Vice President Kamala Harris emphasizes 'a new way forward' as she campaigns at Resch Expo

Jesse Lin

Green Bay Press-Gazette

 

ASHWAUBENON — Vice President Kamala Harris introduced herself to greater Green Bay on Thursday during her first visit to northeastern Wisconsin this election season with a personal tidbit.

"When I was 5 years old, I lived in Wisconsin. Now every time I land, Gov. Tony Evers is there to say, 'Welcome home,'" Harris said.

The Democratic presidential nominee condensed months of campaign rhetoric into a 28-minute speech to reinforce the message of a new path ahead on Thursday night in front of 4,000 supporters at the Resch Expo.

That new trail would be forged by sticking to the tried and true formula: contrasting against Trump on the issues Wisconsinites say are top-of-mind this election because the stakes are higher than they've ever been.

The rally in the Green Bay area was her third of the day in Wisconsin with earlier stops in Milwaukee and La Crosse.

 

 

Harris was introduced by Jim Ridderbush, the vice president of the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1473 and former Green Bay City Council candidate, who hinted that Harris would touch on the economy, and Democratic 8th Congressional District candidate Kristin Lyerly, whose comments preluded Harris' remarks on reproductive health.

Harris promised she would "rid unnecessary degree requirements for federal jobs and challenge the private sector to do the same." The vice president also said she would "have Medicare cover the cost of home health care."

The Harris campaign and surrogates have repeatedly tried to yoke Trump to Project 2025,a suggested conservative playbook written by the Heritage Foundation that the former president has repeatedly denied affiliations with. Local surrogates have made a range of truthful, exaggerated, and false claims about the 922-page mandate's content and effects on Wisconsinites should they be implemented.

While Trump's official campaign agenda and the Heritage Foundation agree on some issues, such as the idea that "the federal Department of Education should be eliminated," both Harris on Thursday night and Project 2025 called Trump out by name over tariffs and free trade.

Harris called Trump's proposal to increase tariffs a "Trump sales tax" and argued that her economic plan —building 3 million homes in her term, expanding child tax credits, and capping the cost of prescription drugs — would be more beneficial to Americans than Trump's.

The nonpartisan Tax Foundation updated its analysis of both Trump's and Harris' tax policies, and found that Harris' tax plan would reduce long-run GDP by 2% and cost the equivalent of 786,000 jobs; by the same analysis, it found Trump's policies would increase long-run GDP by 0.8% and create 597,000 jobs at the cost of losing $3 trillion in revenue over 10 years. The foundation's analysis slightly diverges from previous findings by the Wharton Business School that projected both Harris' and Trump's tax plans would reduce GDP and average wages, and would cost jobs; both studies found the national deficit would grow significantly more under a second Trump presidency compared to four years under Harris.

Harris continued to cast herself a fighter for ordinary Americans, highlighting her middle-class background in the personal moments where she seemed the most vulnerable of the evening.

"My mother was sick and I took care of her," Harris recalled in hushed tones while talking about expanding Medicare to cover home health care. "You know what it's like. It's about cooking food for folks that they hopefully want to eat. It's about giving them clothes that won't scratch them. It's about dignity. But the reality is it is expensive if you don't have the ability to do it. There are far too many people who have to quit their job to take care of their elder relatives. And that's not right."

"Folks, we know the election is here. We need to mobilize and energize," Harris said.

"Do we believe in freedom? Do we believe in opportunity? Do we believe in the promise of America?" Harris asked the crowd before letting the words, "When we fight" hang in the air for the crowd to catch.

"We win," the crowd threw back.

And the song that opened Harris at the Democratic National Convention when she accepted her nomination — "Freedom," by Beyoncé — closed out her first visit to northeastern Wisconsin.