Madison residents Raja Maunnamalai and his wife, Jenny Maunnamalai, turned out to Vice President Kamala Harris’ Madison rally on Friday to show their support for the candidate and to give their two young children an early “civics lesson.” Like Harris, Raja and Jenny are both the children of immigrants: Raja’s parents, says Jenny, are from the same part of India that Harris’ mother is from.
“We’re really excited to see a presidential candidate who looks like us — that’s special — [and] who’s fighting for the things that are important to our family,” says Jenny. Raja, a UW-Platteville chemistry professor, says that housing and public education are two important issues to him: “It’s hard for anyone to buy a home in Madison. We have two kids, and public education and childcare are important.”
With 10,500 attendees, the Alliant Energy Center was at capacity. Harris supporters danced to recent hits and oldies, belted out call-and-response chants with some of Wisconsin’s most prominent Democrats and erupted into deafening cheers when Harris came on stage. During her approximately 30-minute speech, Harris pitched a campaign of hope and joy — one she contrasted with the “extremely serious” consequences for the country were Donald Trump to return to office.
It was Harris’ first visit to Madison since launching her campaign in July after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. She warned that there was little time until Nov. 5. “Forty-six days until the election,” Harris said. “This is going to be a tight race until the very end.”
“The election is basically here and we have work to do — to energize, to organize and to mobilize,” she added.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler, who warmed up the crowd before Harris took the stage, sounded similar warnings. “This is the only state where four of the last six presidential elections have come down to less than one percentage point,” Wikler said.
For Wisconsin’s presidential race, all eyes are on Madison and Dane County. While Democrats can depend on the city’s reliably-blue voter turnout, Republicans like the Dane County GOP chair Brandon Maly and former Gov. Tommy Thompson see potential in the city and county to shave off the margins that often lead to defeats for their party in the state. For either party, gains in the area would be an asset; Madison is Wisconsin’s fastest-growing city and Dane County is Wisconsin’s fastest-growing county.
“The vice president is one of us,” said Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, the night’s second speaker, who shared that Harris lived in Madison from ages 3 to 5.
Rhodes-Conway praised the funding provided by the Biden administration for infrastructure improvements in Madison, including the city’s bus rapid transit system, which has received $110 million in federal funding for its first route. Toward the end of her speech, she also highlighted Harris’ proposal to add three million homes across the nation by the end of her four-year term: “We are ready for Kamala Harris and her plan to lower housing prices right here in Madison and across this great country.”
Slim electoral margins are a near-guarantee in Wisconsin, one of six swing states up for grabs in the election. Biden won Wisconsin by 20,600 votes in 2020; Trump won the state by 22,748 votes in 2016. Even voters adhering to single issues — including the pro-Palestinian protesters who demonstrated outside and inside Harris’ rally — could swing the results. Dahlia Saba, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine UW-Madison, was one of the protesters inside the Alliant Center on Friday.
“The goal of these protests is to get Kamala Harris to call for an arms embargo, or to get the Biden-Harris administration to enact an arms embargo,” said Saba in an interview after the rally.
During Harris’ remarks, Saba and her fellow protesters held up a banner that read, “Fund Housing, Not Genocide.” Events staff yanked the banner from their hands and escorted the protesters, whom Harris did not acknowledge, out of the event without causing a disruption. Saba says it’s a continual reminder that there’s a “lack of basic respect” from the Harris campaign toward meeting with the protesters. Saba is prepared to withhold a vote for Harris if the nominee does not agree to withhold arms to Israel to “stop the genocide in Gaza.”
Still, Harris’ expected outsized performance among student voters — many of whom danced to Gen Z hits like Chappell Roan’s “HOT TO GO!” on Friday night — may provide the campaign some comfort. In 2020, support for Biden in student-area wards in Madison ranged from 77% to 93%. Democrats look to maintain that level of turnout — as part of their efforts, Madison College has opened its first College Democrats chapter, according to a statement from the campaign.
For Mandeep Kaleka and Amanjot Kaur, UW-Madison students from Neenah and Brookfield respectively, the prospect of a Harris-Walz administration is exciting. Neither had attended a presidential rally before, and it will be their first time voting in a presidential election.
Kaur says she’s most energized by the issues of reproductive rights and healthcare. Kaleka says Harris would “take away barriers for people of color and women that are just systemic in nature. That’s a big pillar of her campaign, and who she is as a person.”
Both say Harris’ identity was important to them as well. Kaur noted that Harris would be the first woman president and first South Asian and Black woman president.
“It’s just historic, the first, hopefully, woman president, coming to Madison, Wisconsin,” Kaleka said. “I was like, ‘I have to go and see her speak. I’m just really excited about her campaign.’”
