MADISON, Wis. – More than 40 people filed into a converted coffee shop on a recent Saturday morning in Madison, Wisconsin, to organize in a West Side neighborhood for Vice President Kamala Harris.
A month ago, fewer than 10 people attended a similar event for President Joe Biden. Some told organizers they were no longer willing to knock on doors in Wisconsin’s famously liberal capital.
Excitement among loyal Democrats, illuminated by Harris replacing Biden has excited the party’s base in Wisconsin, especially in areas where the vice president is expected to win large margins to carry a swing state that Biden flipped from Republican Donald Trump.
“Kamala Harris is the defibrillator the Democratic Party needed,” said John Anzalone, who was the lead pollster for Biden’s 2020 campaign.
Dane County, which includes Madison, is the fastest-growing county in the state, driven by the combination of the University of Wisconsin and the state capital’s workforce.
In addition to Dane County’s growth, Democratic turnout here and Democratic candidates’ voting percentage have also increased. Biden won 75% of the vote in 2020, defeating Trump by 181,000 votes in the county while carrying the state for less than 21,000.
But in the final month of Biden’s campaign, voters responding to his doors in Madison’s most heavily Democratic neighborhoods were talking more about whether the party would have a competitive presidential candidate than about their desire to volunteer, the president said. Wisconsin Democratic Party, Ben Wikler.
“This created a world where volunteers began to fall off. The conversations on the doorsteps over the past few weeks have left people more worried than energized,” Wikler said. “That engine seemed to be choking. And now the engine is roaring.”
Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming said at a news conference Tuesday that Harris was experiencing “a little honeymoon.”
“But I don’t think it’s going to last,” he said.
Furthermore, he said, Biden was suffering “across the state, in every Democratic stronghold,” to the point that Democrats had “nowhere to go but up.”
According to interviews with more than a dozen Madison Democrats, Harris’ attention to the party’s specific priorities, as well as her younger age and livelier style, helped restore enthusiasm.
Daniel Zaydman, 24, pointed to Harris’ public call in March for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, a conflict that divided the Democratic base. Biden has also pushed for a ceasefire, while continuing to support sending weapons to Israel while waging a war in Gaza that has resulted in at least 39,000 Palestinian deaths.
“She spoke out against the genocide in Gaza, not just in the last few days, but months ago,” said the former state legislative aide, who noted that he is Jewish. ahead of the president on this.
“She was in Biden’s shadow and no one in my age group liked his position on Gaza. And that’s been a huge obstacle for voters in my age group,” he said. “But not anymore.”
For Sam Heesacker, Harris is noticeably more vocal and convincing in her defense of abortion rights, a top priority for the 28-year-old University of Wisconsin education curriculum graduate student. Biden struggled during his debate with Trump to complete an answer about the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed the national right to abortion. Trump appointed three of the justices who voted to overturn Roe.
“She’s more progressive than Biden, calling it what it is: reproductive freedom,” she said, taking a break from her studies at a cafe on Madison’s busy State Street.
Shea Head felt a new sense of optimism, noting Harris’ visibility supporting the priorities of the LGBTQ+ community.
The 59-year-old education researcher said, sitting in the corner of a West Side cafe, that she read last spring where Harris spoke about the 20th anniversary of same-sex marriages held in California. Head recalled Harris’ more public profile on the issues after seeing the candidate do a voter registration plug on “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” last week.
“She was talking about gay rights and trans rights. Obviously, she knows that in this situation she is speaking to a population that knows our rights are in danger,” said Head. “She’s speaking to me in a way that Biden wasn’t, or maybe she couldn’t, as convincingly.”
The remarks reflect broader enthusiasm for Harris among Democrats nationally.
An AP-NORC poll conducted after Biden withdrew from the race found that about 8 in 10 Democrats would be somewhat or very pleased if Harris became their party’s nominee. This is a big change from another AP-NORC poll conducted before Biden dropped out, which found that just 37% of Democrats were very or somewhat satisfied with him being the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president.
Strategists in both parties point to other college towns in swing states that they believe Harris will reinvigorate younger adults and traditional liberals. In Michigan, there is Ingraham County, home of Michigan State University and the Democratic capital of Lansing, and Washtenaw County, home of the University of Michigan. Biden beat them with 65% and 72% of the vote, respectively, on track to defeat Michigan by less than 3 percentage points in 2020.
Although he lost North Carolina by less than 2 percentage points, Biden won 67% of the vote in Wake County, a booming hub around the capital Raleigh and the region’s Duke University, North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina.
Anzalone, a former Biden pollster, said there was fear within the party before Biden decided not to run that there would be a universe including younger voters who might not vote or consider going to third-party candidates.
“I was worried that even loyal Democratic voters might feel apathetic about their choices,” Leah Kechele, 38, a nursing instructor, said between Zoom meetings at a popular Madison cafe.
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Associated Press Research Editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.
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