Vice President Kamala Harris held her most attended political rally alongside former President Barack Obama in Georgia on Thursday.
About 20,000 people attended a packed rally for the vice president at James R. Hallford Stadium in Clarkston, according to a Reuter report citing the Harris campaign. The second-largest political rally in support of Harris brought together about 17,000 supporters in Greensboro, North Carolina, early last month.
The capacity of Thursday’s rally venue, which often hosts outdoor high school sporting events, is estimated at 15,600. However, images and videos of the Harris rally shared online appear to show some of the rowdy crowd standing on the field, making the number of campaign participants realistic.
Besides Obama, Bruce Springsteen was at the rally and performed briefly before the former president and vice president took the stage. Clarkston is located in DeKalb County, which is one of the most Democratic counties in Georgia, with over 83% of voters supporting President Joe Biden in 2020.
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Steven Cheung, a campaign spokesman for former President Donald Trump, said in an email to News week that Harris had to “play second fiddle” to Springsteen to increase his crowd size.
“Kamala Harris had to hang around and play second fiddle to Bruce Springsteen to help him grow his crowd size,” Cheung wrote. “Meanwhile, President Trump is the star of the show and has led more than 100,000 people at his rallies.”
Although Trump often seems obsessed with crowd size at rallies, there is no evidence to support the former president’s repeated claims that his rallies were attended by 100,000 supporters or more.
Earlier Thursday, the former Trump headlined a rally before a smaller but enthusiastic crowd in Tempe, Arizona. The event held in the 5,000-seat indoor Mullett Arena appeared to be at or near capacity in images shared on social media.
Margo Martin, Trump’s deputy communications director job a video addressed to
“THOUSANDS of Arizona Patriots lined up to see Trump in TEMPE!” wrote Jacob Chacon of Turning Point Action. “It’s on Arizona State’s campus, in one of the strongest Democratic strongholds in the state. It’s a game-changer.”
News week reached out to the Harris campaign via email Thursday evening.
The candidates appear destined for a close race in at least seven swing states that could potentially determine the winner of the election, including Arizona and Georgia. Recent polls in Arizona and Georgia have largely shown Trump holding a small lead over Harris, although Harris leads in some surveys.
Recent polling averages compiled by FiveThirtyEight show Trump up 1.7 percentage points in Arizona and 1.5 points in Georgia as of Thursday night. Although Trump’s advantages were small, they currently represented the largest lead for either candidate in any battleground state.
