Delivering a jolt of enthusiasm to a party reeling from weeks of infighting, Vice President Kamala Harris rallied Democrats on Tuesday in Wisconsin and laid out a fierce argument against former President Donald Trump.
Harris vowed, in her first rally as the de facto Democratic presidential nominee, to defeat Trump by attacking him as a prosecutor would. She defined herself as a tribune of the middle class fighting against a tool of billionaires and as a champion of abortion rights against a man who would deny such rights to all Americans.
Harris offered a far more energetic denunciation of Trump than President Joe Biden, in front of a crowd that her campaign said was the largest she or Biden had addressed since their reelection bid began over a year ago. She walked out to cheers to the tune of Beyoncé’s “Freedom,” which the singer had allowed her to use. As one attendee put it, the moment felt like a release of months of pent-up Democratic energy.
Interrupted several times by chants of “Ka-ma-la,” Harris demonstrated how Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 race and her elevation have transformed a desultory, almost perfunctory campaign into a bastion of enthusiasm. She highlighted the $100 million in contributions since Sunday and took a victory lap for effectively wrapping up the Democratic presidential nomination within 48 hours.
“We have earned the support of enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination,” Harris said. “I am so very honored, and I pledge to you I will spend the coming weeks continuing to unite our party so that we are ready to win in November.”
The vice president recycled phrases from her 2020 presidential campaign, calling her bid “people-powered” and promising that, as president, she would prioritize the needs of the middle and working class over the desires of corporate interests and the wealthy.
And in a nod to her relative youth — she is 59, decades younger than the 81-year-old Biden and the 78-year-old Trump — and her potential to become the first woman elected as president, Harris placed the 2024 campaign on a continuum with the civil and voting rights struggles of America’s past.
“The shoulders on which we stand, generations of Americans before us led the fight for freedom and now, Wisconsin, the baton is in our hands,” she said. “We who believe in the sacred freedom to vote will make sure every American has the ability to cast their ballot and have it counted.”
The vice president drew perhaps her largest cheers during the section of her stump speech that compared her biography to Trump’s. She told of being a local prosecutor and attorney general in California who investigated “fraudsters” and “cheaters,” among other miscreants, and reminded the crowd that Trump was found liable of sexual assault by a Manhattan civil court.
“So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type,” she said. “In this campaign, I promise you I will proudly put my record against his every day of the week.”
She accused Trump of aiming “to take our country backward” and said Trump allies’ plans, known as “Project 2025,” would damage the middle class. (Trump has sought to distance himself from the voluminous conservative policy proposals.)
“We know we got to take this seriously,” she said. “Can you believe they put that thing in writing? Read it! It’s 900 pages.”
Harris arrived in Wisconsin riding a 48-hour wave of momentum from a Democratic Party that swiftly united around her after more than a year of intramural hand-wringing about whether Biden was its best shot at defeating Trump.
Also on Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee released draft rules setting the schedule for when it will formalize its nomination. Any candidates must meet certain criteria by July 30. If Harris remains unchallenged, delegates will begin voting virtually on Aug. 1. The rules will be voted on Wednesday.
Even before Harris arrived in Milwaukee, it was clear that local Democrats were excited about the change to the top of the ticket. The Harris campaign said every Democratic statewide office holder — even the public schools superintendent — would attend the rally in the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis, a stark contrast from Biden’s last Wisconsin visit, when Sen. Tammy Baldwin held her own event 190 miles away from the president’s stop in Madison.
As Harris stepped off Air Force Two at the Milwaukee airport, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez embraced her and insisted on a selfie, as Gov. Tony Evers and Baldwin hovered in the background.
Public opinion research conducted by Priorities USA, a Democratic super political action committee, immediately after Biden’s exit from the race showed Harris generating more enthusiasm than he had among young voters — a key group that had never warmed to the president’s reelection bid.
Among Democratic-leaning voters in battleground states who are between the ages of 18 and 34, the percentage of voters who said they would definitely vote increased by 5 percentage points in the 24 hours after Biden’s withdrawal, according to the data, which was shared with The New York Times. The Priorities USA survey also found Harris faring 4 points better among Black voters and 3 points better among Latinos than Biden had.
In a state in which the vast majority of communities are either deep red or deep blue, West Allis, an inner-ring, working-class Milwaukee suburb named for a tractor manufacturing plant that once dominated the community, is a rare battleground city. Biden won 55% of the city’s vote in 2020.
In the school gymnasium, the crowd held up signs reading “Kamala” and “USA.” One group held up letters that spelled out “Yes we Kam!” in a play on former President Barack Obama’s winning 2008 campaign slogan.
Among the crowd, the most common reactions to Harris’ presidential run were “excited” and “relieved.” “We are part of the groundswell,” said Renee Borkowski, a 56-year-old rallygoer from Lake Forest, Illinois, adding that this was the first rally she had attended since Jimmy Carter’s 1976 campaign.
Ellen Holly of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, wore a Biden-Harris campaign shirt but took painter’s tape and covered Biden’s name. She scrawled over it with what has become a rallying cry for the Harris campaign: “Let’s win this.”
“I would vote for a dead animal in the road before I vote for Trump,” said Holly, 67, a retired teacher who also supported Biden.
Other attendees highlighted the historic nature of Harris’ first presidential campaign rally while expressing cautious optimism.
“I’m worried, but I’m more hopeful than I was last week,” Katrice Battle, 37, a Milwaukee photographer, said of Harris’ candidacy, adding she was invigorated as a Black woman to try to elect the first female president.
But she acknowledged that once the rah-rah feelings of a new campaign fade, Harris has ground to make up against Trump. “It was relief, then trepidation,” Battle said.
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