MILWAUKEE — A few weeks ago, Milwaukee’s basketball arena was filled with ardent supporters of former President Donald Trump and emblazoned with his slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
On Tuesday, it was transformed into the image of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, with one word adorning the crowd on thousands of signs and several giant billboards at the Fiserv Forum: “Freedom.”
Harris has used the word as an underlying message of her campaign, reframing Democratic priorities like abortion access, voting rights and preventing gun violence in terms of freedom. On Tuesday, the vice president delivered the message during a detour from her convention in Chicago to another state, stressing the importance of Wisconsin and its 10 electoral votes.
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“We are witnessing across our country an outright assault on hard-won and fundamental freedoms and rights, like the freedom to vote, the freedom to be safe from gun violence, the freedom to love openly and proudly who you love,” she said.
Harris also advocated for access to abortion, arguing that her constituency advocates for “a woman’s freedom to make her own decisions about her own body, without the government telling her what to do.”
“You know, I don’t know what’s wrong with these people anyway. I mean, they just don’t trust women,” she said. “Well, we trust women.”
Harris’ rally at the same venue where Trump had accepted the Republican Party nomination at the Republican Party convention a few weeks earlier also underscored Democrats’ renewed optimism since then.
In mid-July, relieved Republicans rallied behind Trump when he delivered his first campaign speech after the former president narrowly escaped death in an assassination attempt.
At the same time, the Democratic Party was in turmoil, divided over whether President Joe Biden should remain in the 2024 race after a disastrous debate performance.
Republicans “left here feeling good. They felt good. This was over,” Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said at the rally. “Well, believe me, Milwaukee, a lot can change in four weeks.”
According to Harris’ campaign team, more than 15,000 people attended Tuesday’s rally.
Midway through Harris’ speech, she paused to call a doctor to a participant near the stage and ordered the audience to form a path.
“It’s going to be okay,” she said, as the situation seemed to be resolving. “This is who we are, right? This is what we stand for, looking out for each other.”
Rallygoers began streaming into the arena more than four hours before Harris was scheduled to speak. They wore wristbands that flashed red, white and blue and danced to the music before Harris took the stage.
“This is a history-making moment and as a woman of color, I’m excited to see how far this goes. I just want to show my support and be a part of history,” said Linda Fair, a resident of Beloit, Wisconsin, who attended the rally.
Harris’ rally coincided with the second night of the Democratic National Convention, 90 miles away. Harris and Walz briefly beamed at the end of the ceremonial roll call of delegates and were expected to travel back to Chicago after their remarks, according to multiple campaign officials familiar with their movements.
Milwaukee was set to host the 2020 Democratic National Convention, but due to Covid precautions, most of the programming was held virtually.
“By coming back to Milwaukee and coming back to Wisconsin, I think the vice president is specifically showing that she hasn’t forgotten Milwaukee. She hasn’t forgotten Wisconsin. She hasn’t forgotten the voters here,” said Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, a Democrat.
According to a source familiar with the campaign’s thinking, Harris’ campaign saw the rally as an opportunity to directly connect with voters in states still at odds with the convention.
Wisconsin, a swing state, has been a key target for Harris’ campaign after Biden turned the state blue in 2020. Democrats won the state by about 20,000 votes in the last presidential election, winning by a fraction of a percentage point.
To win Wisconsin, Harris’ campaign must “tell the positive story” of her work in the Biden administration and “lay out a positive vision for the future,” Johnson said.
At the same time, many in attendance focused on the election and wondered how Harris compared to Trump.
“I would vote for a live avocado instead of the evil orange man,” said Elizabeth Kanne, a Madison resident who attended the meeting with her two children.
Her 19-year-old son, Alan Kanne, was leaning toward voting for Harris, though he said he was “not excited about any of the candidates.”
“I think she’s a relatively better character than Donald Trump,” he said. “On policy, I don’t find her particularly impressive, but neither does Trump.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
