In front of her biggest campaign crowd yet, Vice President Kamala Harris cast herself Friday as the champion of America’s middle class with the prosecutor’s temperament to protect against what she described as the exploitive policies at the heart of former President Donald Trump’s plans for a second term.
More than 15,000 supporters at Glendale’s Desert Diamond Arena watched as the redrawn Democratic presidential ticket made their first appearance in Arizona and reaffirmed the state’s status as a battleground.
Harris outlined an activist agenda that leaned heavily on her tenure as California’s attorney general, saying she fought against price-fixing and fraud and will do so again from the White House.
“When I am president, I will continue that work to bring down prices. I will take on big corporations that engage in illegal price-gouging. I will take on corporate landlords that unfairly raise rents on working families. I will take on Big Pharma and cap the cost of prescription drugs for all Americans,” Harris said.
“And all of this is to say, unlike Donald Trump, I will always put the middle class and working families first.”
With her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and an appearance from Arizona’s U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, who was one of three finalists for the VP job, Harris conveyed party unity as Democrats try to hold the state they won by their narrowest margin in 2020.
Harris presented the election as a choice between opportunity and exclusion; an economy focused on defending the middle class or tax cuts tilted to the wealthy; a commitment to what she cast as women’s health care or a Trump-led rollback on abortion rights nationally.
Harris repeats the refrain, 'Not going back'
Harris repeated an already common refrain at her rallies, promising that Americans “are not going back,” an implicit rejoinder to Trump’s retro-focused promise to make America great again.
She promised to sign a bill to restore federal abortion rights, as well as voting-rights protections and a ban on assault weapons.
“So much is on the line in this election,” she said. “Understand, this is not 2016, and this is not 2020. You know, this time around the stakes are even higher.”
Harris said that’s because the conservative-leaning Supreme Court recognized at least some of Trump’s argument for presidential immunity.
That means, she argued, he is “effectively immune no matter what he does in the White House” and comes as Trump has said he wants to be a dictator for a day on Day One and vowed to weaponize the Justice Department.
Harris addressed border security, one of the biggest issues in Arizona, and invoked the failed bipartisan border-security bill that U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., helped broker.
She pointedly noted her support for that bill, which failed earlier this year after former President Donald Trump urged Republicans not to give President Joe Biden a legislative victory.
Harris linked border security with immigration reforms to make the case for what she wants.
“We know our immigration system is broken, and we know what it takes to fix it: comprehensive reform that includes strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship,” she said.
“But Donald Trump does not want to fix this problem. Let’s be clear about that. He has no interest or desire to actually fix the problem. He talks a big game about border security, but he doesn’t walk the walk.
“Earlier this year, we had a chance to pass the toughest bipartisan border security bill in decades. But Donald Trump tanked the deal because he thought by doing that it would help win an election. But when I am president, I will sign the bill.”
It extended a message that her campaign formalized earlier in the day with a new ad taking on border security, an issue where Trump has found broad appeal.
The Harris ad notes her years as a California prosecutor who “took on drug cartels and jailed gang members for smuggling weapons and drugs.” It casts her as the right person to tackle what it called a “tough” problem.
Walz attacks Trump's record
During his fiery remarks, Walz aggressively attacked Trump and his record in office.
“As governors, he froze during COVID and pitted us in a Hunger Game against our neighbors to try and find basic life-saving need, and because of him our neighbors died,” Walz charged. “By failing to address COVID, he drove the economy into the ground.
“And let’s be clear, the statistics and the facts are clear about this: Violent crime was up under Donald Trump. And we don’t even have to count his crimes in that to make it up.”
Walz described Project 2025, a manifesto for a Trump term written by veterans of his first administration and other conservatives, as taking freedoms, rigging the economy for the “super-rich” and underfunding veterans.
If Trump is criticized for plans that provide troubling details, Harris is catching criticism for too few.
But policy details on matters such as inflation or managing U.S. interests in wars fought by Ukrainians and Israelis seemed to matter less on Friday than the chance to avert a second Trump administration.
In a statement before Harris and Walz spoke, the Republican National Committee attacked what it called their "dangerously liberal tour."
"Arizona is already bearing the brunt of failed Border Czar Kamala Harris’ open border policies, but the dangerously liberal Harris-Walz ticket wants to further open the floodgates to migrant criminals and deadly fentanyl,” RNC Chair Michael Whatley said.
"As Arizona Border Patrol agents have been run over, gashed, and assaulted, Harris and Walz would grant illegals with safe haven in sanctuary cities and invest in a ‘ladder company’ to help them enter the country. In November, Arizonans will reject their radical open border agenda when they vote for President Trump."
The Glendale crowd was likely the largest of any Democratic gathering in Arizona in recent years and offered a visual exclamation point in a state where Trump has often pointed to robust turnout.
Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee, drew a crowd estimated at 10,000 to Sun Devil Stadium in November 2016. Barack Obama, the 2008 nominee, drew an estimated 12,000 to Veterans Memorial Coliseum in January 2008.
Biden only visited Arizona once during his 2020 victory and it included a speech before a few dozen socially distanced supporters during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Perhaps more than most presidential campaign events in Arizona in recent years, the Harris-Walz rally offered proof that the Democrats who helped narrowly tip the state to President Joe Biden four years ago remain engaged and brimming with newfound energy.
For at least a year, Arizona, and perhaps the presidential race itself, had seemed headed for a Trump win until Biden ended his reelection bid last month and threw his support to Harris.
Recent polling suggests Arizona remains one of the steepest climbs on the electoral map for Harris, but there are signs it has moved in her direction, along with other expected swing states. On Thursday, for example, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report moved Arizona, Georgia and Nevada from “lean Republican” to toss-ups.
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