(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Kamala Harris assailed Republican Donald Trump in her first rally since launching her bid for the White House, characterizing their contest as a choice between two starkly divergent agendas for the US economy.
Harris said Americans faced “two different visions for our nation, one where we are focused on the future, the other focused on the past,” during a campaign stop in swing-state Wisconsin on Tuesday intended to reintroduce herself to voters and convince them she can take on Trump in November’s election.
Harris said she would “proudly put my record” against Trump’s and vowed that “building up the middle class will be a defining goal” of her presidency.
The likely Democratic nominee touted her agenda as one that would focus on extending health care, child care and paid family leave to all Americans — seeking to counter the economic anxiety among voters that is a central issue of the campaign and one of her party’s biggest electoral liabilities.
“I tell you why we’re not going back, because ours is a fight for the future,” Harris said. “We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity, not just to get by, but to get ahead, a future where no child has to grow up in poverty, where every worker has the freedom to join a union.”
Harris was thrust into the political fray after President Joe Biden announced Sunday he would not seek reelection and endorsed his No. 2 for the top spot on the Democratic ticket. That set up a whirlwind two days that have seen Harris secure the backing of nearly every major Democrat and raise more than $100 million. By Monday night, a majority of delegates had also pledged to support her at the party’s convention in August.
The Milwaukee rally marks a new phase in an already turbulent campaign that has seen an attempted assassination of Trump and a Democratic revolt that managed to push their incumbent off the ticket. Harris must now convince voters she can mount a winning campaign, with just over 100 days before Election Day.
Two fresh polls showed Harris closing in on Trump. The Democrat led the Republican by two percentage points in a Reuters/Ipsos survey taken Monday and Tuesday, compared to the two-point deficit Biden faced against Trump last week. An NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll conducted Monday found Trump in front of Harris by one point. Both results were within the polls’ margin of error.
Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio downplayed the bump as the result of a temporary “Harris Honeymoon” that “will last a while until the race settles back down.”
On Tuesday, Harris leaned into her past work as a prosecutor to lambaste Trump, the first former president in US history convicted of a felony.
“I took on perpetrators of all kinds: predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain,” Harris said. “So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”
Democratic Coalition
The vice president enjoys a head start in terms of campaign operations by inheriting Biden’s operations and donors. Biden has vowed to continue campaigning on her behalf, insisting he will remain “fully engaged” and he plans to address the nation on Wednesday at 8 p.m. from the Oval Office about his decision to stand down as the Democratic nominee.
Still, Harris faces a formidable challenge with polls showing Trump still retains a lead — albeit diminished — against his new Democratic challenger.
Overtaking him in the race will require Harris to reassemble the coalition of moderate and progressive voters that propelled Biden to the White House four years ago and overcome voter frustration with the administration’s handling of the economy and a surge in migrants on the US-Mexico border that has become a flashpoint for a new national debate over immigration.
Earlier: GOP Looks to Seize On Wisconsin Voters’ Gloomy Views of Economy
Economic issues loom large in Wisconsin, which just last week hosted the Republican convention, and where a majority of voters still think the state economy is on the wrong track — with even more saying so about the national economy, — despite some signs of prosperity, including one of the lowest jobless rates in the country, in May, and bigger pay gains.
Harris highlighted a list of Democratic priorities, intended to ensure the party — riven by cracks over Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, the economy, and dismay over the administration’s progress on other priorities — is united ahead of November.
Harris cast November’s vote as a “fight for freedom,” telling voters that “the baton is in our hands” and also kept abortion rights front and center, vowing to “stop Donald Trump’s extreme abortion bans because we trust women to make decisions about their own body.” The vice president said if Congress passed legislation restoring Roe v. Wade’s protections, she would sign it as president.
Abortion rights is a winning issue for Democrats, as Republicans struggle to secure votes among suburban women who have shown waning enthusiasm for another Trump term — and one on which the vice president has been a vocal advocate.
And she sought to bolster turnout in cities such as Milwaukee, where Democrats must convince Black voters, whose support for the administration has softened, to reject Trump. Turnout in cities such as Milwaukee will be essential to Democratic hopes of retaining their Rust Belt “Blue Wall” in November.
“The path through the White House goes through Wisconsin,” Harris said. “To win in Wisconsin we are counting on you right here in Milwaukee.”
(Updates with new polls starting in eighth paragraph)
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