BOSTON — For the third time in about as many months, Vice President Kamala Harris stopped in Boston to rally Democratic voters ahead of next week’s general election, a move Republicans slammed as a sign of last-minute desperation.
“If Maura Healey and Kim Driscoll are dragging in Kamala Harris from DC to campaign for them, they must see their campaign in the same way Geoff and Leah see the Healey/Driscoll campaign: with mere days to go before the election, the Democratic ticket is losing,” Republican former state Rep. Geoff Diehl’s campaign said ahead of the visit.
Harris joined Attorney General Maura Healey, who is running for governor, attorney general candidate Andrea Campbell, candidate for state auditor Diana DiZoglio, and many other local politicians at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center at Roxbury Community College Wednesday, her third stop in the Bay State since August.
“We have a chance to make history,” Healey said. “That includes electing five women!”
Healey said that the choice between her and her opponent is clear.
“He’s an election denier,” she said. “He’s someone who talks a lot about freedom, except, of course, when it comes to the freedom of women to make decisions for themselves.”
Harris took the visit as an opportunity to lay out the work the Biden administration has done in the last two years, like capping the cost of insulin for seniors, allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, and the historic appointment of Associate Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, reminding attendees that there is one reason those changes came to be.
“Because you voted,” Harris said. “Elections matter.”
Harris’ visit comes just as President Joe Biden’s administration announced it would send $4.5 billion to the states to help with heating homes this weekend, of which Massachusetts will get $158.9 million.
Diehl said not to be fooled by the slight of hand.
“By bringing Vice President Harris, Congresswoman Pressley, and Mayor Wu onstage, they are signaling that shutdowns, mandates and defunding the police are all on the table for Massachusetts under a Healey/Driscoll administration,” Diehl’s campaign said.
Healey’s running mate, Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, said she’s looking forward to being part of a historic, entirely female executive ticket, despite the many challenges potentially facing their administration, like dealing with the MBTA and the commonwealth’s ongoing housing crisis.
“Our path forward is going to require vision and creativity,” she said. “It won’t be easy, there will be no honeymoon. But this is what drives me and this is what drives Maura.”
The Nov. 8 general election isn’t a done deal, but if you believe the polls, it has been Healey’s race to lose for months. Recent polling shows her up by 20 points, about half of her lead a few months ago, but not enough of a chance to give Diehl a shot at winning the corner office.
Harris’s support probably isn’t needed by anyone else on the Democratic side of the ballot either. According to polling, only Republican Auditor Candidate Anthony Amore comes within 20 points of his opponent, with every other race a clear win for the democrats.
Several people were escorted out of the venue Wednesday for trying to yell over Harris. One man screamed that she had “blood on her hands.”
____
