MILWAUKEE (WLUK) — The Harris-Walz campaign team took advantage of the proximity of the battleground state of Wisconsin to the site of the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, traveled 90 miles north from Chicago, the DNC venue, to the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, where they held a rally and DNC party.
It is the same place where the Republican National Convention was held last month and where Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president.
Both Harris and Walz spoke to the packed crowd of thousands of people Tuesday night.
A campaign representative said the couple will then stay for the evening portion of the DNC to watch with their supporters.
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Harris said she was running a “people-driven campaign.”
“Together, we will forge a new path forward,” the vice president said in a speech that was partially broadcast to the DNC. “A future of freedom, opportunity, optimism and faith.”
Harris repeatedly stressed that the election would be close.
“We know it’s going to be a close race until the end,” she said. “We have hard work ahead of us. We like hard work; hard work is good work.”
She also addressed Trump’s opposition to a federally guaranteed right to abortion.
“Yesterday, when asked if he regretted ending Roe v. Wade, Donald Trump, without a moment’s hesitation, said no,” Harris said in her remarks. “No regrets. That’s because he didn’t have to face the consequences. Women and families did. Well, we’re going to make sure he faces the consequences at the ballot box this November.”
“They don’t seem to trust women,” she said of Trump and his Republican allies. “Well, we trust women.”
Harris framed the election in grim, almost existential terms, imploring Americans not to become complacent about the Supreme Court’s decision to grant the president broad immunity, a power she said Trump would abuse.
The vice president’s speech echoed some of the same themes that underpinned Biden’s arguments for re-election before he dropped out, portraying Trump as a threat to democracy. Harris argued that Trump threatens the values and freedoms Americans hold dear.
Trump said he would be a dictator on his first day in office – a joke he later dismissed as a hoax – and vowed to exert more control over federal law enforcement as president, an area of government traditionally left to the Justice Department.
Someone with such a past “should never again have the opportunity to stand behind the seal of the President of the United States,” Harris said. “Never again.”
In response to Harris’ visit, the RNC released the following statement:
In 2020, Democrats left Milwaukee just weeks before their convention – yet four years later, Republicans kept their promise to deliver an RNC that would unite the Republican Party, speak to every American voter, and bring economic prosperity and opportunity to Milwaukee. As Americans watch businesses close their doors and the DNC erupts in chaos, Harris is trying to lie about her dangerously liberal record and save face with Wisconsin voters. Thankfully, Wisconsinites will not be fooled by Democrats again – they know America was better under President Trump.
Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance also held a campaign event in Kenosha on Tuesday.
