MILWAUKEE — Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz took a detour from Chicago to rally with more than 15,000 supporters here Tuesday in an effort to channel the momentum from the Democratic National Convention into votes in a critical battleground state.
“As the generation of Americans before us who led the fight for freedom, the baton is in our hands,” Harris said, one day after President Joe Biden delivered a convention speech that was designed to pass the torch to her. “We carry the baton.”
The lively event took place at the Fiserv Forum, the same venue where Republicans gathered to nominate Trump at their own party confab last month. About 90 miles to the south, thousands of other Democrats gathered at the United Center in Chicago for the second day of their convention, featuring influential leaders such as former president Barack Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Harris used her remarks to zero in on the issue of abortion, criticizing Republican nominee and former president Donald Trump for telling CBS News in an interview Monday that he had “no regrets” about appointing Supreme Court justices that voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“I do believe, you know, bad behavior should result in a consequence,” she said. “Well, we will make sure that he does face a consequence — and that will be at the ballot box in November.”
As she has done in previous events, Harris spoke about abortion within the broader context of fundamental freedoms that she said are under “full on attack” by Trump and his Republican allies.
Harris’s speech was interrupted multiple times by rowdy applause and cheering, including chants of “We’re not going back!” and “U-S-A!” echoing the celebratory atmosphere at the convention in Chicago. A pro-Palestinian demonstrator was removed after shouting out in protest during Harris’s remarks.
Both arenas at times had the feel of a music concert, with attendees dancing and cheering for hours. In Milwaukee and Chicago, attendees wore matching light-up bracelets similar to the ones at Taylor Swift concerts. The Fiserv Forum, which has a capacity of about 18,000 for concerts, was largely full, though some of the seats were covered up with black curtains. Ahead of Harris’s arrival, attendees sang along as the DJ played hits like “Sweet Caroline” and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.”
Supporters at the Milwaukee event watched some of the convention programming on video screens inside the arena, including the nationwide roll call vote that included surprise celebrity appearances. Attendees in the United Center viewed some of Harris’s speech in Milwaukee after the roll call.
It is rare for a presidential candidate to stage a large political rally in another state at the same time as their nominating convention is taking place, but Walz and Harris sought to take advantage of the proximity to a critical state ahead of their acceptance speeches in Chicago on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
The decision to hold the event in Wisconsin also reflected the truncated timeline for Harris’s campaign for the presidency, which began after Biden abruptly ended his reelection bid on July 21. Both Harris and Walz have noted the dwindling number of days they have to win over voters and pledged to campaign aggressively over the coming weeks. They also sought to undercut Trump’s fixation on crowd size by simultaneously filling two arenas while drawing a sharp contrast with the Republican convention in the same venue.
“Trust me, Milwaukee, a hell of a lot can change in four weeks,” Walz told the crowd, noting Democrats’ improved fortunes since the GOP convention last month. “Not only do we have massive energy at our convention, we’ve got a hell of a lot more energy at where they had their convention, right here.”
Trump has also ramped up his travel schedule, with plans to visit multiple battleground states this week. During an event with police in Michigan on Tuesday, he attacked Harris over crime, asserting that he would be a better advocate for law enforcement than the onetime prosecutor.
“People don’t know the real Kamala,” Trump said, calling her “so far left that nobody can even imagine.”
Trump plans to hold events in North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada in the coming days as the Democratic convention wraps up.
Harris’s event marked her third visit to Wisconsin since she launched a presidential bid one month ago, a sign of the importance of the Midwest battleground. Both candidates see Wisconsin and its 10 electoral votes as critical to most pathways to victory, and Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, also have made frequent stops in the state. Vance remarked on the central role of the state in the campaign Tuesday during an event focused on crime in Kenosha, Wis.
“I basically live in Wisconsin now,” he said, adding that it “may be very well be the most important state in the country.”
Biden won the state by about 20,000 votes over Trump, who had carried the state by a similarly narrow margin in 2016. Polling indicates the race is neck-and-neck, with Harris ahead of Trump by 2 points, according to The Washington Post’s polling averages.
Wisconsin is also home to an important Senate race, with incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D) set to face off against Republican businessman Eric Hovde in a contest that could help determine control of the chamber.
“Time and again, my home state has determined the political fortune of our country, and this year will be no different,” Baldwin wrote Tuesday in a piece for MSNBC, noting that the Badger State was the only state in which the winner prevailed by less than 1 percentage point in the last two races.
Democrats are hoping strong turnout in cities like Milwaukee and its suburbs will propel them to victory in November, even as Trump has been counting on a surge of rural votes to remain competitive.