Harris Turns To Hip Hop Artists In Last-Minute Push To Boost Turnout
State Fair Park rally features vice president, Cardi B and actor Keegan-Michael Key.
Vice President Kamala Harris at her ‘When We Vote We Win’ rally in West Allis. Photo taken Nov. 1, 2024 by Sophie Bolich.
Glorilla isn’t known to rock a stage flanked by rows of American flags. But that’s exactly what she did on Friday, joined by rappers Flo Milli and MC Lyte, along with Milwaukee’s own DJ GEMINI GILLY.
The star-studded performance preceded Vice President Kamala Harris‘s final weekend on the campaign trail. Aimed at mobilizing young and non-traditional voters in the Milwaukee area, the high-energy concert and rally was the Democratic candidate’s last word to the state of Wisconsin before Nov. 5.
“I’m gonna be real with y’all, I wasn’t going to vote this year. I wasn’t,” said rapper Cardi B. “But when Kamala Harris joined the race, she changed my mind.”
The “Bodak Yellow” rapper has been a vocal supporter of Harris for President in 2024. She was joined Friday night by more than 12,000 fellow supporters at Wisconsin State Fair Park Exhibition Center, 8200 W. Greenfield Ave., the Harris-Walz campaign reports.
Harris also spoke directly to Gen-Z voters, many of whom will be casting their first ballots in a presidential race.
“You guys are rightly impatient for change,” she said. “You are determined to live free from gun violence, you are going to take on the climate crisis, you are going to shape the world.”
Harris concluded her remarks with a rallying cry for voters — and a deeper request. “We have four days to get this thing done,” she said, urging attendees to contact friends, family and coworkers about voting. “No one can sit on the sidelines.”
“And while we’re doing all that, let’s please be intentional about holding community. This Trump era, it’s been powered by this idea that Americans should be pointing their fingers at each other, and to make people feel alone and sad, when we all know we have so much more in common than what separates us.”
A lineup of speakers and musical guests alternated appearances on stage throughout the approximately two-hour program.
That included the last-minute addition of Keegan-Michael Key. The actor and comedian, best known for co-creating and co-starring in the sketch series “Key & Peele,” touched on the common refrain that this election represents a choice.
“Choice is the word a lot of people use, which I think, actually, is a little confusing,” he said. “That’s like saying there’s a choice on how to travel from Canada to the United States — you can either drive a car or take a plane to get over the border, or you can take a barrel over Niagara Falls.”
Adrien Calvert, a Milwaukee native and an elementary school teacher, introduced Harris.
Senator Tammy Baldwin used her time to speak about her own race against Republican candidate Eric Hovde. “For our reproductive freedom, for our healthcare, for our economy — we have the choice to embrace our state motto, ‘Forward,’ or to let Eric Hovde take us back. And you know what? We’re not going back.”
Also looking towards the future was County Executive David Crowley. “I look at my three daughters, and when I see Kamala Harris, I think to myself, ‘at long last she’s gonna break that glass ceiling, y’all.'”
The West Allis event was part of Harris’s three-stop swing through Wisconsin on Friday. She also made appearances in Janesville and in the Appleton area earlier in the day.
At least two protestors were escorted out of the venue shortly after Harris began speaking.
Trump held his own rally in Milwaukee Friday evening, but did not receive a warm welcome from the city’s Democratic mayor, Cavalier Johnson, who was in attendance at Harris’s event.
“You know what’s going on across town,” Johnson said from the stage at the Harris rally, prompting groans from the crowd. “I haven’t forgotten that, earlier this year, Donald Trump called Milwaukee — the largest community in the state of Wisconsin — he called us horrible.”
Trump, joined by Hovde, delivered remarks at Fiserv Forum, the site of July’s Republican National Convention.
Both candidates are hoping to boost turnout with back-to-back-to-back rallies scheduled from Friday through Monday in key swing states.
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- August 13, 2015 - Cavalier Johnson received $25 from David Crowley
