Vice President Kamala Harris held the first rally of her presidential campaign Tuesday in Wisconsin, telling a raucous crowd that Republican rival “Donald Trump wants to take the country backward” and contrasting her record with his.
Referring to her background as a prosecutor, Harris told the crowd of over 3,000 that “I took on perpetrators of all kinds. 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,” she said to cheers and chants of “Kamala! Kamala!”
She said her campaign is “focused on the future,” while Trump’s is “focused on the past.”
Harris’ trip to a suburb outside Milwaukee — the site of last week’s Republican National Convention — was her first stop in a battleground state under her presidential campaign. It is her ninth visit to Wisconsin in her vice presidential term and her fifth visit to the state this year, her campaign said in a news release.
Harris said, “The path to the White House goes through Wisconsin,” she said, adding, “You helped us win in 2020, and in 2024 we will win again.”
She also paid tribute to President Joe Biden and “his continuing service to our nation.”
Biden announced he was withdrawing from the race Sunday and endorsed Harris. Democratic lawmakers and other political figures across the country swiftly rallied around her, as well. By Monday, a majority of pledged Democratic convention delegates had endorsed Harris on her first full day as a presidential candidate.
Harris said Tuesday that “we have some work to do” and told the generationally diverse crowd she was eager to get to it. “I pledge to you I will spend the coming weeks to unite our party so we will win in November,” she said.
Wisconsin Democratic officials who joined Harris at the rally at West Allis Central High School included Gov. Tony Evers, Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Attorney General Josh Kaul.
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Harris also spoke Monday at an event at the White House, where she discussed not her campaign, but Biden’s leadership.
The newly dubbed Harris campaign said that since Biden announced his exit from the presidential race, it raised $100 million on Sunday and Monday, with 62% of them being first-time donations.
The Harris campaign said it has 48 coordinated offices across 43 counties throughout the state with roughly 160 full-time staffers on the ground who are organizing to build support for Harris and state Democrats ahead of the November election.
