Michael Sasso and Mark Niquette | (TNS) Bloomberg News

The surging enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia and North Carolina is convincing local Democratic leaders that she can score the first double win in the Southern swing states since Jimmy Carter.

More than 52,000 volunteers have joined the Harris campaign there since she announced her presidential bid — so many that county party heads barely know what to do with them. One official in the Greensboro, North Carolina, area described her headquarters as a “madhouse,” with up to 30 people showing up every day to help and a deep-pocketed donor shelling out to pay neighborhood canvassers.

Harris, a Californian, has opened up an electoral path in two traditionally Republican states in the South that no Democrat has won together since Georgia native Carter in 1976. In the latest Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll of registered voters in seven swing states, she’s now leading Donald Trump in both states by 2 percentage points.

That’s within the margin of error, meaning the two are essentially in a toss-up election. But it’s an improvement from her showing in July, when she lagged Trump by 2 points in North Carolina and was even with him in Georgia — and it’s much better than President Joe Biden’s numbers before he exited the race.

Harris, 59, is pulling in people like Kameryn Taylor, 25, who said she was struggling to rouse up the energy to turn out for the 81-year-old Biden. Now she’s all in.

“I’m pretty pro-Kamala,” Taylor said in a recent interview in Greensboro. “I like that she is a fresh face, and I like that’s she’s willing to take on women’s rights when it comes to abortion.”

Potential voters in both states praised the Democratic candidate’s relative youth and vigor, her identity as the first Black and Asian woman to lead a major-party ticket and her commitment to reproductive rights. In the August poll, Harris posted double-digit gains in support among women, those aged 18-34 and seniors 65 and older in North Carolina and smaller but notable increases among such groups in Georgia compared to Biden. Her share of Black voters in each state exceeded Biden’s as well.

Barely considered a swing state, North Carolina was moved to a “toss up” last week by the Cook Political Report. Neighboring Georgia became a toss up recently, potentially relieving some of the pressure for Harris to win the so-called blue wall states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

“This race turned on a dime,” said Michael Bitzer, a political science professor at Catawba College in North Carolina. “It’s a whole new dynamic.”

To be sure, the GOP remains powerful in North Carolina and Georgia, and Trump still draws adoring crowds. North Carolinians last elected a Democrat president in 2008, while Biden’s squeaker of a win in Georgia in 2020 was the first Democratic victory there since Bill Clinton’s first term.

Trump’s campaign has cast Harris’ surge as a sugar high that is leveling off. “We believe, internally, based on the data, that the plateau’s been reached,” Trump campaign spokesman Brian Hughes said.

But Harris has been able to pull some of the voters who dislike both Trump and Biden, said Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University and author of the forthcoming Anatomy of a Purple State: A North Carolina Politics Primer.

In Georgia, the Harris camp said it has the largest in-state operation of any Democratic presidential campaign cycle, with more than 190 staff members in 24 offices. In Fayetteville, a bustling Atlanta suburb, Democratic Party Chair Joe Clark said he’s never seen so much investment from headquarters, with new 65-inch television monitors installed in some offices and full-time security.

On Friday, the cramped Fayetteville office was cluttered with Harris yard signs and a jumbo dry erase calendar full of Young Democrat socials and Saturday canvassing events. A local congressional candidate, Maura Keller, popped in and said that since Harris became the nominee, far more people are paying attention to her race against Trump-endorsed Republican Brian Jack and taking her campaign signs. And at the monthly Pancakes & Politics breakfast, which used to get a decent crowd, lately “it’s standing room only,” said county membership chair Bertha Regans.

Over in Greensboro, Guilford County Democratic Party Chair Kathy Kirkpatrick is fielding scores of volunteers energized from the Democratic National Convention in August, particularly after former first lady Michelle Obama’s speech exhorting people to “do something.”

The office the day after “was a madhouse,” Kirkpatrick said. “They’re all there to do something, which was fun.”

Harris’s pick of Minnesota Tim Governor Tim Walz as her running mate has also cheered some North Carolinians.

“Kamala and Tim really support people to be who they are, and there’s this absence of division and absence of hate,” said Sarah McDavid, 53, owner of a metaphysical shop in downtown Greensboro. “They really are bringing in a little more happiness to politics.”

Just up the sidewalk, though, Clayton Sturdivant, 52, said he remained undecided. The United Parcel Service driver is deeply religious and some of the Democratic Party’s positions, such as support for abortion rights, bother him. But the Republican Party seems to ignore Black people altogether, he said.

Said Sturdivant, “We should trust in God.”

In August, seemingly the bulk of Asheboro, North Carolina – population 28,000 – turned out for a Trump rally at a tiny airport and aviation museum amid pastures and forests. Vendors sold full-size cardboard cut-outs of the former president, and fans proudly wore ball caps reading, “I’m voting for the felon.”

Trump during his speech blasted Biden and Harris for elevated inflation and illegal immigration, themes he’s hit on for months. But the latest Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll showed that Harris is faring better than Biden when it comes to pocketbook issues. When voters were asked who they trust more on the economy, Harris trailed Trump by just single digits in Georgia and North Carolina, while Biden had lagged by over 10 percentage points in each state before he exited the race.

In Leland, a boomtown off the North Carolina coast, Barry Meyer has grown more comfortable with Harris in the past month after initially having his doubts.

“I’m very confident that she could do a great job, because I like the enthusiasm,” Meyer, 71, said. “Because with Biden, Democrats were like, ‘God, is that the best we can come up with?’”

——-

(With assistance from Gregory Korte.)

___

By DAVID KLEPPER Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — When he first emerged on social media, the user known as Harlan claimed to be a New Yorker and an Army veteran who supported Donald Trump for president. Harlan said he was 29, and his profile picture showed a smiling, handsome young man.

A few months later, Harlan underwent a transformation. Now, he claimed to be 31 and from Florida.

New research into Chinese disinformation networks targeting American voters shows Harlan’s claims were as fictitious as his profile picture, which analysts think was created using artificial intelligence.

As voters prepare to cast their ballots this fall, China has been making its own plans, cultivating networks of fake social media users designed to mimic Americans. Whoever or wherever he really is, Harlan is a small part of a larger effort by U.S. adversaries to use social media to influence and upend America’s political debate.

The account was traced back to Spamouflage, a Chinese disinformation group, by analysts at Graphika, a New York-based firm that tracks online networks. Known to online researchers for several years, Spamouflage earned its moniker through its habit of spreading large amounts of seemingly unrelated content alongside disinformation.

“One of the world’s largest covert online influence operations — an operation run by Chinese state actors — has become more aggressive in its efforts to infiltrate and to sway U.S. political conversations ahead of the election,” Jack Stubbs, Graphika’s chief intelligence officer, told The Associated Press.

Intelligence and national security officials have said that Russia, China and Iran have all mounted online influence operations targeting U.S. voters ahead of the November election. Russia remains the top threat, intelligence officials say, even as Iran has become more aggressive in recent months, covertly supporting U.S. protests against the war in Gaza and attempting to hack into the email systems of the two presidential candidates.

China, however, has taken a more cautious, nuanced approach. Beijing sees little advantage in supporting one presidential candidate over the other, intelligence analysts say. Instead, China’s disinformation efforts focus on campaign issues particularly important to Beijing — such as American policy toward Taiwan — while seeking to undermine confidence in elections, voting and the U.S. in general.

Officials have said it’s a longer-term effort that will continue well past Election Day as China and other authoritarian nations try to use the internet to erode support for democracy.

Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu rejected Graphika’s findings as full of “prejudice and malicious speculation” and said that “China has no intention and will not interfere” in the election.

X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, suspended several of the accounts linked to the Spamouflage network after questions were raised about their authenticity. The company did not respond to questions about the reasons for the suspensions, or whether they were connected to Graphika’s report.

TikTok also removed accounts linked to Spamouflage, including Harlan’s.

“We will continue to remove deceptive accounts and harmful misinformation as we protect the integrity of our platform during the US elections,” a TikTok spokesperson wrote in a statement emailed on Tuesday.

Related Articles

A decision on a major policy shift on marijuana won’t come until after the presidential election

Is Usha Vance’s Hindu identity an asset or a liability to the Trump-Vance campaign?

GOP network props up liberal third-party candidates in key states, hoping to siphon off Harris votes

Election season in the US is about to start. The first ballots will go out within days

The presidential campaigns brace for an intense sprint to Election Day

Compared with armed conflict or economic sanctions, online influence operations can be a low-cost, low-risk means of flexing geopolitical power. Given the increasing reliance on digital communications, the use of online disinformation and fake information networks is only likely to increase, said Max Lesser, senior analyst for emerging threats at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a national security think tank in Washington.

“We’re going to see a widening of the playing field when it comes to influence operations, where it’s not just Russia, China and Iran but you also see smaller actors getting involved,” Lesser said.

That list could include not only nations but also criminal organizations, domestic extremist groups and terrorist organizations, Lesser said.

When analysts first noticed Spamouflage five years ago, the network tended to post generically pro-China, anti-American content. In recent years, the tone sharpened as Spamouflage expanded and began focusing on divisive political topics like gun control, crime, race relations and support for Israel during its war in Gaza. The network also began creating large numbers of fake accounts designed to mimic American users.

Spamouflage accounts don’t post much original content, instead using platforms like X or TikTok to recycle and repost content from far-right and far-left users. Some of the accounts seemed designed to appeal to Republicans, while others cater to Democrats.

While Harlan’s accounts succeeded in getting traction — one video mocking President Joe Biden was seen 1.5 million times — many of the accounts created by the Spamouflage campaign did not. It’s a reminder that online influence operations are often a numbers game: the more accounts, the more content, the better the chance that one specific post goes viral.

Many of the accounts newly linked to Spamouflage took pains to pose as Americans, sometimes in obvious ways. “I am an American,” one of the accounts proclaimed. Some of the accounts gave themselves away by using stilted English or strange word choices. Some were clumsier than others: “Broken English, brilliant brain, I love Trump,” read the biographical section of one account.

Harlan’s profile picture, which Graphika researchers believe was created using AI, was identical to one used in an earlier account linked to Spamouflage. Messages sent to the person operating Harlan’s accounts were not returned.

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A decision on whether to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug in the U.S. won’t come until after the November presidential election, a timeline that raises the chances it could be a potent political issue in the closely contested race.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration last week set a hearing date to take comment on the proposed historic change in federal drug policy for Dec. 2.

The hearing date means a final decision could well come in the next administration. While it’s possible it could precede the end of President Joe Biden’s term, issuing it before Inauguration Day “would be pretty expedited,” said cannabis lawyer Brian Vicente.

That could put a new spotlight on the presidential candidates’ positions on marijuana. Vice President Kamala Harris has backed decriminalizing the drug and said it’s “absurd” to have it in the DEA’s Schedule I category alongside heroin and LSD. The Democratic nominee’s position has shifted over the years; she once oversaw the enforcement of cannabis laws and opposed legalized recreational use for adults in California while running for attorney general in 2010.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, signaled support for a Florida legalization measure on Saturday, following earlier comments that he increasingly agrees that people shouldn’t be jailed for the drug now legal in multiple states, “whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

During his run for president in 2016, Trump said that he backed medical marijuana and that pot should be left up to the states. But during his first term, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions lifted an Obama-era policy that kept federal authorities from cracking down on the pot trade in states where the drug is legal.

Trump’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a query about his position on rescheduling the drug.

The Justice Department proposed reclassifying it in May, saying the change would recognize marijuana’s medical uses and acknowledge it has less potential for abuse than some of the nation’s most dangerous drugs. The proposal, which would not legalize marijuana for recreational use, came after a call for review from Biden, who has called the change “monumental.”

The DEA has said it doesn’t yet have a position on whether to go through with the change, stating in a memo that it would keep weighing the issue as the federal rulemaking process plays out.

The new classification would be the most significant shift in U.S. drug policy in 50 years and could be a potent political issue, especially with younger voters. But it faces opposition from groups such as Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

Its president, Kevin Sabet, argues there isn’t enough data to move cannabis to the less-dangerous Schedule III category, alongside ketamine and some anabolic steroids. The DEA’s move to hold the hearing is “a huge win in our fight to have this decision guided by medical science, not politics,” he said in a statement, adding that 18 states’ attorneys general are backing his opposition.

The hearing sparked some consternation among pot industry players, though little surprise about the DEA decision to hold one.

“While the result ultimately may be better, I think we’re so used to seeing delays that it’s just a little disappointing,” said Stephen Abraham, chief financial officer at The Blinc Group, supplier of cartridges and other hardware used in pot vapes. “Every time you slow down or hold resources from the legal market, it’s to the benefit of the illicit market.”

The proposal, which was signed by Attorney General Merrick Garland rather than DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, followed a recommendation from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Federal drug policy has lagged behind that of many states in recent years, with 38 having already legalized medical marijuana and 24 legalizing its recreational use.

Lawmakers from both major political parties have pushed for the change as marijuana has become increasingly decriminalized and accepted. A Gallup poll last year found 70% of adults support legalization, the highest level yet recorded by the polling firm and more than double the roughly three in 10 who backed it in 2000.

The marijuana industry has also grown quickly, and state-licensed pot companies are keen on rescheduling partly because it could enable them to take federal business-expense tax deductions that aren’t available to enterprises involved in “trafficking” any Schedule I or II drug. For some of Vicente’s clients, the change would effectively reduce the tax rate from 75% to 25%.

Some legalization advocates also hope rescheduling could help persuade Congress to pass legislation aimed at opening banks’ doors to cannabis companies. Currently, the drug’s legal status means many federally regulated banks are reluctant to lend to such businesses, or sometimes even provide checking or other basic services.

Rescheduling could also make it easier to research marijuana, since it’s difficult to conduct authorized clinical studies on Schedule I substances. Some medical marijuana patient advocates fear that the discussion has already become deeply politicized and that the focus on rescheduling’s potential effect on the industry has shifted attention from the people who could benefit.

“It was our hope that we could finally take the next step and create the national medical cannabis program that we need,” said Steph Sherer, founder and president of Americans for Safe Access. The organization advocates for putting cannabis in a drug category all its own and for creating a medical cannabis office within DHS.

The immediate effect of rescheduling on the nation’s criminal justice system, though, would likely be more muted, since federal prosecutions for simple possession have been fairly rare in recent years.

Peltz reported from New York.