Is Kamala Harris at ease on campaign trail? My two days with the VP.

At this vital stage in the 2024 campaign, the path to the U.S. presidency for Kamala Harris runs through places like Dottie’s Market, a trendy Savannah spot with baked goods, luxury food items, and braided sweetgrass baskets for sale. 

On a late August bus tour to connect with voters, the vice president spoke to a rally of thousands and in a nationally televised interview. But she also tested her skill reaching voters on a more intimate scale.

We had a front-row view, as the Monitor provided the print reporter for the traveling press pool – tasked with sending regular updates to the wider press corps – on this journey through southern Georgia. It’s a region that for decades has rarely been on the campaign-stop list for Democratic presidential nominees.

“Where is your cookbook?” Ms. Harris asked one of Dottie’s patrons, who has written a recipe book. “I’m gonna find it.”

A known foodie, the vice president leaned over the counter to speak with a woman introduced as “Auntie Dorothy,” who mentioned Ms. Harris’ recent order at a fishery in Chicago. A Windy City native, the woman told Ms. Harris she should’ve gotten the scallops. “Auntie, I needed to see you before that trip,” the VP responded, laughing.

On this two-day tour, Ms. Harris’ visits revolved around either food or young people, with whom she seems at ease, whether leaning over to chat with a child at a restaurant, taking a phone handed to her to talk to someone’s daughter, or telling a roomful of students she’s proud of them. When she entered the marching band practice room at Liberty County High School in Hinesville, Georgia, musicians, cheerleaders, and football players erupted in audible gasps followed by cheers and applause. 

Questions about Ms. Harris’ ease at mingling with the public – “retail politics” – have swirled around her campaign since she became the Democratic nominee. While questions about President Joe Biden’s energy and ability to campaign intensified before he dropped out, the president clearly loves the glad-handing aspect of politics, lingering and chatting with crowds. 

Ms. Harris’ energy is youthful in comparison, and her rallies take on a different flavor, held in arenas that have often been packed with upward of 10,000 people. Indeed, just five weeks since President Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Ms. Harris on July 21, the Harris campaign is still enjoying a honeymoon phase following the Democratic National Convention.

Packed into vans, the press trailed Ms. Harris’ bus in the motorcade as she stopped at a school, a barbecue joint, and a handful of other Savannah restaurants, many of them Black-owned, to greet voters and thank volunteers. These visits, where Ms. Harris chatted with students, business owners, and patrons, were unscripted – no teleprompter or notes in hand.

Democrats see a path to winning Georgia

The campaign’s choice to head to Georgia on its first big postconvention trip signals that advisers think the state is in play for Ms. Harris. In 2020, Mr. Biden won the battleground state by less than a quarter of a percentage point, or fewer than 12,000 votes. Ms. Harris now has a slight lead in the state over Republican nominee Donald Trump, according to recent polling.

When she landed in the Peach State (ready in “campaign casual,” sporting her signature black Converse sneakers), Ms. Harris was greeted on the tarmac by students from Savannah State University, the oldest public historically Black college in the state. 

From there, Ms. Harris’ bus, bright blue with a red stripe, stars, and the words “Harris Walz” and “A new way forward,” headed to a high school nearly an hour outside the city, past small, one-story homes and trees draped in Spanish moss. Ultimately, the bus headed to a full-scale campaign rally.

Tonya Sherman, a training director who came to the Savannah rally, says she finds Ms. Harris to be relatable. “She has a story like any regular person,” says Ms. Sherman. “That makes me trust her.”

And the vice president is not too scripted, says Ms. Sherman, adding that Ms. Harris lays out evidence and presents a case, true to her background as a prosecutor. Besides, the momentum of the campaign and the diverse crowd at the rally are propelling what is at the core of the Harris campaign, she adds. 

“Right now, she is speaking through us,” she says.  

A recent Wall Street Journal poll found that 84% of voters say they have enough information about Ms. Harris’ policy positions and career to form a firm opinion. 

Harris tacks toward the center in her first TV interview

Ms. Harris’ televised appearance, hosted by CNN in a Savannah café, drew more viewers to the network’s 9 p.m. programming than anything since Mr. Biden’s inauguration. The backdrop: hovering uncertainty about a candidate who didn’t sit for an interview until Thursday, Aug. 29, some 39 days after launching her campaign.

Though it was a joint interview alongside the vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Ms. Harris spoke for most of the 27 minutes. Both were measured in their answers and stuck to the center, a rebuttal to the Trump campaign’s attacks on the two as far-left figures. Ms. Harris spoke about middle-class economics and consensus-building, including the need to “find a common place of understanding of where we can actually solve problems.” When asked if she would consider appointing a Republican to her Cabinet, the vice president said yes. 

She stuck with Mr. Biden on Middle East policy, saying she wouldn’t change U.S. policy toward Israel, including with regard to supplying arms, adding, “We have to get a deal done” to end the war in Gaza.

And the vice president continues to avoid identity politics. When CNN’s Dana Bash asked for her reaction to former President Trump’s recent attacks on her racial identity, she said, “Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please.” Then she laughed. Ms. Harris has not emphasized the historic nature of her run as the first woman of color to be a major party nominee for president. 

“I am running because I believe that I am the best person to do this job at this moment for all Americans, regardless of race and gender,” she said. 

The campaign’s aim: activating, not flipping, voters

In an election expected to be decided by razor-thin margins, turnout is key, and the Harris campaign is focused on activating voters, not on flipping Trump voters. Over recent decades, Black voters have grown the most as a share of the electorate in Georgia. Ms. Harris carries 8 in 10 Black voters in the state, according to recent polling; that’s significantly more than Mr. Biden before he dropped out, but still below the support he won in the 2020 vote.

Ms. Harris seemed to be focused on a big-tent approach during the Georgia tour, highlighting economic issues and striking a welcoming tone to a wide range of voters. “Amen,” someone yelled at the packed Savannah rally when Ms. Harris said people shouldn’t have to abandon their faith to oppose abortion bans.

“Let’s not pay too much attention to the polls, because we are running as the underdog,” she called to the crowd. She wrapped up with what’s become a signature line: “When we fight, we win!”

Sophie Hills wrote this story after traveling to Savannah as part of the vice president’s press pool. Patrik Jonsson also reported in Savannah, attending the Harris rally.