for BET interview, speak at NAACP convention in Las Vegas
8:53 AM
DNC launches first paid media campaign after Vance nomination
The ads will appear across Milwaukee, the site of the Republican National Convention this week.
The Democratic National Committee launched 16 billboards and a mobile billboard in the Milwaukee area to call out J.D. Vance, the Republican Ohio senator former President Donald Trump tapped on Monday as his running mate.
The billboards tie the Trump-Vance ticket to Project 2025, which the DNC says would provide a roadmap for a second Trump administration to ban abortion, cut taxes even further for rich people and big corporations, slash Social Security and Medicare and undermine democracy.
“If Trump were trying to distance himself from Project 2025, then he probably shouldn’t have chosen as his running mate the man who just days ago said that the extreme blueprint is full of ‘good ideas,’” DNC spokesperson Alex Floyd said. “The more the American people learn about Trump and Vance, and their terrifying Project 2025 agenda, the clearer the choice will be to choose President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ vision that protects our basic freedoms come November.”
See the billboard campaigns below:
6:12 AM
President Biden to ask Congress to cap rent hikes at 5%
President Joe Biden will announce a new legislative proposal to block corporate landlords who increase rents on existing units by more than five percent from federal tax breaks. The announcement will come during an event this afternoon with Congressional Black Caucus Chair Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) in Las Vegas and represents the administration’s latest step to address the affordable housing crisis.
The five-percent cap would apply to landlords with over 50 units and their portfolios, who account for half of the rental market. It would last two years to serve as a bridge until more housing units are built and those under construction become available. New construction and recently rehabilitated units would be excluded from the cap to encourage supply.
“Families deserve housing that’s affordable—it’s part of the American Dream,” Biden said in a statement. “Rent is too high and buying a home is out of reach for too many working families and young Americans, after decades of failure to build enough homes. I’m determined to turn that around.”
The administration is also announcing a new government-wide effort to repurpose federal land and other properties to build more affordable housing. Biden has tasked federal agencies from the Department of Interior to the Department of Defense with the responsibility of identifying opportunities to turn surplus property into less expensive units.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development also announced $325 million in grants to revitalize
neighborhoods in communities across the country. HUD says the awards will build over 6,500 units of new housing, support small businesses, build childcare centers and new parks, and will be used to leverage more than $2.65 billion in additional public and private investments in these neighborhoods.
And the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced new protections for multifamily properties financed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, including 30-day notice requirements before rent increases or lease expiration and a five-day grace period before imposing late fees on rental payments.
“We know this is a crucial national need,” White House Domestic Policy Council Needa Tanden said. “And that’s why this is a priority across agencies.
The five-percent rental cap is a spin-off of a bill Horsford introduced that would give the president broader flexibility to define a housing emergency and to protect renters from the egregious price increases that have become commonplace in the last few years.
Horsford said Biden's actions demonstrate his willingness to take a stand against corporate landlords who raise rents unfairly to exploit the national housing shortage.
“Housing is a fundamental issue that affects all aspects of our lives, from economic stability to health and education,” he added. “Today's announcement by President Biden is a significant step forward in addressing the housing crisis here in Southern Nevada, as well as all throughout the country.”
While the inflation report released last week showed rent had its smallest monthly increase in June since August 2021, last month was still the first consecutive month housing costs rose despite cooling inflation in other areas, an empirical indication of the strain the housing market is under.
Not to mention, the White House showed little indication it had lobbied congressional Republicans hard enough for them to consider the type of major legislation to enact Biden’s proposal 112 days from the election.
But a senior administration official dismissed the notion that the announcements are part of a political scheme to shore up Biden’s standing with working-class voters heading into November. The official said the housing crisis has evolved since Biden took office, which forced Biden to focus on keeping people in their homes during the pandemic. Now, he can address the affordability crisis.
Lael Brainard, White House Director of the National Economic Council, said pending legislation could make a difference too: If the Senate passed a bipartisan tax deal that the House approved in January in a 357–70 vote, 200,000 units could immediately undergo construction.
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris announced an $85 million grant program last month designed to spot and eliminate barriers to ramping up the supply of reasonably priced homes for communities nationwide. Harris said the Department of Housing and Urban Development will award an additional $100 million in grants later this summer.
5:00 AM
Tuesday happenings: Biden to sit for BET interview, speak at NAACP convention in Las Vegas
All times Eastern
The House and Senate are out.
2 p.m. President Biden will receive his daily intelligence briefing.
3 p.m. The president will sit down for an interview with BET’s Ed Gordon in Las Vegas.
4 p.m. President Biden will speak at the 115th NAACP National Convention in Las Vegas.
6:45 p.m. The president will join Congressional Black Caucus Chair Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) at an economic summit in Las Vegas.
Vice President Harris will receive briefings and hold internal meetings with staff.