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Vice President Kamala Harris visited West Allis on Tuesday. Photo taken by Sophie Borich on July 23, 2024.
Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris held a campaign rally in Wisconsin on Tuesday afternoon, visiting the battleground state for her first public appearance in the country since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid over the weekend.
“The road to the White House goes through Wisconsin,” she told a lively crowd in West Allis.
Harris, who was named the top Democratic candidate to replace Biden on Sunday, officially launched her presidential campaign in the heavily Republican state that hosted the Republican National Convention last week.
Harris was already scheduled to speak in Milwaukee last week, but the speech took on added significance after Biden announced Sunday that he was dropping out of the race and endorsing Harris.
This will be the vice president’s fifth visit to Wisconsin in 2024. Campaign officials say it has generated quite a bit of buzz.
Harris spoke in a packed gymnasium at West Allis Central High School, which campaign officials said had been relocated to a larger venue late Monday to meet demand.
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“With over 3,000 participants, it was the largest event the campaign has ever hosted,” a Biden-Harris campaign spokesperson said.
The vice president’s speech outlined her vision for the next four years, including pledges to lift Americans out of poverty, support unions and guarantee reproductive rights. Harris also highlighted her previous role as a prosecutor and attorney general of California, and contrasted her “tough on crime” record with that of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“As California’s Attorney General, I took on the largest for-profit colleges in the country that were defrauding students,” Harris said. “Donald Trump ran a for-profit college that was defrauding students. As a prosecutor, I specialized in sexual abuse cases, and held Trump accountable for sexual abuse. As California’s Attorney General, I took on the biggest Wall Street banks, holding them accountable for fraud, and Donald Trump was convicted on 34 counts of fraud.”
“I’ve fought against perpetrators of violence, predators who abuse women, con artists who deceive consumers, and charlatans who break the rules for their own personal gain,” she said. “So hear me when I say I know what Donald Trump is like, and I’m proud to say I would stand toe-to-toe with him on my record any day.”
Harris was introduced by a series of speakers, including Wisconsin’s two top Democrats, Gov. Tony Evers and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, as well as Madison Metropolitan School District Superintendent Leia Esser, whose student loans were forgiven under President Joe Biden’s student loan debt relief executive order.
With 105 days until the presidential election, Harris had secured the number of delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination as of Monday.
“We have some work to do, but we’re not afraid of hard work,” she said. “We like hard work, you know?”
The campaign reports it has raised more than $100 million from more than 1.1 million donors since Biden announced his withdrawal on Sunday and then endorsed Harris.
“We had the greatest 24-hour grassroots fundraising event in the history of a presidential election,” Harris said, talking about a “people-powered campaign.”
Baldwin had distanced himself from Biden following his poor performance in the June debates, when he decided not to appear with him in Madison and instead campaigned in northern Wisconsin. But on Tuesday, he took to the stage to praise Biden’s “lifelong service to our country” and then praised Harris.
The senator, who is also up for reelection, praised Harris’ experience as California’s attorney general and U.S. senator. “I’m proud to endorse Kamala Harris for president of the United States,” he said. “There’s a reason she kicked off her campaign here in Wisconsin: because it’s a battleground state.”
Baldwin also criticized his opponent, Eric Hovde, for being an out-of-state billionaire who has been recognized three times as an influential person by the Orange County Business Journal. “Followers, in Wisconsin, we have Greene County and Brown County, but we don’t have Orange County,” Baldwin said. But Baldwin has drawn criticism from Republicans for purchasing a $1.3 million home in Washington, D.C., with his partner in 2021.
“I’m so excited,” the governor said in an upbeat speech praising Harris. “After listening to all the Republicans who were here over the last few days, it’s good to hear from someone who knows something about getting things done for the great state of Wisconsin.”
Evers called the race a “make-or-break moment for democracy in our great state of Wisconsin.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, Esser served as executive director of the Madison School District’s student and staff advocacy group and earned his doctorate from Edgewood College in 2012. He said the loan forgiveness allowed him to help students “without strings attached.” “This policy has not only changed my life, it has changed the lives of the teachers, counselors, social workers, psychologists and so many others who work with students across Wisconsin,” Esser said. “This is the kind of change we are voting for when we elect Vice President Kamala Harris this November.”
Biden unveiled his latest student loan debt forgiveness plan in Madison in April.
The list of speakers before the program included Attorney General Josh Kaul, Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski, Public Schools Chancellor Jill Underly, County Mayor David Crowley and Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler.
Harris was greeted at the airport by Governor Evers, Lt. Governor Sara Rodriguez, Mayor Cavalier Johnson and his wife, Dominique, and their two twin daughters.
Also attending the rally were Councilman Peter Bergelis, Councilman Russell W. Stamper II, County Council Speaker Marcelia Nicholson, former Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes, AFL-CIO President Stephanie Bloomingdale, LIUNA Wisconsin President Kent Miller, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Travel and Tourism Alex Lasry, and Milwaukee Building Contractors Association President and Oak Creek Mayor Dan Bukiewicz.
Harris’ speech lasted about 16 minutes, with several interruptions, before a brief disturbance arose when a man in the crowd began heckling her about the Gaza war, and police quickly removed him from the venue.
Harris last visited Wisconsin in May, when she hosted an event on economic opportunity at Discovery World with entertainer DL Hughley.
Following Harris’ appearance, the Republican National Committee released a statement criticizing the vice president while touting the GOP’s purported contributions to the state.
“After Kamala Harris and Joe Biden abandoned Wisconsin in 2020, Republicans brought tens of thousands of visitors and millions of dollars in revenue to the Brewing City last week,” Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement. “Harris can try to save face, but she cannot reverse the nearly 100% increase in fentanyl deaths that have ravaged communities across the state during her failed tenure as border commissioner. No wonder President Trump is beating Harris in poll after poll. Harris has been a disaster for families in Wisconsin and across the country, but President Trump will Make America Great Again.”
