Election 2024: Kamala Harris, Tim Walls Rally Across Midwest

Romulus, Mich. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris announced she and her new running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walls, the “happy warriors” against Donald Trump on Wednesday spent their first full day campaigning together across the Midwest. They got an unusual glimpse of how hot the area can be when they overlap on a Wisconsin tarmac. Republican Vice Presidential Candidate JT Vance.

Democrats visited Wisconsin and Michigan, hoping to drum up support among younger, diverse, labor-friendly voters who have been instrumental in helping the president. Joe Biden Win the 2020 elections.

“As Tim Walls likes to point out, we’re happy warriors,” Harris said at the day’s first rally in Eau Claire. Contributing to that sentiment, the Harris campaign said it raised $36 million in the first 24 hours after announcing Walls as his running mate.

The vice president said the pair were optimistic about the future, unlike former president and Republican White House nominee Trump, whom he accused of being stuck in the past and favoring a confrontational style of politics — even as he criticized his opponent.

“Someone who suggests that we should overturn the Constitution of the United States should never get the chance to sit behind the seal of the United States again,” Harris said, her voice rising.

Dan Miller of Pelican Lake, Wisconsin, one of the 12,000-plus Eau Claire rally attendees, said Biden “has been an incredible president, but he’s not the same ambassador.”

“And sometimes you need a better ambassador,” Miller said. “That’s it Kamala.”

Later, at an evening event in an airport hangar outside Detroit, where the campaign announced to a crowd of 15,000, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — often tipped as a future presidential candidate — “We need a strong woman in the White House. About a bad time.”

“This election is going to be a fight,” Harris said at the same event. “We love a good fight.”

The swing was especially important for Harris as Biden’s winning coalition four years ago became a focal point over the summer — especially in Michigan. Democratic factions About Biden’s manipulation Israel-Hamas conflict.

With the president now out of the race, leaders of the Arab American community and major labor unions say they are encouraged by Harris’ choice of running mate. Adding Walls to the ticket was a consolation Some tensionsHarris signaled to some leaders that he had heard of another leading contender for the vice presidency, Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania.

“The party is recognizing that they have a coalition that they need to rebuild,” said Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, a large Arab American community. “Choosing Walls is another sign of good faith.”

However, lingering differences were on display during Harris’ Michigan speech, when he was interrupted by protesters opposing Israel’s fight with Hamas. First, Harris told those trying to disrupt him, “I’m here because I believe in democracy and that everyone’s voice matters.”

That’s an answer Similar to Biden, who often interrupted his rallies, saying protesters should be allowed to speak before being removed by security. Harris, however, quickly moved to drastic action, continuing, “But I’m talking now.” This elicited cheers from most of the audience.

“If you want Donald Trump to win, say so,” the vice president continued to the protesters. “Otherwise I’ll talk.”

The protesters were eventually escorted away, but Harris shouted at each other before a tense confrontation between supporters and counter-protesters.

Trump, meanwhile, insisted on wooing Midwestern voters with his appeal Vance, an Ohio senator, as his running mate. Vance seals the Harris-Wallace ticket with his own Wednesday appearances at Michigan and Wisconsin.

Vance’s campaign plane landed nearby and taxied into the distance while Harris was still welcoming a group of visiting Girl Scouts at the Chippewa Valley Regional Airport in Wisconsin. Harris posed for a group photo with the women, while Vance stepped away and began walking to Air Force Two, trailed by his security detail.

The vice president eventually got into his motorcade, which drove away before they could make contact. However, given the carefully scripted nature of campaign schedules, it was unusual for the pair to come so close to doing so.

“I wanted to see my future flight,” Vance told reporters later, meaning he would travel on Air Force Two if he and Trump are elected in November. He also criticized Harris for not holding press conferences since becoming a presidential candidate.

“If those people want to call me something different, I call it a badge of honor,” Vance said, responding to a moniker Walls used to describe the Minnesota governor online in the days before Harris tapped him as his running mate.

Walls had some critical words for Vance in both Wisconsin and Michigan, but directed most of his sharp words at Trump, saying the former president “makes a mockery of our laws, he sows confusion and division among people, to say nothing of the job he’s done as president.”

Walls emphasized that he and Harris promote the neighborhood and the community at large, saying his state’s football fans cheered for Detroit’s longest-running NFL team that made the most recent Super Bowl: “Vikings fans are proud of the Lions.”

The momentum may be important in Detroit, where leaders are nearly 80% black It had warned for months Administration officials say voter apathy could cost them a city that is usually a stronghold for their party.

NAACP Detroit Branch President Rev. Wendell Anthony said the excitement in the city right now is “mind blowing.” He compared it to Barack Obama’s first presidential election in 2008, when voters waited in long lines to elect the nation’s first black president.

Some Democratic leaders in Michigan worried that picking the wrong running mate would slow that momentum and fracture the recent alliance. began to consolidate.

Arab American leaders who hold Significant influence Because of a large presence in metro Detroit, Michigan, they have been vocal against Shapiro because of his past comments on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Those leaders specifically pointed to comments he made about protests on university campuses earlier this year, which he felt were unjustified by comparing the actions of student protesters to those of white supremacists. Shapiro, who is Jewish, has been critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while remaining a staunch supporter of Israel.

Osama Siblani, publisher of Dearborn-based Arab American News and a prominent leader of Michigan’s large Muslim community, was among those who met with White House adviser Tom Perez in Michigan last week. Perez keeps in touch with some beloved leaders High officials traveled With Biden to mend relations with the community.

Ciplani said he met with Perez for more than an hour on July 29 and said that if Harris chose Shapiro, it would “shut down” any future conversations.

“Not taking Shapiro was a good step. It opens the door a little bit more for us,” Ciplani said.

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Cappelletti reports from Michigan. Associated Press writers Mark VanCleave in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Tom Krisher in Detroit, Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, and Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.