Harris and Walz rally at Thomas & Mack Center

Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, made their first appearance in Nevada on Saturday as the likely 2024 Democratic presidential ticket at a packed rally at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center.

“I know the people of Nevada. You are battle born,” Harris told the crowd of an estimated 14,000 people at the rally, wrapping up their five-day battleground state tour. “You are battle born, and if Donald Trump wants to pick a fight over our most fundamental freedoms, we say bring it on.”

Harris, Walz and Nevada Democrats who spoke at the event compared and contrasted Harris and Walz with the GOP ticket of former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance. They warned of a Republican presidency while making promises of actions they’d take if sent to the White House.

Harris, who has visited the battleground state of Nevada seven times this year, drew a much larger crowd than her many previous visits before she became the presidential nominee. When she last visited in July, she spoke to a few hundred at a ballroom in Resorts World. In January, she addressed a couple hundred Culinary Local 226 members at the union’s headquarters, where she congratulated the union on its collective bargaining.

The energy of the crowd also appeared stronger than the vice president’s previous events. As the arena began to fill, chants of “we fight; we win!” and “we’re not going back!” broke out sporadically. A roar and a wave broke out at one point, and a dance party erupted before a single speaker took the stage.

Before the vice president took stage, a Nevada public school teacher named Tillie Torres introduced the crowd to Walz, who started off with talking about the weather. He thanked the crowd for braving the 108-degree heat and said the campaign had to turn people away because of the heat.

“But don’t worry, we’re going to be back a lot,” Walz said.

Rally attendees expressed more excitement to vote for Harris over President Joe Biden, who dropped out of the race in July.

“I’m happy that Kamala Harris has energized people again, people seem to have hope,” attendee Jeffery White said. “The country has been in such a negative funk for the last two or three years, just at each other. People have rallied around something to get happy about.”

Biden won Nevada in 2020 by 30,000 votes, but former President Trump has consistently led in polling in Nevada. Recent polls show Trump and Harris neck-and-neck, with some putting Trump slightly ahead and others putting Harris in the front.

A late July Morning Consult poll of swing states that included Nevada showed Harris slightly ahead of Trump in a match-up, but it also showed voters favored Trump when it came to the economy and immigration.

Fighting back

Since Harris has taken over as the Democratic presidential candidate, Republicans have transferred their common criticisms of Biden over to Harris, criticizing her for what they see as a lack of action at the southern border and policies they believe contributed to inflation and a poor economy.

The vice president attempted to rebut those concerns on Saturday. She highlighted her record as attorney general of California, saying she prosecuted transnational gangs, drug cartels and human traffickers who entered the country illegally and “won” her cases. She also acknowledged a problem to begin with saying, “we know that our immigration system is broken, and we know what it takes to fix it,” Harris said.

She advocated for comprehensive reform that includes stronger security and a pathway to citizenship and promised to fight for strong border security. Harris criticized Trump and Republicans for blocking a bipartisan border package this year and promised to sign a similar bill if she became president.

Harris also addressed the economy, saying it is “doing well by many measures.” But she also said that prices remain high and that she will work to lower prices for families and help fight against corporate landlords who unfairly raise rent.

The vice president highlighted her record in helping workers, saying as a U.S. senator she fought for paid family leave and medical leave.

She pledged to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for workers, a proposal originally proposed by Trump when he visited Las Vegas in June.

“When I am president, we will continue our fight for working families,” Harris said.

Harris also criticized Project 2025, a blueprint of policy proposals led by the Heritage Foundation that a Republican presidential candidate could implement in 2025. Trump has distanced himself from the project, saying he doesn’t know who is behind it and knows nothing about it. She also claimed Trump would sign a national abortion law into place, despite the former president denying that multiple times.

Harris’ campaign did not make the vice president available for an interview after the Las Vegas Review-Journal made multiple requests — following a pattern in which Harris did not take interviews when she visited the Silver State. Harris did not hold a press gaggle upon her arrival in Las Vegas, where she was greeted on the tarmac by Nevada Democrats. Trump and Vance have given the Review-Journal interviews during their visits.

Halee Dobbins, the Nevada communications director for the RNC, said in a statement that Walz’s track record of supporting far-left policies would be disastrous for Nevadans and that he is “just as dangerously liberal as she is.”

“A visit from Harris and Walz to the Silver State will do nothing to distract Nevada voters from the horrible reality of Kamala Harris’ economic policies and sky-high inflation,” Dobbins said. “The only way to stop a dangerously liberal Harris-Walz agenda is to vote for President Trump and JD Vance this November 5.”

Introducing Walz

Nevadans also got to learn more about Walz, who Harris selected as her running mate earlier this week. Walz introduced himself to the crowd, providing his background as a teacher and a football coach. He said he was proud to wear the uniform as a member of the National Guard and said the G.I. Bill gave him a shot at receiving a college education.

Walz highlighted similarities between Minnesota and the Silver State, saying both have two female senators. He said like Nevadans, Minnesotans respect neighbors’ rights to make their own personal choices. He talked about his and wife’s use of IVF to have children, and how they named their daughter Hope.

“In 87 days, we’re going to settle our political differences not through violence. We’re going to settle it by beating them at the ballot box,” Walz said.

Nevada’s elected officials weigh in

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who reportedly helped Harris in the vice presidential candidate selection, rallied the crowd ahead of Harris’ appearance, highlighting Harris’ work when she was attorney general. The Nevada senator and former attorney general also reiterated how close her own race for re-election came in 2022, coming down to less than a 1 percentage point.

“It’s a reminder that every vote counts,” Cortez Masto said.

Nevada’s Democratic Reps. Susie Lee, Steven Horsford and Dina Titus also spoke ahead of Harris’ and Walz’s appearances. They also greeted the two at the airport Saturday afternoon.

Sen. Jacky Rosen, though she didn’t greet Harris and Walz at the airport, spoke at the rally and highlighted the stakes of the election. She used the microphone to criticize her opponent, Sam Brown, and reiterated the Democratic attack against Republicans about abortion.

Reactions from crowd

Hours before the rally kicked off, attendees braved triple-digit temperatures as they patiently stood in long lines.

According to the Harris campaign, law enforcement decided to close the doors to the event around 5:45 p.m. because of people becoming ill while waiting outside. The campaign estimated 4,000 people were in line or in cars when the entrances were shut down, and 14,000 people filled the arena. The campaign also said it recruited the most volunteers during the Las Vegas rally than anywhere else in the country.

Lisa and Michael Williams said they missed a rally from former President Barack Obama and didn’t want to miss a “historic event.” The married couple of 40 years said the Harris-Walz ticket has energized them.

“She’s just really inspirational,” Lisa Williams said. “It’s just a different type of vibe, and it seems like it’s more of a youthful vibe. Everybody is trying to get involved.”

David Hagland said Biden’s campaign before Harris took the top of the ticket appeared doomed.

“Biden was not a good-odds candidate, I think,” he said. “And now we’ve got a chance of winning and I’m worried about the theocracy that’s forming in the Republican party, and that scares the hell out of me.”

He said he feels good voting for Harris.

“Now we’ve finally got a candidate that isn’t just a lesser evil, it’s a candidate that I’m excited to get out and vote for, and so I want to be here to show colors,” Hagland said.

Abbie Johnson, 23, said that she feels the “momentum” of the campaign has “completely shifted.”

“It feels so nice, this type of environment,” she said. “This would not happen for any other candidate, I don’t think, at any other time period.”

The Democratic ticket has energized her.

“I am more on the ground, boots on the ground type for Harris than I definitely was for Biden or ever would’ve been for Biden, I think,” Johnson said.

Jana Wright, 70, is a veteran of Democratic candidate rallies. Wright said she salutes Biden for stepping down and showing his love for the country, but that Harris is “more than ready.”

“I’m excited for what she and Tim bring to the party and this election,” Wright said.

“This is jazz,” she said about the mass crowd. “This is big time, baby.”

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X. Reporter Ricardo Torres-Cortez contributed to this report.