Harris-Walz vs. Trump-Vance: It’s now an expanded battle for both the Sun Belt and Rust Belt

ATLANTA (AP) — The most turbulent presidential campaign in generations is now set to play out as a 90-day sprint across two fronts: the Rust Belt and the Sun Belt.

With her choice of a Midwestern governor as a running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris pushed to shore up “Blue Wall” states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — that Democrats need to win to keep the White House. Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, had already signaled that she would also contend in Sun Belt states that increasingly seemed out of reach for President Joe Biden.

Harris, the first Black woman and woman of South Asian descent to head a major party ticket, and former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, will also be locked in Sun Belt competition to win Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina, an electoral map that has expanded since Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race.

Her ascension and the enthusiasm it generated across racial and generational lines forced mapmakers in both parties to redraw the battle lines of the campaign, Republicans and Democrats agree. Biden’s difficulties — especially among younger voters and nonwhite voters in the Sun Belt — had required him to win all three Blue Wall states and hold off Trump in Democratic-leaning Minnesota to have a chance at an Electoral College majority.

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