Vice President Kamala Harris wrapped up the work week in Wisconsin as she drew a maximum capacity crowd, per her campaign, to Madison’s Alliant Energy Center for a Friday night rally.
The latest stop on her “New Way Forward” tour marked her first to the capital since Harris jumped into the presidential race earlier this summer.
Dane County is home to the fastest growing population of any county in Wisconsin, so it didn’t come as much of a surprise that the Harris-Walz campaign hoped to tap into what it calls “people power” to grow its voter share in what has traditionally been a Democratic stronghold.
As the vice president entered the arena to applause from thousands of supporters, she didn’t hesitate to ask for action on their part.
“This is going to be a tight race until the very end, so let’s not pay too much attention to the polls because let’s be clear: we are the underdog in this race, and we have some hard work ahead of us,” Harris explained. “But here’s the thing, we like hard work. We like hard work. Hard work is good work. Hard work is joyful work.”
A Marquette University Law School poll released last week shows Harris with a four-point lead over former President Donald Trump among likely voters. However, that is still within the margin of error which amounts to a dead heat.
With 46 days to go, the Democratic nominee also took a broad approach with the hopes of appealing to undecided voters.
“This is a people-powered campaign. This is a campaign about building community, building coalitions, reminding us all that we are all in this together, and that we’re going to be good and alright,” Harris said. “Which is why Democrats, Republicans, and Independents are supporting our campaign, because they want a president, we want a president, who works for all the American people, and I promise you that is the kind of president I will be.”
Meanwhile, Wisconsin Democrats hope to use that promise to mobilize voters. According to the campaign, more than 16,000 new volunteers have already completed a shift since Harris got into the race. That number could continue to grow because of supporters, including Jim Nelsen of Kenosha who signed up to do his part for a simple reason.
“Her opponent. I’m very much not interested in having that guy in office again,” Nelsen, who also attended Harris’ first Wisconsin rally in West Allis, said. “If you don’t know what’s at stake, I suggest you do some research because there’s an awful lot at stake. This is huge, huge, huge.”
Whether for that specific reason, or another, it’s the type of energy Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler hopes to harness.
“This is Wisconsin. It’s the land of the nail bitter, so when you have an event like this with thousands of fired up Harris-Walz supporters, the next step is for everyone to go out and knock on doors and talk to their friends and family and neighbors and bring friends to the polls,” Wikler said.
While neither presidential hopeful picked up an endorsement from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) this week, local union members in Wisconsin did put their support behind the Democratic nominee, which was showcased on stage Friday night.
“This week, Teamsters Joint Council 39, representing the Teamsters here in Wisconsin, proudly endorse Kamala Harris to be our next President of the United States,” Bill Carroll, who serves as president of the Milwaukee-based Teamsters Joint Council 39 Executive Board, said before introducing Harris.
Republicans, however, felt the local endorsement did not reflect the broader organization.
“Kamala couldn’t have picked a worse time to visit Wisconsin. Since her last visit to the state, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters released a poll showing that most of their rank and file members support President Donald J. Trump, and an Emerson College poll found that she is losing to President Trump in the state,” Jacob Fischer, Team Trump Wisconsin Press Secretary, said in a statement. “Wisconsinites know that Kamala and the Democrat Party are only paying lip services to top concerns for Wisconsin families, while President Trump has a record of helping hard-working Wisconsin families. The only candidate who will prioritize working Wisconsinites and Make America Affordable again, is Donald Trump.”