Biden becomes a top Harris surrogate as they split up on the campaign trail

 Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden worked to shore up support among key constituencies during separate events Monday, an example of their strategic attempt to divide and conquer the campaign trail with the race to November heating up.

In battleground Pennsylvania, a must-win state for Harris, Biden spoke to a Philadelphia conference attended by leaders of historically Black colleges and universities. For the fourth time in a week, his official remarks began with a nod to his onetime running mate.

“I want to get to something straight at the outset,” Biden told the audience. “I love Kamala!”

Harris, meanwhile, met with a key Democratic constituency behind closed doors: union members. The vice president held a roundtable discussion with rank-and-file members of the influential Teamsters union, whose leadership has been withholding an endorsement before learning more specifics on each candidates’ platform for organized labor.

The divided ground game by the vice president and her boss-turned-surrogate, aides say, is all part of a plan.

“We’ve got to be everywhere, blocking and tackling,” one Harris aide told CNN.

Biden and Harris have appeared in an official capacity together at least four times since she’s ascended to the top of the ticket, but only once have they been side by side in a campaign capacity. Advisers say this is likely to be an increasingly rare occurrence going forward.