MADISON, Wis. (CN) — Dr. Jill Biden rallied for Vice President Kamala Harris in Wisconsin on Monday amid a flurry of campaign visits to the state ahead of the November presidential election.
Speaking to a packed house at the Democratic Party’s West Side office in Madison, Wisconsin, the First Lady described Harris’ position on major issues like abortion, the cost of living and access to affordable health care, while also bashing Project 2025. She described that set of policies — developed by the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation as an agenda for a future Donald Trump presidency — as “radical and dangerous,” and decried the plan’s proposed restrictions of Medicare, Medicaid, and abortion drugs.
“Kamala Harris is going to work for you and your families by lowering grocery costs, making housing more affordable and protecting our reproductive freedom,” Biden said. “These aren’t radical ideas, they’re just practical ways to make life easier and more fair.”
Biden said she was devastated when Roe v. Wade was overturned.
“The women of my generation remember what it was like before Roe, and how hard we fought to give our kids a different future,” Biden said. “No one has to abandon their faith to agree that the government shouldn’t be allowed to tell women what to do with their bodies. Kamala will give that choice back.”
Biden also called on the crowd to support other Democrats on the ballot, including Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, who is up for reelection this year.
“At the end of the day, all of us need a community,” Biden said at the rally Monday. “Whether you are in a red state or a blue state, none of us can survive this life alone. We need leaders who can build up our communities. Leaders like my husband, Joe, and Kamala.”
Dane County Executive Jamie Kuhn, State Superintendent Jill Underly, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul joined Biden at the event. All sounded the alarm on Project 2025.
“The plan is so cartoonishly bad that Trump won’t even stand behind it, even though his own White House advisors wrote it,” said Kaul. “The man just cannot defend his record.”
In her remarks, Rhodes-Conway also focused on bashing Trump’s policies and record.
“He is single-handedly responsible for taking away women’s right to choose, and he even tried to overturn the election on Jan. 6,” she said. “He does not respect the rule of law, and he does not respect our democracy.”
Attendees of the event said that the race is a choice between democracy or authoritarianism. Ann Morgan, a Madison resident and mother to a disabled young adult, said she was feeling very afraid about the last three weeks of the election cycle and beyond.
“There have been a lot of close races in my lifetime, but I have never felt like there is so much at stake. Our system and our democracy are at stake, and I am terrified of another Trump term filled with revenge.” Morgan said.
Biden’s visit to Madison was part of her tour of battleground states, some of which begin early voting this week. With stops in Michigan, Nevada, Philadelphia and Arizona, Biden will hit the states that Harris has to hold onto in order to win the electoral vote.
Democrats are campaigning hard in Wisconsin in an attempt to increase their lead in presidential race in the the state — which currently stands at less than one point. In a state where four of the last six elections were decided by less than a point, that margin is just too close for comfort for the party.
The vice president herself has made five visits to the state since announcing her presidential campaign and, on Thursday, she will return for a fourth stop in Milwaukee, as well as in La Crosse and Green Bay.
President Joe Biden was also in Milwaukee last week to announce new funding for lead pipe replacement. Although that wasn’t an official Harris campaign event, he sang her praises several times.
Although the president touched on Harris’ support for union workers at that event, some members of Local 464 — who came to the event in Madison Monday after work on their own accord — weren’t convinced as to the depth of that support.
Josh, a union member who did not wish to share his last name, says that Joe Biden is the most pro-worker president he can remember.
“Even just saying the word ‘union’ in his speeches helps us a lot, and I don’t feel like I have heard Kamala Harris committing to us in the same way,” he said. “I think she will, but I want to hear more about it.”
Biden did not mention unions during her speech, but Josh says that Local 464 believes in Harris and Walz and stands with them, nevertheless.