MILWAUKEE — Democrats managed to be in two places at once Tuesday night, holding a ceremonial roll-call vote at their Chicago convention to celebrate Vice President Kamala Harris as their party’s nominee, while she herself rallied supporters roughly 80 miles north in Milwaukee.
Harris’ choice to appear in Milwaukee, the largest city in a crucial battleground state, was intentional and pointed: She stood onstage in the same arena where former President Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination last month.
For much of the evening in Milwaukee, the Harris campaign used the arena’s Jumbotron to pipe in the events taking place in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention. But after California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his state’s votes for Harris, ending the roll call of 57 states and territories, Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, marched onto the stage in Milwaukee.
For a moment, she was speaking to two packed arenas at the same time, celebrating the roll-call vote in front of tens of thousands of people, with millions more watching on screens. The two-city rally represented a significant flexing of Democratic muscle with the presidential election just 76 days away.
“We are so honored to be your nominees,” Harris said. “Together, we will chart a new way forward.”
The Milwaukee rally was just the latest event at which the Harris campaign filled a major arena with Democrats. For more than a year, they had largely stayed away from events featuring President Joe Biden, who drew crowds only in the low thousands.
Choosing Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee as the venue for Harris’ rally also served as an intentional rejoinder to Trump, who has fumed over the size of her crowds since she replaced Biden on the Democratic ticket. The campaign said about 15,000 people attended the rally in Milwaukee, and the 23,500-person convention hall in Chicago was packed.
The Harris campaign and Democrats have been trolling Trump for weeks, calling him “weird,” boasting about the size of their rallies and angering him by rolling out a policy similar to his own on eliminating federal taxes on tips. The former president — who struggles even in the best of circumstances to stay on message — has responded in sometimes bizarre fashion in public and venomously ranted about Harris behind closed doors.
Before Harris spoke, Walz took the stage to taunt Republicans and Trump for the Democrats’ Milwaukee takeover.
“Not only do we have massive energy at our convention, we’ve got a hell of a lot more energy at where they had their convention!” Walz said, adding a dig at the former president: “Oh, that one guy’s going to be so sad tonight.”
At the same time, thousands more Democrats showed up in Chicago to hear a lineup of speakers headlined by Barack and Michelle Obama, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Doug Emhoff, Harris’ husband. Organizers estimated that more than 20,000 had attended the convention’s first night Monday.
The joint events Tuesday underscored how the boundaries of traditional political conventions have changed since Democrats held their 2020 convention virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, who commuted back from Chicago for the rally, said filling arenas in two cities showed that Harris was “mobilizing people and creating enthusiasm the likes of which we haven’t seen since 2008, when Barack Obama initially ran for president.”
And he said Trump would surely notice: “To do this in the same arena where he just accepted the nomination, I think it’s going to get under his skin.”
Johnson was one of the few notable Wisconsin Democratic officials to travel back north from Chicago for the rally. The governor and other statewide elected officials remained with the state’s delegation to cast Wisconsin’s votes for Harris during the roll call, which was also broadcast in Milwaukee. Rep. Gwen Moore flew up with Harris for the rally.
“We’re doing this and that at the same time,” Gov. Tony Evers said from the front row of the Wisconsin delegation. “We’re walking and chewing gum.”
Milwaukee was selected to host the Democratic convention in 2020, but the pandemic forced the party to make the event virtual. The rally featuring Harris served as something of a makeup gesture in an important battleground state.
Trump’s inability so far to land a consistent line of attack against Harris has contributed to her rising standing in the polls. A race that seemed likely to end in Trump’s favor when Biden was on the ticket is now seen as a nail-biter. And she leads the former president in Wisconsin, according to a New York Times polling average.
But Trump’s aides have argued that Harris, who since becoming the nominee has yet to sit down for an extended interview with journalists, is experiencing a “honeymoon” phase that will end as voters learn more about her. The Trump campaign and its allies have invested in advertisements portraying Harris as too liberal, weak on the border and tied at the hip to Biden and his policies.
The theme of the Harris rally Tuesday night was “freedom,” a word that was plastered on signs and electronic billboards around the arena. Attendees were given electronic wristbands that flashed red, white and blue, creating a patriotic rhythm of color in the stands. Freedom will also be the theme of the convention speeches on Wednesday night.
Harris used her remarks in Milwaukee to lean further into what has become a sustained attack on Trump for appointing Supreme Court justices who voted to end the constitutional right to an abortion.
“Just yesterday when he was asked if he had any regrets about ending Roe v. Wade, Donald Trump, without even a moment’s hesitation — you would think he would reflect on it for a second — said, ‘No, no regrets,’” Harris said. “Bad behavior should result in a consequence. Well, we will make sure he does face a consequence, and that will be at the ballot box in November.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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