AILSA CHANG, HOST:
We are just two weeks out from Election Day. Over the weekend, Vice President Harris was in Georgia, speaking to potential voters at Black churches.
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VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Our strength is not based on who we beat down, as some would try and suggest. Our strength is based on who we lift up. And that spirit is very much at stake in these next 16 days.
CHANG: Donald Trump, on the other hand, was at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania, doling out French fries for the cameras.
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DONALD TRUMP: I'm looking for a job. And I've always wanted to work at McDonald's, but I never did.
TRUMP: I'm looking for a job. And I've always wanted to work at McDonald's, but I never did.
CHANG: Trump also went to an NFL game in Pittsburgh and took questions from supporters in the state. And this campaign travel will only ramp up this week. Let's talk about the week ahead with NPR's senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro. Hi, Domenico.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: Hey. OK, so Vice President Harris is out today with Liz Cheney, who, of course, is a conservative former congresswoman from Wyoming. They're traveling in key swing states. What is the strategy there?
MONTANARO: Well, Harris' team really believes that winning over even a marginal percentage of Republican-leaning voters in key suburban counties can really make the difference. You know, she's going to be in Oakland County, Michigan, Waukesha, Wisconsin and Chester County, Pennsylvania. Those are all very populous suburbs. And this might have to do less with winning over actual Republicans in big numbers than maybe disaffected independents who might lean Republican and, you know, just hitting those margins from 2020 that Biden had gotten. Remember...
CHANG: Yeah.
MONTANARO: ...Biden won 51% of the vote in 2020, and part of that is because of the shift in some of these populous suburbs. In all three of these counties, Biden either won by bigger margins than Hillary Clinton - like in Oakland and Chester Counties - or cut into Trump's margins like in Waukesha.
CHANG: OK, that's the Harris side of things. Meanwhile, Trump is in North Carolina today. He's surveying damage from Hurricane Helene, right? How might we think about the political impact of a disastrous storm like Helene?
MONTANARO: Well, Trump won a majority of the votes from the counties in western North Carolina that FEMA designated as eligible for some form of disaster relief. So getting the infrastructure there back up and running and making sure people have access to voting is critical for Trump's campaign. Trump, though, hasn't helped things because he's started and spread a lot of misinformation about Biden's administration's, you know, disaster relief efforts. Democrats certainly are affected too because Asheville was hit pretty hard - about 100,000 Democratic votes come out of Buncombe County. But everywhere around it is pretty heavily Republican.
CHANG: Oh, interesting. OK, where else will the candidates be this week?
MONTANARO: I mean, it's a really frenetic schedule this week and - for them and their surrogates. You know, Harris, like we noted, is going to be in the blue wall states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania just today.
CHANG: Wow.
MONTANARO: She's then doing a TV interview with NBC tomorrow and then on Wednesday participates in a CNN town hall in Pennsylvania. She'll be in Georgia later in the week for a rally with former President Obama, who has been on the trail for her, like in Nevada over the weekend. Harris will then be in Michigan on Saturday with another big Obama name - Michelle, the former First Lady.
Trump is in North Carolina today and tomorrow, then Georgia and Nevada. On Sunday, he's doing a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York. That's politically curious because he doesn't really...
CHANG: Right.
MONTANARO: ...Have a chance to win New York, but it's the ultimate showman move - perform at the most famous arena in the country.
CHANG: Sure, MSG. OK, that is a lot of travel. I mean, what does that tell you about both of their strategies at this point, with so little time left?
MONTANARO: Yeah, their travel really tells you for Harris, for example, she's got a big focus on the blue wall. Holding those three would mean an almost certain Harris win. But Trump, on the other hand, is trying to, in particular, chip off Pennsylvania, insulate himself in the Sun Belt states. He can't afford to lose any of those because doing so would open up more paths to 270 for Harris.
CHANG: That is NPR's Domenico Montanaro. Thank you, Domenico.
MONTANARO: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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