WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris makes her first visit to a key swing state Tuesday after winning enough support from Democratic delegates to win her party’s nomination to challenge former President Donald Trump, two days after President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid.
As the Democratic Party continues to rally around her, Harris heads to Milwaukee, where she will hold her first campaign rally since launching her campaign Sunday with Biden’s endorsement. Harris has raised more than $100 million as of Sunday afternoon and has won the support of Democratic officials and political groups.
Tuesday’s visit was planned before Biden’s campaign ended but took on new resonance as Harris prepares to reclaim her party’s torch from Trump and seeks to project calm and confidence after weeks of Democratic confusion over Biden’s political future.
The visit comes a week after the Republican National Convention wrapped up in the city, and as Harris works to sharpen her message against the Republican nominee with just over 100 days until Election Day. Wisconsin is part of the Democrats’ “blue wall” of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that is key to their 2024 plans.
The vice president previewed the themes that will be central to her campaign against Trump on Monday during a stop at her campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, comparing her experience as a prosecutor to Trump’s felony convictions — “I know the type of Donald Trump,” she said — and casting herself as an advocate for economic opportunity and abortion access.
“This election will present us with a clear choice between two different visions. Donald Trump wants to return our country to a time when many of us did not yet have full access to freedom and equal rights,” she said in a statement responding to the AP delegate count. “I believe in a future that strengthens our democracy, protects reproductive freedom, and ensures that every person has the opportunity not only to get by, but to get ahead.”
“I am grateful to President Biden and all members of the Democratic Party who have already placed their trust in me, and I look forward to taking our cause directly to the American people,” she added.
As of Monday night, Harris had the support of far more than the 1,976 delegates she would need to win the first-round election, according to the AP delegate count. No other candidate was named by a delegate contacted by the AP.
The AP is not calling Harris the presumptive new nominee, however. Convention delegates are still free to vote for their candidate of choice at the August convention or if Democrats hold a virtual roll-call vote before that gathering in Chicago.
The AP’s tally is based on interviews with individual delegates, public statements from state parties, many of which have announced that their delegations overwhelmingly support Harris, and public statements and endorsements from individual delegates.
Harris was expected to be joined by prominent Wisconsin elected officials, including Gov. Tony Evers, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Attorney General Josh Kaul, Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski and Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler, as well as state labor leaders.
