Kamala Harris campaigned in Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital and college city where Democrats hope to turn out enough voters to swing the election in their presidential candidate’s favor.
“We know it’s going to be a tough fight all the way to the end,” Harris said. “We’re behind in this race and we have some tough fights ahead of us.”
Wisconsin voters won the state by narrow margins in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. Donald Trump won the state by about 22,000 votes in 2016, and Joe Biden narrowly defeated Trump in 2020 by just 20,000 votes.
Polls so far in Wisconsin have Harris and Trump neck and neck. Three polls out this week have highlighted just how close the race in the state is: The AARP/Marist College and Quinnipiac University polls have the race virtually neck and neck, with Harris leading Trump by just one point each.
Throughout her campaign, Harris has emphasized her support for abortion rights, a centerpiece of her campaign and an issue that has galvanized young voters.
“That’s immoral,” Harris said of the many anti-abortion laws that were enacted after Roe v. Wade was overturned. “Let us agree that we don’t have to abandon our faith or deeply held beliefs to agree that the government shouldn’t tell women what to do.”
Harris recounted meeting with the mother of a young woman in Georgia who died of sepsis after being denied abortion care.
“Amber Nicole Thurman,” Harris said. “I promised her mother that I would call her by her name every time.”
The candidate who wins Wisconsin’s popular vote will receive all 10 of the state’s electoral votes, giving the state a disproportionate say in the presidential election, and groups such as Madison’s large college-age population will play a key role in determining the election’s outcome, some of whom attended Friday’s rally.
“It’s really nice to see people who are really happy,” said Kaitlin Olson, a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After Biden’s poor performance in the debate with Trump, Olson said, “I thought, ‘This is scary.’ Now that Kamala is running, I’m like, ‘OK, let’s have some more joy.'”
“I think we’ll have a bigger turnout than we expected,” said Jake Reismer, a freshman who took a bus from campus to the rally with Olson and a group of students.
The Democratic-coordinated campaign has hired seven full-time campus organizers and youth-organizing coordinators across the state, according to a source familiar with Harris’ personnel efforts in Wisconsin. Madison-based campus organizer Kelly Connor said the campaign has been met with such enthusiasm that it even hosted a bonfire to ceremonially burn copies of rigged district maps that Wisconsin abandoned this year after years of progressive and Democratic party organizing.
“We have a lot of volunteers who have never volunteered before but want to get out and go door-to-door,” Connor said.
The influence of young people in Wisconsin was on full display when college students en masse elected Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2023, giving the justices a liberal majority. At the center of the race was abortion access, which has been embroiled in legal turmoil since the expiration of Roe v. Wade triggered a 175-year-old ban in the state.
“Students know what the stakes are,” Connor said. “This election is fascism versus democracy, and students will do whatever it takes to ensure that Donald Trump never sets foot in the White House again.”
