VP Kamala Harris campaigns in La Crosse, Wis., as election nears

Elections

VP Kamala Harris campaigns in La Crosse, Wis., as election nears Harris campaign is pushing to shore up support in the "blue wall" states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania less than a month before the Nov. 5 election.

The Minnesota Star Tribune October 18, 2024 at 1:20AMVice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, arrives on stage to speak at a campaign rally in La Crosse, Wis., on Thursday. (JAMIE KELTER DAVIS/The New York Times) "I honestly think he used to understand how tariffs work," Cuban said. "Back in the '90s and early 2000s, he was a little bit coherent when he talked about trade policy and he actually made a little bit of sense. But I don't know what happened to him."

Speaking in Pittsburgh on Thursday, Trump's running mate, Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance, pushed back against the Harris campaign's claims that tariffs would hurt the economy. Vance described the tariffs as a way of discouraging imports and boosting American manufacturing.

"If you are a business, and you rely on foreign slave labor at $3 a day, the only way to rebuild American manufacturing is to say, if you want to bring that product made by slave labor back into the United States of America, you're going to pay a big fat tariff before you get it back into our country," Vance said.

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The Latest: Harris keeps a focus on 'blue wall' states in the campaign's final weeks

Trump attends Al Smith charity dinner with his wife, Melania, while Harris appears virtually In Wisconsin, Amara Marshell, a freshman at UW-La Crosse, said she showed up to support Harris because she is concerned about what a second Trump presidency could mean for reproductive rights. Like her friend, sophomore Avery Black, Marshell is also excited about the possibility of electing the nation's first female president.

"Women deserve to have power over their own bodies," Marshell said. "We shouldn't have to not be able to get an abortion just because of a president."

Mary Holman, an 80-year-old retiree from Fort Atkinson, Wis., said she hasn't been to a rally since former President Barack Obama's first campaign in 2008. But Holman said she decided to get off the sidelines this cycle because she views the election as a fight to preserve democracy.

"Everything she stands for [in] bringing some peace and kindness back to our country is just so important," Holman said.

People react during a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, in La Crosse, Wis., on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (JAMIE KELTER DAVIS) Anthony Chergosky, assistant professor of political science at UW-La Crosse, said Thursday's rally highlights the important role western Wisconsin — and young and independent voters in particular — will play in the election.

"Even in today's deeply partisan political climate, there is still a bit of an independent streak that runs through the western Wisconsin region," Chergosky said. "In my view, that independent streak makes this region one of the most interesting and important ones in the nation."

Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, was also on the campaign trail Thursday, appearing with former President Bill Clinton in North Carolina, where the latest polls show Harris trailing Trump by less than a point. Walz will continue the campaign's media blitz next Monday with an appearance on "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart.

about the writer Sean BakerSean Baker is a reporter for the Star Tribune covering southeast Minnesota.

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