Harris campaign deploys Bill Clinton to key states 22 days from Election Day

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Kamala Harris' presidential campaign has deployed Bill Clinton to key states 22 days from Election Day. 

The former president campaigned on behalf of Harris in Albany, Georgia, on Sunday, speaking to congregants at Mount Zion Baptist Church. The Harris campaign announced on Thursday that Clinton is scheduled to headline a bus tour this week through eastern North Carolina. 

Both Harris and former President Trump have visited the Tar Heel state in Hurricane Helene's aftermath. 

Clinton's bus tour comes after Harris on Sunday rallied at Eastern Carolina University in Greenville, N.C.

"Uniting people and building, being repairers of the breach, as Isaiah says, those are the things that work," Clinton said at Mount Zion Baptist Church on Sunday. "Blaming, dividing, demeaning — they get you a bunch of votes at election time, but they don’t work."

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Former President Bill Clinton speaks in support of the Harris Walz presidential campaign during the Fort Valley GOTV Community Fish Fry at the Agricultural Technology Conference Center on Oct. 13, 2024 in Fort Valley, Georgia.  ( Julia Beverly/Getty Images)

"This whole election and the future of the country is turning out to be what people who were sort of on the fence about voting are going to do in the next three and a half weeks," Clinton added, addressing the congregation. "It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen."

While the Black church was not quite full, a hefty crowd welcomed Clinton with a standing ovation, according to the Associated Press. Many attendees were older, but some younger people were dispersed throughout the pews.

Albany was an early battleground in the fight for civil rights. The city garnered national attention as hundreds of protesters, including Martin Luther King Jr., were arrested and jailed in 1961 and 1962.

Former President Bill Clinton and U.S. Congressman Sanford Bishop talk at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Albany, Ga. on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024.  (AP Photo/Charlotte Kramon)

Clinton, who was governor of Arkansas before he became president, also spoke at the Harris campaign’s Albany office, saying he asked the campaign to send him to rural areas, where he feels most at home.

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The 42nd president's visit to the two battleground states serves as a new attempt by the Harris-Walz campaign to appeal to rural voters, who have traditionally voted Republican in recent presidential elections.

Trump's campaign launched a three-day bus tour last week across North Carolina, with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and several former Trump administration officials campaigning on behalf of the Republican presidential nominee. 

Former President Bill Clinton speaks at a canvassing launch for Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign in Albany, Ga. on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024.  (AP Photo/Charlotte Kramon)

Democrats see Clinton as someone who can mobilize both rural voters and Black voters. But while Clinton was recognized for his popularity in southern Black communities, it remains to be seen whether he can still inspire Black voters as the population familiar with his presidency grows older, according to the AP.

Georgia is one of seven states seen as pivotal in this year’s presidential race, and turnout among Black voters could hold the key for Democrats to winning the state’s 16 electoral votes.

President Biden won Georgia in 2020 by 11,779 votes out of more than 5 million cast, according to the AP. That was the first time a Democrat carried the state since Clinton in 1992. Four years later, Clinton lost the state to Republican Bob Dole but won reelection.

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In 1992, Clinton and then-Sen. Al Gore rode a campaign bus through southwest Georgia to court rural voters. Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz revived the approach earlier in the campaign by visiting Savannah and Liberty County in the southeastern part of the state, but they did not travel west.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.