Harris gives Democrats a jolt in a critical part of swing-state Wisconsin

MADISON, Wis. — More than 40 people recently gathered in a converted coffee shop in Madison, Wisconsin, to organize in a neighborhood on the city’s west side in honor of Vice President Kamala Harris.

A month ago, fewer than 10 people showed up for a similar event for President Joe Biden, with some telling organizers they were no longer willing to knock on doors in Wisconsin’s famously liberal state capital.

The excitement among loyal Democrats that was fueled by Harris replaces Biden has reinvigorated the party’s base in Wisconsin, particularly in areas where the vice president needs to win big margins to win a swing state that Biden captured over Republican Donald Trump.

“Kamala Harris is the defibrillator the Democratic Party needed,” said John Anzalone, who was Biden’s top campaign pollster in 2020.

Dane County, which includes Madison, is the fastest growing county in the state, thanks to the combination of the University of Wisconsin and the working population of the state capital.

In addition to Dane County’s growth, Democratic turnout and the percentage of votes Democratic candidates have won have also increased. Biden won 75% of the vote in 2020, beating Trump by 181,000 votes in the county while the state received less than 21,000 votes.

But in the final month of Biden’s campaign, voters in Madison’s Democratic-leaning neighborhoods talked more about whether the party would have a competing presidential candidate than about their desire to volunteer, said Ben Wikler, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

“That created a world where volunteers started dropping off. The door-to-door conversations in the last few weeks left people more worried than energized,” Wikler said. “That engine felt like it was sputtering. And now the engine is roaring.”

Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming said at a news conference Tuesday that Harris was having “a little honeymoon.”

“But I don’t think it will last long,” he said.

He went on to say that Biden was suffering so much “across the state and in every Democratic stronghold” that Democrats had “nowhere to go but up.”

Interviews with more than a dozen Madison Democrats indicate that Harris’s focus on specific party priorities, combined with her younger age and more lively style, have helped restore their enthusiasm.

Daniel Zaydman, 24, pointed to Harris’ public call in March for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamasa conflict that has divided the Democratic base. Biden has also pushed for a ceasefire while continuing to support arms transfers to Israel as it wages a war in Gaza that has left at least 39,000 Palestinians dead.

“She had spoken out against the genocide in Gaza, not just in the last few days, but months ago,” said the former state lawmaker, who noted that he is Jewish. “That’s when I thought, Wow, the vice president is ahead of the president on this.”

“She was in Biden’s shadow, and nobody in my age group liked his position on Gaza. And that’s been a huge stumbling block for voters in my age group,” he said. “But that’s not the case anymore.”

According to Sam Heesacker, Harris has become noticeably louder and more persuasive in her advocacy for abortion rights, a top priority for the 28-year-old education student at the University of Wisconsin. Biden struggled to answer during his debate with Trump about the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed a nationwide right to abortion. Trump nominated three of the justices who voted to overturn Roe.

“She’s more progressive than Biden and calls it what it is: reproductive freedom,” she said as she took a break from studying at a coffee shop on Madison’s busy State Street.

Shea Head felt a new sense of optimism when she saw Harris being visible and supporting the priorities of the LGBTQ+ community.

From a corner seat in a West Side café, the 59-year-old education researcher said she read Harris speaking last spring about the 20th anniversary of gay marriage in California. Head recalled Harris’s more public profile on the issues after seeing the candidate do a voter registration ad on “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” last week.

“She was talking about gay rights and trans rights. It’s clear that in that situation, she’s speaking to a demographic that knows our rights are at risk,” Head said. “She’s speaking to me in a way that Biden didn’t, or maybe couldn’t as convincingly.”

These observations reflect the broader enthusiasm for Harris among Democrats across the country.

An AP-NORC poll conducted after Biden dropped out of the race found that about 8 in 10 Democrats would be somewhat or very satisfied if Harris became their party’s nomineeThat’s a big change from another AP-NORC poll conducted before Biden withdrew, which found just 37% of Democrats were very or somewhat satisfied that he was the likely Democratic Party presidential nominee.

Strategists from both parties point to other college towns in swing states where they think Harris will energize younger adults and traditional liberals. In Michigan, there are Ingraham County, home to Michigan State University, and the Democratic capital of Lansing, and Washtenaw County, home to the University of Michigan. Biden won them with 65% and 72% of the vote, respectively, and won Michigan by less than 3 percentage points in 2020.

Though he lost North Carolina by less than 2 percentage points, Biden won 67% of the vote in Wake County, a booming region around the capital Raleigh and the region’s Duke University, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina.

Anzalone, Biden’s former pollster, said there was fear within the party even before Biden decided not to run that a whole universe of younger voters would open up who might not vote or consider going to third-party candidates.

“I was worried that even loyal Democratic voters would be apathetic about their choices,” Leah Kechele, 38, a nursing instructor, said between Zoom meetings at a popular Madison café. “I think she can galvanize them.”

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Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux, Associated Press polling editor in Washington, contributed to this report.