Wisconsin. to Wisconsin for Kamala Harris
since her bid for the white House began in late July with
another big rally, this time in Madison, we turn to senior
political reporter Zach Schultz, who joins us on location at the
Alliant Energy Center. And hey, Zach. So this rally ended about
50 minutes ago. Set the scene for us.
>> Well, it was quite the event. The crowds were here late
afternoon. There was a DJ playing. There were people had
color coded bracelets and there were colored lights. It was
really more of a party environment reflecting the
intentions of the Harris campaign to treat this as a
momentum builder, a motivating factor for these people to
volunteer, get out, vote and activate and energize the rest
of the Democrats that they know and their family and friends
group. So from that point of view, it was definitely designed
to get people excited about this campaign.
>> Well, Madison is always a good place for any Democrats to
come to. It's very friendly territory. Dane County is the
fastest growing county in the state. Democrats need to run up
the score here in order to win statewide, but it's also a place
where you can show that energy and motivation to people around
the state. It's really important for Democrats to come here. John
Kerry, in 2004 came in October, Barack Obama in 2012 came in
October. As those big motivating rallies to try and show all the
momentum to the rest of the nation. The question is, then
why did Harris come here in September? Well, because
campaigns are earlier now. We've already seen more than 400,000
absentee ballots being sent out around the state. Early voting
has started in some states. It starts early. In-person voting
starts in Wisconsin in just a few weeks. And as Harris said
from the stage, the election has already started.
timing because people could already be voting with 400,000
ballots already sent out as to those ballots, though, having
dropped out, RFK Jr is in court to get his name removed from the
Wisconsin ballot. He knows it's too late to get those reprinted,
but he wants clerks to cover his name up with stickers. But
here's what the City of Milwaukee elections chief said
about that. machines, right? Because they do
have to process through our machines. And so that is a
concern, other concern is what if the sticker moves or, you
know, falls off like that? Just there's a lot about what is
putting a sticker on a ballot could do that could really
disrupt the process. >> Just today, as you know, the
Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed to take this case directly. What
does this signal? >> Well, at the moment, the Dane
County judge already ruled it's too late for RFK Jr to pull his
name off the ballot. His campaign appealed, trying to go
to the Second District Court of Appeals in Wisconsin, a more
conservative court, to try and put a stay in place and try to
get those stickers in place. And the Supreme Court took that case
directly away from them. And what, more importantly, what
they said is there will be no oral arguments in this case. The
RFK Jr campaign has until tomorrow to finalize their last
appeal, and then they will make a decision. And in this case,
the facts and the law are not on RFK Jr's side. State law does
not allow you to pull out as an independent candidate. The only
case for stickers is if the candidate dies, and that's
certainly not the case here. And the Wisconsin Supreme Court said
that they expect to issue a decision in writing very soon to
give clarity to clerks around the state. Right.
>> Because, of course, time is of the essence. But the bottom
line here, why does Kennedy want his name removed from the ballo?
>> Well, recently he came out and endorsed Donald Trump, and
polling has shown in Wisconsin that RFK Jr is polling around
6%. Now, that's a little misleading. Third party
candidates always poll better in the summer and early fall
compared to what they actually receive in November, but most of
that polling has shown also that a large percentage of those RFK
Jr voters are also Donald Trump fans, and he was actually
pulling those votes away from Donald Trump. So the Trump
campaign specifically, and RFK Jr's campaign, want those voters
eligible to vote for Donald Trump and not to be convinced to
vote for RFK Jr. So that's why they're looking to do this at
this time. >> Yeah. Well, it will be
interesting to see what they decide. And as you said, this is
on an expedited schedule because time is of the essence. Zac
Schultz thanks very much. Thank Schultz thanks very much. Thank