Biden has an ambitious climate policy — Here's what it means for alternative energy stocks - CNBC

Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden walks past solar panels while touring the Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative in Plymouth, New Hampshire, U.S., June 4, 2019.

Brian Snyder | Reuters

(CNBC PRO is looking at the most important investing angles surrounding the election. For the complete investor's guide, see here.)

Alternative energy stocks are on a tear this year as falling costs drives adoption of renewables, and while former Vice President Joe Biden's supportive environmental policies would help the sector, Wall Street analysts say these stocks will continue to outperform no matter who takes the White House on Tuesday.

"Momentum across clean tech is epic," Raymond James succinctly summed up in a recent report.

President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden's differing stance on the environment and environmental policy is well documented.

Trump has rolled back dozens of environmental policies during his four years in the White House, including withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. He has continuously praised the U.S. oil and gas sector, and declared the coal industry was back, although that hasn't panned out.

Biden, on the other hand, has outlined a $2 trillion climate proposal that would make the U.S. power sector carbon free by 2035, while pushing the country to net zero emissions by 2050. At the second presidential debate, Biden said he intends to "transition away from the oil industry."

While Biden's policies are certainly more supportive for clean energy, analysts are quick to note that renewables have boomed over the last four years under the Trump administration due to favorable economics. The International Energy Agency noted in its annual report that solar is now the "cheapest source of electricity in history."

"Ignore the President's rhetoric for a moment; Donald Trump is the greenest President in U.S. history measured by the pace at which the nation's electricity grid has de-carbonized during his first term in office," noted JPMorgan analysts in a recent report. "U.S. Presidents come and go, but wind and solar (and BEVs and Hydrogen) are here to stay owing to declining unit costs and sustainability."

"We think all names under our coverage (including renewable energy, electric vehicle, and smart grid) will work regardless of who wins the 2020 election," added equity research firm Baird.

For investors looking to capitalize on the burgeoning space, there's no shortage of options.

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With Deluge Of Mail Ballots, Here's When To Expect Election Results In 6 Key States - NPR

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Election workers sort ballots at the Maricopa County Recorder's Office in Phoenix. Matt York/AP

Matt York/AP

For months now, election officials have cautioned that the winner of the presidential election may still be unknown when election night is over.

Rules in some states don't allow election workers to begin the labor-intensive work of processing mail-in ballots until Election Day. And with a record number of voters casting their ballots by mail, the influx could delay final tallies for days.

In six particularly key states — Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — the margin of victory is expected to be slim, so it may be hard to know who won until their mail ballots are fully counted. It takes 270 electoral votes to secure the White House — these states account for 101 combined.

While election officials in the swing states of Michigan and Pennsylvania are telling voters it may take a few days before results are tallied in full, officials in Arizona, Florida and North Carolina, where mail ballots can be processed far in advance, are expecting to have results more quickly. But if the contest is close in those states, a final count could take a long time as absentee ballots sent close to Election Day trickle in.

Here's a closer look at what to expect:

Arizona

State law in Arizona allows election officials to count mail votes up to two weeks before Election Day, so most ballots received by this weekend will already be counted in advance. Those tallies can be released starting around 10 p.m. ET on election night, along with early vote results. Votes cast at polling places on Election Day will follow shortly afterward.

The pre-counted absentee ballots and in-person votes will make up the bulk of votes cast in Arizona, so it's possible a winner there could be declared on election night.

Absentee ballots sent right before the election, however, may not be tallied until Thursday or Friday, so if the race is close, it could remain undecided late into next week.

In Arizona, as well as elsewhere where mail votes can be counted ahead of Election Day, early tallies may show a lead for Joe Biden. But the results could begin to swing back toward President Trump when in-person votes are factored in later in the evening. For good measure, that could all shift again as the last remaining mail ballots trickle in.

Enlarge this image

Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Christina White examines signatures on vote-by-mail ballots with members of the Canvassing Board. Lynne Sladky/AP

Lynne Sladky/AP

Florida

Americans may know who won Florida before they go to bed on election night.

Unlike Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, Florida allows counties to do processing work — like sorting and opening envelopes — weeks before Election Day. Also unlike other states, it doesn't allow a grace period for receiving mail ballots after Election Day.

All early votes and mail ballots tabulated in advance are supposed to be released starting around 7:30 p.m. ET on election night, according to Mark Ard, communications director at the Florida Department of State.

"If the election is decisive enough, we should be able to call Florida on Election Night," University of Florida political scientist Michael McDonald told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Like Arizona, those early and mail ballot votes that are tallied in advance and released first are expected to be more favorable to Biden, balanced out shortly after as polls close and in-person votes are counted.

However, it may take some counties longer to finish counting mail ballots that arrive just before and right on Election Day. If the election is close, it may take until Wednesday or Thursday, when those counties finish counting, to determine who won the Sunshine State.

Enlarge this image

An election worker organizes absentee ballots ahead of Election Day at the city clerk office in Warren, Mich. David Goldman/AP

David Goldman/AP

Michigan

"It could take until Friday, Nov. 6 for all ballots to be counted," the office of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson wrote on Thursday. "Depending on how close the races are, this likely means that outcomes will not be determined on Tuesday."

In Michigan, election officials in cities with more than 25,000 residents can start processing mail ballots on Monday at 10 a.m., sorting ballots and removing outer envelopes. They can't be counted, though, until polls close.

Historically, the city of Detroit, an important Democratic stronghold, has been slow to tally election results. In a press conference on Thursday, Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey said the city has hired thousands of additional poll workers to improve the process, but warned that the final results won't be ready on Tuesday night and talked about the idea of "election week."

"Time is not a real concern of ours," Winfrey said. "We want to make sure that every voter and every ballot ... has been properly processed, received and tabulated on Election Day."

As in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Democrats in Michigan are expected to disproportionately cast their ballots by mail. If in-person tallies start to be released before mail ballots are totaled, it could show President Trump ahead at first, with his lead narrowing or disappearing as more mail ballots are counted.

North Carolina

North Carolina is another state where initial results should come quickly.

The North Carolina State Board of Elections estimates 80% of votes will be cast early or by mail and will be released once polls close at 7:30 p.m. ET.

"For the 20% or so of North Carolinians who vote on Election Day, we will be receiving those from the precinct and uploading those, as well," executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections Karen Brinson-Bell said on Thursday. "So, if there are really close races, those Election Day votes will tremendously matter in the outcomes of these elections."

Initial results may favor Democrats, who are more likely to vote by mail. An influx of Republican votes could pour in as Election Day votes are tallied.

North Carolina accepts mail ballots that arrive by Nov. 12 so long as they were postmarked by Election Day, a policy recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. So as in other states with generous mail ballot deadlines, those final ballots could matter if races are tight and leave the final result unclear for days past Election Day.

Pennsylvania

Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar has said that the "overwhelming majority" of ballots will be tallied by Friday, Nov. 6.

"We're sure it will take more time than it used to," Gov. Tom Wolf said Thursday. "We probably won't know results on election night."

Pennsylvania election officials can accept mail ballots that arrive up to three days after the election, as long as they were postmarked by Nov. 3.

Many counties say they will begin processing ballots as soon as allowed, at 7 a.m. on Election Day, but a handful, like Cumberland County outside Harrisburg, say they won't begin dealing with absentee ballots until Wednesday.

"We're having a conversation with any county that says they're waiting," Boockvar said on Thursday. "I want every one of them starting on Election Day."

Enlarge this image

An election official gathers mail-in ballots being sorted in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Matt Slocum/AP

Matt Slocum/AP

Erie County, which swung from Obama to Trump in 2016, will begin processing absentee ballots on Election Day, but will wait to count them until about 11 p.m., after in-person ballots are counted.

In Luzerne County, home to Wilkes-Barre, County Manager David Pedri told NPR the county is hoping to count a large portion of the mail ballots on Tuesday night, but won't finish until Wednesday or Thursday. He said he has 40 people working from 7 a.m. until 9 or 10 p.m. processing and later counting ballots. Keeping them on the clock much longer can result in mistakes being made, said Pedri.

During the primary, Pedri says it took four days to count 40,000 mail ballots. They've since added an envelope opening machine that should speed the process, but this fall, Luzerne has sent out 70,000 mail ballots — a third of the electorate.

In Bucks County, outside Philadelphia, Commissioner Robert Harvie told NPR that officials will begin announcing batches of results from in-person and mail voting at 10 p.m. on election night. He says it's hard to know how long it will take to finish because they don't know how many absentee ballots will be returned still, but he's confident they will be done "before Friday."

If the 2020 election comes down to Pennsylvania, and the margin is tight, it is possible the election hangs in the balance for several days.

Wisconsin

"I believe that we will be able to know the results of the Wisconsin election, hopefully that night and maybe at the latest the very next day," Gov. Tony Evers said earlier this month.

Wisconsin cannot begin the bulk of its processing work until Election Day, but most counties say they expect to finish counting before Wednesday morning.

Julietta Henry, the Milwaukee County elections director, said she expects the county will finish reporting absentee ballots between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Wednesday.

"If it takes longer than that, we just ask that you be patient because we want to make sure every vote is counted and is counted accurately," she says. "We'll be here 'til it's done."

State law says the count cannot be paused once it begins, so election workers may end up working through the night, though the elections commission has expressed some leniency on that front.

"There are certainly smaller cities and towns where the results will come in like normal," said Reid Magney, public information officer for the Wisconsin Elections Commission. "But in some bigger cities, especially where they count absentee ballots at a central location instead of the polling place, we might not see all the results until the next morning."

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It’s Halloween, so here are some mischievous skeletons - The Verge

Everyone focuses on what’s blowing up on TikTok, but here’s something that’s been getting a bit of attention over on Byte: some playful little skeletons.

Over the past month, designer Andre Zimmermann has been posting short looping clips of meddlesome skeletons getting into low-stakes hijinks, like running off with food from a table or knocking a plant off a ledge. “They sort of became these jerks,” Zimmermann said. “Like a cat.”

They’re the furthest thing from spooky, but their mischievous antics feel a bit more comforting during what’s already a high-stress Halloween.

My favorite of Zimmermann’s not-quite-spooky animations shows a humanoid collection of skulls dancing to a looping disco track. To make it, Zimmermann said he imported a motion-capture file of someone dancing, then set the skulls to follow their movements. “It’s just a man basically with skulls stuck to him,” Zimmermann said.

Zimmermann has only been working with 3D art for three years. He started making icons and customizations for Android home screens, then moved on to illustrations and animations. His projects all come together in his free time after work and take a day or two each.

The quick turnarounds are intentional, Zimmermann said, because it’s too easy for any given post to go unnoticed on social platforms. “Putting a lot of time into these long hard complex works doesn’t really pay off,” he said. He’d like to build up an audience — recently, he had some success on Instagram, where one of his skeleton posts got 1.6 million views. On Byte, the view count is far lower, but the animations have been surfacing as part of the app’s “Spooky Season” section.

One element of Zimmermann’s animations that really pulls them together is the music. That selection actually comes last in the process, he said. Once the video is exported, he looks around to see what fits and what will loop properly, since he wants the clips to seem endless.

“The length has to fit,” he said. “And getting that right away is not really something you can plan.”

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It's too late to mail ballots — but not to vote. Here are your options - Minnesota Public Radio News

Minnesota's secretary of state said Thursday it's too late for voters to mail back their absentee ballots if they want to make sure their votes count, after an appeals court ruling indicated that mail-in ballots arriving after Election Day are at risk of being invalidated.

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that Minnesota absentee ballots arriving after Election Day should be separated from other ballots in case they are later invalidated by a final court order. The ruling doesn't block Minnesota's seven-day extension for counting absentee ballots outright, but puts the grace period in danger.

“Voters should no longer place their absentee ballots in the mail,” Secretary of State Steve Simon said. “It is too late for you, practically speaking, to get it back. Don’t risk it.”

The ruling doesn’t impact ballots received by the time polls close on Election Day, but sets the stage for post-election litigation. The case was sent back to a lower court for more proceedings.

The decision is likely to create voter confusion, with people who haven't returned their absentee ballots scrambling to make sure their votes count.

As of Thursday night, nearly 400,000 of some 2 million requested absentee ballots remained outstanding, Simon said.

Simon said voters whose ballots are in transit can use the ballot tracking feature on the Secretary of State’s website to check on its status. If they’re worried it won’t arrive by the new court-ordered deadline, Simon said voters have an option of overriding their recently-mailed absentee ballot

“For those who just mailed it, they don’t know where it is, it hasn’t arrived yet, you could either wait a couple days to see if it has arrived or go in today, go in tomorrow, go in Monday or even go in Tuesday and override that in-transit ballot,” he said.

Simon said voters can also hand-deliver their absentee ballots in the remaining days to their county election office. The other option is to show up on Election Day to vote in person.

Here's what Simon said voters should do if they haven't yet mailed back their ballots or worry whether their ballots will be received in time.

• Voters who have already put their ballot in the mail can track their ballot online. If their ballot hasn't yet been received, voters can cast their ballot in person either early by absentee, or at their polling place on Election Day.

• Voters can deliver their ballots to their county election office by hand (or have someone they trust hand-deliver it for them). Voters can find their county election office here.

• Voters can cast their vote in person with an absentee ballot at their local election office until offices close Monday.

• Voters can cast their votes in person on Election Day. Voters can use the Secretary of State Office's polling place finder tool to find out where to vote.

Have questions leading up to the Election Day? #AskMPRNews. We want to hear your stories, too. #TellMPRNews what is motivating you to get out and vote this year.

You make MPR News possible. Individual donations are behind the clarity in coverage from our reporters across the state, stories that connect us, and conversations that provide perspectives. Help ensure MPR remains a resource that brings Minnesotans together.

Donate today. A gift of $17 makes a difference.

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Eiland Coffee Roasters to open cafe in former Richardson location of Pearl Cup Coffee - Community Impact Newspaper

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By Olivia Lueckemeyer

Olivia Lueckemeyer graduated in 2013 from Loyola University New Orleans with a degree in journalism. She joined Community Impact Newspaper in October 2016 as reporter for the Southwest Austin edition before her promotion to editor in March 2017. In July 2018 she returned home to the Dallas area and became editor of the Richardson edition.

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Here's what happened when NBC News tried to report on the alleged Hunter Biden emails - NBC News

The complaints from President Donald Trump and his allies have been growing louder as the election approaches: Why isn’t the mainstream media covering the Hunter Biden laptop story?

Trump and his allies say there is evidence of corruption in emails and documents allegedly found on a laptop belonging to Democrat Joe Biden’s son. They say those and other documents show that Hunter Biden used his father’s influence to enrich himself through business deals in Ukraine and China, and that his father not only facilitated that, but may have benefited financially.

But the Wall Street Journal and Fox News — among the only news organizations that have been given access to key documents — found that the emails and other records don’t make that case. Leaving aside the many questions about their provenance, the materials offered no evidence that Joe Biden played any role in his son’s dealings in China, let alone profited from them, both news organizations concluded.

As to Ukraine, a single email published by the New York Post suggests Joe Biden may have had a meeting with a representative of a Ukrainian company that employed his son. Trump and his allies alleged that means Joe Biden has lied when he said he never discussed his son’s business roles. The Biden campaign denies the meeting happened.

The lack of major new revelations is perhaps the biggest reason the story has not gotten traction, but not the only one. Among others: Most mainstream news organizations, including NBC News, have not been granted access to the documents. NBC News asked by email, text, phone call and certified mail, and was ultimately denied.

Oct. 19, 202003:02

And, although no evidence has emerged that the documents are the product of Russian disinformation, as some experts initially suggested, many questions remain about how the materials got into the hands of Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who has met with Russian agents in his effort to dig dirt on the Bidens.

U.S. intelligence agencies have informed the White House that Giuliani has been in contact with alleged Russian intelligence agents. The FBI has been looking into whether the Russians played any role, and no official has ruled that out.

At the same time, dozens of former intelligence officials have said the story has the hallmarks of a Russian intelligence operation. After the election interference of 2016, the news media is especially wary of doing anything to further an effort by a foreign government to intervene in a presidential campaign.

Another factor tamping down coverage of the story is that there isn’t much new in what the laptop documents appear to reveal. The allegation that Hunter Biden has traded on his family name has been thoroughly explored in previous news stories, including a lengthy New Yorker investigation last year in which Robert Weissman, the president of the advocacy group Public Citizen, said, “It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Hunter’s foreign employers and partners were seeking to leverage Hunter’s relationship with Joe, either by seeking improper influence or to project access to him.” Reports published while the elder Biden was still vice president raised ethical questions about the Burisma deal.

Related

While the question of whether Joe Biden enabled his son to profit from the vice president’s influence is relevant to the presidential campaign, issues of balance and proportionality also come into play.

Trump, according to the same good government advocates who have criticized Hunter Biden, is ethically challenged when it comes to appearing to use the power of his office to enrich himself and his family. David Farenthold of The Washington Post has used federal and other records to calculate that the federal government has spent at least $2.5 million on food and lodging at Trump properties since Trump took office. Earlier this month, Ben Sasse, a Republican senator from Nebraska who is up for re-election, told supporters that Trump’s family “has treated the presidency like a business opportunity.”

Yet stories about Trump’s children and their business dealings are not dominating the news cycle in the days before the election, because they have already been covered, just as the Hunter Biden story has been covered. (Trump’s tax information, on the other hand, has been covered extensively by The New York Times, because the secret tax data obtained by the newspaper revealed important new information about his tax payments and his business dealings.)

'No role for Joe Biden'

The first story about the Hunter Biden laptop appeared in the New York Post, a conservative tabloid. One of the bylines was that of a former producer for Fox News pundit Sean Hannity.

The New York Times reported that a Post reporter who did much of the work declined to allow his byline to appear on the story.

Sept. 30, 202001:04

The Times also reported that the Trump campaign initially shopped the story to the Wall Street Journal, hoping that a mainstream news organization would validate their assertions that the documents hinted at corruption.

The Journal didn’t do that.

The Journal published a story focusing on claims about an alleged deal proposal in China — claims made by a former Hunter Biden associate named Tony Bobulinski, who came forward after the laptop story broke to say that the senior Biden was well aware of his son’s arrangements.

After examining text messages provided by Bobulinski, the Journal reported that “the venture — set up in 2017 after Mr. Biden left the vice presidency and before his presidential campaign — never received proposed funds from the Chinese company or completed any deals, according to people familiar with the matter. Corporate records…show no role for Joe Biden.”

Fox News, meanwhile said it “reviewed emails from Bobulinski related to the venture — and they don't show that the elder Biden had business dealings with SinoHawk Holdings, or took any payments from them or the Chinese.”

May 20, 202011:06

An NBC News correspondent asked Bobulinski for an interview and for copies of documents in his possession, but he declined.

“All of your questions will be answered on Tucker Carlson tonight,” Bobulinski wrote on Oct. 27.

On air, to make his case that Joe Biden was involved in his son’s business dealings, Bobulinski described an encounter he says he had with the senior Biden.

At a meeting in May 2017 in Los Angeles, Bobulinski says Hunter Biden introduced him to the former vice president, saying: “This is Tony, dad, the individual I told you about that's helping us with the business we are working and the Chinese.”

Even if that statement was made, it says very little about how much Joe Biden knew, and nothing about whether he was involved.

The Biden campaign has denied that Biden knew about the venture or stood to profit from it.

The laptop

NBC News has sought to obtain the documents on the alleged Hunter Biden laptop, but has been rebuffed.

An NBC News correspondent sent a letter two weeks ago to Giuliani, seeking copies of the materials.

His lawyer, Robert Costello, granted the correspondent the opportunity to review some Hunter Biden emails and other materials in person. The materials included copies of Hunter Biden identification documents that appeared to be genuine. But without taking possession of the copies, it was not possible to conduct the sort of forensic analysis that might help authenticate the emails and documents.

Related

It was Giuliani who ultimately told NBC News he would not be providing a copy of the hard drive. NBC News responded by asking if, instead of a full copy of the hard drive, he could just provide copies of the full set of emails. Giuliani did not agree to that proposal. NBC News then declined an offer of copies of a small group of emails.

NBC News has also requested the documents from Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, but has not received a response.

Key questions remain about the origins of the laptop and how it got into Giuliani’s hands.

The owner of a computer repair shop in Wilmington, Delaware, John Paul Mac Isaac, has said a man he believes was Hunter Biden left a water-damaged Apple computer at his shop in April 2019 for repairs and data recovery.

But Biden never retrieved the machine, Mac Isaac has said, and at some point he began to examine the data. He said he found material that disturbed him, though he has never publicly explained what that was. His lawyer said he contacted the FBI, which ultimately served a grand jury subpoena for the laptop and a hard drive.

Oct. 22, 202003:01

After hearing nothing from the FBI for months, Mac Isaac said he grew frustrated and turned a copy of the laptop’s contents over to Giuliani’s lawyer.

A representative for Giuliani said one of Giuliani’s companies received an e-mail from Mac Isaac saying he had the laptop and thought Giuliani should be aware of its contents. The representative said Mac Isaac provided a copy of the hard drive to Giuliani’s team.

According to the representative, Mac Isaac said he wrote to Giuliani’s team after trying to reach out to Republican members of Congress without success.

Giuliani’s attorney said Mac Isaac did not ask for or receive payment for the copy of the drive.

The subpoena, which was published by the New York Post, was signed by a federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in Wilmington.

A photo of a receipt provided to Mac Isaac by FBI agents was published on the Fox News website. It contained an FBI code, 272D, which the bureau uses to signify an investigation into money laundering where the unlawful activity is unknown.

U.S. officials have refused to explain why they seized the laptops and what, if anything, they are investigating.

NBC News attempted to speak to Mac Isaac, but he did not respond to requests for comment. NBC News published an article quoting responses he had given to The Daily Beast. His lawyer then sent NBC News a letter that said, “Your network and affiliates should cease any further discussion of Mr. Mac Isaac as much of the information you are presenting is false.”

James Rosen, a reporter for the conservative-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group, the nation's largest operator of local television stations, reported this week that a Justice Department official told him the FBI had opened a criminal investigation into Hunter Biden and his associates last year focused on allegations of money-laundering — and that the probe remains active.

Jan. 19, 202003:07

NBC News has not confirmed any such investigation.

Rosen also reported that the FBI interviewed former Biden associate Bobulinski last week.

A senior law enforcement official told NBC News that Bobulinski initiated the interview.

Bobulinski said the FBI told him he’s “listed as a material witness,” but law enforcement officials say the FBI does not use that term in this context.

Hunter Biden’s lawyer, George Mesires, did not respond to a request for comment by NBC News. He has not asserted — nor has the Biden campaign — that the laptop did not belong to Hunter Biden.

If he did leave the machine in Delaware, it would have marked at least the second time he has left behind a laptop.

According to two people familiar with the matter, a different Hunter Biden laptop landed in the custody of the DEA in February when they executed a search warrant on the Massachusetts office of a psychiatrist accused of professional misconduct. The psychiatrist has not been charged with a crime.

Hunter Biden was not a target of the search or the investigation, and his lawyer ultimately got his laptop back. It’s not clear why his computer was left in the doctor’s office.

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Kamala Harris urges Texas Democrats to keep their foot on the pedal - The Texas Tribune

FORT WORTH — As soon as Kamala Harris took the stage outside a bustling church here on her first stop of a Texas campaign trip, she made her intentions for the audience clear.

“So listen, today is the last day of early voting in Texas and you all have been doing your thing,” she said after taking off the face mask she wore on stage, nodding to the state’s record-breaking early turnout so far this year and polls suggesting that the state is in play.

“Now we know this is no time to let up on the pedal though, right?”

Harris spoke for about half an hour in at First Saint John Cathedral in Fort Worth to a predominately Black, socially distanced and seated crowd during the first stop of a daylong tour of Texas just four days before Election Day. Her presence itself was remarkable for a state that has long been considered noncompetitive in presidential races. Her message: The Democratic presidential ticket isn’t ceding Texas to the GOP this year. For the first time in decades, Republican dominance here could be at risk.

“There is a clear choice in this election,” she told voters standing outside a Fort Worth church who greeted her with raucous applause and Biden-Harris campaign signs.

“On the one hand you have Joe Biden, who, together with Barack Obama, created Obamacare which brought health care to 20 million people and protected people with pre-existing conditions,” Harris said, standing in front of a Texas flag as she spoke. “[They] understood that health care and access to health care should be a right and not just a privilege of those who can afford it.

“On the other hand, you have [President] Donald Trump,” Harris continued, “who, together with his boy Bill Barr, are in the United States Supreme Court right now trying to sue to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.”

Harris was referring to a Texas-led lawsuit to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Trump has expressed support for the suit.

After visiting Fort Worth, she flew to McAllen, with plans to go to Houston after that.

Despite pleas from various Texas Democrats, Joe Biden hasn’t visited the state since the March primary. Before Harris' trip, the state was visited by her husband, Doug Emhoff, and Biden's wife, Jill Biden.

Asked why Joe Biden has not visited Texas in the general election, Harris told reporters in Houston that the campaign is "putting a lot of resources into Texas."

"We understand that first of all, the people of Texas — Texas has so much at stake in this election and they deserve to be heard, they deserve to be engaged by us because we intend to earn every vote," Harris said, according to a pool report. "That’s why I’ve been here, that’s why Jill has been here, and Doug has been here, and we’re gonna keep putting recources into Texas, because it’s a very important state for a number of reasons.”

Harris' swing through Texas, which awards 38 Electoral College votes, seemed designed to reach out to voters in Texas’ growing communities of color. The Biden-Harris ticket is largely relying on suburban, Black and Hispanic communities to offset President Donald Trump’s advantage in more rural swaths of the state.

In Fort Worth, she attracted a crowd of 300, including influential area Democrats like U.S. Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, and U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth. She gave a shout out to U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, while on stage. Prior to Harris’ speech, Bishop Marvin Sapp gave a musical performance.

In a statement Friday morning, Trump Victory spokesperson Samantha Cotten rebuffed the notion that Harris’ visit meant that the state is in pay.

“Texans aren’t fooled by phony politicians like Kamala Harris who is making a last ditch effort in the Lone Star State and come November, voters will reject the Democrats’ radical agenda of eliminating the oil and gas industry, hiking our taxes and taking away our 2nd Amendment rights in favor of four more years of President Trump,” Cotten said.

Tarrant County is Texas’ third-most populous county, and Democrats believe the former vice president’s path to victory in Texas includes turning the county blue. Though largely seen until recently as the last urban GOP stronghold in the state, Democrats see reasons for optimism after former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke carried the county with a margin of victory of 0.62% in his bid against U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018.

It is also home to a number of competitive state House seats and Congressional District 24, where Democrat Candace Valenzuela and Republican Beth Van Duyne are running to replace outgoing U.S. Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Coppell.

Friday wasn’t the first time the California senator made a campaign stop in Fort Worth. In March 2019, Harris was one of the first then-Democratic presidential candidates to visit Texas during the packed primary, making back-to-back stops in Tarrant and Harris counties. She never accrued enough support in the polls for her run and ended her campaign in December.

Now, as Biden’s running mate, Harris is the highest-profile representative of the Biden campaign to visit Texas in person during the general election. Later Friday, Harris held a similar get-out-the-vote event in McAllen with O’Rourke and Julián Castro, former secretary of housing and urban development and San Antonio mayor.

​When asked by a reporter in McAllen why she was visiting the border city, Harris said, it was “because there are people here who matter, people who are working hard, people who love their country and we need to be here and be responsive to that.”

During her speech at the Edinburg campus of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Harris, who stood behind a podium that read “Todos Con Biden Harris,” reiterated the importance of Texas voters on Nov. 3.

“You are going to make the difference. The election is about you,” Harris said before a backdrop that said Vota Texas. “We’re gonna do this. We’re gonna do this. We’re gonna do this.”

Harris’ tour through the state comes as polls project a tight presidential race in Texas. A handful of surveys in recent days give Trump a narrow lead or show him mired in a tie with the former vice president. In a few cases, Biden maintains a small lead over Trump.

Though Texas isn’t essential to a Biden victory, Democrats have asked Biden to be more aggressive here. In addition to Harris’ visit, the campaign planned a multicity surrogate bus tour across Texas. In addition, national super PACs and billionaire Michael Bloomberg have poured money into the state at the 11th hour, supporting not only Biden’s presidential bid but down-ballot efforts to flip the congressional districts and gain control of the state House.

“They know when we vote, things change,” Harris said in closing. “They know when we vote, we win.”

Patrick Svitek contributed reporting.

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