PHILADELPHIA — Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) said in a Monday morning campaign appearance that Vice President Kamala Harris should focus on winning over disaffected voters during her Tuesday debate against former President Donald Trump.
During a brief press conference, Moore was asked what Harris would need to do to win over undecided voters, who could swing the election to either candidate.
2024 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE LIVE UPDATES: TRUMP AND HARRIS FACE OFF IN ABC SHOWDOWN
“I think for many of the undecided voters, truthfully, it’s not even just the voters who are trying to decide between the two candidates. It’s the voters who are skeptical of the larger political system,” Moore responded. “It’s the voters who we need to come out. Because in many ways, this election is not going to be turned on how people vote. This election will be determined by people who choose to vote and people who choose not to.”
“So, I think the thing that she is going to be able to articulate and share is why it is so necessary for people to be a part of this process,” he continued.
The presidential debate, hosted by ABC News, will be the first and possibly only matchup between Harris and Trump if the two candidates cannot agree on future dates.
President Joe Biden’s exit from the race, which came after his disastrous debate performance in June, raised the stakes even higher for Harris and Trump. The presidential race remains close in several polls, especially in the Keystone State, which is the biggest prize of all the swing states.
Despite Democratic enthusiasm for Harris, the vice president has faced calls to clearly state her policy proposals to the public. Late Sunday evening, her campaign updated her website with an “issues” section explaining what she would champion if elected president.
Harris has also been criticized for only participating in one joint interview with her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee in early August.
For Trump, Republicans have urged him to resist his tendency to attack Harris personally, fearing it will turn away moderate voters. Instead, his allies say he should focus squarely on policy.
When the Washington Examiner questioned Moore about how Harris should handle any attacks on her identity — Trump has falsely accused her of “becoming black” later in her career — the Maryland governor was unequivocal.
“I don’t think anyone should be surprised when the former president says something that’s incendiary or something that is off-putting, or misogynistic [or] racist,” said Moore. “I think that the vice president is not going to spend her time fact-checking Donald Trump. I don’t think that’s a useful exercise. I think what she is going to do is spend her time presenting her vision for what the future of this country is.”
Pennsylvania’s Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean and Democratic Sen. Sharif Street, the state Democratic Party chairman, also joined Moore at the Monday event in Philadelphia ahead of the presidential debate. All three leaders championed Harris’s economic agenda, support for abortion access, and attempts to make communities safer by working on gun control legislation, as have other allies in different states.
Street called Trump “an unserious person” during his remarks and pushed back against lagging voter registration among Democrats in the Keystone State.
“In 2022, people talked about registration edges in polls, and they said we were in real trouble, but we elected Gov. [Josh] Shapiro, we elected [Sen.] John Fetterman,” said Street. “We flipped the state House, we added seats in the state Senate, and the first time in almost 100 years, probably over 100 years, the majority of our Congressional District became Democrats.”
During the 2023 off-year elections, Street claimed, “They said we were in trouble.”
“It was a red year, and our registrations weren’t trending where we needed to, but we won all four of our statewide … judicial races,” he added.
The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee leadership are working to tamp down expectations that the former president will crush Harris during the debate.
In an interview with NewsNation’s The Hill Sunday, RNC Co-Chairwoman Lara Trump claimed, “I don’t think anyone is overly confident” about the debate.
“Donald Trump takes everything seriously. I think he’s taking this debate on Tuesday very seriously,” she continued.
Former Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who is a Trump surrogate, slammed Harris’s record as vice president during a Monday afternoon press call with reporters.
“The reality is, Kamala Harris’s record as vice president has proven to be disastrous on the foreign policy front,” said Gabbard. “Under Harris and Biden, we’re embroiled in wars spanning three continents and closer to the brink of World War Three and nuclear war than ever before.”
Over the weekend, Trump Force 47 volunteers canvassed in cities, including Pittsburgh, in hopes of preventing Harris from winning the state and the White House in November.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
But Harris’s Pennsylvania allies were confident that the vice president would trounce Trump during the debate before winning the White House in November.
“I’m confident, and I think we are all confident, that Kamala Harris will be elected, Donald Trump will be defeated,” said Dean, before blasting Trump for alleging that if he loses, the election will have been “stolen.”
“Pennsylvania will be the one again that makes the difference and turns away from this darkness,” Dean continued. “The contrast couldn’t be greater, a dark past that he wants to go back to or a very bright future for everybody.”
