Can Liz Cheney Help Kamala Harris Election Campaign? Or Will She Hurt Her?-Opinion.

Polls suggest some Republican voters are willing to back Harris. But she could also bleed votes because of Cheney.

As United States Vice President Kamala Harris crisscrosses the country – and especially key battleground states – ahead of the November 5 election, an unlikely cheerleader has accompanied her on several occasions: Liz Cheney, the former Republican congresswoman from Wyoming and daughter of ex-Vice President Dick Cheney.

The senior Cheney has long been pilloried by Democrats for his central role in pushing for – and executing – the invasion of Iraq in 2003 on grounds that turned out to be fake. And Liz Cheney has embraced her father’s neoconservative legacy throughout her career.

Yet a shared animus for Donald Trump, the former president and Republican Party nominee for the presidency, has brought Cheney into Harris’s camp. Cheney has been joined by many prominent, old-school Republicans in criticising Trump and endorsing Harris.

But what’s in it for Harris? Can Liz Cheney’s enthusiastic support help her win Republican voters in a race poised on a knife’s edge? Or could it end up hurting Harris’s prospects?

How is Cheney supporting Harris?

In recent weeks, Harris and Cheney have jointly held a series of town hall sessions in the vital battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, under the banner “Country over Party”. Harris and Trump are separated by less than one percentage point in each of the three states.

Cheney has been a staunch critic of Trump and supported the former president’s second impeachment after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

“I know the most conservative of all conservative principles is being faithful to the Constitution,” Cheney said at a recent rally. “You have to choose in this race between someone who has been faithful to the constitution, who will be faithful, and Donald Trump, who, it’s not just us predicting how he will act. We’ve watched what he did after the last election. We watched what he did on Jan 6.”

In an event in Wisconsin, she said: “I watch how our presidents have operated and even when there have been presidents that we have potentially disagreed with on issues, they’ve respected the Constitution.”

Harris, too, has characterised Trump as someone unfit for the role as president.

“Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences of him being president of the United States are brutally serious,” stated Harris.

What voters are still up for grabs?

A recent Washington Post-Schar School poll conducted between September 30 and October 15, 74 percent of voters in battleground states have already decided who they’re going to vote for. But the remaining 26 percent of voters are still undecided.

Seven battleground states – also known as swing states – are expected to determine the outcome of the election. Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina, where Harris and Trump are in close contests, collectively account for 93 Electoral College votes – that’s a third of the 270 votes needed to win the 538-strong Electoral College, and so, the election.

It’s the undecided Republican voters that Harris hopes to tap, using Cheney’s help, say analysts.

Aljazeera