WEST ALLIS, Wisconsin — Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday began prosecuting her case against former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, in her first major public campaign rally since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid and threw his support behind his running mate.
In her campaign trail debut as the Democrats’ presumptive nominee and only about 48 hours after Biden bowed out, the former California attorney general and prosecutor displayed a potentially potent line of attack against Trump.
“In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds,” Harris said, referencing the multiple legal issues facing the former president, including his felony convictions in the New York state hush money case and the finding by another New York jury that he was liable for sexual abuse. “Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain.
“So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”
But the vice president, who arrived in Wisconsin only hours removed from receiving commitments from enough delegates to next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago to secure the nomination, told a packed high school field house in suburban Milwaukee that her “campaign is not just about us versus Donald Trump.”
“This campaign is about who we fight for,” Harris said, laying out planks of a “people-powered” agenda she said would protect and build the middle class — among them fighting poverty, protecting union rights, making health care and child care more affordable, and creating paid family leave.
Harris, who addressed the crowd for about 18 minutes, and the speakers who preceded her also repeatedly highlighted abortion rights, an issue Democrats feel could give them the upper hand in November with women and independent voters in Wisconsin and other important swing states.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion two years ago, Harris has crisscrossed the country, including stops in Chicago, to push for protections for reproductive health care. She’s viewed as a stronger voice on a key issue for which Biden was at times an imperfect messenger.
The rally at West Allis Central High School in suburban Milwaukee County, which was announced two days before Biden went public with his decision to step down Sunday, underscored the pivotal role Wisconsin is expected play
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in determining the outcome of the presidential election as Harris seeks to become the first woman elected president and prevent Trump from returning to the White House.Harris put it plainly: “The path to the White House goes through Wisconsin. And to win in Wisconsin, we are counting on you right here in Milwaukee.”
The speed with which the race has changed ahead of the DNC was made apparent by tents set up outside the school that still bore Biden-Harris campaign branding. One woman entering the field house wore a “Cheeseheads for Biden-Harris” button with the president’s name taped over.
A Harris campaign official said the event venue had to be changed late Monday because the original location could not accommodate the number of people who responded. With about 3,000 people in attendance, it was the largest campaign event to date for Biden or Harris, the official said.
The campaign also reported raising more than $100 million from Sunday afternoon through Monday night.
Appearing onstage before Harris was Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat seeking a third term. Baldwin did not appear with Biden when he came to Madison shortly after his disastrous debate performance against Trump, which panicked members of his party and led to calls for him to stand down. Baldwin campaigned elsewhere in the state that day.
“As we stand here today, we mark a new start for our party and for our country,” Baldwin said.
It’s not just the outcome of the presidential race that could be determined in Wisconsin but also whether Democrats retain their razor-thin Senate majority, said Baldwin, who faces a likely challenge from Trump-backed businessman Eric Hovde of Madison. Hovde faces nominal opposition in the state’s Aug. 13 GOP primary.
“No pressure,” she said, acknowledging the high stakes for her party.
Also on hand to back Harris was Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a second-term Democrat who said he was “jazzed as hell” to be welcoming the vice president for her fifth visit to the state this year, right on the heels of last week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
“After listening to all the Republicans who dropped by here for a few days last week, it’ll be nice to finally hear someone who knows something about getting things done for the great state of Wisconsin,” Evers said.
Despite Wisconsin’s record as the state that tipped the Electoral College vote to the winner of the past two elections, Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020, Evers and other state officials have been absent from conversations about potential running mates for Harris.
Evers said he was glad to “join my favorite Midwestern governors,” J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Tim Walz of Minnesota, to go “all in for Kamala Harris.”
Both Pritzker and Whitmer have been mentioned as potential options to join the ticket, though Whitmer has said she’s not interested.
On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” early Tuesday, Pritzker was asked if he had received vetting materials from Harris’s camp. He said he had not but didn’t elaborate.
The comment seemed to contradict reports this week that Pritzker was among several Democratic governors the Harris campaign is evaluating as a potential running mate.
Asked if he was interested in the job, Pritzker pivoted to talking about his work as governor and campaigner for Harris.
“I love being the governor of the state of Illinois, and I’ve been out on the campaign trail fighting hard for Democrats to win,” Pritzker said. “It’s important to me that we win across the board and all across the United States, so I’m going to continue to do that, and I’m very interested in making sure that Kamala Harris becomes the next president of the United States.”
As host governor for the Democratic National Convention, Pritzker also projected a renewed vigor within the party ahead of delegates’ arrival in Chicago for the Aug. 19-22 convention.
“Importantly, we expect that the energized Democratic Party is going to have an amazing convention inside the convention hall. We’re going to be collectively nominating the first Black woman ever to be president of the United States,” Pritzker said.
That excitement was palpable inside the West Allis Central field house on Tuesday, where Jacqueline Edwards, a mother of four from Milwaukee, was in attendance with her son.
Edwards, who is Black, said that while Biden has done good things for the country, it’s meaningful for her to have a woman who shares a background with her and her two daughters leading the ticket.
“We need to stop telling girls and women there’s a ceiling,” she said.
Harris will make another Midwestern campaign stop Wednesday, coming to Indianapolis for an event with Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, a historically African American organization. Indiana hasn’t voted for a Democrat for president since Barack Obama won the state in 2008.
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Olander reported from Chicago.