The Daily - Dispatches From a Kamala Harris Field Office

Episode Date: August 8, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris’s ascent to the top of the Democratic ticket has transformed the U.S. presidential race. But the real test awaits: Will the party be able to translate that energy into a winning coalition of voters in November?Reid J. Epstein, who covers politics for The Times, discusses a group of skeptical voters in swing states who may post the biggest challenge to the vice president. Our audio producers — Jessica Cheung and Stella Tan — traveled to Wisconsin to speak to some of them.Guest: Reid J. Epstein, a reporter covering politics for The New York Times.Background reading: How Ms. Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, transformed from a little-known governor of a blue state to one of his party’s most prominent and powerful messengers.Democrats are buzzing but sustaining the impetus is the next challenge.  For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. As Kamala Harris successfully re-energizes the Democratic Party, her campaign is now trying to figure out how to translate that excitement into a winning coalition of voters in November. into a winning coalition of voters in November. Today, my colleagues travel to the swing state of Wisconsin, where a group of skeptical voters may represent Harris' single biggest challenge. It's Thursday, August 8th.

Reid Epstein, welcome back. Hi, Michael. So, Reid, from the moment that Joe Biden left this race and Kamala Harris replaced him as the presumptive Democratic nominee, the promise was that she would do better than Biden ever could against Donald Trump. But the specifics of that, of how she would do better, felt a little bit vague. And that's what we want to talk to you about today. We've had a few weeks to better understand that proposition. So what does a winning Harris coalition in November look like? And how does it compare with the support that Biden had been getting? So, Michael, I think the place to start is not two and a half weeks ago when Biden got out of

the race, but four years ago when he defeated Donald Trump and won the White House. In that race, he won a bunch of states that Trump had won in 2016. He won Michigan and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in the Midwestern blue wall states. And he won in the Sun Belt in Georgia and Arizona, and he held on to Nevada. In that election, Biden assembled a coalition with three essential elements for any Democrat to win a national election. He drove up turnout in big cities, particularly among people of color and young voters. He did better than Hillary Clinton had with college-educated voters in the suburbs. And he did something that has been trickier in the Trump era. He limited his losses among white working class and rural voters.

Biden had an image as Scranton Joe and somebody who had been in every union hall in the country and was familiar to some of these rural white voters as the type of Democrat that they used to vote for when they were voting for Democrats. So now place Kamala Harris into that same dynamic. Biden coalition to win. But she's not the same person, right? She's not an older white guy from Pennsylvania. She is a Black and South Asian woman from San Francisco. And so the question for her in the last couple of weeks has been, what elements of the Biden

coalition can she put back together or even exceed and who from his voters would be turned off by her as the candidate. And what we've seen in the last couple of weeks from Harris is that she has engendered an enormous amount of enthusiasm and excitement from precisely the part of the coalition that Biden was weakest with, young people and people of color. But one of the risks for her is that among the white working class and rural voters where Biden held down the Republican margins, that she may come across differently and be less popular than he was with some of these voters in white rural areas. Okay, well, given that, what would Harris need to do

to replicate Biden's performance with these white working class and rural communities in the swing states we're talking about? Well, let's look at Wisconsin, which I know we talk about a lot. It's a state with a lot of rural counties that fit into this dynamic that Harris will have to figure out on this campaign. And one good example is Dunn County in the western part of the state. It is a place that twice voted for Obama and then twice voted for Trump. In 2020, Trump won there by 14 percentage points, which was about 3,300 votes more than Biden received. And Harris needs to,

at the very least, match Biden's performance there, or maybe have the margin be a little bit less. You know, if she loses to Trump by 12 points and not 14, that's a small amount. But if you repeat that pattern across the 65 rural counties in Wisconsin, this is a phenomenon that really matters. It's sort of a counterintuitive way to think about how you win in that it's about minimizing your losses. You're basically saying that how little Harris loses in these white working-class rural districts really matters because it really adds up. That's right. And that's really the story of these upper Midwest states that she needs to win. The picture is pretty similar in Michigan and Pennsylvania. She has to do well in the cities and the suburbs, but she also has to make enough

inroads in these rural communities like Biden did to prevent Trump from running up margins so large that it discounts whatever she takes from the cities. And that's sort of what we're all trying to figure out right now. What does it look like for the Harris campaign to try to win over these white working class and rural voters and stitch back together the coalition that elected Joe Biden four years ago? How is her campaign trying to reach those voters? And is what they're doing working? And there's really only one way to begin to answer that, which is to be in one of these rural counties and watch it up close. Why don't I set up my computer too? Shortly after Biden dropped out of the race, my colleagues, Daily Producers Jessica Chung

and Stella Tan, traveled to Dunn County in Wisconsin, the largely white, working-class community that Reid had mentioned. Hi, good morning. Hi, good morning. How are you doing? Good, how are you? And they arrived just as the Harris campaign was kicking off an intense door-to-door outreach out there. Jessica Chung begins the story. Well, welcome, welcome. Thank you.

Glad you're here. We arrived at the Dunn County Democratic Party office just six days after Biden dropped out. This office, it's on the side of a state highway in the small city of Menominee, Wisconsin. It's wedged between a property management company and a laundromat. I would love to, like, maybe start with a tour of the offices. Like, I know it's not that big, but... Pete Huff is the county chair here, helping Democrats get elected up and down the ticket. We have everything from our county clerk's race to Congress.

One of the first things that catches my eye are all the lawn signs leaning against the wall. I see one sign on the far end there that might be a little outdated now. Yeah, we have the Biden-Harris signs. This place is a small office in the middle of a huge transition. After switching presidential candidates less than a week ago,

there hasn't even been time to print new Kamala Harris swag. What question do I get at least three times a day? It's like't even been time to print new Kamala Harris swag. What question do I get at least three times a day? It's like, when can I get my new Harris sign? And then I've seen people that are just making their own signs

that say Kamala, like arts and crafts style. But while the Harris swag hasn't shown up yet, what had started to show up were volunteers. Martha here is our volunteer coordinator. She's obviously signing people up.

Hi, I heard my name. I'm Aunt Martha, everybody. Over 50 calls me, so that can be... Aunt Martha. Well, you know, it's easier to remember my name. Everybody's got an Aunt Martha or knows one, you know. Aunt Martha is in charge of coordinating the volunteers here. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 2 to 6.

She shows me her schedule that's laid out on this big calendar sitting on our desk. And it looks pretty packed, full of people raising their hands to do phone banking and door knocking. In the week that this campaign office has transformed from one for Joe Biden to one for Kamala Harris. It's amazing. Have you seen a delusion of volunteers? Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. The money is flowing in.

And the money and the people. I can't keep this door closed. What motivated you to volunteer and not just be a voter? Is it Kamala? Oh, for sure. For sure. And did you do any kind of canvassing for Joe Biden? Absolutely not. People are coming out of the woodwork to volunteer, to donate money. I woke up Monday so happy. And I'm thinking to myself, why are you so happy? And I'm like, oh my God, it's because of Kamala. I think there's that spark that's there now, that newfound energy.

There's just an energy and a fun to it that is encouraging. They come in, they want t-shirts. They brought in her book yesterday, the Kamala Harris book. You know, we have a little library there. Basically, it was like you have two old men, you don't like either one of them. Now we don't have that. It's been fun to see some of her talking about cooking turkeys. So you've seen the memes about her? Yeah. This gal came in yesterday, the gal in the purple shirt. She said, I'm a former Republican. I want to give money to Kamala. I want to get involved. I haven't seen anything like it.

You know, even watching her first commercial gave me goosebumps. It would be so exciting to have a female president. So exciting. Yeah, I just think she comes across as one of us. With Kamala, it's been amazing. Hey, how are you? I was just saying how proud of you I was as a reformed Republican. Yeah. The challenge for the Harris campaign, of course, is to figure out how to take all that energy and turn it into votes. For Democrats in Dunn County, that means trying to convince people to support her in a place that's become largely very friendly to Donald Trump. And that's just a reality of we're in a conservative stronghold.

And I asked Pete about that. I would say it's pretty working class. I mean, we have 3M, we have ConAgra, we have Anderson Windows. You'll see signs on people's doors that say, please don't ring the bell or knock. I'm a shift worker and I'm a night shift worker. Pete's pretty realistic about the challenges facing the campaign here. We don't expect that we're going to be the place

where Harris is going to win by an overwhelming majority. But our job here is that we keep it as close as we possibly can to make sure that we keep it competitive. Remember, Harris will almost certainly lose Dunn County. The goal is for her to lose it by less than Biden did, which is about 3,300 votes. And when you boil that down, it's about 50 votes per precinct. We can do that. If we have the money, we can absolutely turn 50 votes per precinct

for Kamala. No problem. Pete says that there are a couple of key voting groups that the campaign thinks can help them do that. One is young voters. But there's another big one. Female voters in particular. So those are the ones that are going to switch and really make the difference. And that's women. So would you say that if there was a white whale in this election, the kind of voter would be a female voter? I think that absolutely. They're the most persuadable. I think so. Pete feels women are persuadable, in part because of how well women candidates have been doing statewide.

Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin has done really well in recent elections. Also, in a big Supreme Court race just last year, voters in Dunn County helped elect a liberal judge, Judge Janet Protosewicz. Pete saw both of those races up close. We know that the folks that were really backing her from our doors and from our conversations were women voters. We can follow that template from last April in this presidential election and get Kamala elected. Do you lose a white whale with Kamala now? Like you mentioned that college students and women are going to be crucial, that Kamala is helping buoy that kind of demographic of voter.

But the ones that Joe Biden carried among white voters, do you think that she might have a harder time winning over those voters than Joe Biden did? Yeah, I wish I had the magic crystal ball. But like, I don't know any Democrats that were like pro-Joe. And now they're like, oh, I'm thinking about Trump because of Kamala. It's like, that's just not a thing for us. If anything, it's that we had folks that were like on the Trump bandwagon that don't really want to be on it. But they didn't really feel like they could get off of it. And there's something now that feels like it's a different thing. Pete's saying the strategy even includes some Republicans who are looking to break away from the party and now might be willing to with Harris at the top of the ticket.

and now might be willing to with Harris at the top of the ticket. But the final piece of the puzzle, Pete says, is making sure that Democrats actually turn out to vote. He told me a story about a door he knocked on at a house not too far away. They had all the yard signs that would make you feel like it was a good door to knock on. We believe in science and all are welcome. And they had all that stuff. I knocked on the door and it was like a fairly young couple. And they were really friendly.

And I said, what do you think about Joe Biden? This is before he made the decision to drop out. And they said, like, I guess, like, not really interested. I don't know. Maybe. And it was like not the answer you want to get from a household that's like got all the right signs. It's like you're not going to vote. Why? Like really?

And it's because they just didn't feel that connection. And I guarantee like those are the folks that were, if I were to go back and say like, hey, like how do you feel about Kamala Harris? I have a feeling based based on that conversation, that it would probably be much more motivated. There's something now that feels like it's the future of our country that is Kamala Harris, and I think there's a lot of folks that just feel that freshness, and they think this is something that's actually going to motivate more people

rather than disaffect voters. Come on in. If you haven't signed in, we would love it if you signed in. So with all that in mind... Hi, everyone. Good morning. Welcome. I know most of your faces. Some of you I don't know. Pete starts to gather the volunteers in a circle. I think that we're all feeling pretty excited

about our presidential candidate. Yeah. It's a mix of seasoned pros and newbies. Some of you are new folks, and you might feel a little nervous about it, but don't feel nervous about it. It's just conversations with your neighbors. Pete tries to put them at ease and reminds them of their ultimate mission. If we can shift just a handful of votes in each voting ward in Dunn County, that's the difference between Kamala winning or not.

And so it really is that close for us. So please just know that this is actually going to make a difference. And trains them on political pamphlet protocol. So these go on doors. They do not go in mailboxes, right? Bad. Mailboxes are bad for this stuff. Before sending them out into the field.

Y'all feeling good? Okay. Kathleen's feeling good. All right. Okay. Okay, cool. So we're going to do a little break here. Those that are ready to just, like, go hit some doors and you feel good about the script, all those things, we're going to get you numbers, we're going to get you packs, we're going to get you out. And eat donuts, for please. Take donuts.

And with that, the volunteers, adorned with brochures and rubber bands in their hands, and a list of addresses, for the first time, were door-knocking for Kamala Harris. The first time they'd see how voters in this place reacted to their new candidate. And they were nervous. Oh, this is the first time I've been out since this happened. Are you optimistic? No. I'm scared. This is not going to be an easy election by any stretch of the imagination.

I mean, she's got an uphill battle. And then... Is there a way we can come with you? Oh, I mean, potentially. We leave this little campaign office to go door-knocking to with our trusty guide, Pete. Okay, great. Well, let's

go. Cool. Yeah, sounds good. You all know where it is? Um, yeah. After the break, Stella Tan brings us the rest of the story. We'll be right back. So after our visit to the Dunn County Democratic Office,

we head out to go door knocking with Pete. We're in this neighborhood with tree-lined streets and neat front lawns. Yeah, so this is Northside Menominee. It's a little bit more kind of working-class neighborhood, I would say. There's definitely some very conservative homes here. There's some very Democratic houses here. And so, yeah, it's a mixed bag here. And as we're walking through the neighborhood, you can actually see that mix.

the neighborhood, you can actually see that mix. There are lawn signs that say Trump 2024, not far from signs that say vote for Democrats. That's been a really popular sign this year. On one house, there's this black flag. It has AR weapons on there. And then down the block. Passing by a rainbow flag. A rainbow pride flag. It is pretty striking to have a pride flag on one corner and a few houses down to have a Second Amendment flag. Welcome to Menominee. But it's not these households that Pete is focused on today. Are we going to persuade them? Probably not. At this point, it's only 99 days before the election.

So Pete wants to get to the houses whose political views aren't quite so clear-cut. So yeah, we really are trying to use the voter data to focus on the households that are going to be the most influential. Because he hopes it's these homes that will be the most open to Harris. So we'll go across this road and then we'll cut down. And Pete's goal for today is figuring out how to win them over. All right, let's see if anybody's home. So I'm going to say probably not home. Yeah, I don't hear anything.

No movement. It's a warm Sunday afternoon. No signs of life. It's right after lunchtime, and for many people in this area, it's right after church service. So we'll just leave this literature packet and come back and talk to them another time. And a lot of people aren't answering their doors. In the fall, like for the November election, I'll have the Packers schedule on my office clipboard. And we don't ever knock doors during Packer games. Even the strongest of Democrats might sway their vote if we bug them when the Packers are playing.

And then finally, after striking out a few times, we find someone who is home. Hi. How are you doing? Are you Emily? I am, yes. I'm Pete. I'm with the Duncan Democrats. Her name is Emily. She says she's in her 40s and she's an office worker in the area. I'm just curious about how you're feeling about Biden dropping out. How are you feeling about Harris being the nominee potentially to run for president? Honestly, at this point, I really don't know. Yeah? I've voted since I was 18, since I've been able to vote. This is honestly the first election where I just don't know who I'm going to vote for. I need to. I need to vote. I don't want to.

It makes me sick. Yeah. Do you typically vote one way or the other, Republican, Democrat? I'm a Republican, but I've not been happy with them right now either. So I really don't know right now. This is exactly the kind of voter that Pete has been looking for, a Republican who hasn't made up her mind. And immediately, he pounces. Is it an issue that really you're focused on more than anything?

He starts bringing up all these different issues to see if anything sticks, starting with abortion. One thing that she's taken stands on is reproductive choice. Is that important for you? Or is it you're on one side or the other? I'd rather not really discuss that. Yeah, sure. Totally. Yeah, I understand. And Emily kind of shuts that door. Are there other issues that might be more motivating?

So he pivots. Some folks, it's the economy. Some folks, it's positions on public education. To schools. Kamala Harris has a pretty long track record on prosecuting and taking on big banks that were foreclosing on people's mortgages. He tries Wall Street. Focused on crime and as a prosecutor. He mentions crime.

Does that feel like a motivator for you in her resume? Not particularly. I definitely would have to read more about it. Yeah, absolutely. But none of it really seems to land. And Emily keeps coming back to one thing. It's just the extremism on both sides. On both sides? Yep. Tired of it.

Yeah. Too many people hijacking what either party, especially what the Republican Party is and has been in the past. Yeah. I just, my biggest thing, honestly, right now, either way, is I want to see people who are going to be willing to work with each other and back to let's take care of the middle class and let's stop fighting. Let's start actually working towards something. Yeah. And do you see kind of Kamala Harris as part of that or does she bring something that maybe is a little

more exciting for you? Honestly, don't know enough right now about her and where she actually stands outside of Biden. Yeah. So by the end of Pete's pitch... Thank you for your time. Really appreciate that. You guys have a good day. The results of his efforts seem inconclusive. And do you mind if I just ask you a couple of questions?

And so I hang back with Emily to try to understand more about what had turned her away from the Republican Party and whether there was anything about Harris that could win her over. Honestly, a couple years ago, if you would have asked me where I stand on certain issues, I could have told you flat out without any hesitation. Part of my views on certain issues like reproductive rights and other things like that has changed because I'm a mom. I have kids. I have kids in the school system. I see what they're dealing with every day. Some of my core values, though, are still aligned with the Republicans. But as far as the candidates they're putting forth, I'm really not happy with those candidates.

So I really don't know where I am right now. What are the things you see your kids dealing with that have sort of made you question your traditional thinking? Other kids in the area, the LGTBQ stuff is very big in the schools. There's a lot of that going on and a lot of friends and a lot of relationships and hearing what they have to say. So you're sort of wanting slightly more openness to those conversations? Yep. I think just more toward the moderate more toward you know i'd like to see the republicans which some of them are coming back and taking more of a moderate stance on some of these things that they've been firmly

you know reproductive rights those types of things coming to more of a moderate just like what i would like to see but i don don't feel good about Donald Trump in the White House again. And why not? His rhetoric is definitely had a huge part in the division in this country, that's for sure. Some of his policies I don't necessarily disagree with, but the way he conducts himself and the way he presents himself is just not,

not something I want as the head of the United States. So Emily is pretty firmly set on not voting for Donald Trump. But back when Biden was on the ticket, she didn't think he was a viable candidate either. I don't think he's physically or mentally fit to be leading this country. So when it was that matchup, it was a lot of despair, discouragement. She felt stuck. And then Harris emerged. If I had to vote today, I probably would

end up voting Democrat. But I'm not going to tell you I feel good about that either, because I don't. Otherwise, you know, I have seriously thought about just writing in a candidate at this point, too. The thing is, Emily isn't sure that Harris will offer anything different. I really don't know enough about her as a candidate for president to say one way or the other. It'll be interesting to see how she performs in debates and things coming up to see if she can keep her composure. Thank you so much. I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me. I'm grateful. Thank you. Take care. You have a good day. When I catch up again with Pete and Jess, we ask Pete how he feels the conversation went. A persuadable Republican.

Yeah. And whether he thinks he seized the opportunity to win over a Republican voter. You know, that's an interesting household where we tried a few different lines of conversation. Pete knows he's sort of throwing spaghetti at the wall. Really, the pamphlets that we have is mostly focused on the Biden-Harris administration. Pete knows he's sort of throwing spaghetti at the wall. He says one of the challenges of pivoting from Biden to Harris is that, forget about new lawn signs and swag, he doesn't even have new campaign materials on hand. And with a new candidate and a short amount of time, it can be tricky to figure out which talking points work for different voters. And we don't quite know if talking about the Biden administration is, is that something that might have turned her off?

It's not always clear to him when to link Harris to Biden and when to distinguish her from him. I think to replay that conversation, replay that door a little bit more, would maybe to kind of try to pull apart how she felt about Biden versus how she felt about Harris, more specifically, to really understand. So right now, Pete's still trying to understand what matters to voters like Emily.

And he's taking notes about it on his phone so he can come back to her again with the right message. But even with all these challenges, he says he considers the conversation a success. Because it wasn't a Republican that said no and slammed the door. It was a Republican that stood there and let her air conditioning flow out into this hot day.

So that's an invitation for another conversation. And if we can bring her closer to us, that's great. So we keep making our way through the neighborhood. There's this golden retriever standing sentinel at one of the houses in the window. Yeah, a lot of cute dogs, a lot of cute cats. So we'll try this house here on the right. Oh, hi. Hi.

How you doing? I'm Pete with the Dunn County Democrats. Hi. Do you have a minute to chat? Uh, sure. Yeah. And we meet a woman named Kate. She says she's 38.

I'm Kate. I'm 38. Yeah. I had to think about that for a sec. And. She says she's 38. I'm Kate. I'm 38. Yeah, I had to think about that for a sec. And she works in mortgages. Just chatting with folks about the upcoming election. Harris is running for president or just kind of curious, like, what are you thinking about that? It is what it is, I guess. You typically vote Democrat?

Yeah. Yeah. Harris, how do you feel? I don't know. I'm glad it's not Biden. He's too old. And on paper, Kate would seem to be the kind of voter, the kind of Democratic voter, that Pete hoped might now be motivated by Harris.

With Harris, you kind of feel like you just got to get to know her more? Is it something about her that you don't like her issues? I don't think I know enough about her, and she's been president. And to me, that just seems like a placeholder position. Like you don't do a whole lot as vice president, but I don't want her like winning just because she's a woman of color, a woman. Not just because you check those boxes. That doesn't seem like a fair win either, so.

Were you gonna vote for Joe no matter what or? Better of the two crap options, honestly. I think even my husband was leaning towards whoever was independent. So it seems like Kamala might be a better option, but maybe she just has to do a little bit more work to kind of get you fully excited about her candidacy.

And if she was the one that knocked on your door today, did you give her any advice? No, not really. I'd be like, why are you here? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But probably, like, try and meet in the middle as much as you can. Like, make it look like a good faith effort,

because right now it just seems like you're playing up this side, and they're the enemy, and, like, the other side's, or play up this side, and they're the enemy. And I'm like, there isn't any compromise, I would say. At the end of their conversation. Well, I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to talk. I did leave some literature on your front door. Pete leaves Kate with some of the outdated Biden-Harris pamphlets he has. Appreciate your time here with us. And he walks away. Can I actually catch you for a couple more minutes? But I wanted to stay behind and talk more with Kate to try to understand why a Democratic voter sounded so

resigned about the choices before her in this election, even with a new candidate at the top of the ticket, and why all of the hope and excitement we heard from Democratic volunteers, why she seemed to feel none of that at all. Do you know who you plan to vote for for president? I mean, if I had to pick today, it would probably be Kamala, even though I'm just, there just doesn't seem to be anything that gets done, period. It's just more belief in the like Democratic Party viewpoint, more like helping out in the community and like your neighbors. Like it doesn't matter if they have 14 million

Biden stickers all over their house or like 800 Trump flags. It's like you still deserve to get assistance and help available when you need it. As Kate's telling me this, her daughter walks up to us on the front lawn and peeks out from behind her leg. Are there any issues that are concerning for you that you wish Kamala would speak more about? I honestly don't know what she's speaking about, but I definitely know there's been a lot about

reproductive rights and being a mom of two daughters. They need their rights. Being a mom of two daughters, they need their rights. You're kind of running your hands through your daughter's hair. How old is she? She turns six in a week and a half. And what's your name? Emma.

Emma. Emma. That's a beautiful name. Are you hearing Kamala speak about these issues? Not really. But I don't watch the news a great deal. It's just seems like a lot of arguing. And like pointing out what the other person does bad. Like, no, tell me what you're going to do to help me and my family and

my children. I don't care what somebody else is screwing up. How are you going to make it better? Just don't tell me how Trump is a schmuck, long story short. Like, we already know that. Your whole base knows that. Just talk about ways you're going to bring people together. Like, we already know that. Your whole base knows that. Just talk about ways you're going to bring people together. Like, how would you work with them? You got to figure out a way to play nice. We tell that to children. You guys are grownups. So, buck up.

What I heard from Kate was that she feels like both parties are so busy fighting each other that they're not actually doing much to help her family and her community. And that she's so repulsed by the political system that she's basically tuning out the messages that Democrats are trying to send. And at this point, there was nothing about Kamala Harris yet that made her feel differently. And it sounds like you're still waiting for Kamala Harris to show you who she is. Show me why she deserves it. So. Thank you.

Take care. Bye. Bye. Kate, in many ways, reminded me of Emily. Even though Emily leans Republican and Kate's a Democrat, they both talked about feeling frustrated with politics today. And even with this massive shakeup in the race, they don't feel like they know enough about Harris yet to know if she's the solution. And that's something we heard from a lot of people we met while door knocking. Like, what has she actually been doing? I don't know much about her. I'll be completely honest. I don't know her yet. So yeah, just got to do some research on my own.

I don't know that we've really talked about Kamala specifically. I mean, I really just don't feel like she's a known entity at this point. But to them, Harris is kind of a blank canvas. And for voters like Emily, that blank canvas could be an opportunity for Pete to project an image and a message that could bring Emily in. But for voters like Kate, that blankness could also be a vulnerability, a reason for a skeptical voter or a disaffected voter, even a Democratic one, to turn away or stay home. a Democratic one, to turn away or stay home. At the end of today, what do you see to be the biggest challenges for Kamala Harris to win over voters in this area?

What I heard today is that people need to know her track record, and they need to know what her vision is for the United States, and to speak to those issues specifically and I think that there's a lot that people need to learn about her and so we have 99 days to work really hard to educate voters on who this person is and why she's good for Western Wisconsin. Safe travels, and thank you for the work that you do. Thank you. Okay, bye. Talk later.

On Wednesday afternoon, Vice President Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, traveled together to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, for a rally right next to Dunn County. Hello, Eau Claire! Isn't it good to have a candidate who can pronounce the name correctly? who can pronounce the name correctly. There, Walls showcased a life story that the Harris campaign hopes will appeal directly

to white working class voters across Wisconsin and the entire Midwest. Being a Midwesterner too, I know a little something about commitment to people. I was born in a small town in Nebraska where community meant everything. My mom and dad taught me to show generosity to my neighbors and work for a common good. At 17, I joined the Army National Guard. We'll be right back.

Here's what else you need to know today. On Wednesday, thousands of police officers fanned out across Britain in an attempt to prevent protests planned by far-right groups from descending into further violence. For the past week, more than a dozen British towns and cities have been rocked by anti-immigrant riots, fueled by far-right agitators. The violence began shortly after a knife attack that killed three children at a dance class when misinformation about the immigration status

of the suspect spread on social media. Today's episode was reported by Jessica Chung and Stella Tan. It was produced by Jessica Chung, Stella Tan, and Rob Zipko. It was edited by Lindsay Garrison and Rachel Quester, with help from Ben Calhoun. It was fact-checked by Susan Lee, contains original music by Pat McCusker, Marion Lozano, Dan Powell, Diane Wong, Corey Schreppel, and Rowan Emisto, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Lansford of Wonderly.

That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Bavaro. See you tomorrow.