Vice President Kamala Harris has a few key issues she plans to address if elected in November, this time as president.
But first she is trying to continue President Joe Biden's case to voters that a second term for President Donald Trump would be a harmful step backward.
The message was only amplified while Harris addressed a crowd in the Milwaukee area Tuesday, this time as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
“This campaign is about two different visions for our nation — one where we are focused on the future, the other focused on the past,” Harris said of her now-opponent, Trump.
During her 18-minute address, the vice president outlined goals to implement paid family leave, fund affordable child care, support unions and increase backing for affordable health care.
“Building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency,” Harris said.
Her role in the 2024 election took a dramatic shift Sunday afternoon when Biden announced to the nation that he was withdrawing his bid for reelection, instead throwing his support behind his vice president to take his place in the race.
The decision had been anticipated as the president began hemorrhaging support among the Democratic ranks after a damaging performance in the first presidential debate against Trump in June. Nevertheless, the president’s withdrawal from the race sent shockwaves through the political world and thrust Harris into the spotlight.
Now, instead of playing a supportive role throughout the final 105 days before Election Day, Harris will be working to convince voters she is the right pick to lead the country next year.
On the tails of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week, Harris spoke to a crowd gathered in the West Allis Central High School gymnasium, marking her fifth stop in Wisconsin this year and her first campaign rally as a presidential candidate in 2024.
The Harris campaign noted Tuesday that the vice president’s rally had to be moved to a larger venue late Monday because of the number of RSVPs the event had garnered. Campaign officials estimated the attendance of Tuesday’s rally at close to 3,000.
On Monday, Harris made her first public appearance since Biden announced his withdrawal, hosting a gathering on the South Lawn of the White House in celebration of this year’s NCAA championship teams. She later made a stop by her campaign headquarters in Delaware where she spoke to supporters and staff about the importance of connecting with voters.
In Wisconsin, the vice president laid out similar goals — adding a few key topics that are likely to remain atop her list of speaking points leading into November. As the potential first female president of the United States, reproductive freedom and abortion access have both been topics in regular rotation for Harris in recent months.
“Ours is a fight for the future. It is a fight for freedom,” Harris said. “We trust women to make decisions about their own bodies and not have their government tell them what to do.”
Harris pitted her previous experience as a prosecutor and then attorney general of California against Trump’s 34 recent felony counts.
“In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds,” Harris said. “So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”
It remains to be seen how Harris will fare in Wisconsin polling as a presidential candidate. The vice president has ties to Madison, having lived on the west side as a child from age 3 to 5 while her parents worked at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Harris rakes in support from Wisconsin Democrats
Since Biden announced he was bowing out of the race for president and endorsed Harris as his successor, the vice president has swiftly garnered support from prominent Democrats nationwide and within the state.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, U.S. Reps. Mark Pocan and Gwen Moore and Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler have all thrown their support behind Harris in her quest for the White House. Evers, Baldwin and Wikler were among the Wisconsin politicians who joined Harris on stage Tuesday.
Wikler announced the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s official endorsem*nt of Harris as their presidential pick on Monday afternoon, noting that — at that time — more than 90% of the party’s delegates for the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August had pledged support for Harris’ nomination.
“There is a surge of focus, of enthusiasm, of a kind of flowering, of the kind of unity that we're going to need to defeat Donald Trump and that we are absolutely going to have,” Wikler said.
Late Monday, the Associated Press reported that Harris had secured enough pledges of support from Democratic delegates to nab the title of presumptive nominee. It’s anticipated the vice president will accept her nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.
Republicans pivot to attack Harris
The GOP spent much of the last week at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee slamming Biden as a weak candidate against Trump, unfit to currently hold office and even more so to win another term.
Now, the party must pivot. Many of the core campaign tactics — namely attacking Biden’s age and mental capacity — are no longer applicable. Harris is 59, nearly two decades younger than her Republican opponent.
So, the party has shifted its strategy in an effort to tie Harris to what the GOP calls Biden’s “failed” presidency, namely criticizing Harris’ role in border security and painting the new presidential candidate as too progressive.
“She’s probably one of the most liberal nominees (the Democrats) have ever had in the history of this country,” said Wisconsin Republican Chair Brian Schimming during a press call Tuesday morning. “They’re exchanging one bad candidate for another candidate in the hope that the people of this state and this country don’t notice where she actually stands on the issues.”
What happens next?
With the Democratic National Convention fast approaching next month and Harris the party’s presumptive nominee, the task now falls to the vice president to select a running mate.
Reports from Reuters and Politico have unveiled that Eric Holder, who served as the country’s first Black attorney general under former President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2015, will be leading the charge in vetting potential vice presidential picks for Harris.
Like any election decision, Harris’ choice of running mate carries vast strategic significance. And in a world of political precarity where every decision draws a pundit’s microscope, the choice has the potential to make or break her bid for president.
Among the frontrunners are many of her fellow Democratic compatriots who had been atop a list of potentials to replace Biden, prior to his official announcement that he was no longer running for reelection and his endorsem*nt of Harris.
That list includes Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Pennsylvania serves as a key swing state — much like Wisconsin — where Harris could stand to gain critical voter support. Tapping the governor as a running mate might secure that connection. On the other hand, naming a governor from the South could forge a new alliance with a region often dominated by Republican candidates.
The short list also included Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, although Whitmer told reporters Monday she is “not leaving Michigan.”
As of Monday night, Harris’ election campaign had banked more than $100 million in fundraising in the first 36-hour period since Biden’s announcement that he would bow out of the race — marking the largest single fundraising period in presidential candidate history, according to the Harris campaign.
