Harris rides momentum into Arizona for what campaign calls biggest rally yet – DNyuz

Vice President Kamala Harris entered Arizona on Friday night with the same political momentum that fueled her first national victory tour this week, drawing a crowd her campaign estimated at more than 15,000 — her largest yet — in a Western state that not long ago seemed to have been wiped off the map.

Alongside her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Ms. Harris delivered a speech that is barely a week old but familiar enough to a passionate new following that some were shouting her lines before she did.

It was her fourth rally in four days, with a packed arena and a testament to how much her candidacy to replace President Biden has changed the 2024 race.

Mr Walz revelled in the crowd that packed the 100-degree Fahrenheit Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, while poking fun at Mr Trump’s obsession with crowds at protests.

“It’s not like anyone cares about the size of the crowd or anything like that,” Mr. Walz said to meaningful cheers.

Despite her momentum, Ms. Harris faces an uphill battle in Arizona, a longtime Republican stronghold that swung to Mr. Biden in 2020 but fell back to former President Donald J. Trump this year, according to polls.

To win, she will have to unite the diverse coalition of voters who created the state four years ago. On Friday, she made an explicit appeal to one segment of that group: Native American voters.

“As president, I will tell you that I will always honor tribal sovereignty and respect tribal self-determination,” she said. The first speaker at the event was Stephen Roe Lewis, the governor of the Gila River Indian Community, south of Phoenix.

In her speech, Ms. Harris focused on two issues of particular importance to Arizonans: immigration and abortion.

The number of border crossings from Mexico into Arizona has remained high this year, while elsewhere they have fallen. Ms. Harris positioned herself as a supporter of both an “earned path to citizenship” and tougher border restrictions, citing her record as California’s attorney general.

“I went after the transnational gangs, the drug cartels, the human traffickers,” Ms. Harris said. “I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won. So I know what I’m talking about.”

By contrast, Ms. Harris said, Mr. Trump was playing politics with the issue, highlighting his opposition to a bipartisan bill this year that would have strengthened border security.

“He talks a lot about border security,” she said, “but he doesn’t follow through.”

The comments come after her campaign began airing a harsh ad on immigration that called her a “border state prosecutor.” Senior Trump campaign officials have seen the border and immigration as one of Ms. Harris’s most vulnerable areas, and his campaign has repeatedly branded her as Mr. Biden’s failed “border czar.”

Ms. Harris added a new element to her speech, responding to Trump’s confusing comments at a news conference in Florida on Thursday, in which he did not rule out ordering the Food and Drug Administration to revoke access to abortion pills.

Ms Harris said Trump’s agenda would “ban medication abortion in every state”, adding: “But we’re not going to let that happen – because we trust women.”

Mr. Trump has previously supported the Supreme Court’s ruling on the abortion drug mifepristone. Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump, said in a statement that the former president’s position on mifepristone “remains the same — the Supreme Court has ruled unanimously on the issue and the case is resolved.”

The abortion rhetoric could prove especially potent in Arizona, where the state Supreme Court this year struck down a near-total ban on the procedure. The state legislature eventually repealed it, but abortion is still prohibited after 15 weeks, and voters will have a chance to enshrine the right to abortion until fetal viability in the state constitution on a November ballot.

The speakers preceding Ms. Harris on Friday made a number of appeals to independents and moderate Republicans, another segment she will have to convince.

“I don’t recognize my party,” said John Giles, the mayor of Mesa, Ariz., a prominent Republican who is supporting Ms. Harris. “We need to elect a slate that is the adults in the room.”

Senator Mark Kelly, the Arizona Democrat who is also a Navy veteran and former astronaut, introduced Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz. It was the second time this week that a finalist in Ms. Harris’s running-mate sweepstakes introduced her at a rally. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro did the same in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Mr. Kelly said Mr. Trump had “zero respect for any of us who have worn the uniform.” Mr. Trump’s allies have raised questions about Mr. Walz’s decision to leave the National Guard in 2005 to run for Congress.

Attendees and speakers said the huge crowd that braved scorching desert temperatures on Friday was a sign that Democrats, after months of gloom, finally had momentum on their side in Arizona.

“It may be a little warm outside,” said Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, “but based on the energy in this arena, I know it’s Donald Trump feeling the heat.”

The story Harris capitalizes on momentum in Arizona for what the campaign calls the largest rally yet first appeared on the New York Times.