Welcome to the Harris-Cheney show
Plus: My failed attempt to figure out where the Harris campaign stands on renewing an expired discount internet program that helped close the digital divide.
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Welcome back to Once Upon a Hill. The election is in two weeks. And Vice President Kamala Harris is running a two-sided campaign on the homestretch. On one side, she’s invested considerable time and resources in energizing the Democratic base of nonwhite, young and women voters, which was on display as she traveled to Detroit and Atlanta over the weekend following the release of her economic agenda for Black men last week and sit-downs with Charlamagne tha God and Rev. Al Sharpton. And on the other, there’s Harris’s outreach to never-Trump Republicans who are exhausted—or terrified—by the thought of a second Trump administration, a strategy that’s materialized in a recent appearance on Fox News and the three town halls Harris held with former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) in the suburbs of the Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin—the trio of the so-called Blue Wall.
Cheney is the face of a coalition of Republicans who despise the former president and have endorsed Harris—including her dad, former Vice President Dick Cheney, more than 200 alumni and aides of former Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush and Republican presidential nominees John McCain and Mitt Romney. Additionally, former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), former Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan of Georgia, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and former Trump officials like White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham and former aide Cassidy Hutchinson have come out to support the vice president’s candidacy.
During the first stop in Malvern, PA—moderated by Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist and publisher of the The Bulwark—Harris and Cheney discussed for roughly 40 minutes topics ranging from abortion to the dangers of a second Trump term. The vice president answered audience questions on the high costs of child care and senior care and the maternal mortality crisis.
The second town hall was in Birmingham, MI, and moderated by journalist and former first lady of California Maria Shriver, who called Harris and Cheney incredible for demonstrating bipartisanship despite policy differences.
The risk Trump poses to US national security was a throughline in each of the town halls. But during the Michigan town hall, Harris discussed at length her time as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, a lower-profile assignment that was often overshadowed by the viral moments she generated during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings while questioning now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh and former FBI Director Bill Barr.
She said it was one of her favorite times because people would take off their suit jackets, roll up their sleeves, and drink coffee.
“We weren’t Democrats or Republicans,” Harris added. “We were Americans.”
Cheney pushed back against criticism from Trump supporters that Harris is unqualified to be president, suggesting that it was rooted in misogyny and sexism.
“There sometimes are some men who suggest that she's not,” Cheney added. “But if you look at her qualifications, there's no question.” (President Biden echoed a similar sentiment during a ceremony to honor recipients of the National Arts and Humanities awards: “I know the power of women in this room to get things done, and also help the next generation of pioneers, proving a woman can do anything a man can do and then some—that includes being president of United States of America.”)
Cheney also attempted to assuage concerns from people worried about public backlash from supporting Harris
“I would just remind people, if you're at all concerned, you can vote your conscience and not ever have to say a word to anybody.”
Wisconsin resident and vocal Trump critic Charlie Sykes, who moderated the final town hall in Brookfield, welcomed the crowd to “a production of the odd couple” before touting Cheney’s political courage and introducing Harris as the next president of the US.
The theme of the evening was democracy: The importance of upholding the rule of law, the peaceful transfer of power and the Supreme Court’s immunity decision from the summer.
Before the Michigan event, Harris told reporters that the events were about prioritizing country over party.
“I’m very pleased and honored that so many people are showing up to these events to have this conversation,” she said. “Because I think they know, regardless of who they voted for in the last election and the party with which they are registered to vote, on some issues, we just have to all be Americans and put party aside.”
Harris also mentioned that Republican voters would be more likely to vote for her because of the fall of Roe v. Wade.
“So I look at what happened in the midterms and in special elections to guide my thinking about this issue,” Harris said. “And what we saw in so-called ‘red states’ and so-called ‘blue states’ when the issue of the freedom of a soma to make decisions about her own body is on the ballot, the American people vote for freedom regardless of the party with which they’re registered to vote.”
Republican women of reproductive age, ages 18 to 49, hold slightly less conservative views on abortion policies and a slim majority (53 percent) support federal legislation that guarantees a nationwide right to abortion care, according to data published in July by KFF, a non-partisan health policy group. While 58 percent of voters identify as “pro-life,” 40 percent say on the issue of abortion they are more “pro-choice.” Additionally, 56 percent of younger Republican women voters say abortion should be legal in at least most cases, including one in five who say abortion should be legal in all cases.
It’s not just young Republican women, either: Cheney called the fallout from the repeal of Roe deeply and untenable.
“I think there are many of us around the country who have been pro-life but who have watched what's going on in our states since the Dobbs decision and have watched state legislatures put in place laws that are resulting in women not getting the care they need,” she said. “And so I think this is not an issue that we’re seeing break down across party lines, but I think we’re seeing people come together to say what has happened to women when women are facing situations where they can't get the care they need, where in places like Texas, for example, the attorney general is talking about suing, is suing to get access to women's medical records. That’s not sustainable for us as a country and it has to change.”
Tuesday at a glance
The House and Senate are out.
President Biden will host a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Robert Golob of Slovenia this morning before traveling to Concord, NH, to discuss lowering the cost of prescription drugs. While in NH, Biden will also visit a New Hampshire Democratic coordinated campaign office before returning to the White House.
Vice President Harris will receive briefings and hold internal meetings this morning before taping interviews with NBC’s Hallie Jackson and Telemundo’s Julio Vaqueiro in the afternoon.
Gov. Tim Walz will speak at a campaign rally with former President Barack Obama this afternoon in Madison, WI, before speaking at another rally in Racine, WI.
First Lady Dr. Jill Biden will travel to Las Vegas this evening.
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and Maya Harris will speak at a canvass launch and volunteer appreciation event this afternoon in Cary, NC, before attending a Hurricane Helene relief event in Carrboro, NC. The two will also speak at a Get Out the Vote mobilization and concert in Carrboro this evening.