This newsletter was originally sent out via email to our Ground Game subscribers on August 05, 2024. You can subscribe at any time at apnews.com/newsletters.
Plus, a look at the chief architect of Project 2025, and the row over Harris’ fracking position
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By Meg Kinnard
August 05, 2024 08:33:48 AM
By Meg Kinnard
August 05, 2024 08:33:48 AM
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump stood in the same Georgia arena four days apart last week, with rallies offering starkly different versions of the country – and raising questions about how a factionalized citizenry might embrace a Trump comeback or a Harris ascension.
Welcome to this week’s edition of AP Ground Game.
THE HEADLINES
Donald Trump gestures to the crowd as he arrives at a campaign rally at Georgia State University in Atlanta, on Saturday (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
A tale of two Georgia rallies
Harris and Trump’s Georgia rallies last week offered two disparate crowds in one of a divided nation’s battleground states that will decide the presidency – and the scene of 2020’s slimmest margin.
Talking more policy than her own biography, Harris implicitly blamed corporate greed, promising to attack “price gouging” and “hidden fees” for inflationary woes. Democrats promoted the biggest spending measures of Biden’s tenure as seminal investments in clean energy, domestic manufacturing such as the burgeoning electric battery plants in Georgia and infrastructure improvements that eluded previous presidents.
On Saturday, Republicans blamed those measures as the cause of higher prices and cast Harris as a radical who threatens national values. Trump offered dystopian forecasts of a Harris administration, warning of “a crash like 1929” and arguing, “If Kamala wins, it will be crime, chaos and death all across our country.” Read more.
Of note:
Presidential campaigns always involve differences and division. Only once in the last half century – Republican Ronald Reagan in 1984 – has the winner surpassed 55% of all votes cast.
Related reads ➤
Trump again tears into Georgia’s Republican governor on the same day he campaigns in the state
At boisterous Georgia rally, Harris dares Trump to ‘say it to my face’ and show up for their debate
Who heads up Project 2025?
A chief architect of Project 2025 — the controversial conservative blueprint to remake the federal government — Russell Vought is likely to be appointed to a high-ranking post in a second Trump administration. And he’s been drafting a so-far secret “180-Day Transition Playbook” to speed the plan’s implementation to avoid a repeat of the chaotic start that dogged Trump’s first term.
Among the small cadre of Trump advisers who has a mechanic’s understanding of how Washington operates, Vought has advised influential conservative lawmakers on Capitol Hill, held a top post in the Trump White House and later established his own pro-Trump think tank. Now, he’s being mentioned as a candidate to be Trump’s White House chief of staff, one of the most powerful positions in government.
Led by the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 is a detailed 920-page handbook for governing under the next Republican administration. A whirlwind of hard-right ambitions, its proposals range from ousting thousands of civil servants and replacing them with Trump loyalists to reversing the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of medications used in abortions. Read more.
Of note:
Democrats for months have been using Project 2025 to hammer Trump and other Republicans, arguing to voters that it represents the former president’s true – and extreme – agenda. Trump in recent weeks has sought to distance himself from Project 2025; the same day that his campaign said the entity’s “demise would be greatly welcomed,” its executive director stepped down.
Related reads ➤
Project 2025 shakes up leadership after criticism from Democrats and Trump, but says work goes on
Trump says he’ll skip an ABC debate with Harris in September and wants them to face off on Fox News
Harris’ reversal on fracking becomes a talking point in Pennsylvania
Fracking – formally named hydraulic fracturing – is nearly always on the ballot in battleground Pennsylvania. Republicans routinely attack Democrats over the practice to drive a wedge into the party's fragile alliance between its left wing, which is hostile to fossil fuels, and its bedrock building trades union base, whose workers are building an expanding network of gas pipelines, power plants and processing facilities in Pennsylvania.
Facing the need to win the state, Harris is swearing off any prior assertion that she opposed the practice, but that hasn't stopped Trump from wielding her now-abandoned position to win over voters in a state where the natural gas industry means jobs.
Trump has repeatedly warned that Harris would ban fracking — a position she held as a presidential primary candidate in 2019 — and devastate the economy in the nation's No. 2 natural gas state. Harris’ campaign insists she would not ban fracking, calling Trump’s claims an “attempt to distract from his own plans to enrich oil and gas executives at the expense of the middle class.” Read more.
Of note:
Attacking Harris over fracking is reminiscent of Republican efforts to turn union workers against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. In tenor and scale, Trump's overtures to the industry have echoed the unfulfilled promises he made to save the coal industry during his first campaign.
Related reads ➤
VP’s campaign launches ‘Republicans for Harris’ in push to win over GOP voters put off by Trump
Some activists step up criticism of Shapiro and Kelly as Harris closes in on naming a running mate
TRAIL PHOTO
Vice President Kamala Harris at a campaign rally, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
ON THE CALENDAR
Harris and her yet-to-be-named running mate make stops this week in seven battleground states: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
Trump holds a rally Friday in Bozeman, Montana.
CANDIDATE CHECK
After a mostly smooth two-week campaign startup, Harris is headed into a crucial week that includes her most critical decision yet — choosing a running mate — while grappling with how to keep that early political momentum alive. Read more.
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff acknowledged Saturday that he had an extramarital affair years ago that contributed to the breakup of his first marriage. Read more.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once retrieved a bear that was killed by a motorist and left it in New York’s Central Park with a bicycle on top, sparking a mystery that consumed the city a decade ago. Read more.
2024 COUNTDOWN
OUTSIDE OF WASHINGTON
Action in Arizona: Democrat Ruben Gallego promotes Republican support in his Senate campaign against Kari Lake
Personal politics: A North Carolina Republican who mocked women for abortions runs ad with his wife’s own story
This newsletter was originally sent out via email to our Ground Game subscribers on August 05, 2024. You can subscribe at any time at apnews.com/newsletters.
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