In a bit of political theater, Harris (D-Calif.) held the rally in the home state of former congressman Beto O’Rourke, a little more than a week after O’Rourke launched his own presidential campaign, and in a county that bears her name. Texas is also the home state of former San Antonio mayor Julián Castro, another hopeful seeking the Democratic nomination.

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“The greatest measure of a society is how it treats its children,” Harris said. “So I came to Harris County today to unveil, and announce for the first time publicly, an initiative I’m proposing that will be the largest federal investment in teacher salary in American history.”

Harris didn’t explain how her plan would work, how much it would cost, or how she’d pay for it. Instead, she suggested the initiative should be viewed as an investment that would yield a valuable return for society.

In targeting teachers, Harris became the first candidate to reach out to the largely female group of politically active professionals with a policy proposal directly addressing their concerns.

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O’Rourke’s candidacy has dominated the campaign news cycle in recent weeks. Accounts of his remarks, often delivered informally from restaurant countertops, have mixed with reports on events by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), which have often been attended by the same loyal supporters that supported his run in 2016.

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Meanwhile, Harris’s campaign has been chugging along and filling venues. As an Asian American and African American woman, Harris is building connections with a range of communities that have kept a greater distance from other candidates.

Harris raised money this past week in Texas as well as California, two states that have primaries on Super Tuesday — March 3, 2020 — when several key states will hold elections.

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She was to hold another rally Sunday at a historically black school, Morehouse College, in Atlanta. Harris, a graduate of Howard University in the District, has made historically black colleges and universities a focus of her early schedule.

But she tends to draw diverse crowds at a variety of venues, including Friday at an Embassy Suites hotel attached to a Bass Pro Shops outlet in Grapevine, Tex.

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“Look at this beautiful rainbow in front of me,” state Rep. Ramón Romero Jr. said as he warmed up that audience. Tarrant County, where Grapevine is located, is also home to Fort Worth, which has backed the Republican presidential nominee for years — but which President Trump carried with a slim 52 percent of the vote in 2016 and O’Rourke carried in 2018.

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“I was a Beto supporter for Senate, not for president,” said Jennifer Giles, 45, a small-business owner and Harris supporter from Flower Mound, Tex., who was at the rally. “Once we see the debates and see these candidates next to each other, I think the stellar candidates will be obvious, and I think experience and gravitas will show.”

Harris is not alone among the Democratic hopefuls in venturing increasingly beyond the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. With a crowded Democratic field, currently at 15 and expected to grow, several candidates may survive well beyond the early primaries, prompting them to try to build up strength in other states.

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Unlike many other candidates, Harris is also drawing GOP opposition. On Friday, she was greeted by members of Open Carry Texas, a gun rights organization whose members carried weapons into the parking lot outside her event. She also drew conservative protests in South Carolina, though neither protest was disruptive.

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On Saturday, her announcement drew praise from the American Federation of Teachers, a group that says it represents nearly 1.7 million teachers nationwide and has long been a political force.

“Paying educators less than other similarly skilled college graduates has been a problem 4 a long time,” tweeted AFT President Randi Weingarten.

Teachers have recently gone on strike in several major U.S. cities, including Harris’s hometown of Oakland, Calif., and Harris has expressed solidarity with those actions.

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Saturday’s pay announcement addressed a central demand of strikers by promising to close the wage gap between teachers and other professionals. Teachers in the United States make an average of $11,000 less annually than similar professionals with college degrees, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute. Teachers of color make even less.

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Still, with no details available yet, it was impossible to tell how the initiative would work.

Harris has advocated several policies that would require significant federal spending. In the Senate, she has introduced a middle-class tax credit. To help fund those measures, Harris wants to raise taxes on the wealthy, but analysts have suggested that her revenue-raising measures would not fully pay for her policy goals.