Harris heads to southern border in Arizona — where she's losing ground to Trump


Harris heads to southern border in Arizona — where she

Published 5:10 a.m. ET Sept. 27, 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris heads Friday to the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona looking to recharge her candidacy in a key battleground state where she is losing ground to former President Donald Trump. Harris' trip to Douglas, Arizona – about 120 miles southeast of Tucson, Arizona and home to the state's second busiest port of entry – comes as a new poll released Friday by USA TODAY/Suffolk University found Trump leading Harris by 6 percentage points, 48%-42%, among likely Arizona voters. The difference is within the poll's plus or minus 4.4% margin of error. Harris will deliver a speech at the border calling for tougher border restrictions, according to a senior Harris campaign official, who discussed the trip on the condition of anonymity. In her remarks, she is expected to slam Trump for encouraging Republican senators earlier this year to kill a bipartisan border bill backed by the Biden administration that included tough new restrictions for asylum seekers and additional resources for Border Patrol agents. Harris has accused Trump of lobbying for the bill's defeat because he realized it would "fix a problem he wanted to run on." But Trump has hammered Harris on the Biden administration's immigration policies and her role in addressing root causes of migration to the southern border. Immigration, a growing issue for voters, has been a weak area for Democrats and Harris. "The worst border crisis in the history of the world," Trump said Thursday in New York. "And the architect is Kamala Harris." In 2020, President Joe Biden narrowly carried Arizona – which has 11 electoral votes up for grabs – by less than 11,000 voters over Trump. It was the first time Arizona voted for a Democratic presidential nominee since Bill Clinton carried the state in 1996. But the USA TODAY/Suffolk poll found Harris trails Trump 47%-43% in Maricopa County, a bellwether and largest county in the state that includes Phoenix. In 2020, Biden carried Maricopa County 50%-48%. Trump's current polling lead over Harris in Maricopa County is within the 5.4% margin of error.