While Kamala Harris continues to hold big campaign rallies with thousands of people filling arenas, her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is making dozens of stops in smaller venues across the Midwest.

That’s why he visited a Harris field office in Lansing, Mich. and another Democratic group and small business in Wausau, Wis.

“He’s an upper Midwest governor,” says Carleton College political analyst Steven Schier. “He’s trying to mobilize a big ground game for his party in these states and that’s how he’s being deployed in the campaign right now.”

It’s a similar strategy being deployed by the Donald Trump campaign, deploying Sen. J.D. Vance to smaller venues with supportive audiences to keep supporters energized.

“It’s not as if candidate appearances really change a lot of minds, but they do energize partisans and keeping partisans energized is very important in carrying a state,” Schier says.

Meanwhile, neither side is campaigning much in Minnesota or airing television ads. Minnesota is considered a “safe” Democratic state, even though a new poll from MinnPost shows Harris with just a four-point lead, 49% to 45%. Our KSTP/SurveyUSA poll earlier this month showed Harris leading 48% to 43%.

Both of those polls were conducted before Tuesday’s presidential debate that many observers and polls show was won by Harris.

“I don’t think it will do much to move the (polling) needle,” says Republican strategist Andy Brehm. “I don’t think Donald Trump did well. I’ve seen him do better.”

Former Minnesota DFL Party Chair Mike Erlandson agrees, saying a debate won’t do much to sway most voters.

“One thing that your poll showed and the MinnPost poll showed is that Minnesota is divided. Our nation is divided,” Erlandson said in a segment recorded for “At Issue.”

You can see more debate and poll analysis on “At Issue with Tom Hauser” on KSTP-TV at 10 a.m. Sunday.