COVID-19 derails Harris’ campaign trip to Texas
Just hours after vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris told a national television audience she was coming to Texas over the weekend, the campaign has had to postpone the trip because a member of her staff tested positive for COVID-19.
Harris told MSNBC’S Rachel Maddow on Wednesday that Texas was one of four states she planned to visit.
“I’m going to be in North Carolina, and Ohio, and Pennsylvania and I think Texas over the next three days,” Harris told Maddow.
But those plans were scuttled when Harris’ communications director, Liz Allen, and a flight crew member tested positive for COVID-19.
Harris, a senator from California, has tested negative, but the campaign said her travel will be suspended until Monday.
Democratic activists said they expect the campaign to reschedule Harris to visit Texas later in the campaign.
Ironically, during the Maddow interview, Harris was asked how it feels to be campaigning during a pandemic.
“We’ve been very safe,” Harris told Maddow. “We wear masks, we social distance.”
Harris said it was still important to be out talking to voters, but “in a way that doesn’t harm them.”
Rumors of a Harris visit to Texas had been swirling for weeks, but the campaign refused to confirm that until Harris announced it.
In recent weeks, the Biden campaign has sent increasingly higher-profile members to Texas to campaign in person.
Two weeks ago, Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, campaigned in San Antonio, Mcallen and Dallas. This week, Jill Biden, the former vice president’s wife, campaigned in Houston, El Paso and Dallas.
Rep. Al Green, D-houston, said all the attention from the presidential campaign is a big deal for Texas Democrats, who have been trying to get that kind of focus for decades.
“It sends a message to us that the campaign believes Texas is within reach,” Green said Tuesday as Jill Biden prepared to speak in Houston.
A vice presidential candidate has not campaigned in Texas this close to Election Day since 1988, when Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, then-Democrat nominee Michael Dukakis’ running mate, campaigned in Texas — including along the River Walk.
President Donald Trump’s campaign has insisted it will win Texas. Republican National Committee Co-chairman Tommy Hicks on Tuesday made clear he doesn’t see any reason to send Trump to campaign in the state.
“Texas is solid red,” Hicks said. “I don’t think the president needs to be in Texas to campaign.”
Trumphas been a frequent visitor to Texas since he became president, making 16 stops since inauguration day. Most recently, he was in Texas to view storm damage in East Texas after Hurricane Laura hit in late August.
His last campaign event in Texas was in July when he visited Midland and Odessa.