Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks at a Republican for Harris event in Scottsdale, Arizona, on October 11.

Rebecca Noble/AFP via Getty Images

Hide caption

Toggle label

Rebecca Noble/AFP via Getty Images

Brittany Prime has spent the last few months talking politics with women like her — women who typically vote Republican and are uncomfortable with former President Donald Trump.

“For moderate center-right women, it will always be the economy,” Prime explained. “A lot of this reminds them that Donald Trump is not the better path forward.”

Prime comes from a Republican fundraising background but says she was unable to support her party’s candidate in 2016. That’s why she co-founded Women4US, a group dedicated to convincing Republican women to oppose Trump and support Vice President Harris.

They focus on several hundred thousand women in the key states of North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

At a pizzeria in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, one of the state’s main so-called “collar counties” outside Philadelphia, Prime says some women are afraid to tell their boyfriends – or even their husbands – if they’re not voting for Trump.

“Look at what Donald Trump said at the rally last week when he said, ‘Raise your hand if you vote for Kamala Harris,'” Prime recalled, referencing a recent moment Rally in Wisconsin when Trump asked for a show of hands.

“Actually I should say: Don’t raise your hand,” Trump added. “It would be very dangerous. We don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

Prime says these words resonate with many of the women she speaks to. Negative.

“With women, it really comes through,” she said. “It’s unfortunate and sad, but we will fight it in every way we can.”

They’re fighting it through phone calls and text messages and a message designed to appeal primarily to white, suburban women who lean toward conservative politics.

For example, Prime says, in the first presidential election since Supreme Court decision By overturning decades of precedent on abortion rights, it frames the issue in terms of “reproductive freedom” rather than focusing on abortion rights per se.

A person holds a sign reading “Republicans for Kamala Harris” during a rally with Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Oct. 2 in York, Pennsylvania.

Dominic Gwinn/AFP via Getty Images

Hide caption

Toggle label

Dominic Gwinn/AFP via Getty Images

The Harris campaign is also working to mobilize disaffected Republican voters through outreach in key states. At the beginning of this year the Campaign hired a former Republican Capitol Hill staffer is expected to lead that effort.

On Wednesday, Harris returns to Pennsylvania, this time with several senior Republicans in tow, according to a senior campaign official who spoke anonymously to share plans for the upcoming event. This is all part of the campaign’s effort to connect with these voters and show that Republicans are supporting the vice president, giving other conservative voters permission to do so, too.

Ann Womble is one of those voters. Womble, a former Republican Party official from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, says she changed her registration to independent when Trump was nominated in 2016. She is now co-chair of the Republicans for Harris in Pennsylvania.

Womble says some of the people she meets are relieved to talk to someone like her and express concerns about Trump.

“You know, I’m tired of Donald Trump. And the whole thing he’s doing to us is exhausting,” Womble said of what she hears when she speaks to voters.

Former Rep. Liz Cheney greets Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris during a rally at Ripon College on October 3, 2024 in Ripon, Wisconsin.

Jim Vondruska/Getty Images

Hide caption

Toggle label

Jim Vondruska/Getty Images

As will be the case again on Wednesday, the Harris campaign was advertise advertising from several prominent Republicans, including former members of the Trump administration, national security and military leaders, and elected officials, including former lawmakers. Liz Cheney.

At an event in Montgomery County last week hosted by the super PAC Democracy First, Cheney recounted the events of January 6, 2021.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat, Republican or independent. This is depravity,” Cheney told a crowd gathered at a historic theater in Glenside, Pennsylvania, on October 9.

“We must never become deaf to this,” Cheney continued. “Any person who would do such things can never be trusted with power again.”

For Don Keyser, who at 79 describes himself as a lifelong Republican, the message resonated.

“I am ashamed to say that I voted for Trump in the last two elections, but I will not be voting for him this year,” Keyser said. “January 6th is the day that broke the back for me. What was done that day was reprehensible.”

When Harris demonstrates in Bucks County, Pennsylvania on Wednesday, she will do so with these themes in mind: patriotism and unity.

She will reaffirm her promise to be a president for all Americans and her promise to add a Republican to her Cabinet if she wins.

Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger plans to give a speech at the event in support of Harris. Other former members of Congress and elected Republicans will also be in attendance. Harris is set to be introduced by Republican farmers in Pennsylvania who have been featured in Harris campaign ads.

The campaign itself and political organizers hopefully point to the success of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who drew Double-digit support in several states — including Pennsylvania, which has closed primaries — even after Republicans dropped out of the race.

Craig Snyder, director of Haley Voters for Harris, says he believes Harris, unlike Trump, still has a chance of convincing undecided voters.

“He’s really at or near his maximum number of votes now. And so mobilization is the be-all and end-all for his election campaign. It’s everything. While Harris still has room to grow,” Snyder said.

Snyder’s group is try to achieve several million former Haley supporters and other center-right voters in swing states.

Sarah Longwell, executive director of Republican Voters Against Trump, notes that about a third of Republican voters reject Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and accept that he lost.

“But we’re also realistic about tribalism and how many voters, even though they don’t like Donald Trump on the Republican side, will still come along and vote for him,” Longwell added.

Still, she says, if Harris can win over even a small percentage of those voters, that could be enough to sway a state like Pennsylvania — and perhaps the election.