Why Kamala Harris’ Georgia trip should worry Trump

Setting their sights on Georgia

This week, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz went boldly where no major presidential campaign has gone in several decades… Savannah, Georgia. 

This is a big deal because it signals the Harris-Walz campaign is not relying solely on running up vote totals in heavily Democratic Atlanta and its nearby suburbs; Democrats are also trying to narrow the margins in the more conservative, rural areas. In those locations, it is not about actually winning whole towns or counties; it’s about losing them by less.

The strategy reminds me of how Barack Obama approached the Iowa caucuses in 2007 and his 2004 Senate campaign before that. He showed up in both blue counties and blue cities and in rural counties, small towns and places where many people were surprised to see him.  

This was also the strategy Sen. Raphael Warnock implemented in 2020 and 2022 in Georgia. Warnock’s former campaign manager Quentin Folks is now Harris’ principal deputy campaign manager. A rural Georgia native, Folks recently said, “You have to really stave down margins and go places even when you don’t think you can win it outright… You know you’re going to lose that county, but just showing up there can sometimes be the difference between 5 to 10 percentage points, or sometimes just putting an office there.”

One bus tour does not win an election, but it does show a willingness by the Harris-Walz campaign to meet people where they are and to put in the work of showing up. As much as politics has changed over the last several years, it turns out there’s still value in a good old fashioned bus tour.

A story you should be following: A new Trump indictment

On Tuesday, special counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment against Donald Trump in Smith’s federal election subversion case. Smith re-tooled the indictment in an effort to take out anything that could violate the Supreme Court’s July ruling on immunity — basically anything that leaned too heavily into Trump’s official role as president. 

That meant removing allegations that Trump used the Justice Department to promote his false claims of election fraud, and reshaping the way the indictment described Mike Pence’s role in the election certification process. It also required Smith going to an entirely new grand jury.

And while none of that should have been necessary, Andrew Weissmann has pointed out that now five grand juries have found probable cause to believe Trump committed multiple felonies. That’s not a small thing.

This trial will not see the inside of a courtroom before the election, and if Trump is elected it probably won’t proceed at all. But for now, Smith isn’t giving up.

Someone you should know: John Russell, aka “Mullet Guy” 

It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a mullet at the DNC. But I think it’s fair to say there will likely be more mullets in the event’s future. 

For many, the August convention was their first introduction to John Russell, also known as “mullet guy.” But if you’re on TikTok, you’ve probably known about him for a long time. Whether interviewing labor leaders like UAW president Shawn Fain or educating people about CEO pay, Russell has been making waves as an activist and content creator for years.

If you’re interested in hearing more from Russell, make sure to check out his Substack (“The Holler”), or you can find him across social media at the handle @heyjohnrussell.

What, besides his trademark hairstyle, makes Russell stand out? It’s not just his self-described role as a “dirtbag journalist” or his background as a seasoned dive bartender — Russell knows how to speak to the party’s base, wherever they are. This fantastic video of him interviewing swing voters in Elliott County, Kentucky is a great example.