Haunted by 2016, Kamala Harris ditches DNC Day 2 to rally in Wisconsin

MILWAUKEE — Kamala Harris may have already won over Democrats. Now she needs to win over Wisconsin.

While the party celebrated her in Chicago Tuesday night, the vice president packed Fiserv Forum here with more than 15,000 supporters, her third appearance in the crucial battleground state since her campaign launched last month. In no accident, she filled the same arena that swarms of GOP delegates and party officials occupied for the Republican convention in July.

The campaign’s decision to host a prime-time rally in Milwaukee during the party’s convention in nearby Chicago demonstrates how vital Wisconsin remains in Democrats’ path to 270 electoral votes. The ghost of 2016 has haunted Democrats since Hillary Clinton narrowly lost the state after not campaigning there, a grave mistake Harris doesn’t want to repeat. Her campaign is looking to fortify the Blue Wall states, including this one that Joe Biden barely flipped four years ago.

“Wisconsin is one of the two or three most important states in this entire election. And we’re going to commit as if it is,” said Paul Maslin, a top Democratic pollster who previously lived in Madison. "[Former President Donald] Trump and the Republicans are doing the same. We have a battle royale.”

It also speaks to the challenging nature of Harris’ short sprint to November, with just 11 weeks left to sway voters in swing states like Wisconsin that have proven to be no shoe-in for Democrats. In Chicago, the lineup of speakers boosting her candidacy included former President Barack Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. But instead of soaking it in in the Windy City, Harris hit the trail.

“The coach and I were together in Wisconsin just two weeks ago — the first rally after I announced he would be my running mate,” Harris told the crowd. “And it is so good to be back with all of you.”

The vice president spoke from a stage in the center of the massive arena, surrounded by a 360-degree crowd. The hall lit up with flashing red, white and blue bracelets the campaign passed out to supporters, the word “freedom” plastered around the room, including on signs waved by attendees.

“[Our campaign] is a fight for the future, and it is 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 went on to ding Trump for his comments in a recent CBS News interview, during which he was asked whether he has regrets about the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. She said he’ll face a “consequence” at the ballot box come November.

Milwaukee was a convenient location for the campaign, allowing Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to make the 90-mile trip to and from Chicago easily. Democrats weaved together the two events, live streaming the ceremonial DNC roll call for rally attendees before Harris walked out on stage, and then beaming her introduction onto the video board in Chicago.

It offered an opportunity for Democrats to give the so-called Cream City a moment in the sun after the party’s 2020 convention in the city was moved virtual during the pandemic. But most of all, the trip — like Harris’s first visit to Milwaukee as the 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 rally was in Milwaukee. We didn’t see Tim Walz on the first day he was the vice presidential nominee, but Eau Claire was the second day. And then this positive disruption [during] the DNC,” said Mike Crute, a progressive radio host in the state. “They’re really incorporating Milwaukee into the DNC.”

Harris left the RNC comparisons to Walz. Her running mate took the stage earlier Tuesday night, bragging about the energy at the DNC and at Fiserv Forum, just weeks after their opponents filled the arena with their own supporters.

“Not only do we have massive energy in our convention, we have a hell of 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.”

The Harris campaign has noted an increase in engagement in the state since the vice president launched her candidacy. The state party’s coordinated campaign has seen a record in new volunteer sign-ups. It has more than 170 staff working across 48 offices in 43 counties, including 32 counties that Trump won in 2020, per the campaign. And the latest polls have shown a neck-and-neck race, with Harris inching in front 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 beat Clinton by a similarly small margin. The president was able to peel off Trump’s support in historically Republican suburbs outside of Milwaukee — numbers Harris will try to mirror.

High turnout in the state’s most populated city, particularly among young voters and people of color, will be key to Harris’ performance. Cheryl Jackson, 46, who was born and raised in Milwaukee, attended the rally with her mom and sister on Tuesday. She said she’s felt that Democrats have at times ignored the city, missing key pockets of voters who haven’t turned out in past cycles.

“Democrats have realized that that’s been a mistake that they’ve made from the beginning,” Jackson said. “But you need to come to the largest city because there are people here that are not even voting who you could get. I think that’s the mistake. Barack — his people figured that out. But Democrats have historically ignored it, and I don’t know why they would. Being the size and everything of this city, you can’t ignore it.”

Another Milwaukee resident said she vividly remembers that morning after the election in 2016.

“I went to bed that night thinking [Clinton] was our next president and woke up to, what the hell happened here?” said Leslie Caringello, 62. “I think they’ve realized you can’t ignore any of the swing states. Nothing is guaranteed.”

But Harris’ fate will also come down to independent voters in northern Wisconsin and the Milwaukee suburbs, Maslin said — particularly among young, independent men. Harris campaign aides and allies see her selection of Walz as her running mate as a potential boon among this voting bloc. The hope is that the veteran, former teacher and football coach can shore up support among white, blue-collar workers and men, voters the Democratic Party has recently struggled with.

“The battle for independent voters is going to be crucial,” Maslin said.