COLUMBIA, S.C. — Vice-President Kamala Harris will be in Columbia later this month for the King Day at the Dome event, as she looks to energize Democratic voters ahead of next month's presidential primary.
Harris will be at the event set for January 15 at the South Carolina State, according to the South Carolina NAACP, which organizes and hosts the King Day event. She's set to give the keynote speech.
Harris' visit will come a little over two weeks before the February 3 Democratic Presidential Primary. President Joe Biden is seeking re-election and is facing off against two other contenders: U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and self-help author Marianne Williamson.
After struggling in some of the early states, Biden scored a blowout victory in the 2020 primary in the state, which helped propel him to his party's nomination and eventually the White House. Biden later championed making the South Carolina primary the first in the nation for Democrats, which the national party later did. (New Hampshire, however, has decided to hold its own primary first in defiance of the party mandate. Biden will not participate in that event).
Harris was last in the state in November to officially file the paperwork for Biden to be on the ballot in South Carolina.
Harris is upping her profile here as it gets closer to the primary. This Saturday, she'll be in Myrtle Beach to deliver the keynote address at the 7th Episcopal District AME Church Woman's Missionary retreat.
King Day at the Dome began in 2000 as an effort to bring down the Confederate flag from the top of the State House dome. It's continued as an event to advances issues on behalf of African-Americans in the state.
It's also become a notable event for Democratic politicians seeking the party nomination. Every four years, it becomes a nearly mandatory stop for those seeking to win the state's primary.