MILWAUKEE — A few weeks ago, Milwaukee's basketball arena was filled with ardent supporters of former President Donald Trump and decorated with his "Make America Great Again" slogan.
On Tuesday, it was recast in the image of Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign, with one word dotting the audience in thousands of signs and multiple giant billboards in Fiserv Forum: "Freedom."
Harris has leaned into the word as an underlying message of her campaign, recasting Democratic priorities such as abortion access, voting rights and gun violence prevention in terms of freedom. On Tuesday, the vice president delivered the message while on a swing-state detour from her convention in Chicago, underlining the importance of Wisconsin and its 10 electoral votes.
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"We are witnessing across our nation a full on attack on hard-fought, hard-won, fundamental freedoms and rights across our nation, like the freedom to vote, the freedom to be safe from gun violence, the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride," she said.
Harris also leaned into abortion access, arguing that her ticket is pushing for "the freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government telling her what to do."
"You know, I don't know what's up with these people, by the way. I mean, they just seemingly don't trust women," she said. "Well, we trust women."
Harris' rally at the same place where Trump accepted the GOP nomination weeks earlier at the Republican National Convention also highlighted the renewal of Democratic optimism since then.
In mid-July, relieved Republicans rallied around Trump as he made his first campaign remarks after the former president narrowly escaped death in an assassination attempt.
At the same time, the Democratic Party was in turmoil, split over whether President Joe Biden should stay in the 2024 race after a disastrous debate performance.
Republicans "left here riding high. They were feeling good. This thing was over," Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said at the rally. "Well, trust me, Milwaukee, a hell of a lot can change in four weeks."
More than 15,000 people attended Tuesday's rally, according to the Harris campaign.
Partway through Harris' speech, she paused her remarks to call for a medic for a rallygoer near the stage, instructing the audience to form a path.
"We're going to be OK," she said, when the situation appeared to be being resolved. "This is who we are, right? This is what we're about, looking out for each other."
Rallygoers began filing into the arena more than four hours before Harris was set to speak. They wore wristbands that flashed red, white and blue, dancing to the music before Harris took the stage.
“This is a history making moment, and being a woman of color, I’m excited to see how far this is going to go, I just want to show my support and be a part of history," said Linda Fair, a Beloit, Wisconsin, resident who attended the rally.
Harris’ rally coincided with the second night of the Democratic National Convention 90 miles away. Harris and Walz beamed in briefly at the end of delegates' ceremonial roll call, and they were expected to travel back to Chicago after their remarks, according to multiple campaign officials familiar with their movements.
Milwaukee was supposed to be the site of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, but Covid precautions led to most of the programming being held virtually.
"By coming back to Milwaukee and coming back to Wisconsin, I think the vice president is specifically showcasing that she hasn't forgotten about Milwaukee. She hasn't forgotten about Wisconsin. She hasn't forgotten about the voters here," said Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, a Democrat.
The Harris campaign considered the rally to be an opportunity to engage directly with battleground state voters near the convention, according to a source familiar with the campaign's thinking.
Wisconsin, a swing state, is a top target for the Harris campaign after the Biden ticket flipped the state blue in 2020. Democrats won the state by about 20,000 votes in the last presidential election, eking out a victory by a fraction of a percentage point.
In order to win Wisconsin, the Harris campaign must tell "the positive story" of her work in the Biden administration and "paint a positive vision for the future," Johnson said.
At the same time, many attendees zeroed in on the election in terms of how Harris compared to Trump.
"I would vote for a sentient avocado over the bad orange man," said a Madison resident who attended the rally with her two children.
Her 19-year-old son was leaning toward voting for Harris, though he said he was "not thrilled about either of the candidates."
"I think she has relatively better character than Donald Trump," he said. "On policy, I don’t find her to be particularly impressive, but neither is Trump.”
