Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is launching a large-scale mobilization in Pennsylvania this weekend, leading up to a Monday rally with Gov. Josh Shapiro and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) will be in Montgomery County for the volunteer kickoff, and Shapiro will headline an event in Cumberland County Saturday morning. In preparation, Harris’ campaign has held news conferences with local Democratic leaders in Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Erie, and has two more scheduled for Friday in Pittsburgh and Scranton.
President Joe Biden said Sunday he was dropping his re-election bid and quickly endorsed Harris, who won enough delegates to secure the party’s official nomination during a virtual roll-call vote scheduled for early August.
Whitmer and Shapiro are widely considered to be Harris’ running mate, although Whitmer has said she has no plans to seek higher office. Shapiro said this week that he has not yet filed paperwork for the vice presidential vetting process.
Harris’ campaign said more than 100,000 volunteers have signed up for the campaign nationwide, including More than 4,000 people in Pennsylvania have signed up for events this weekend. More than 8,000 people have signed up online to join the campaign in Pennsylvania since Harris announced her campaign last Sunday.
The campaign now has about 200 staffers and 36 coordinated offices across the state, in sheltered blue areas like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, as well as counties that traditionally vote Republican, like York and Lancaster.
The weekend attack in Pennsylvania is the largest campaign effort in the state to encourage voting. The last coordinated statewide effort came in April, when Biden’s campaign opened more than two dozen offices across the state before and after the state’s primary.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. The Trump campaign has opened offices in Pennsylvania in the past two months, including in Philadelphia, Reading and Lancasterand in May, the campaign launched an initiative to engage Trump Force 47 volunteers.
