In an fiery speech a day after securing enough Democratic delegates to win the party’s nomination, the vice-president sought to frame the contest against Trump as a choice between starkly different visions for the country, casting his as regressive and backward-looking and hers as optimistic and forward-looking. “Do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law or a country of chaos, fear and hate?” she asked, drawing roaring applause and chants of “Kamala” – reflecting an enthusiasm that has eluded Democrats in recent months.
As Harris arrived in Milwaukee, the two most powerful Democrats in Congress, the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, and the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, threw their support behind Harris during a joint press conference in Washington DC.
“Democrats are moving forward stronger and more united than ever before,” Schumer told reporters on Tuesday, adding that he had seen a “surge of enthusiasm from every corner of our party” since Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race and endorse his vice-president.
In short order, Harris consolidated support among the party, ending weeks of internal drama following Biden’s calamitous debate performance last month that exacerbated voters’ concerns about the 81-year-old president’s fitness to serve another four years – and a discussion over who could replace him if he bowed out.
Fears of a messy contest for the nomination never materialized, as members of Congress, party activists, labor leaders and would-be rivals lined up behind Harris. The campaign – which she inherited from Biden – was renamed, and has raised an astonishing $100m in 36 hours.
At the rally on Tuesday, Harris drew a sharp contrast between herself, a history-making prosecutor, and Trump, the first president ever to be convicted of a felony.
“I took on perpetrators of all kinds: predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain,” she said to roaring applause. “So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”
She added: “I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week.”
During a visit to campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday, Harris acknowledged that the last few weeks had been a “rollercoaster” but sought to project calm and a sense of continuity. She announced that Jen O’Malley Dillon would continue to lead the campaign and that Julie Chávez Rodriguez would remain in her role as campaign manager.
Promising a “people-powered campaign”, Harris told supporters in Milwaukee that “building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency”. She also vowed to stop Republicans’ “extreme abortion bans”, saying that Democrats “trust women to make decisions about their own body”.
Tuesday’s event was scheduled even before Biden dropped his bid for the presidency, but took on renewed resonance as Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket at an extraordinary moment in American politics.
Just days before, Republicans left their party’s convention in Milwaukee, projecting confidence about their prospects in November after nominating Trump just days after he survived an assassination attempt, along with his running mate, the 39-year-old senator from Ohio, JD Vance. As Democrats called on their party’s leader to step aside, Republicans emerged energized and united.
Surveys taken since Biden’s withdrawal have shown a nail-bitingly close contest, with Harris running marginally stronger than Biden was against Trump. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday found Harris opened up a small two-percentage-point lead over Trump.
On Tuesday, the Trump campaign’s pollster Tony Fabrizio circulated a memo warning of a “Harris Honeymoon” that would see a temporary rise in public opinion before Republican attacks on her begin to sink in. While acknowledging “the situation we find ourselves in today is totally uncharted territory”, he insisted the “fundamentals of the race stay the same” and Trump remains in a strong position to win in November.
Danielle Butterfield, executive director for Priorities USA, one of the largest liberal Super Pacs, said Biden’s decision to end his re-election bid had given Democrats an opening to turn the contest into a referendum on the former president.
“Without an incumbent on the ticket, we believe we have a renewed chance to make this election about the future,” she told reporters during a briefing on Tuesday. The group’s data showed Harris was exciting key Democratic constituencies, especially among Black and Hispanic voters and young people.
Republicans quickly pivoted to the vice-president. Trump has already assailed Harris, a former California senator, as “dangerously liberal”, part of Republicans’ effort to tie her to Biden’s record on the economy and immigration, the Democrats’ weakest issues. This week, House Republicans were weighing whether to bring to the floor a resolution condemning her handling of the border as vice-president, even though her mission was to address the “root causes” of migration, not immigration policy.
“She’s the same as Biden but much more radical,” Trump said on Tuesday, on a call with reporters, aimed at hammering Harris over border security and immigration. “She’s a radical left person and this country doesn’t want a radical left person to destroy it.”
“That’s all he’s got?” Harris’s husband, the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, said of Trump’s attacks during a visit to a reproductive rights clinic in McLean, Virginia, earlier in the day. There, he raised Trump’s legacy of appointing the conservative justices who ended the constitutional right to an abortion, which he said paved the way for a “post-Dobbs hellscape”.
Wisconsin is considered one of the “blue wall” battleground states that is critical to the Democrats’ hopes of winning the White House in November. Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 and four years later Biden clinched the state.
“The path to the White House goes through Wisconsin,” Harris told the raucous crowd.
By the time Harris took the stage in Milwaukee on Tuesday, the high school where she spoke was standing room only. A campaign official said organizers received so many requests to attend the event that they were forced to find a larger venue at the last minute.
“I’m glad Joe Biden is passing the torch,” said Sue Fearson, a longtime Democratic party voter who said she had been worried about what might happen if Biden stepped down – but warmed to the idea once it seemed clear Harris would take over at the top of the ticket.
“I’m trying to be in the moment,” said Kami Graham, a 51-year-old secretarial worker who attended the rally. “I feel confident and excited. She knows what to do and she will get the young vote that the Democrats need.”
For Olivia Della Rosa, who is 18 and votes absentee from Brazil, the 2024 presidential election will be her first opportunity to vote.
“It’s very exciting,” said Della Rosa, who attended the rally with her grandmother, who lives in Milwaukee. “I can’t wait for the debate – I’m looking forward to Harris bringing down the hammer.”
David Smith contributed to this report