5 takeaways from Kamala Harris' first presidential rally before packed crowd at West Allis Central High School in Wisconsin
WEST ALLIS – Vice President Kamala Harris' trip to Milwaukee was announced a day after the Republican National Convention came to an end in the same city. Then everything changed.
Within five days, her plans to visit Wisconsin took on an entirely new meaning: It would be Harris' first rally of her own presidential campaign after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race Sunday and set her on a track to become the new Democratic nominee.
Speaking to a packed gymnasium at West Allis Central High School Tuesday, Harris started her remarks by recognizing Biden and pledging to unite the party with just over 100 days until the general election.
"The path to the White House goes through Wisconsin,” Harris said. “To win in Wisconsin, we are counting on you right here in Milwaukee. You all helped us win in 2020, and in 2024, we will win again.”
Here are the major takeaways from the first rally of Harris' presidential campaign.
Harris draws contrast between prosecutor experience and Trump as felon
Harris spent much of the beginning of her speech targeting former President Donald Trump. She is aiming to contrast her background as a former prosecutor to Trump's status as the first former president convicted of a crime after he was found guilty of 34 felony counts in his New York hush money trial.
"So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump's type. And in this campaign, I promise you, I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week," Harris said. The crowd responded with chants of "lock him up!"
"Let's also make no mistake. This campaign is not just about us vs. Donald Trump. This campaign is about who we fight for," Harris said.
Harris foreshadowed that messaging when she met with campaign staff in Delaware yesterday, making her first public remarks since Biden dropped out.
Harris started her career as a prosecutor in California’s Alameda County and later in San Francisco. She took on cases involving child sexual assault, homicide, robbery and serial felony offenders, among others. She was later elected as California’s attorney general and a U.S. senator.
Harris focuses on middle class, abortion rights, assault weapons ban
Harris also laid out "two different visions for our nation: One where we are focused on the future. The other focused on the past.”
Harris said Democrats' future includes no children growing up in poverty, the freedom to join a union, affordable health care and child care, and paid family leave.
“All of this is to say building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency," Harris said. “Wisconsin knows, when our middle class is strong, America is strong.”
Harris said that as president, she would sign a law restoring abortion rights "whenever Congress passes (it)." She also advocated for firearms red flag laws, universal background checks and an assault weapons ban, which attracted some of the biggest cheers from the crowd.
Crowd sees rally as historic moment, comparisons to Obama
Attendees interviewed before the rally began considered the day historic. Multiple voters compared the energy to former President Barack Obama's campaign and see Harris' potential to reinvigorate the party by putting a woman of color at the top of the ticket.
Jan Grimes, a 68-year-old voter, said it felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders since the Harris announcement.
“I was for Biden, but I really didn't think he could do it and was looking for a change,” Grimes said. “As soon I heard that she was coming on board, I was one of those thousands and thousands of people who contributed a little bit of money.”
She said both the change in nominee and Harris coming to the Milwaukee area for her first campaign stop will help win votes.
“Wisconsin and Milwaukee are critical and I think this may have helped us turn a corner,” Grimes said.
Emily Fremgen, 29, said she would’ve voted blue regardless, but called the switch “amazing.”
“It’s time that it’s a woman and not a bold white man making decisions for the country,” Fremgen said. “I was excited.”
Republicans seek to highlight Harris' ties to the Biden administration
At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week, top Republican officials like U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson doubted their strategy would change if Biden dropped out. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos indicated Republicans would still compare the four years under Biden's administration to Trump's time in office.
And it was clear early this week that Republicans would portray Harris as one and the same as Biden. That could impact down-ballot races like the U.S. Senate race between Baldwin and Republican challenger Eric Hovde, who has sought to tie Baldwin's voting record to Biden.
“Senator Baldwin has to own what the Biden and Harris record has done,” Hovde said during a call with reporters Tuesday morning. “As far as I’m concerned — Biden, Baldwin and Harris, and now Harris, Baldwin and Biden — it’s going to be the same thing.”
Asked whether the party saw Harris as more difficult to defeat than Biden in Wisconsin, Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman Brian Schimming said the outlook was “likely the same, perhaps for different reasons,” saying Harris owns Biden’s record but also has her own Senate record, which Republicans cast as left-wing.
“We’ll know more about her as we go through the coming weeks and months,” Schimming said, adding at another point: “There’s issue after issue after issue where Kamala Harris is not in sync with the people of Wisconsin or the people of America.”
Harris visits a city, state that is critical to her campaign
While the trip was announced before Harris began her own campaign, Wisconsin is a fitting first stop. Both Republicans and Democrats have frequently remarked this campaign cycle that if a candidate wins Wisconsin, they'll likely win the presidency.
Harris last visited Wisconsin in May, focusing her remarks in Milwaukee on disparities that affect Black Americans, a key voting bloc that has expressed low enthusiasm ahead of the 2024 election. Harris also went to Madison in March, home to another hub of Democratic voters, where she also visited her childhood home.
Harris has also visited less solidly blue areas in the state, aiming to sway voters around the issue of abortion rights. She did so in La Crosse in April and in Waukesha County — where margins for Republicans have diminished over the years — at the beginning of the year.
Harris plans to visit Indianapolis, Indiana, tomorrow to speak at a conference for historically Black sorority Zeta Phi Beta.
USA TODAY contributed to this report. Lawrence Andrea of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Five takeaways from Kamala Harris' Milwaukee area campaign rally
