Mary Spicuzza,Alison Dirr,Ricardo TorresMilwaukee Journal Sentinel
Vice President Kamala Harris rallied about 18,000 supporters in a packed arena Tuesday night.
Where? Milwaukee, of course.
Harris spoke to the crowd gathered at Fiserv Forum for some 20 minutes, with several minutes livestreamed into the Chicago arena hosting the Democratic National Convention after the roll call of the states established her as the nominee. The move allowed her to speak to two packed arenas at the same time — an unusual move.
Tuesday's rally in Milwaukee was the campaign's largest nationally, according to organizers.
"Wisconsin, we have 77 days until the election. 77 days. And look, we know this is going to be a tight race until the very end," Harris told the crowd. "We have hard work ahead of us, but we like hard work. Hard work is good work, and with your help this November, we will win."
People started gathering in the Deer District outside Fiserv Forum hours before Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, took the stage inside on the second night of the Democratic National Convention some 90 miles south in Chicago.
“People who, obviously, would never have gone to the DNC are able to come here and experience seeing her and Mr. Walz,” said Jennifer Buda of Milwaukee, who came to the rally with her daughter.
Cheers erupted from the crowd when the doors opened about 3:45 p.m.
And when the Democratic ticket took the stage at8:09 p.m., it was toraucous applause from an audience thatlargely filled the basketball arena where the Milwaukee Bucks play.
"This is a people-powered campaign, and together we will chart a new way forward," Harris said from the stage, where she was flanked by screens and signs reading "FREEDOM."
More: Takeaways from Kamala Harris Milwaukee rally: High energy crowd in last month's RNC venue
Many in the crowd held signs with that single word and cheered as she spoke from the stage in the center of the arena floor. Supporters stood around the stage where Walz had just spoken, praising the energy at the DNC and needling Republicans over their convention in the same space a month ago.
"Not only do we have massive energy at our convention, we got a hell of a lot more energy at where they had their convention," he said to applause.
Harris and Walz slammed Republicans on abortion access and the conservative agenda known as Project 2025 and accused them of using government to curtail Americans' rights.
"Even if we would not make the same choice as our neighbors, we respect them because we live by that golden rule: Mind your own damn business," Walz said to applause.
As has become the pattern in recent weeks, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance held a press conference earlier in the day down the road in Kenosha. Flanked by high-profile Wisconsin Republicans and Kenosha County Sheriff David Zoerner, Vance slammed Democrats on crime and criticized Harris for not taking questions from the media. He also said she should solve Americans' problems now with her power as the vice president.
"For the people in Milwaukee who are going to go to her rally, are going to listen to what she says, I'd just ask them: If she has such good ideas for how to bring down the cost of food and groceries and housing, why doesn't she do it now? She's the vice president," he said.
Outside the Milwaukee rally, about 50 people gathered for a planned protest against the war in Gaza while a separate group held signs opposing abortion and supporting former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee.
Supporters don camo hats, speak to history-making ticket and newfound enthusiasm with Harris' ascension
When Judy Lange was asked if she drove up from her home in McHenry, Illinois, for the Harris rally she was quick with a joke.
“No, we flew on our brooms,” Lange said with a wink outside Fiserv Forum.
Lange was with her sister Beth Cherveny and adult daughter Jennifer Lonchar, also from McHenry.
Lonchar and the other family members have been big supporters of President Joe Biden “but I felt like I was always talking people into being on board.” Harris at the top of the ticket has injected new enthusiasm, she said.
“I feel like we’re back in ‘08. I feel like it’s Obama again,” Lonchar said. “I’m just so energized and so excited now for the first time in a really long time.”
Jordan Pitzner said as a Black woman who once was involved in politics in California, she sees herself in Kamala Harris, the daughter of Black and Indian parents.
"(I see) all the things that we've fought for and marched for and bled for that have been, you know, threatened and almost taken away," said the Farmington resident who came with her husband. "She's here to help restore what people have literally died for a couple of centuries now. So that's why I'm here to see her, witness her live and show my support."
Milwaukee's Fiserv Forum hosted RNC last month, almost hosted DNC in 2020
The venue, Fiserv Forum, is significant for political events in the recent and not-so-recent past.
Just a month ago, Milwaukee hosted the Republican National Convention at the arena, where Trump formally accepted his party's nomination for president.
Four years ago, it was supposed to be Harris and Biden cementing their presidential ticket on the arena's stage during Milwaukee's 2020 Democratic National Convention. But the COVID-19 pandemic ruined those plans, turning the convention into a mostly virtual event.
Harris's rally Tuesday took place four years to the day that Biden would have accepted the party's nomination had the pandemic not scuttled those plans. Biden instead accepted the nomination from the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware.
The timing shows that Democrats have not forgotten Milwaukee and Wisconsin, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said. He also noted the unique circ*mstances of this year's RNC and DNC.
"These conventions — both the RNC and the DNC — have been full of surprises," he said. "Having Donald Trump at every single night of the RNC seated prominently was a departure from the norm, and now having the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, leave the DNC, come to another city and host a large rally outside of the gathering in Chicago, I think also is a little out of the norm. I'm excited about it either way."
Republican Party of Wisconsin spokesman Matt Fisher said the rally would remind voters of Harris' and Walz's "failed record on inflation."
"Wisconsinites will see through Tuesday night’s charade at Fiserv Forum and recognize that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have nothing to offer working families except a shallow echo of the last four years," he said in a statement.
Milwaukee resident Debra Brown Wallace is not a stranger to volunteering to make calls and knock on doors for Democrats. She was a volunteer for the Obama campaign in Milwaukee.
And after watching Harris and Walz speak, Brown Wallace felt that the city got a part of the convention it missed four years ago.
“The DNC was supposed to be here, so I see this as a little redemption here, that we got a little taste of what we missed in 2020,” Brown Wallace said. “I am just overjoyed for what happened.”
Attention paid to Wisconsin shows swing state's importance in November
Then, as now, the attention paid to Wisconsin by both political parties reflects the swing state's importance in the November presidential election.
“A lot of pundits are saying the road to the White House is going to go through Wisconsin,” Dan Weiner from Appleton said as he waited to get into the event. “I agree with it. It’s important and it’s kind of cool for Wisconsin to be that vital for Wisconsinites no matter what side you’re on.”
Visiting places like Kenosha, as Vance did Tuesday, matters because of the state's close presidential races. And Milwaukee's proximity to the Chicago convention offers Democrats a unique opportunity to build momentum behind the Harris-Walz campaign in a population center where voter turnout matters in statewide results, said Philip Rocco, associate professor of political science at Marquette University.
"I think it's a really smart move for them to come to a battleground state as the convention is kicking off and feel that excitement right alongside voters," Milwaukee-based Democratic strategist Melissa Baldauff said of the Harris visit. "And not just with folks who would be going to the Dem convention, but voters."
Harris's visit follows the Republican Party's convention in Milwaukee last month and Vance's third visit to the state in as many weeks.
"From the White House to Congress, all paths to victory go through Wisconsin. If Republicans and President Trump remain focused on the bread-and-butter issues that matter to working families, Wisconsin voters will turn the page on Kamala Harris and her record of failure,” Fisher said.
Harris-Walz rally in Milwaukee comes one month after unprecedented events of presidential race during RNC week
When Trump spoke in downtown Milwaukee during the RNC, it was just days after he had survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania — and days before Biden would announce that he was dropping out of the race and endorsing Harris.
Biden's withdrawal and Harris' ascension in late July have reinvigorated Democrats, who were shaken by Biden's halting performance in a June debate with Trump.
Harris has held boisterous rallies since moving to the top of the Democratic ticket, including thefirst rally of her presidential campaignin the Milwaukee area and earlier this month in Eau Clairewith Walz, then her newly minted VP pick.
Warming up the crowd Tuesday night was DJ Shawna, who had a soundtrack heavy on Beyonce songs. Ahead of the candidates' arrival, she had the crowd singing along and dancing to songs like Chappell Roan's "HOT TO GO!" as spotlights roamed over the audience, where light-up bracelets cycled between a rainbow of colors at some moments and red, white and blue in others.
The theme of the convention Tuesday night was "A Bold Vision for America's Future."
Harris's formal acceptance of the party's nomination Thursday in Chicago will follow days of speeches by top Democrats and Walz's address on Wednesday.
Claire Reid, Bridget Fogarty and Jovanny Hernandez Caballero of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this story.
Mary Spicuzza can be reached at mary.spicuzza@jrn.com. Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com.
