WORT 89.9FM Madison

Vice President Harris Rallies Madison Voters

Campaign officials say the Veterans Memorial Coliseum reached capacity at over 10,000 people last Friday, when Vice President Kamala Harris came to town. The event had plenty of local and state officials, brat shirts, and plenty of waiting. Image courtesy: Erik Schwerdtfeger / WORT News.

Broadcast on:: 23 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

The rally was VP Harris's fourth stop in Wisconsin since President Biden stepped out of the race in July, but it was her first campaign stop since then in the Democratic stronghold of Madison. Harris supporters flocked to the Coliseum by foot, by bike, by bus, and by car, jamming up traffic on John Nolan Drive for most of the afternoon and evening. More than 10,000 people were at the rally, according to a Harris campaign official. And during his speech, U.S. Representative Mark Pocan shouted out the massive crowd and took a jab at former President Trump. What a crowd. You know, Donald Trump says Democrats can only have large crowds because of AI. I'll tell you what, let's do this for Donald. Let's hear from AI today. Let's hear from all the students who are here today. Give a nice shout out. How about, do we have any union members here today? Any fellow members of the LGBTQI plus two-year-olds? How about African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Americans, and African Americans? We're the women in the audience. And how about the straight white men who know that Trump and Vance are just real? And AI is really good. While attendees waited several hours for the VP to arrive, the other speakers kept the energy high while DJ Nick Nice played all the favorites, like jump around, hop to go, and run the world. Wisdom's chair Ben Wickler called on Dane County voters to volunteer and support all Democratic candidates down the ticket. We live in the state that tips wrote of the last two presidential elections, the tipping point state of Wisconsin. We are here in Wisconsin now, and we have time, the most precious thing that money cannot buy. In Wisconsin, everyone in this room are wanting to know that if you personally recruit three people to vote in this election, and everyone in this room does the same thing, that is more than Donald Trump's margin of victory in 2016, and that is more than Joe Biden's margin of victory in 2020, this room right now, everyone here, you can name the spotlight. The Harris Wall's campaign opened their 15th office in Dane County earlier this month, next to the UW Madison campus. And the county's growing population, according to a recent article in the New York Times, is a boon for the Democratic Party. Almost 90% of registered voters in Dane County cast their ballots in 2020, with three quarters of the vote going to President Biden and VP Harris. Madison's population is still growing. That's one factor in Madison's projected budget shortfall in 2025, according to city finance leaders. Here's Madison Mayor Satyroads Conway, who spoke with WORT ahead of her speech on Friday. You know, I don't know those people that have moved here. I don't know how they're going to vote, but given the demographics of Madison and Dane County generally, I would expect that we are only going to increase the margin by which Democrats win the county. In a poll released today, independent news orc Wisconsin watch found Harris's strongest lead in the state so far. They pulled 800 likely voters after the Harris Trump debate earlier this month, finding Harris with a seven-point lead over Trump. But Harris told the crowd Friday that they can't be complacent. And we know this is going to be a tight race until the very end. So let's not pay too much attention to the polls because let's be clear. We are the underdog in this race and we have some hard work ahead of us. But here's the thing, we like hard work. The Democratic Party has seen a resurgence of enthusiasm following Biden's exit from the race. A phenomenon some attendees described while speaking with WORT on Friday. Would you mind stating and spelling your name for me? Sure. Penny, P-E-N-N-Y, Robins, R-O-B-B-I-N-S. Keith Johnston. I'm volunteering for the Harris-Walls campaign here. My name is Nancy Coello. Folks have often said since Biden dropped out and Harris took over, there's been a change in enthusiasm, a rush of enthusiasm. Is that something that you've noticed? Absolutely. I mean, I have consummate respect for President Joe Biden. He's done incredible things for this country. But I think there was enough concern about his ability to make another four years possible that it was a very brave and selfless thing that he did. He put his country before his own personal enjoyment of being president and we as a nation owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude. And it has allowed us now to focus on joy, which is such an exciting change. Night and day. Night and day. And it's wonderful. And it just has to continue because we're in a bubble here in Madison and we don't represent the rest of Wisconsin here. So we can't be complacent. So people need to get out and vote. At a minimum, you have to vote. True duty. Absolutely. I think that's absolutely true. I mean, I am an older voter, but I was worried a lot about a Biden presidency, you know, trying to rerun for presidency, not that I don't think his policies are good or anything like that. I just was really worried about his ability to attract the younger voters and to relate to them in a way that was going to get them out to vote. And I think Harris has that. In Hillary Clinton's campaign for president in 2016, she didn't make any stops in Wisconsin. Now this is definitely not the case for Harris. Do you think this is a good strategy? And if so, why? I think it's a fantastic strategy. I think that Madison is a great place to stop. I mean, once she always has the majority of support here, but I also think the enthusiasm and the excitement that this rally will generate will make a big difference across the state. I mean, I think you have to pay attention to Wisconsin in order to, you know, turn people's minds. And I think there's already some of that happening. We've seen it. I think that her path to the White House runs through Wisconsin. The blue wall is critical to electoral college results. So she needs Wisconsin. She needs Michigan. And I'm actually from Michigan. I think that I would love to say this could be a blowout, but I also don't want us to get complacent. So we have to put our heads down and do the work. Interim Dane County Executive Jamie Coon, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, and Governor Evers also spoke Friday. And while the energy remained high all evening, Harris got the biggest cheer. I am incredibly honored to introduce a lifelong champion for workers. Please welcome our next president of the United States. That was Wisconsin Teamsters Joint Council 39 President Bill Carroll, who introduced Harris to the crowd. The local union, alongside several others across the country, has endorsed Harris Walls. It's a break with the National Union, which declined to endorse a presidential candidate for the first time in nearly three decades. Harris's speech touched on a range of issues, from investing in the middle class, to affordable housing, to health care. She spent the most time on reproductive rights, sharing the story of Amber Thurman, a woman who died in 2022, due to complications after taking abortion pills. She waited 20 hours for treatment, but her care was delayed because of Georgia's abortion restrictions. Harris vowed to restore Roe v Wade should she be elected president in November. Pro-Palestinian protesters were there, holding up signs while folks waited and bumper to bumper traffic outside, and later interrupting Harris's speech. The vice president didn't react, but W-O-R-T witnessed a pair of volunteers confronting protesters and tearing a banner out of their hands before calling security. For W-O-R-T News, I'm Fay Parks. Her turns Madison Delier contributed field reporting to this story.