Vice President Kamala Harris took the fight to former President Donald Trump in the battleground state of Wisconsin on Tuesday, her first campaign stop as the presumptive Democratic nominee, telling voters they face “a choice between freedom and chaos” in November.
Speaking to more than 3,000 cheering supporters near Milwaukee, where Republicans wrapped up their nominating convention for Mr. Trump last week, Ms. Harris said her 105-day sprint to Election Day “is a fight for the future.”
“I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week,” Ms. Harris said of Mr. Trump. “We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by but to get ahead.”
The vice president pledged to “stop Donald Trump’s extreme abortion bans because we trust women to make decisions about their own body and not have the government tell them what to do.”
She leaned heavily into her background as a prosecutor to draw a contrast with Mr. Trump, who was convicted on 34 felony counts in a New York fraud case. Ms. Harris reminded supporters that she has taken on “perpetrators of all kinds,” prompting chants of “Lock him up!” — an echo of Mr. Trump’s rallies when he ran against Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Ms. Harris has already locked up enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination sometime before the national party convention begins in Chicago on Aug. 19. The campaign said it raised about $100 million in the first 36 hours after President Biden bowed out of his reelection bid on Sunday.
SEE ALSO: Doug Emhoff says his wife, VP Kamala Harris, will defeat Trump’s ‘lies’ and ‘gaslighting’
She has tapped former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and his law firm to vet potential running mates, including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.
Wisconsin Republican leaders tagged Ms. Harris as an “extreme liberal” who is out of step with most voters in the swing state.
“Kamala Harris’ favorables are as bad as Joe Biden’s,” Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming told reporters ahead of her visit. “So they are exchanging one bad candidate for another bad candidate in the hope that the people of this state and this country don’t notice where she actually stands on the issues.”
Ms. Harris’ husband, second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, predicted an aggressive campaign against Mr. Trump during a stop in Northern Virginia on Tuesday. Asked by reporters to respond to Mr. Trump’s nicknames for his wife, such as “Lyin’ Kamala,” Mr. Emhoff replied, “That’s all he’s got?”
“We’re going to prosecute the case against Donald Trump and his lies, his gaslighting, his — during COVID, the dereliction of duty, inciting an insurrection and all those other things,” Mr. Emhoff said.
Ms. Harris is polling roughly the same as Mr. Biden among Black and Hispanic voters, raising concerns for Democrats who hope the first Black woman at the top of their ticket will rally minority support.
SEE ALSO: Harris starts vetting vice presidential candidates
Less than 48 hours after taking over the Democratic campaign, Ms. Harris wasn’t polling much better than Mr. Biden. Pollsters cautioned that it was early and no one had released a comprehensive poll since she became the presumptive nominee.
Priorities USA, a liberal advocacy organization, polled Black and Hispanic voters in the hours after Ms. Harris began her presidential campaign. It found her polling slightly better than Mr. Biden but within the margin of error.
The poll revealed that Mr. Biden had lost about 8 percentage points of the Black vote and roughly 9 points of the Hispanic vote since 2020. With Ms. Harris, Democrats were down 4 points among Black voters and 6 points among Hispanics.
“There is an improvement, but it shows a lot of work needs to get done,” Nick Ahamed, deputy director of Priorities USA, told reporters on a conference call to discuss the poll results.
A coalition of Black and Hispanic voters sent Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris to the White House in 2020, but Mr. Trump has peeled away some of that support.
Split Ticket, an election analytics company, polled Black voters in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The poll found that 76% of Black voters would vote for Mr. Biden and 17% would vote for Mr. Trump. Those numbers didn’t change when respondents were asked whether they would vote for Ms. Harris over Mr. Trump.
A Suffolk University/USA Today poll of Black voters last month also showed little difference in their support for Ms. Harris. Roughly 61% of Black voters in Michigan viewed Mr. Biden as favorable, and 31% viewed him unfavorably. In contrast, 60% of Black voters viewed Ms. Harris favorably, and 24% viewed her unfavorably.
Among Pennsylvanians, 59% of Black voters viewed Mr. Biden favorably and 33% viewed him unfavorably. Roughly the same number (55%) viewed Ms. Harris favorably and 30% viewed her unfavorably.
“There is not a marketable difference. The Black voters in Michigan and Pennsylvania dislike her less, but she’s not surpassing Biden in terms of favorability,” said David Paleologos, director of political research at Suffolk University.
Other swing states also showed a tough road ahead for Ms. Harris among Black and Hispanic voters.
Ms. Harris is underperforming Mr. Biden in the swing state of Georgia, where she trails Mr. Trump by 4.6 percentage points, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll conducted the week before Mr. Biden bowed out. The poll found that neither Ms. Harris nor Mr. Trump’s numbers changed among Black voters compared with Mr. Biden.
“There are some very modest signs of improvement on the Democratic side with Harris, but those are quite modest, which is not all that unexpected,” said Christopher Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion. “Despite having changed candidates, the fundamentals and polarization in this election are fairly unchanged despite the dramatic shift in players.”
Recent polls of battleground states revealed that Mr. Trump could win more than 20% of Black voters in a head-to-head race with Mr. Biden. If that holds against Ms. Harris, it would amount to the highest Black vote for a Republican since Richard Nixon’s 30% in 1960.
Mr. Trump won roughly 12% of the Black vote in 2020 but has repeatedly made fresh pitches to the Black community, a segment of the electorate that has long overwhelmingly backed Democrats.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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