CNN —
Former President Bill Clinton plans to launch a highly targeted push across swing states this weekend leading up to Election Day, three sources familiar with his plans told CNN.
The former president wants to appeal to rural voters, and polls show Vice President Kamala Harris performing worse than some of the past few Democratic candidates, especially among young black men. are. Former President Barack Obama will also start Thursday night in Pittsburgh.
Clinton is expected to begin with a visit to Georgia on Sunday and Monday, followed by a bus tour in North Carolina next week as she waits for recovery from the hurricane.
The focus is on counties won by former President Donald Trump. But it’s also the fault of Clinton voters, who were the last Democratic presidential nominee before Biden, with ample numbers remaining from when he won Georgia in 1992, and a coalition that has been steadily slipping away over the past decade. The hope is that Clinton can reconnect with the administration.
Mr. Clinton did not appear at the rally. Returning to the kind of campaigning he hadn’t done since before he became the “Comeback Kid” in the 1992 New Hampshire primary, Mr. Clinton’s schedule consisted of speaking to no more than a few hundred people at a time at local fairs and porch rallies. is. .
He will talk about the economy, which I’m sure is the ultimate issue for undecided voters. From his speech at the Democratic National Convention this summer, he talked about how dedicated Trump is to Trump and how Trump himself has been out of power for more than 20 years and has outperformed Republican candidates. We plan to take up the theme of whether we are still young. He’ll eat fried food (and maybe even temporarily break his famous vegan diet, which he’s been on since heart surgery).
“He’s the perfect messenger to make the case that Kamala Harris will finish fixing inflation and getting the economy back on track,” said one person who spoke about the former president and his plans. he told CNN on Thursday. “So he’s saddled up and going back to his roots and meeting people to ask for their help in electing her.”
Mr. Clinton is aware that he may be stalked by his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Trump supporters who bring up past scandals, the people said. He is ready to do that and to argue that voters need to focus on the stakes of the final weeks.
A person familiar with the conversations told CNN that Clinton was one of the first five calls Harris made in July after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race. . She asked him for help, and he readily responded. Since then, his aides have been finalizing the details of his campaign.
“He’s an authority on economics and bread-and-butter issues and the longest peacetime economic expansion in American history,” former Georgia Rep. Calvin told CNN about warm memories of watching the Clinton campaign in the state in 1992. Mr Sumia said. He has a talent for approaching people. ”
The decline in rural voters has always been a major concern for Democrats, even as the urban population grows and leans increasingly blue, and the Harris campaign is the last time Clinton voted. It tracks a gradual decline in Democratic support in rural counties from 1996 to 2019. Biden won four years ago.
In an incident that has haunted some of Hillary Clinton’s aides, the former president once asked her in an internal strategy meeting what she was doing to appeal to rural voters, but the question was quickly dismissed. , advisers said those voters left for Democrats.
But the Harris campaign’s local strategy goes beyond Bill Clinton’s. Both the vice president and his running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have made appearances in rural areas of Georgia and Pennsylvania, along with out-of-office campaign activity in battleground states in the final weeks. More rural visits are planned. It opened in a rural county.
Last week, the campaign aired a series of ads targeting rural voters on RFD-TV, Fox News Channel, INSP, History, Cowboy Channel, Cowgirl Channel and Destination America, among others.
Former Clinton adviser James Carville said he had been seeking his former boss’s return for years and was glad it finally happened.
“He’s the best person to explain what’s going on,” Carville told CNN, adding that if the election were to be litigated along his famous line, “It’s the economy, you idiot.” emphasized that there is credibility to file a lawsuit.
Asked if he would have liked to have seen Clinton go sooner, Carville quipped: “The best time to plant an oak tree was 25 years ago. The next best time is now. ”
Campaigning outside Pittsburgh on Thursday morning, Pennsylvania Congressman Chris Deluzio said he was looking forward to seeing Clinton campaign in his state. “We have a record of presidents adding jobs, growing the economy, and kicking the crap out of the economic record of when Republicans were in the White House.”
Asked if voters remember Clinton, Deluzio, who recently turned 40, replied, “Some people do,” adding, “A lot of voters younger than me remember the ’90s. Or he wasn’t even alive,” he added.
Former Georgia Sen. Jason Carter said he believes Clinton will be of great help in southern Georgia and beyond.
“People think that when Bill Clinton was president, this was a time when things were going well in this country, when people made money, when people weren’t left behind,” Carter said. spoke.
But Carter says it’s not just about nostalgia.
“This also shows the people of Atlanta that this is the kind of campaign that doesn’t try to differentiate between rural and urban areas,” Carter said, adding that Harris and Walz’s own working-class and middle-class He argued that Mr. Clinton could help convey his industrial-class roots. I was feeling stressed out on the trail.
One Georgia voter has already given his all, Carter acknowledged. His grandfather, former President Jimmy Carter, turned 100 last week and said he was waiting to vote for Harris, who is in hospice care.
“We’re all waiting for our ballots to arrive,” the younger Carter said.
This story has been updated with additional information.
