time.
We've seen 50,000 people, new folks, sign up to volunteer in Wisconsin since Harris
became the nominee.
That is more than twice Biden or Trump's margin of victory from 2016 or 2020.
The flowering of people donating for the first time, volunteering for the first time, telling
us that they're ready to vote for the first time, it's a game changer.
And so many of those folks are going to be watching tonight, and then they'll be sharing
their favorite moments from this debate for days and weeks to come.
This is in a way, the beginning of the final stretch.
With the conventions out of the way, with our tickets set on both sides, the debate is
the first time the two sides actually come in contact with each other, and then it's
off to the races.
What do you need to see tonight to be like, this was a good debate for Kamala Harris.
We feel good about what happened, we feel like we won.
The most important moments tonight will be the moments when Kamala Harris speaks directly
to the American people about her plans for her presidency.
We know that for people that are on the fence right now, they want to know, does she have
a plan to tackle high costs and bring those costs down?
Does she have a plan to expand their freedoms instead of contracting them and taking them
away?
Does she have a plan to safeguard our democracy?
The answer to those questions is yes, and people are going to hear that from her directly
tonight.
I think moments that will move votes that come from tonight are the moments when Vice President
Harris talks about taking on special interests to bring down the cost of prescription drugs,
which he talks about barring price gouging for groceries, which is something we hear
about constantly, how frustrated people are by that.
We think those moments are going to travel and we're going to be able to make sure that
people see them, not just during the debate, but after it.
Is she going to be able to kind of toe the line between taking credit for the things
that she thinks were positive from the Biden administration while kind of distancing herself
from a president who, gail polling shows, has been 30 or 40 percent approval rating
this year in 2024?
Vice President Harris is running on a platform called A New Way Forward.
This is a race about the future.
And Vice President Harris can draw from her experience as Vice President, as Attorney
General, as Senator, as a prosecutor to make the case that she means what she says and
she will do what she says.
But fundamentally, voters are looking for what candidates will do in the White House to help
them and their families and their communities.
And I think what you'll hear tonight is a forward-facing vision about a new way forward
instead of the stale old stick that Donald Trump has been running on for the last eight
years.
Could you reiterate the importance of Northeast Wisconsin in this election?
Northeast Wisconsin is one of the most important areas in the entire country to determine
the outcome of this presidential election.
That means that if anyone has a friend that might or might not vote, get that friend to
the polling place, and they might be the vote that carries the state that carries the presidency
and sends our next president, which I hope it's commonly Harris, to the White House.
You know, obviously in a debate like this tonight, some say that Trump's skills as an
order is something to look out for, whether it's twisted words, lying facts, whatever
people might say, what does Kamala Harris need to do to make sure that her words aren't
twisted?
Well, Donald Trump's team has insisted that the mics be cut when the answers are over.
It sounds like they don't trust their candidate to be able to live in himself to the allotted
time.
That means that people are going to hear clearly from former President Trump and from future
President Harris.
Vice President Harris has a really clear task, which is to lay out her vision in a way that
makes sense to folks in Northeast Wisconsin and across the country.
I mean, speaking directly to the concerns that people have about high costs and how
she'll take on special interests, to their concerns about freedom and whether their
daughters will grow up with less freedoms than they had, that's something that she's
an extraordinary communicator about.
So what we need to hear from Vice President Harris is her vision, and we know that she's
going to take every opportunity to lay it out tonight.
Are you concerned that there's only going to be one debate this entire election year?
I mean, there seems like all the headlines are saying, you know, this could be the only
one.
I don't know if Trump is going to want to participate in future debates after tonight, but I know
that having 90 precious minutes when the nation's whole attention is focused on this
and everything that comes out of it, viral moments that travel for the next several months,
it could be a pivotal moment in the history of not just this election, but our democracy.
When you look at the whole ballot in Brown County, all the different candidates, there's
potential to flip chambers at both the assembly, setting up the Senate, Congress, have you
ever seen a ballot this top to bottom where voters here have so much impact every race?
Not just in my time as chair, but I don't think any time in my life have I seen a ballot
that can have so many effects on so many levels of government that all touch voters' lives,
whether it's the school you go to, whether it's fully funded, whether you have the right
to control your own body, whether you have an economy that works for working people from
the state legislative level to the House, to the Senate, to the Supreme Court, to the
presidency, everything could write on what happens here in Northeast Wisconsin.
Voters have a superpower here in this election, and I just hope that voter turnout is incredibly
high, and I'm hoping for a Democratic victory.
What are Americans going to learn about Kamala Harris tonight?
There are so many Americans who are just tuning into this election, and I totally get it.
Politics can be overwhelming.
I think the key thing is for folks to listen in and hear about Vice President Harris'
life and about her vision going forward.
They're going to hear where her priorities come from as a daughter of the middle class,
as someone who has fought to put transnational gangs and human traffickers in jail.
She's someone who understands safety, who understands what it takes to actually support
families, and who understands the importance of fighting for freedom against the people
who would take it away.
Great.
Thanks so much.
Appreciate it.
Alright, thank you.