Early Harris-Walz rallies draw large crowds, talk of ‘joy’ and unsolicited GOP counterprogramming

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Big crowds, lines of applause, talk of joy — and some unsolicited counterprogramming from 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.

Applause phrases for beginners

Each candidate has sentences that excite the audience

— “Listen, I know the Donald Trump type,” Harris says, describing the types of people she went after as a prosecutor.

— “Even if we wouldn’t make the same choice for ourselves, there’s a golden rule: Mind your own business,” Walz says, explaining what he calls the Midwest approach to personal, private decisions, such as whether to have an abortion.

— “We’ll be asleep when we’re dead,” says Walz, urging the public to give it their all while the campaign lasts.

New buzzwords: ‘joy’ and ‘strange’

Walz introduced both words on the campaign trail. Even before he joined the Democratic ticket, his description of Trump and Vance and their policies as “weird” struck a chord. Harris herself used the description a few times.

As Walz says, “Nobody asks for that weird crap.”

Walz also credits Harris with “bringing the joy back” into politics, and Harris herself described the Democratic candidates as “joyful warriors.”

‘Lock him up’

At several stops, the crowd began chanting “lock him up,” directed at Trump, echoing the chants Trump’s campaign crowd directed at Democrat Hillary Clinton during the 2016 race.

Harris has a ready-made comeback to get things moving again. “Just wait a minute. Let the courts handle that. We’re going to beat him in November,” she says.

She also had a ready-made response to disruptions by protesters angry that the government has not done more to protect Palestinians during Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.

As she told them in Arizona, “I respect your votes, but we’re here now to talk about this race in 2024.”

Who’s counting?

At each stop, Walz reminded people of the countdown to Election Day on November 5.

It must have been a blur on Friday in Phoenix: He was off by a day when he set the countdown to 87 days, instead of 88.

He’s not the only one who counts.

A group of Girl Scouts greeted the vice president at a Wisconsin airport on Wednesday, 90 days before the election. Clips of their conversation overheard by reporters suggested they may have been discussing summer plans.

Harris responded, “I plan on going somewhere in 90 days.”

Bonus stop

Harris had one last stop Sunday — San Francisco — before heading back to Washington, this time to raise campaign money for the fight ahead.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) attended the event with Harris, which the campaign said attracted 700 people and raised more than $12 million.

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Gabriel Sandoval, an Associated Press editor in Glendale, Arizona, contributed to this report.