Get Ready to Start Seeing a Lot More of Kamala Harris

Americans can expect to start seeing more of Vice President Kamala Harris as the presidential election against former President Donald Trump inches closer.
Harris will seek to raise her visibility in crucial swing states over the coming weeks following her debate against Trump as she battles to win over undecided, moderate voters to set herself up for a November victory. Harris, riding the momentum from the debate into a tour of battleground states, is expected to begin participating in more interviews with media to allow voters to become more confident she is ready to lead the country.
She held a rally in Charlotte Thursday afternoon and continued to Greensboro later in the evening. Although North Carolina has backed Republicans in the last three presidential races, it is a top target for Harris, who could benefit from increased enthusiasm among Black and younger voters in the Tar Heel State.
Harris will seek to build on the morale boost Democrats felt after the ABC News debate on Tuesday. Polls suggested a majority of viewers viewed Harris as the victor, as she successfully got under Trump’s skin through jabs at his crowd sizes and reputation among foreign leaders, while also touting her economic policy.
A Reuters/Ipsos survey released Thursday suggested Harris improved her standing in the polls after the debate, though it remains to be seen whether it will move the needle in other national and swing state surveys in the neck-and-neck race.
After Harris’ stops in North Carolina, she will move on to Pennsylvania on Friday, campaigning in the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre area, a region that used to back Democrats but has shifted toward Republicans in recent election cycles. Meanwhile, her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is planning to make appearances in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Harris “needs to hit the campaign trail hard” and has “no time to waste” due to her later entry into the race, Costas Panagopoulos, a political science professor at Northeastern University told Newsweek.
During the 2020 race, President Joe Biden—who withdrew from the 2024 election in July amid concerns about his age and ability to win—made 51 appearances in the fall, while Trump made 68, according to Panagopoulos. Harris would need to make at least one appearance daily to match that, he said.
“A robust schedule will also reinforce the energetic, generational contrast she seeks to make against Trump and sustain the relatively high level of enthusiasm among Democratic activists and volunteers,” he said.
Campaign stops will also boost media coverage of her campaign in local markets, particularly those in swing states where the campaign will be decided, he said.
Tammy Vigil, a senior associate dean at Boston University’s College of Communication, told Newsweek that voters “need to become comfortable with her and the more they see her, the more familiar she becomes.”
“It is a necessary move to ramp up her activity from now until the election. She really needs to become someone whose name people can say and say comfortably,” she said.
Harris cannot simply rely on voters’ dislike of Trump to convince them to vote for her, and instead must give people a reason to vote for her, Vigil said. The more active she is, the more likely it is that voters will find her to be a compelling candidate.
Newsweek reached out to the Harris campaign for comment via email.
Meanwhile, Politico reported that Harris’ campaign advisers said she will start doing more media interviews, including some with “unconventional outlets.” NBC News reported that Harris will be engaging with local media in swing states and speaking more with the press corps.
More details about what her next media interviews would be immediately remained unknown to the public on Thursday at press time.
Panagopoulos said that while there is a risk of “missteps” for candidates doing a lot of interviews, the benefits of that exposure are still “huge.”
She can’t win the race by being “holed-up,” he added.
“Harris needs to keep America excited about her candidacy, and the best way to do that is to show she’s fighting for the job as hard as possible. Voters appreciate that. She does not want to be perceived as taking even a single vote for granted,” he said.
Harris has faced pressure to do more media appearances from Republicans, who have accused her of trying to avoid answering questions about her policies. So far, she has only done one television interview on CNN in August, alongside Walz.
Harris is also expected to continue outspending Trump in key swing states. Fundraising for Harris and Democrats swelled after she became the nominee, allowing her to run more television advertisements in battlegrounds.
According to AdImpact data, Harris had more ad support in each state as of September 10. In Pennsylvania, Harris had $75 million reserved for ads, while Trump had $63 million. In Michigan, Harris reserved $59 million, compared to $37 million for Trump. Georgia has seen $40 million reserved for Harris and $31 million for Trump.
In Wisconsin, Harris has reserved $32 million and Trump $27 million. Harris and Trump have reserved $37 million and $21 million on future ad support in Arizona, and $31 million and $16 million in North Carolina, according to the data.
AdImpact also reported on Tuesday that Harris had $334 million in future reservations, eclipsing Trump’s $202 million.
Vigil said that “well-placed ads with debate clips that also underscore her actual plans” could be helpful for Harris in swing states. On Thursday, the Democratic nominee’s campaign unveiled a new advertisement highlighting an exchange between the two candidates on abortion during the debate.
The clip showed Harris responding to Trump taking credit for appointing Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that for decades guaranteed reproductive rights across the country.
“You want to talk about this is what people wanted? Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term suffering from a miscarriage being denied care in an emergency room because the healthcare providers are afraid they might go to jail, and she’s bleeding out in a car in the parking lot. She didn’t want that,” Harris said in the featured clip.
Abortion has been a sore spot for Republicans, who underperformed in the 2022 midterms after Roe was overturned. Democrats emphasized the issue to block the “red wave,” and voters in several states, including some that lean Republican, have voted to protect abortion rights. Democrats are hoping calling attention to Trump’s anti-abortion positions may alienate moderate and women voters in swing states.
Vigil, however, noted she would not recommend Harris participate in another debate.
“There is nothing more to prove in that arena, and there is only potential downside for her in another face-off (no matter how well she performs, it won’t be perceived as well as the first debate),” she said.
Harris’ campaign indicated after the debate that she would be open to another debate against Trump. Trump, however, in a Truth Social post on Thursday said there will “be no third debate.”