ATLANTA—Vice President Kamala Harris was joined by former President Barack Obama and rock star Bruce Springsteen at a campaign rally in Georgia on Oct. 24.
Springsteen performed his hit songs “The Promised Land,” “Land of Hope and Dreams,” and “Dancing in the Dark,” receiving a standing ovation. In between performances, he gave a brief speech endorsing Harris and criticizing former President Donald Trump.
The rally, which took place at Dekalb County’s James Hallford Stadium in Clarkson, Georgia, was the second event hosted by Harris in that state over the last week; she appeared with R&B singer Usher at Lakewood Amphitheater in Atlanta on Oct. 19.
DeKalb was one of three counties where high Democrat voter turnout contributed to President Joe Biden’s paper-thin margin of victory in 2020, just over 11,000 votes.
The Harris rally took place the same day Trump was campaigning in another tight battleground race in Arizona and one day after his town hall in deep-red Zebulon, Georgia.
Obama’s and Harris’s remarks were preceded by appearances from actor Samuel L. Jackson, director Spike Lee, and “Madea” creator Tyler Perry. Georgia Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock also showed up to stump for the vice president.
During his speech, Obama touted the Biden administration’s move to lower the cost of insulin to $35, but then claimed that Trump intended to eliminate this price cut.
Harris ended the night with a speech that mirrored, almost verbatim, those she has given over the past few weeks.
The Obama–Harris combination resonated with some attendees who spoke to The Epoch Times. Stay-at-home mom Gina E. said she was confident that Harris would clinch the presidency.
“I’m feeling pretty good. I know it’s close, but I feel like the surge in early voters is helpful to Democrats,” she said.
“I feel like more of an energy with her, like I felt around Obama when Obama ran.”
But other attendees were more hesitant to predict a Harris victory. Real estate agent Eric Dean, 27, said he “blithely” expects Harris to have a 90 to 95 percent chance of winning.
“I would say I’ve been saying quietly, overconfident ... I just, I don’t trust any of the polling stuff,” he said.
His mother, Tammy, 57, is more cautious, recalling that Hilary Clinton was heavily favored to win in 2016.
Supporters Weigh In on Campaign Approach
With less than two weeks until the election, The Epoch Times also spoke to Harris supporters about their perception of the campaign, and whether her approach needs to be tweaked before Nov. 5.Pam Carlson, 75, said she is confident Harris will win and doesn’t need to change anything.
“I think she’s right on track,” she told The Epoch Times.
But even among Harris’s most ardent supporters, there is no clear consensus on how her campaign should proceed in this last leg of the election.
Rosalba Jones, a 63-year-old retired CPA, told The Epoch Times that she wants to see Harris expand her reach to rural areas of Georgia.
“Go and talk in detail about the plans, and get out to some of the smaller communities,“ Jones said. ”I think she’s got a great support base here in Atlanta, but in the surrounding areas, not so much.”
Georgia educator Chris Polk felt that the campaign’s messaging has been on base, saying: “They put their points out. Really good.”
However, he also noted that Harris’s choice to give almost the same speech at every rally across the nation is not as effective as a “more free” approach. He suggested that she tailor her speech to the different places “because we watch her every day, so we’ve seen this four or five times.”
His wife, Cassandra, added that some of her messaging could use a demographic shift, one that is “geared toward the younger voters, not having the rappers come out, or anything like that ... because we’re losing a lot of our younger voters.”
