Harris’ New Hampshire campaign stop on Wednesday is a rare deviation. She has so far spent most of her time in bigger swing states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Since it is a smaller state, New Hampshire is not considered as pivotal in the election
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The 2024 United States presidential election is still expected to be a close race. In such a contest, swing states- those that are not decidedly in favour of either Republicans or Democrats- are crucial. As such, both candidates have been focusing on campaigning and holding rallies in swing states.
However, Harris, in her canvassing so far, has skipped the swing state of New Hampshire.
Since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid and endorsed Harris, the vice president has focused on big swing states in the US. She has frequented Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, which have been the centerpiece of successful Democratic campaigns. Harris also often visited Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, all of which Biden narrowly won in 2020. Harris has also campaigned in North Carolina, a swing state which she hopes to flip from Trump.
But New Hampshire is a different story. She has not been there since the pandemic was lifted.
That is set to change quite soon. On Wednesday (September 4), Vice President Kamala Harris is set to tout her plan for an expansion of tax incentives for small businesses in New Hampshire.
This is a pro-entrepreneur promise that may soften her previous calls for wealthy Americans and large corporations to pay higher taxes.
She wants to expand from $5,000 to $50,000 tax incentives for small business startup expenses, with the goal of eventually spurring 25 million new small business applications over four years.
Why has Harris skipped New Hampshire so far?
Harris’ New Hampshire trip is a rare deviation. She has so far spent most of her time in bigger swing states in Midwest and Sun Belt states.
Since New Hampshire is a smaller state, it is not considered as pivotal in the presidential race.
Another reason New Hamshire is low on Harris’s list of priorities could be the fact that the state has tended to swing in favour of the Democrats recently. Biden won New Hampshire by 7 percentage points in 2020. In 2016, Hillary Clinton, too, won the state, although with a much smaller margin than Biden’s win.
The Harris campaign also claims it has a much better foothold here (17 field offices operating in coordination with the state Democratic party) than Trump (1 field office).
So why is she focusing on New Hampshire now?
Some of the state’s Democrats were angry that Biden directed the Democratic National Committee to make South Carolina the first state to vote in the party’s presidential primary this year — displacing Iowa’s caucus and a first-in-the-nation primary New Hampshire held for more than a century.
Despite that, New Hampshire pressed ahead with an unsanctioned primary. Though Biden didn’t campaign in it, or appear on the ballot, he still easily won via a write-in drive.
Trump had seized on the primary calendar change, posting on his social media account that Harris “sees there are problems for her campaign in New Hampshire because of the fact that they disrespected it in their primary and never showed up.”
“I protected New Hampshire’s First-In-The-Nation Primary and ALWAYS will.”
It is likely that countering that narrative featured among reasons to stop over in New Hampshire.
Trump had also written about the high cost of living in New Hampshire, claiming that “their energy bills are some of highest in the country, and their housing market is the most unaffordable in history.”
Harris can hit back at such accusations with her tax plan for small businesses, portraying herself as pro-middle class.
Giving the smaller swing state attention could be helpful if the race comes down to the last few thousand votes.
With inputs from AP
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Publish date : 2024-09-04 06:29:00
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