EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – Speaking to more than 15,000 supporters packed into an airport hangar in Detroit, Michigan, Vice President Kamala Harris declared, “This election is going to be a fight.”
“We love a good fight,” added Harris, who emerged as the top 2024 Democratic candidate two and a half weeks ago after President Biden gave up on his own reelection bid and endorsed his vice president as his successor.
Hours earlier, in neighboring Wisconsin, another key battleground state that is likely to determine the outcome of the presidential election between Harris and former President Trump, her newly-nominated running mate attacked Trump.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz cheered like a hometown crowd at a rally just an hour away, addressing more than 12,000 supporters who had lined up for hours along the roads and fields of mostly rural northwestern Wisconsin to see Harris and her running mate.
Kamala Harris and her new VP pick win in battleground states
Vice President Kamala Harris is greeted by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz before speaking at a campaign event, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Walz accused the former president of “seeing the world differently than we do. He doesn’t understand service because he’s too busy serving himself.”
“This man is undermining our country to strengthen his own power, making a mockery of our laws and sowing confusion and division among our citizens, not to mention his job as president,” Walz argued.
Walz, a high school teacher and football coach before entering politics, touted his Midwestern roots, telling “Packers and Badgers fans” in the crowd that he once led his teams to a state championship and bragged about being “top gun” in trap shooting three years in a row during his 12 years in Congress representing a rural Republican district in southern Minnesota.
Kamala Harris and her new VP pick win in battleground states
Hours earlier, Trump tried to portray Ms Harris and Mr Waltz as ultra-liberals in a telephone interview with Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.”
“Nobody knew how radically left-wing she was, but if you want to know the truth, he’s a smarter version of her,” Trump argued in an interview on Wednesday. “He’s probably as smart as Bernie Sanders. Maybe smarter than Bernie Sanders.”
The former president then claimed, “This is an election that wants to see this country become communist quickly, no, sooner.”
The Trump campaign planned to portray the Democratic candidate as far-left-leaning, regardless of who the vice president chooses as his running mate, a Trump campaign official told Fox News.
But Harris’ selection of Walz, a moderate congressman turned more progressive governor, on Tuesday over other more moderate vice presidential finalists, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, appeared to be a gift to the Trump campaign.
“I couldn’t be more excited,” Trump said of choosing Waltz as his running mate, adding, “When it was down to the final two, I was shocked that she didn’t choose Shapiro. I was very surprised.”
But the vice presidential nomination has been a boon for Harris’ campaign, which noted that it raised $36 million in the 24 hours after Waltz announced his nomination.
At the rally, Walz again claimed that Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, were “super creepy and weird.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, held a rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin on August 7, 2024. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
Speaking at a campaign rally just a few miles away, Vance rejected the “kook” label, saying he and Trump were “regular people who want to make this country great.”
In a moment that went viral online, Vance appeared to be trying to poke fun at the vice president as he approached Air Force Two at Chippewa Valley Regional Airport, where the senator’s campaign plane was also parked.
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“I thought I’d come by to get a good look at this plane because in a few months this could be my plane,” Vance said in front of Air Force Two.
Vance also noted that two and a half weeks after Harris replaced Biden at the head of the Democratic National Convention, she has yet to appear in any major interviews or press conferences, telling reporters, “I thought some of you might be feeling a bit lonely because the vice president is not answering questions from reporters.”
Vance also accused Walz, who served in the National Guard for nearly 25 years, of “stolen valor.” The Trump campaign launched an all-out attack on the governor, accusing him of lying about his rank and service history and abandoning his troops on the eve of deploying to Iraq.
If proven, the allegations could be explosive, as Trump campaign co-chair Chris LaCivita knows all too well.
Two decades ago, he was a leader in the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth movement, which aimed to discredit Sen. John Kerry, a Vietnam War veteran and Purple Heart recipient, before his narrow defeat to Republican incumbent George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election.
But Vance himself never saw combat: He served in the Iraq War as a Marine and worked in public affairs during his deployment.
And Trump has faced well-documented allegations for years that he dodged the Vietnam War draft as a youth by claiming to have bone spurs in his feet, which allowed him to avoid military service.
It’s not surprising that Harris and Walz have held rallies in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan so far this week, with Vance also holding an event nearby to keep them close.
These three states form the so-called “blue wall” that Democrats reliably won presidential elections in for nearly a quarter century until Trump narrowly took the White House eight years ago.
But Biden narrowly defeated Trump in 2020, winning back all three states. Harris will face Trump in the 2024 presidential election, but the states remain highly competitive.
The latest polls show the election is within the margin of error not only in the Blue Wall states, but also in other key battleground states such as Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Romulus, Michigan, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
Biden dropped out of his reelection bid on July 21 after a disastrous debate with Trump in late June raised questions about whether the 81-year-old president was physically and mentally capable of serving another four years in the White House, and there were growing calls among Democrats for Biden to end his reelection bid.
Harris did not mention her boss at a large rally in Atlanta last week, and neither she nor Walz mentioned the president at a rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
But Governor Harris, who was in Wisconsin for her sixth visit this year, began her comments by praising the president.
“I want to convey greetings from our incredible President, Joe Biden,” Harris said. “He loves Wisconsin, and I know we are all deeply grateful for the lifelong service he has given and continues to give to our country.”
After the crowd chanted, “Thanks, Joe! Thank you, Joe!” the vice president replied, “That’s right. I’m going to tell him what you said.”
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