Vice President Harris to kick off 2024 election year with ‘reproductive freedoms tour’
By Sam Waldenberg and Betsy Klein, CNN
(CNN) — Vice President Kamala Harris is launching a “reproductive freedoms tour” across the country in battleground Wisconsin next month, kicking off the 2024 election year with a focus on abortion, an issue the Biden campaign believes will be critical to mobilizing voters in November.
Harris’ tour will start in Wisconsin – a general election battleground state – on January 22, the 51st anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. The landmark ruling had established a federal constitutional right to abortion before fetal viability until the high court overturned it last year.
Biden campaign officials view abortion as a key issue for general election voters heading into 2024 – and one where they have the upper hand, pointing to high turnout and enthusiasm among Democratic voters in recent elections.
Abortion, Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler told CNN, will be the “central pillar of the campaign moving forward,” and one that the president and his top surrogates will work to draw strong contrasts with former President Donald Trump. Harris has highlighted the issue since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, and the tour reflects her potency as a surrogate as women across the US grapple with a patchwork of tightening restrictions.
Harris will travel “across the country” to hold a number of events bringing together “thousands of people” that will be announced soon, her office said.
“I will continue to fight for our fundamental freedoms while bringing together those throughout America who agree that every woman should have the right to make decisions about her own body – not the government,” Harris said in a statement.
A CNN poll conducted in November found that Americans align more with the Democratic Party than the Republican Party on the issue of abortion.
Harris is expected to highlight the true stories of American women affected by the Supreme Court’s decision.
“She will host events that highlight the harm caused by these abortion bans while sharing stories of those who have been impacted,” her office said, and she will go on the offensive against “extremists” proposing a national abortion ban.
Biden campaign officials have said that those personal stories are resonating with voters.
“It’s critical that we continue to lift up these stories and really remind women what’s at stake in this election, and really the choice that they have before them,” campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said.
The-CNN-Wire
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