The Latest: With the debate behind them, Harris and Trump jockey for swing states

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are heading to swing states they hope to win, both of them trying to expand their narrow paths to victory in a closely fought presidential campaign.

Harris has her sights set on North Carolina, where she’s scheduled to hold rallies in Charlotte and Greensboro on Thursday.

Trump is heading west to Tucson, Arizona, as he looks to stabilize his campaign, which continues to struggle to recalibrate nearly two months after Harris replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.

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Here’s the latest:

Harris expected to attend discussion at National Association of Black Journalists

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to participate in a discussion this month with the journalists at the National Association of Black Journalists, and will do more interviews particularly focused on battleground states as she campaigns for the presidency.

Harris didn’t attend the NABJ annual convention in July because of scheduling issues that prevented an in-person appearance. Republican nominee Donald Trump did attend, and he falsely suggested Harris had misled voters about her race, and claimed she “happened to turn Black.” He has repeated the falsehood several times since.

RELATED COVERAGE CBS’ ‘60 Minutes’ plans its presidential candidate showcase. But will Trump and Harris show? Democrats claiming Florida Senate seat is in play haven’t put money behind the effort to make it so 2 Black women could make Senate history on Election Day

Harris is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, both immigrants to the U.S. As an undergraduate, Harris attended Howard University, one of the nation’s most prominent historically Black colleges and universities, where she also pledged the historically Black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. As a U.S. senator, Harris was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, supporting legislation to strengthen voting rights and to reform policing.

In response to Trump’s comments, Harris said: “It was the same old show. The divisiveness and the disrespect,” and she added: “And let me just say, the American people deserve better.”

CBS’ ’60 Minutes’ plans its presidential candidate showcase. But will Trump and Harris show?

“60 Minutes” is scheduling its quadrennial interview special with the presidential candidates to air in less than a month, hoping for the best even after its session with former President Donald Trump went off the rails in 2020.

With no other debates between Trump and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, currently scheduled after Tuesday’s event in Philadelphia, a “60 Minutes” sitdown would represent one of the few times left for voters to evaluate the two candidates back to back.

The Sunday newsmagazine wants to do it on Monday, Oct. 7, since CBS is airing the American Music Awards the night before.

Neither candidate has yet agreed to appear but their campaigns have been talking to CBS, said Bill Owens, executive producer of “60 Minutes.” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said “stay tuned” when asked about his candidate’s plans. The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Associated Press.

Young women are increasingly likely to identify as liberal, a Gallup analysis finds

Young women are more liberal than they have been in decades, according to a Gallup analysis of more than 20 years of polling data.

Over the past few years, about 4 in 10 young women between the ages of 18 and 29 have described their political views as liberal, compared with two decades ago when about 3 in 10 identified that way.

For many young women, their liberal identity is not just a new label. The share of young women who hold liberal views on the environment, abortion, race relations and gun laws has also jumped by double digits, Gallup found.

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Young women “aren’t just identifying as liberal because they like the term or they’re more comfortable with the term, or someone they respect uses the term,” said Lydia Saad, the director of U.S. social research at Gallup. “They have actually become much more liberal in their actual viewpoints.”

Michigan leaders join national bipartisan effort to push back against attacks on the election system

Former Michigan governors and elected officials from both parties are joining a wider effort to combat misinformation and attacks on voting and ballot-counting in several swing states ahead of the fast-approaching presidential election.

The Democracy Defense Project also includes former officials from a number of states where then-President Donald Trump tried to overturn his election loss in 2020, including Georgia. Their goal is to build trust in elections through radio and TV ads, media outreach and local engagement.

“We’re going to jointly, wherever necessary, speak out when people try to call into question the integrity or the accuracy of our voting. We believe in our system and we don’t appreciate people making up stories that are self-serving,” former Michigan Gov. James Blanchard told The Associated Press ahead of the formal Thursday launch of the Michigan chapter.

Blanchard, a Democrat who served as governor from 1983 to 1991, is joined on the Michigan team by former Republican Gov. John Engler, former Democratic Lt. Gov. John Cherry and former Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Bishop.

Democrats claiming Florida Senate seat is in play haven’t put money behind the effort to make it so

Florida Democrats made bold claims last week about their chances in a state that has steadily grown more conservative in recent years. But so far they have not matched their words with the kind of money it will take to win there.

“Florida is in play,” proclaimed Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a former representative from Miami, at the start of a bus tour in defense of women’s reproductive rights in Boynton Beach. Mucarsel-Powell is the choice of Florida Democrats to challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Rick Scott for one of a handful of Senate seats the GOP is defending this election cycle.

According to data from AdImpact, which tracks spending on advertising by political campaigns and their surrogates, Republicans have outspent Democrats on Florida’s U.S. Senate race by roughly a 4-to-1 margin through Sept. 11, $12.7 million to $3.2 million. Based on ad spots currently reserved through the general election, that margin is expected to grow.