(PresidentialDaily.org)- Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Iowa on Thursday for the first time since becoming part of the Biden administration.
According to the White House, Harris was set to meet with some local leaders in Iowa, and was planning to talk about national issues such as reproductive rights.
Her trip to Des Moines is part of her tour of the country that she’s been doing since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decisions last summer, which put the decision on how to handle abortion in the hands of states.
However, this trip takes on a little bit different of a tone, considering that Iowa is the first state to hold caucuses as part of the primary season for the presidential election.
While President Joe Biden hasn’t officially announced he is running for re-election, it’s widely expected that he will do so. As such, this is sort of a campaign-like tour for Harris.
The White House has obviously said this trip was official business for Harris. Iowa’s law currently states that abortions are legal up until the first 20 weeks of a woman’s pregnancy, though some local Republicans have attempted to push further restrictions.
Harris’ trip follows that of other presidential hopefuls. That includes two Republican candidates who have officially announced their candidacy – former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley – as well as two others who are widely expected to eventually announce their candidacy – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence.
Iowa is a little more important for the GOP than Democrats, as the party voted to have South Carolina move ahead of Iowa as the first state to hold its primary election, starting in the 2024 cycle.
Rita Hart, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Iowa, said the decision by the national party could be a signal to many voters that the Democrats have “turned their back on Iowa and rural America.”
Biden himself hasn’t visited Iowa since he first proposed changing the schedule for the Democratic Party’s presidential primaries. It seems as though he has decided to send his top deputy to go there in his place, just so that he doesn’t have to answer any lingering questions about his decision – which would detract from the message they’re trying to send.
Harris isn’t a stranger to Iowa, of course, as she traveled there extensively during the 2020 primary cycle as she was running for president herself. She even visited the Iowa State Fair only a couple months prior to dropping out of the presidential race.
While she wasn’t successful in capturing the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, obviously, she did make a big enough name for herself that she was ultimately selected to be Biden’s running mate.
To this point in the administration, though, neither she nor her boss have garnered high marks for their work in office, which is something they’ll have to address – in Iowa and throughout the country – if they decide to run for re-election.
