US VP Kamala Harris sets out to rally young and minority voters

WASHINGTON, United States — Vice President Kamala Harris stepped out recently on the campus of a Pennsylvania university and was greeted by a troupe of cheerleaders.

"She's got that fever. She's got that heat. She's our VP. You can't compete," they chanted.

Harris, 58, is hoping to whip up enthusiasm among younger voters, an age group that 80-year-old President Joe Biden has trouble reaching.

To that end, Harris was bestowed on Friday with a new role -- tackling the scourge of gun violence that has wreaked terror in schools across the country.

Alongside Harris and Biden during the White House announcement of her new role stood the first member of Congress from Generation Z, 26-year-old Democrat Maxwell Frost.

Speaking about the shootings that have become a tragic fixture of American life, Harris, a former California attorney general who has sometimes struggled to connect with audiences, sought to hit a note of empathy.

Young people and minorities

"In today's world, on the first day of school, students, yes, learn the name of their teacher. Yes, they learn the location of their cubby and they learn how to quietly hide from an active shooter," said Harris, citing the common practice in US schools of teaching youngsters how to stay alive during an attack by a gunman.

Gun violence is on a list of key issues including abortion rights, climate change and discrimination that Harris -- the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to hold the vice president's office -- is addressing in a national tour of colleges entitled "Fight for Our Freedoms."

The month-long tour will take her to universities where she will target African-American and other minority students, speaking on issues that concern them most.

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