Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA via AP Images
Vice President Kamala Harris speaking last night at a campaign rally on the Ellipse in Washington
This story is part of the Prospect’s on-the-ground Election 2024 coverage. You can find all the other stories here.
WASHINGTON – Around 5 p.m. on Tuesday near Constitution Avenue and 15th Street, a line of anxious attendees decorated in Harris-Walz gear wrapped around three times just south of the White House.
Bystanders on the streets held signs; one held by a woman dressed all in black with a masquerade-like mask said, “Scare ’em on Halloween, Bury ’em on Election Day.” Right before the entrance to the Ellipse, where Kamala Harris was giving her closing-argument speech a week before Election Day, a mustached man wearing a fedora held up a sign with the words “Orange Jesus, HE is the real VERMIN!” and “Dimestore Mussolini.”
It’s not unusual for Constitution Avenue and the surrounding streets to be lined with political merchandising, but the vendors were anticipating a quick payday last night. It seemed like the number of tables with Kamala Harris–themed shirts, sweatshirts, hats, and pins had tripled, each table stocked with mostly the same items as their competitors a few feet away.
Volunteers at the event, many wearing Howard University sweatshirts, helped the estimated 70,000 people move along quickly. While DJ Tammi Norman (@prettytammithedj on Instagram) hyped early attendees with songs like Earth, Wind, & Fire’s “September” and Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” everyone went through the TSA-like security process, which prohibited large bags. On the way in, you could note how excited some people were, as they ditched their purses and backpacks to be able to attend.
While waiting around two hours for the vice president’s speech, which started at about 7:25, three ladies wore homemade zip-ups that had “not going back” written with fabric marker.
“I think ‘not going back’ speaks to me because I’m old enough to know when we were back,” says Cindy Anderson, a Virginia native. “We need to move forward.”
“Women’s rights,” Oklahoma native Rhonda Snoeyenbos, the sweatshirt designer and creator, chimes in. “It’s high time we had a woman who ran this country, and she’s talented, smart, and has the ability to do it.”
Lydie Lake
Georgetown University medical student Antonio Cruz Mena was excited for his first political rally, getting to the Ellipse more than two hours before Harris’s speech was scheduled to start.
“This is my first election living in D.C., and we just got on our bikes, we came down, and it’s fun. I like the energy,” says Cruz Mena, who is from Ohio.
Cruz Mena was joined by his friend and fellow Georgetown student Luka Wohl, who is an undecided voter between Harris and Green Party nominee Jill Stein. Wohl said the closing-argument speech would be his “last push” on which candidate would get his vote. Wohl’s head has turned toward Stein because she has been “outspoken in terms of her outreach towards the Palestinian cause.”
Wohl told me, “As someone who’s lived in Palestine and in Israel, I think the way that the United States is handling the current conflict is like a blank slate.” A Hawaii native, he says he knows his state will go blue, but if he lived in a swing state, his vote would go to Harris.
As the sun began to set and Harris’s speech drew closer, the Ellipse filled in and eventgoers stood shoulder to shoulder, reminding me of a concert mosh pit. Yet people were polite and friendly, and volunteers passed around water and snacks like crackers, Pop-Tarts, and cotton candy to hold people over.
About 45 minutes before the scheduled start time, speakers came out to highlight Harris’s key issues through personal stories, much like her other rallies.
Amanda and Josh Zurawski discussed Amanda’s experience going into septic shock because she was denied an abortion in Texas, despite her fetus having an undetectable heartbeat. Teresa Acosta, who has a son with Type 1 diabetes, declared how the Affordable Care Act aided their family in receiving insulin for her son’s treatment. Lifelong Republicans Bob and Kristina Lange said the January 6th insurrection (which initiated at this very spot) and Trump’s handling of the pandemic pushed them to vote for Harris.
Lydie Lake
Finally, the crowd quieted as Harris made her entrance. I was too short to see the stage as tall people surrounded me, but I saw Harris on a large screen straight ahead of me. With the White House illuminated behind her, she displayed a powerful image.
Harris repeated similar messages from her past speeches, with slogans like “we’re not going back” and a pledge to “always put country above party and self,” which the crowd naturally cheered, raising the American flags they were given at the entrance.
While her speech was familiar, there seemed to be a determination and anger behind her words that has not been evident at her other rallies, such as deliberately stating that Trump is an “unstable” candidate and is “obsessed with revenge.”
In between her remarks, you could faintly hear pro-Palestine protesters behind the Ellipse, chanting “Free Palestine” in the background, demonstrating the hesitation some Gen Z voters still have with voting for Harris.
Harris kept her attacks on Trump brief and focused primarily on her policies, such as expanding the Child Tax Credit to lift families out of poverty, a Medicare home care benefit for seniors so they can retire comfortably, bodily autonomy when it comes to reproductive health care, and immigration reform with an emphasis on border security.
Near the end of her speech, with an energized and emotional crowd before her, Harris declared: “The United States of America is not a vessel for the schemes of wannabe dictators. The United States of America is the greatest idea humanity ever devised.”
