The Latest: Harris and Walz to hold rally in Arizona, while Trump to visit Montana

Vice President Kamala Harris and her new running mate will hold a rally in Arizona as part of their battleground tour, visiting a state where Harris rolled over a leading Democrat in favor of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and gun control advocate, had been a leading contender to be her running mate.

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump is visiting Montana for a rally in support of Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy. The former president is hoping to remedy some unfinished business from 2018, when he repeatedly campaigned in Big Sky Country in a failed attempt to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester.

Follow AP’s 2024 election coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the latest:

Democrats and Republicans come to western Wisconsin with big stakes in every race

For a brief moment this week, the fierce competition for undecided voters in the key swing state of Wisconsin converged on the tarmac at the tiny Chippewa Valley Regional Airport.

Minutes after Vice President Kamala Harris landed with her new running mate Tim Walz for their first campaign stop in the state, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance arrived. He walked down the tarmac to check out Air Force Two and narrowly missed Harris.

The political encounter might be considered a coincidence if it had occurred anywhere other than Wisconsin, one of the few states that will not only determine the winner of the presidential race but could also shape the balance of power in Congress. But it sent a much clearer signal that both parties understand the importance of a region that could tip the balance of power in more ways than one.

Harris and Walz head to Arizona, where a vice presidential candidate could make all the difference

Vice President Kamala Harris and her new running mate will hold a rally in Arizona on Friday as part of their battleground tour, visiting a state where Harris bypassed a prominent Democrat in favor of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and gun control advocate, had been a leading candidate to be her running mate. He has won two tough races in politically divided Arizona.

By bypassing Kelly, Harris may also have missed the opportunity to win over people like Gonzalo Leyva, a 49-year-old landscaper from Phoenix. Leyva plans to vote for former President Donald Trump, a Republican, but says he would have backed a Harris-Kelly ticket.

“I prefer Kelly a hundred times more,” said Leyva, a lifelong Democrat who became an independent at the start of Trump’s term. “I don’t think he’s as extreme as the others.”

Trump heads to Montana in attempt to unseat Sen. Tester after failing to unseat the Democrat in 2018

With control of the Senate potentially at stake, Donald Trump will visit Montana on Friday hoping to remedy some unfinished business from 2018, when he repeatedly campaigned in Big Sky Country in a failed bid to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester.

Tester has tried to convince voters that he is aligned with Trump on many issues, mimicking his successful strategy from six years ago. While that worked in a non-presidential election year, he faces a more critical test this fall with Tester’s opponent, former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, trying to link the three-term incumbent to Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

A Harris-Walz victory would also mean the country’s first Native American female governor.

If Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are elected this fall, not only would a woman of color lead the country for the first time, but a Native woman would also govern a state for the first time in American history.

Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor and a citizen of the White Earth Ojibwe tribe, is poised to be the state’s next governor if Walz steps down and accepts the role of vice president of the United States. Her rise to power has been closely followed by indigenous people in Minnesota and across the country, who see her as an advocate for policies that positively affect Native Americans.