LAS VEGAS — Large crowds, wild applause, jubilant speeches — and unsolicited Republican counterprogramming.
Those were recurring themes in the first major campaign tour of Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as the new Democratic ticket toured five key states last week to get to know each other.
The march kicked off with a raucous rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday, hours after Harris announced Walz as her running mate. She then marched in Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada. Planned stops in Georgia and North Carolina were canceled by Tropical Storm Debby.
The tour was a way to help both candidates introduce themselves to voters, particularly independents and swing voters in states where Democrats are in a tight race against Republican nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.
It was also a way for Harris and Walz to get to know each other better.
A look back at the progress of the campaign:
Size matters
Thousands of people flocked to Harris’ campaign rallies, a sign that her groundbreaking candidacy has generated new momentum among Democrats who were less than enthusiastic about Joe Biden’s reelection bid. Harris is the first Black woman and the first person of Asian descent to become a major party presidential nominee.
According to campaign figures, 12,000 people attended rallies in Philadelphia and Eau Claire, Wisconsin. There were 15,000 in the Detroit area and Glendale, Arizona. On Saturday, more than 12,000 people were in a university hall in Las Vegas when officials suspended admissions because people were getting sick waiting outside in 100-degree heat to get through security. About 4,000 people were still in line when the entrances were closed, the campaign said.
For Lance Jones, a Tucson native who attended the Arizona rally, it felt like “the tables have turned with Harris and Walz.” He predicted his state would “go from red to purple to blue.”
Those numbers have irked Trump, who regularly draws thousands of people to his own rallies.
“Oh, leave me alone,” he said at a news conference when asked about Harris. “Nobody’s ever had as many people as I have.”
Republican counter-programming
The Republican ticket didn’t just weigh in from afar: Vance tried to keep up with his Democratic rivals during the first days of their tour, making appearances in Philadelphia and Detroit hours before the Democrats arrived in those cities.
But after Harris and Vance landed around the same time in Eau Claire on Wednesday, the Republican got off his plane and headed to Air Force Two.
Vance later joked about the bold move, saying he had “a little fun” trying to “test my future plane.” Air Force Two would become his primary means of transportation if he and Trump are elected in November.
Campaign speeches
Harris and Walz delivered essentially the same speeches — rich with personal biography — from rally to rally, with some tweaks to tailor their remarks to a particular audience and state.
In her Michigan speech, Harris added a few lines about fighting for workers and the benefits of the union movement. In Arizona and Nevada, where immigration is a major concern, she drew on her experience as a prosecutor, telling the crowd that she had taken on transnational gangs, drug cartels and traffickers when she was attorney general of California.
“I’ve sued them case after case, and I’ve won,” Harris said.
In Las Vegas, where the economy relies heavily on the hospitality sector, she promised to work to eliminate federal taxes on tips for restaurant and other service workers. Trump, who floated the same idea months ago, posted on social media that she was a “copycat.”
Harris closed her rallies by asking people what kind of country they wanted to live in, before calling them to action and declaring: “When we fight, we win.”
Walz, largely unknown outside the Midwest, has detailed his personal story of service in the National Guard and his years as a high school teacher and football coach, as a congressman and governor. In a campaign partly focused on restoring reproductive rights, he says he and his wife, Gwen, underwent years of in vitro fertilization treatments before the birth of their daughter, Hope.
The essential applause lines
Each candidate has lines that get the crowd going
— “Listen to me when I say I know the Donald Trump guy,” Harris said, describing the kind of people she pursued as a prosecutor.
— “Even though we wouldn’t make the same choice for ourselves, there is a golden rule: Mind your own business,” Walz says, explaining what he sees as the Midwestern approach to private, personal decisions such as whether to have an abortion.
“We’ll sleep when we’re dead,” Walz says, urging the audience to give it their all during the few days left in the campaign.
New buzzwords: “joy” and “weird”
Walz introduced both words into the campaign. Even before he joined the Democratic ticket, his description of Trump and Vance and their policies as “bizarre” had gained traction. Harris herself has used the description repeatedly.
As Walz says: “Nobody asks for this weird shit.”
Walz also credits Harris with “bringing joy back” to politics, and Harris herself has described the Democratic ticket as being made up of “joyful warriors.”
“Lock him up”
At several stops, the crowd began chanting “lock him up” at Trump, an echo of chants Trump campaign audiences used against Democrat Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign.
Harris has a comeback plan ready to get things moving. “Wait. Let the courts handle it. We’re going to beat him in November,” she said.
Likewise, she had a ready response to disruptions caused by protesters angry that the administration is not doing more to protect Palestinians during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
As she told them in Arizona: “I respect your voices, but we are here to talk about this race in 2024.”
Who counts?
At each stop, Walz reminded people of the countdown to Election Day, Nov. 5.
On Friday in Phoenix, it must have seemed like a blur: He was off by a day when he set the countdown at 87, instead of 88 days.
He’s not the only one who matters.
A Girl Scout troop greeted the vice president at the Wisconsin airport on Wednesday, 90 days before the election. Excerpts of their conversation overheard by reporters suggest they may have been discussing summer plans.
Harris was heard responding: “I plan on going somewhere in 90 days.”
Bonus stop
Harris made one last stop Sunday — San Francisco — before returning to Washington. This time, it was to raise money for her election campaign.
House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, joined Harris for the event, which the campaign said was expected to draw 700 people and raise more than $12 million.
Associated Press writer Gabriel Sandoval in Glendale, Arizona, contributed to this report.
