Kamala Harris Visits Milwaukee

Vice President Kamala Harris visited West Allis on Tuesday. Photo taken July 23, 2024 by Sophie Bolich.

Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris held a campaign rally in Wisconsin on Tuesday afternoon, traveling to the battleground state for one of her first public appearances in the nation since President Joe Biden dropped his bid for reelection over the weekend.

“The path to the White House goes through Wisconsin,” she said to an energized crowd in West Allis.

Harris, named as Biden’s handpicked replacement atop the Democratic ticket Sunday, publicly launched the Harris for President Campaign in the deeply purple state that last week hosted the Republican National Convention.

Harris was already scheduled to appear in Milwaukee as of last week, but the event took on increased importance following Biden’s announcement Sunday that he was dropping out and endorsing Harris.

It was the vice president’s fifth Wisconsin visit in 2024. It also, according to campaign officials, generated considerable buzz.

Harris spoke to a packed gymnasium at West Allis Central High School. A campaign official said the venue was changed to a larger venue late Monday to accommodate demand.

“With over 3,000 attendees, this is the largest event the campaign has held to date,” said the spokesperson of the Biden-Harris campaign.

The vice president’s speech outlined her vision for the next four years, touching on promises to lift Americans out of poverty, support unions and ensure reproductive rights. Harris also played up her previous role as a prosecutor and attorney general in California, pitting her own, “tough on crime” record against that of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

“As attorney general for California, I took on one of the country’s largest for-profit colleges that was scamming students,” Harris said. “Donald Trump ran a for-profit college that scammed students. As a prosecutor, I specialized in cases involving sexual abuse. Well, Trump was found liable for committing sexual abuse. As attorney general of California, I took on big Wall Street banks and held them accountable for fraud. Donald Trump was just found guilty of fraud on 34 counts.”

“I took on perpetrators of violence, predators who abused women, fraudsters who had ripped off consumers and cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain,” she said. “So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type. I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week.”

Harris was introduced by a string of speakers including two top Wisconsin Democrats, Governor Tony Evers and U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, and Leia Esser, a Madison Metropolitan School District administrator who saw her student loans forgiven by President Joe Biden‘s executive order providing student debt relief.

With 105 days until the presidential election, Harris has — as of Monday — secured the support of enough delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination.

“We’ve got some work to do, but we’re not afraid of hard work,” she said. “We like hard work, don’t we?”

The campaign reports raising more than $100 million from more than 1.1 million donors since Biden’s announcement Sunday that he was stepping back and his subsequent endorsement of Harris.

“We just had the best 24 hours of grassroots fundraising in presidential campaign history,” said Harris of her “people-powered campaign.”

Baldwin had been distancing herself from Biden following the president’s poor June debate performance. She skipped appearing with Biden in Madison following the debate, instead campaigning in northern Wisconsin. But on Tuesday, she praised Biden from the stage for his “lifetime of service to our country” before moving to praise Harris.

The senator, who faces her own reelection fight, praised Harris’s experience as California’s attorney general and a U.S. senator. “I am so proud to support Kamala Harris for president of the United States,” she said. “There’s a reason she’s kicking things off right here in Wisconsin, because we are the battleground state.”

Baldwin also criticized her opponent, Eric Hovde, for being an out-of-state millionaire and three-time honoree as an Orange County Business Journal person of influence. “Folks, we have a Green County, we have a Brown County, we do not have an Orange County, Wisconsin,” said Baldwin. But Baldwin has drawn her own criticism from Republicans for buying a $1.3 million home in Washington D.C. with her partner in 2021.

The governor, who said he was “jazzed as hell,” delivered an upbeat speech praising Harris. “After listening to all the Republicans who dropped by here for a few days last week, it will be nice to finally hear someone who knows something about getting things done for the great state of Wisconsin,” he said.

Evers characterized the race as “make or break moment for democracy here in our great state of Wisconsin.”

Esser, whose Linkedin profile says she worked as executive director of student and staff supporters for the Madison school district and earned her Ph.D. from Edgewood College in 2012, said the loan forgiveness has allowed her to “unconditionally support” her students. “This policy has changed my life as well as the teachers, counselors, social workers, psychologists and many, many more with whom I serve the students in the state of Wisconsin,” said Esser. “That is the kind of change we will be voting for when we elect vice president Kamala Harris this November.”

Biden announced his latest student debt forgiveness plan in Madison in April.

A pre-program speakers list included Attorney General Josh Kaul, Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski, Superintendent of Public Instruction Jill Underly, County Executive David Crowley and Democratic Party of Wisconsin chair Ben Wikler.

Harris was greeted at the airport by Evers, Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez, Mayor Cavalier Johnson and his wife Dominique and their two twin daughters.

Also at the rally were Alderman Peter Burgelis; Alderman Russell W. Stamper, II; county board chair Marcelia Nicholson; former lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes; AFL-CIO president Stephanie Bloomingdale; LIUNA Wisconsin President Kent Miller; Deputy Assistant Secretary of Travel and Tourism for the International Trade Administration Alex Lasry and Milwaukee Building Trades President and Oak Creek Mayor Dan Bukiewicz.

Harris’s speech lasted approximately 16 minutes, which included several interruptions. A minor disturbance arose when a man in the crowd began heckling Harris about the war in Gaza. Law enforcement promptly removed him from the premises.

Harris’ last visit to Wisconsin came in May when she hosted an event at Discovery World with entertainer D.L. Hughley centered around economic opportunity.

In response to Harris’s appearance, the Republican National Committee released a statement criticizing the vice president while touting Republicans’ purported contributions to the state.

“After Kamala Harris and Joe Biden abandoned Wisconsin in 2020, Republicans delivered with tens of thousands of visitors and millions in revenue to the Brew City just last week,” Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement. “Harris can try to save face, but she can’t reverse the nearly 100 percent increase in fentanyl deaths that have wrecked communities across the state during her failed tenure as Border Czar. It’s no wonder why President Trump is crushing Harris in poll after poll: Harris has been a disaster for families in Wisconsin and across the country, but President Trump will Make America Great Again.”

Photos