Harris, Walz rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin: Full speeches
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (FOX 9) - Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz held a rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Wednesday, a day after she named him her vice presidential pick.
What they're saying
Walz took the stage at a campaign rally in his neighboring state of Wisconsin, offering a bit of Midwestern kinship to the thousands in attendance.
"Hello, Eau Claire. Isn’t it nice to have a candidate who can pronounce the name correctly?" Walz said at the start of his speech.
During his speech, Walz went into dad mode when someone apparently began feeling ill. Walz stopped his speech to get the attendee some help, and reminded people to drink water because it was hot outside. Social media has exploded with jokes in recent weeks, calling Walz's vibe "big dad energy." According to reporters at the rally, there appeared to be several heat-related incidents, with one woman reported on a stretcher and another on the ground on the way into the venue.
Walz goes into dad mode to help person who becomes ill at rally
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Kamala Harris' vice president pick went into dad mode at the Harris-Walz Eau Claire, Wisconsin, rally when someone apparently began not feeling well. Walz stopped his speech to get the attendee help, and reminded people to drink water because it's hot out. Social media has exploded in recent weeks, calling Walz's vibe "big dad energy."
During his speech, he reintroduced himself to voters in remarks that resembled what he said in Philadelphia the day before.
When Harris took the stage, she asked for a round of applause for President Joe Biden, which led to the crowd of thousands of people chanting "Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe!"
Later, when the crowd broke out into a "Lock him up. Lock him up" chant that mirrored what Trump's supporters chanted about Hillary Clinton in 2016, Harris tried to shut it down, saying "Hold on. Let the courts take care of that. We're going to bet him in November."
She referred to herself and Walz as "joyful warriors."
Harris asked the crowd if they were ready to make their voices heard and they were ready to fight for freedom, noting "Freedom of who you love openly with pride" and "Freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body!"
"Do we believe in freedom? Do we believe in opportunity? Do we believe in America?" Harris said. "And are we ready to fight for it?"
"When we fight, we win," Harris said before leaving the stage to Beyoncé's "Freedom" song from her latest album, "Cowboy Carter," which has become the campaign's anthem.
Throughout Harris' speech, which was also similar to Tuesday's remarks in Philadelphia, she referred to her running mate as Coach Walz, a nod to Walz's time as a football coach in Mankato.
What's next
The stop in Eau Claire is part of the campaign's battleground state tour. On Tuesday, they held their first rally together in Philadelphia. From Eau Claire, Harris and Walz will head to Detroit, where they are expected to deliver remarks at a campaign event at around 5:40 p.m. CT on Wednesday.
This battleground states tour runs through Aug. 10 and will also include stops in the Research Triangle in North Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Phoenix, Arizona; and Las Vegas, Nevada.
When they arrived in Eau Claire, Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance both landed and were on the tarmac at the same time. After Vance landed, he walked over to get a closer look at Air Force Two.
Wisconsin is one of the battleground states and is considered competitive in November. President Joe Biden won by fewer than 21,000 votes in 2020.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.