Early Harris-Walz meetings produce ‘joy’ and big crowds

Large crowds, lines of applause, talk of joy – and some unsolicited counterprogramming from the Republicans.

These were common themes during the first major campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as the new Democratic ticket swept through five swing states on a familiarization tour last week.

They opened with a boisterous rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday, hours after Harris announced Walz as her running mate. From there, it was a march through Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada. Planned stops in Georgia and North Carolina were washed out by Tropical Storm Debby.

The tour was intended to help both candidates introduce themselves to voters, particularly independents and undecided voters in states where Democrats are locked in a neck-and-neck race with Republican nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio.

It was also a way for Harris and Walz to get to know each other better.

A look back at the campaign:

Size matters

Thousands of people have flocked to Harris’ campaign rallies, a sign that her groundbreaking candidacy has generated new momentum among Democrats unenthusiastic about President Joe Biden’s re-election bid. Harris is the first Black woman and the first person of Asian descent to be nominated by a major political party for president.

By the campaign’s count, 12,000 people showed up for rallies in Philadelphia and Eau Claire, Wisconsin. In the Detroit area and Glendale, Arizona, the numbers were 15,000. In Las Vegas, more than 12,000 people packed a college arena Saturday when authorities blocked access after people got sick while waiting outside in 109-degree heat to get through security. About 4,000 people were still in line when the gates closed, the campaign said.

For Lance Jones, a Tucson resident who attended the Arizona rally, it felt like “the tables were turned with Harris and Walz.” He predicted his state would “go from mostly red to purple to blue.”

Those crowds irritated Trump, who regularly draws thousands of people to his own rallies.

“Oh, give me a chance,” he said at a news conference when asked about Harris. “Nobody has had crowds as big as I have.”

Republican Counterprogramming

Not only did the Republican ticket weigh in from afar, Vance sought to shadow his Democratic rivals during the opening days of their tour, appearing in Philadelphia and Detroit hours before the Democrats arrived in those cities.

But after Harris and Vance landed in Eau Claire around the same time on Wednesday, the Republican stepped off his plane and walked to Air Force Two.

Vance later joked about the in-your-face action, saying he had a “little fun” trying to “check out my future plane.” Air Force Two would become his primary mode of transportation if he and Trump are elected in November.

The stump speeches

Harris and Walz delivered essentially the same speeches at each meeting, with plenty of personal biography, with some tweaks here and there to tailor their remarks to the particular audience and state.

Harris added lines about fighting for working people and the benefits of organized labor to her remarks in Michigan. In Arizona and Nevada, where immigration is a major issue, she invoked her background as a prosecutor to tell the crowd that she had gone after transnational gangs, drug cartels and smugglers when she was attorney general of California.

“I have prosecuted them in case after case and I have won,” Harris said.

In Las Vegas, where the economy relies heavily on the hospitality industry, she pledged to work to eliminate federal taxes on tips for restaurant and other service industry workers. Trump, who floated the same idea a few months ago, posted on social media that she was a “copycat.”

Harris closed her rallies by asking people what kind of country they want to live in, then calling them to action, declaring, “When we fight, we win.”

Walz, largely unknown outside the Midwest, has delved deeply into his personal story, from serving in the Army National Guard and his years as a high school teacher and football coach to serving in Congress and serving as a governor. In a campaign aimed in part at restoring reproductive rights, he recounts that he and his wife, Gwen, underwent years of in vitro fertilization treatments before their daughter, Hope, was born.