Harris Tours Georgia as Democrats See the State Fully in Play

Vice President Kamala Harris is aiming to go on offense against former President Donald J. Trump in Georgia, kicking off a bus tour on Wednesday in the rural southeastern corner of the battleground state.

Ms. Harris’s trip reflects a growing sense of optimism among Georgia Democrats that she could hold on to a state President Biden narrowly won in 2020. The Democratic ticket’s standing in the polls there has increased significantly since Mr. Biden dropped out of the race, although Ms. Harris still trails Mr. Trump, according to a New York Times polling average. She is being joined by her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, on the two-day bus tour, which will culminate with a rally in Savannah.

The bus tour also underscores the Harris campaign’s efforts to motivate rural Democrats not just in Georgia but also in nearby North Carolina, a demographically similar Sunbelt state.

Both states have significant populations of Black voters, including many who live in rural areas. Democrats have said they must drive up turnout outside the cities and suburbs to defeat Mr. Trump statewide. Polls show Ms. Harris performing far better in North Carolina than Mr. Biden did, and her allies in the state have compared the energy of her campaign to Barack Obama’s in 2008, the last time a Democrat was victorious there.

Her swing through Georgia with Mr. Walz carries echoes of Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, in which he and Al Gore, his running mate, traversed the Peach State’s rural towns with their wives, as Mr. Clinton leaned on his Southern bona fides. Mr. Clinton later won Georgia by less than a percentage point, making him the last Democrat to take the state before Mr. Biden’s victory in 2020.

Mr. Biden won Georgia by fewer