Vice President Kamala Harris garnered about 3,000 supporters in Milwaukee Tuesday at her first campaign event since becoming the Democratic front-runner for the party’s presidential nomination.
Harris came out to West Allis Central High School, 8516 W. Lincoln Ave., with its gym packed shoulder to shoulder as former supporters of President Joe Biden showed excitement for the newly backed Democratic presidential candidate. The rally makes Harris’ second public appearance, and first rally, following the announcement from President Biden that he would not pursue reelection. Now, with only 105 days away from the election, Harris is picking up from her and Biden’s Administration accomplishments with plans to platform on building up the middle class.
“The path to the White House goes through Wisconsin,” Harris said. “We have 105 days until election day, and in that time, we got some work to do. We’re not afraid of hard work. We like hard work, don’t we? And we will win this election.”
Harris is yet to officially become the democratic presidential candidate but has recently gained backing from the majority of delegates to secure the seat as of this morning.
Wisconsin politicians, like Governor Tony Evers and Senator Tammy Baldwin, have switched gears from Biden to Harris to endorse her at today’s rally.
Attendees of Harris’ rally say they are ready to back her campaign for president. One campaign volunteer, Samuel Marcus, is ready to “run through a brick wall,” for Harris.
“I’m going to make every call I possibly can and I’m going to talk to every voter I can to let them know that Kamala Harris should be the next president of the United States,” Marcus said. “She’s a fantastic candidate running against a terrible candidate.”
Marcus is behind Harris’s platform to build up the middle class. As a grad student at UW-Madison, he hopes to see the economy repaired so he can be part of the middle class someday.
A couple, Martin and Thresessa Childes, in attendance, pointed at Republicans trying to tie Harris to Biden, which they claim is a good thing for her campaign.
“We’re excited. We believe that it’s going to bring fresh energy, fresh momentum to the race,” Martin Childes said.
With the sudden change in candidate, Thresessa Childes isn’t worried about obstacles in the campaign’s way.
“People have really come together to make this happen, and we’re going to make it happen,” she said.
A ceasefire protest was held outside the rally. Othman Atta, executive director of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, said the goal of the protest was to continue to put pressure on candidates to call for a ceasefire.
“We came here to basically let Kamala Harris know, now that she is the candidate for president for the Democratic Party, or at least will be very soon, that we need her to reset the policies that Joe Biden has been implementing in the Middle East,” Othman said.