Democratic
vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris has injected the zest of youth into
77-year-old running mate Joe Biden’s low-key presidential campaign with her ‘surprise’ visits to college students or neighbourhood coffee shops and rousing
speeches to cheering crowds.

During a
recent visit to the city of Atlanta in the southern state of Georgia, AFP
quoted the California Senator saying, “I’m Kamala Harris and I’m running to
become the next vice president of the United States.”

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What she
didn’t say is the fact that she is the first black woman and the first person
of South Asian descent to be on a major party’s presidential ticket.

“I’m very
happy to be back in Atlanta, Georgia,” she said as she stepped on to the tarmac
of the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Usually
media-shy, Harris is clearly enthusiastic about ensuring former vice president
Biden replaces Donald Trump in the White House.

The former
California attorney general exudes her party’s youth and diversity, be it
through her tailored suits and stilettos or jeans and Converse sneakers, thus
serving as a stark contrast to her white-haired boss and the candidate for the
top post in the country.

In trying
to make up for the months were lost to the coronavirus pandemic and thus immobilised
the Democratic Party’s efforts to appeal to the wider public, Harris maintains
a furious pace in Georgia.

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Although,
the two Democrat nominees have not yet returned to the pre-pandemic days when
one could travel across the vast expanse of the nation within a matter of hours
without hesitation – as President Donald Trump has resorted to in his election
campaign, often undermining health-safety protocols.

Both Harris
and Biden have curtailed their travels for the sake of caution and are usually
accompanied by a small group of journalists who get limited opportunities to as
questions.

While this
strategy is endorsed by health experts and general rationale, it opens the door
for the Republican Party’s former reality TV star to dominate the national
media, as he has since 2016, and drown out Biden-Harris in the election
narrative.

But the race
to the White House will be determined by the outcome in the key swing states,
and a well targeted visit, in spite of being short, can raise morale and boost chances.

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The
southern state of Georgia, with a history tarnished by slavery and segregation,
is one such key battleground, but it has not voted for a Democratic president
since Bill Clinton in 1992.

The Democrats
do take heart from the fact polls indicate a tight race between Trump and Biden
this time, with a record number of Georgians, a third of who are African
Americans, already having cast their ballots.  

“There’s
just so much at stake,” Harris told a group of students from historically black
colleges and universities.

An alumna
of one such school herself, Washington’s Howards University, Harris surprises bewildered
students in the middle of a meeting. She later holds a round-table conference
with the African-American men.

“Donald
Trump has this goal to turn 20 percent of Black men out in favour of him,” she
tells the students. “Donald Trump — who pushed, as part of his popularity, the
theme that the first Black man to be president of the United States was
illegitimately there,” she added, referring to Trump’s claims that Barack Obama
was foreign-born.

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She then takes
off in her motorcade of SUVs, along with the Secret Service agents who oversee the
security of candidates and presidents, for the Busy Bee Café, where Atlanta
native Martin Luther King Jr. along with other civil rights leaders once ate
fried chicken and cornbread dressing.

However,
COVID-19 protocols dictate the stop at the iconic eatery, a long-time campaign staple,
has to be outside. She told a small, mostly black group of supporters, that she
came, “to remind everyone to vote”.

Her next
stop is another one from the classic campaign bucket list remade as per the
demands of the pandemic, a ‘drive-in’ rally where supporters either sit in
their cars or out in front of them to maintain social distancing.

And a loud,
energetic music prior to Harris’ arrival sets the perfect atmosphere for the
supporters in their hundred-odd cars.

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“Seeing a Black
woman become the first vice president is something that is very, very special
and I brought my mom as well,” said 34-year-old Jacinda Jackson, standing in
front of her car with her mother, both wearing masks sporting the Biden-Harris
logo.

Climbing on
to the stage amid a raucous cacophony of horns and shouts, Harris shouts, “Donald
Trump has to go.”

Listing a number of obstacles faced by the minority communities
to cast their vote, she says, “They know when we vote, things change. They know
when we vote, we win.”