Mitch Landrieu, the national co-chair for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, said Sunday he believes she could surge to victory in Georgia — a key swing state — in November, pointing to a wave of “new energy” since she became the Democratic nominee.
“We really think that we have a chance to win Georgia,” Landrieu said on MSNBC’s “The Weekend.” “We’re going to make Donald Trump defend every ounce of ground in America.”
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will head to southern Georgia on Wednesday. The vice president will hold her first campaign event there since announcing her bid for the White House and the pair will embark on a short bus tour to meet with voters before Harris holds a rally in Savannah.
Polls have shown the Harris-Walz campaign surging around the country, but Georgia remains a tough battleground. Trump soundly won the state in 2016, but Biden did so in 2020 by a margin of just 11,779 votes.
The results are the crux of one of Trump’s indictments as he attempted to overturn the results there — including a call in which he suggested the Georgia secretary of state help him “find” the votes he needed to win.
Trump and his surrogates are also focused on Georgia as the former president seeks to shore up support in swing states. But his allies have voiced concerns that if some regions slip away, Trump could have an impossible path ahead.
“If we don’t win Georgia, I don’t see how we get to 270,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on CNN’s “State of the Union” this weekend. ““I do believe Georgia’s ours to lose. It’s really hard for Harris to tell Georgians that we’re on the right track — they don’t believe it.”
Landrieu pointed to the tidal wave of support behind Harris following last week’s Democratic National Convention, noting the campaign said it had raised $540 million to support her bid.
“Last week was an incredible week. You haven’t seen something like that in a long time,” he said Sunday. “From the beginning, we said no matter how excited you are, we have a close race and you need to get to work.”
“$540 million is a lot, by a lot, by any measurement, and the idea now is to put it to work,” Landrieu added.