MILWAUKEE — Kamala Harris may have won over the Democrats. Now she just has to win over Wisconsin.
As the party celebrated her Tuesday night in Chicago, the vice president packed the Fiserv Forum here with more than 15,000 supporters, her third appearance in the crucial battleground state since her campaign kicked off last month. It was no coincidence that she filled the same arena that swarms of GOP delegates and party officials packed for the Republican convention in July.
The campaign’s decision to hold a prime-time rally in Milwaukee during the party’s convention in nearby Chicago underscores how vital Wisconsin remains on the Democrats’ path to 270 electoral votes. The ghost of 2016 has haunted Democrats since Hillary Clinton narrowly lost the state after failing to campaign there, a grave mistake Harris does not want to repeat. Her campaign is pushing to shore up the blue wall states, including those that Joe Biden narrowly won four years ago.
“Wisconsin is one of the two or three most important states in this entire election. And we’re going to run as if it is,” said Paul Maslin, a top Democratic pollster who used to live in Madison.[Former President Donald] Trump and the Republicans are doing the same thing. We have a battle royale.”
It also speaks to the challenging nature of Harris’s short sprint into November, with just 11 weeks left to sway voters in swing states like Wisconsin that are hardly a sure thing for Democrats. In Chicago, the lineup of speakers supporting her candidacy included former President Barack Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. But instead of taking it all in in the Windy City, Harris hit the road.
“Coach and I were together two weeks ago in Wisconsin — the first meeting after I announced he was going to be my running mate,” Harris told the crowd. “And it’s so great to be back with all of you.”
The vice president spoke from a podium in the center of the massive arena, surrounded by a 360-degree audience. The room was lit up with flashing red, white and blue armbands that the campaign handed out to supporters, and the word “freedom” was plastered all over the room, including on signs waved by attendees.
“[Our campaign] “It’s a fight for the future, and it’s a fight for freedom,” Harris said. “Like the freedom for a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have the government tell her what to do.”
The vice president subsequently criticized Trump for his comments in a recent interview with CBS News, in which he was asked if he regrets the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. She said he will face a “consequence” at the ballot box in November.
Milwaukee was a convenient location for the campaign, allowing Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to easily make the 90-mile trip to and from Chicago. Democrats combined the two events by livestreaming the ceremonial DNC roll call for rally attendees before Harris took the stage, then streaming her introduction on the video board in Chicago.
It offered Democrats a chance to give the so-called Cream City a moment in the sun after the party’s 2020 convention in the city was moved virtually amid the pandemic. But more than anything, the trip — like Harris’ first visit to Milwaukee as a presumptive candidate nearly a month ago — underscored the role Wisconsin will play in 2024, a state that could make or break her path to victory.
“Her first public meeting was in Milwaukee. We didn’t see Tim Walz on the first day he was the vice presidential candidate, but Eau Claire was the second day. And then there was this positive disruption [during] the DNC,” said Mike Crute, a progressive radio host in the state. “They’re really including Milwaukee in the DNC.”
Harris left the RNC comparisons to Walz. Her running mate took the stage earlier Tuesday night and bragged about the energy at the DNC and the Fiserv Forum, just weeks after their opponents filled the arena with their own supporters.
“Not only do we have a tremendous energy at our convention, we have a lot more energy where they had their convention. Right here,” Walz said. “That other guy is going to be so sad tonight, so sad.”
Harris’ campaign has seen a surge in engagement in the state since the vice president launched her candidacy. The state party’s coordinated campaign has seen a record number of new volunteer signups. It has more than 170 staffers working in 48 offices across 43 counties, including 32 counties Trump won in 2020, according to the campaign. And recent polls have shown a tight race, with Harris slowly pulling ahead of Trump in the state.
But keeping Wisconsin blue will be no easy feat for Democrats. Biden won Wisconsin by just 20,000 votes in 2020, narrowly winning the state after Trump defeated Clinton by a similarly narrow margin. The president was able to chip away at Trump’s support in historically Republican suburbs outside Milwaukee — numbers Harris will try to match.
High turnout in the state’s most populous city, particularly among young voters and people of color, will be key to Harris’ performance. Cheryl Jackson, 46, a Milwaukee native, attended Tuesday’s rally with her mother and sister. She said she felt Democrats were sometimes ignoring the city and missing key groups of voters who hadn’t shown up in previous cycles.
“Democrats have realized that this is a mistake that they’ve made from the beginning,” Jackson said. “But you have to come to the biggest city, because there are people here who don’t even vote, but you could get them to vote. I think that’s the mistake. Barack — his people have understood that. But Democrats have historically ignored it, and I don’t know why they would. Given the size and everything about this city, you can’t ignore it.”
Another Milwaukee resident said she vividly remembers that morning after the 2016 election.
“I went to bed that night thinking [Clinton] “We were our next president and woke up and said, ‘What the hell happened here?’” said Leslie Caringello, 62. “I think they’ve realized you can’t ignore any swing state. Nothing is guaranteed.”
But Harris’s fate will also depend on independent voters in northern Wisconsin and the Milwaukee suburbs, Maslin said — particularly among young, independent men. Harris’ campaign staff and allies see her choice of Walz as her running mate as a potential boon to this voting bloc. The hope is that the veteran, former teacher and football coach can shore up support among white, working-class and male voters the Democratic Party has struggled with recently.
“The fight for independent voters will be crucial,” Maslin said.
