MALVERN, Pa. — Former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming on Monday sought to give voters who oppose abortion rights explicit permission to support Vice President Kamala Harris, suggesting during a town-hall-style event with Harris that Republican restrictions on abortion rights had gone too far.
Cheney’s remarks at the campaign event in Malvern, Pennsylvaniaa, a Philadelphia suburb, were notable because Harris is making a concerted pitch to Republican women in the suburbs. Many of them have spent years voting for candidates opposed to abortion rights, as Cheney was during her career in Congress.
Now, Cheney, a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump, is telling these women that they can back Harris with a clean conscience. And her words may carry some weight: In Congress, Cheney had an A rating from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a group that scores members based on their opposition to abortion. She lost her 2022 race for reelection to a pro-Trump primary challenger two months after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned the constitutional right to abortion.
“I think there are many of us around the country who have been pro-life but who have watched what’s going on in our states since the Dobbs decision and have watched state legislatures put in place laws that are resulting in women not getting the care they need,” Cheney said. “In places like Texas, for example, the attorney general is talking about suing, is suing, to get access to women’s medical records. That’s not sustainable for us as a country, and it has to change.”
The Harris-Cheney event was the first of three planned stops Monday for the two women in suburban counties of the “blue wall” battleground states that are crucial to Harris’ chances. They were scheduled to appear together later in the Detroit and Milwaukee areas.
With very few voters left undecided and polls showing the race essentially tied, the Harris campaign is zeroing in on suburban women, particularly moderate Republicans. Her aides believe these women can be cleaved away from Trump in sufficient numbers to give Harris narrow victories in key states.
Pennsylvania’s Chester County, which includes Malvern, is representative of the sort of suburban area where voters have turned away from Republicans during the Trump era.
Voters there narrowly backed Mitt Romney in 2012, but then Hillary Clinton won the county by 9 percentage points in 2016. Joe Biden carried it by 17 points in 2020. In between, in 2018, Chrissy Houlahan became the first Democrat to represent Chester County in the House in more than a century.
In an event the Harris campaign described as “a moderated discussion” between Harris, Cheney and Sarah Longwell, a moderate Republican who leads an anti-Trump organization backing Harris, the three panelists spoke for 40 minutes while taking two questions from women in the audience.
Held in a small performing arts space, the event felt more like an episode of Oprah Winfrey’s old show than the big rallies for thousands that have animated the Harris campaign in recent weeks. There was relatively little discussion of the economy, and Harris delivered lines that result in big cheers at her rallies in a more measured, calm voice.
One exchange that did bring the crowd to life seemed to be a surprise to the vice president — when she reiterated a need for a “healthy two-party system.”
“We need to be able to have these good, intense debates about issues that are grounded in fact,” Harris said.
“Imagine!” Cheney interjected.
“Let’s start there,” Harris said.
The crowd burst into applause.
“Can you believe that’s an applause line?” Harris said, with a slight laugh.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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