TEMPE, Ariz. — Police are investigating what appears to be gunfire damage overnight at a Democratic campaign office for Vice President Kamala Harris.
The incident occurred just days before Harris is scheduled to visit Arizona as part of her presidential campaign.
“We can confirm that on 9/23/24, what appears to be gunshot damage to … a DNC campaign office was discovered,” the Tempe Police Department said in a statement to NBC News Tuesday.
The office is shared by staff from the Arizona Democratic Party, the Harris campaign and the Senate and House campaigns, in an effort to increase party turnout in November.
Sean McEnerney, the state Democratic Party’s campaign manager, also confirmed the incident in a statement.
“Overnight, there were multiple shots fired at our campaign office coordinated by the Tempe Democratic Party,” McEnerney said. No one was present or injured in the office, he confirmed.
Local NBC affiliate KPNX previously reported that the office was damaged by gunfire.
Harris returns to the state on Friday, her first trip there since her rally in Glendale on Aug. 9. At that rally, she tackled immigration head-on, laying out proposals to strengthen border security and create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. During that trip, Harris plans to make a stop at the border, according to two people familiar with her agenda. Her campaign declined to comment on the possibility.
The coordinated campaign office in Tempe is one of 18 field offices the Harris campaign has in Arizona, according to Patty Socarras, communications director for the state Democratic Party.
Tempe, a college town that is home to Arizona State University, will be a crucial factor if Democrats hope to win the state in November. ASU’s enrollment was about 57,000 students in 2023, a group that could prove a key constituency in a state that President Joe Biden won by only about 10,000 votes in 2020.
On August 28, Harris’ campaign held a campaign event in Tempe featuring Florida Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost. The 27-year-old congressman has made a political name for himself by focusing on gun control issues, and he made gun violence a cornerstone of his speech to ASU students during his campaign rally on behalf of Harris’ campaign this summer.
“We still have to work to end gun violence,” said Frost, who chronicled the Parkland school shooting in his home state in 2017. “We can work to create a community where people don’t feel the need to use a gun to solve their problems in the first place.”
