Kamala Harris is spending much of the final stretch of the campaign courting Republicans. Last week, she went on Fox News and held an event in Pennsylvania with more than 100 Republicans supporting her candidacy. Today, Harris will barnstorm Pennsylvania with a trio of Republicans. According to Politico:

Harris and [Liz] Cheney will appear with conservative radio host Charlie Sykes and Republican strategist Sarah Longwell, according to a senior campaign official granted anonymity to preview the schedule.

The events will be held in a trio of suburban counties where Nikki Haley performed strongly during the GOP primary: Chester County, Pennsylvania; Oakland County, Michigan; and Waukesha County, Wisconsin.

Harris’s consistent direct appeals to disaffected Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents raises many questions and concerns. Is this really the best way for Kamala Harris to spend her time? Are there enough of these Republicans to help her win the swing states? Is she neglecting the other components of the Democratic base?

I get it. This election and democracy are on a knife’s edge, and this is usually the period of the campaign when the focus shifts to turning out the base. However, here’s why Kamala Harris is publicly courting Republican voters in the final days of the campaign:

1. It’s Not Just Republicans

One chief concern is that the Harris campaign is focusing on soft Republicans at the expense of core Democratic constituencies like Black and Latino voters or other persuasion targets like young men. That’s simply not the case. Last week, Harris hosted a town hall with radio personality Charlamagne tha God courting Black voters as well as a Univision town hall. Tim Walz utilized his experience as a football coach to reach out to younger men with appearances on the Rich Eisen Show.

I track the ad traffic closely, and the campaign is investing a lot of money in television and digital ads targeting these constituencies.

While her Republican outreach has been more front-facing, the Harris campaign is not ignoring the Democratic base to reach out to these Republicans and Independents.

In a race this close, she needs every demographic to win. And her strategy and spending reflects that.

2. High Value Targets

This outreach is not posturing; disaffected Republican voters are very gettable for Harris; and she has already made a ton of progress. ...