Hoping to avoid Clinton’s 2016 mistakes, Harris courts three ‘rust belt’ states

Kamala Harris arrives for a campaign event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on 23 July. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Of all the lessons Kamala Harris’s campaign will have learned from Hillary Clinton’s botched run for president eight years ago, among the most important is that it’s better to talk about jobs than guns in the three rust belt states that hold the key to the White House.

The peculiarities of the US’s electoral college will almost certainly see November’s presidential election decided by voters in just seven states. Four – Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia – lie in the southern sun belt.