Watch these three young women heading to a Kamala Harris rally in Wisconsin. Do you see the excitement in their faces as they jog to get there quickly after having parked their car on the side of the road? The way they “woooo” as if they’re going to a concert?
It’s because they are going to a concert. As my friend Ward Clark mentioned in his own article, this particular rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, featured a concert by Grammy-Award winning artist and Eau Claire native, Bon Iver. A man who, just a few years ago, made an album with Taylor Swift.
You’ll notice this is a pattern for the Harris campaign. Inviting big-name celebrities, especially those popular with Millennial and Gen Z crowds, gets them in the door so that the pictures can be taken and Harris can look like she’s the most popular candidate since Joe Biden, who I’m told got more votes than Barack Obama somehow.
Not everyone is there to see the stars. Some are there because they’re being paid to be. As my friend Jennifer Van Laar covered in her article, the rally in Detroit, Michigan, was chaos because of how many union workers were bussed in, causing congestion that kept rally-goers stuck there forever.
This throws the attendance numbers at the Detroit rally into question, but let’s pretend the rumored 50,000 thousand people did show up for this rally in a blue state. It still pales in comparison to what Trump gets at his rallies, which fills up entire stadiums consistently, with thousands more waiting outside.
And moreover, Trump doesn’t need celebrities to hype him up. He is the draw. If he provides entertainment before his speech, large groups don’t leave when it’s over. They’re there for him. Trust me, I’ve seen it first hand.
It’s testament to the difference between these two candidates. Trump has a grassroots draw. He doesn’t need to fake crowd sizes, nor does he need someone with a bigger name than him to excite people. He’s the biggest name in any given room he enters. That’s not something Harris can claim.
I want to reiterate something here, though. Though Harris is not nearly as popular as Trump and needs handicaps in order to compete on the course that is the 2024 election, it’s not outside the bounds of reality for Harris to fool enough people into thinking she’s more popular than she actually is, which in itself has the ability to sway votes. The media complex shouldn’t be underestimated. Its ability to sway hearts and fool minds is criminal.
Once the fervor around Walz’s inclusion wears off and people remember who Harris is, I can safely assume her national popularity will fall, but her rallies will likely be well-attended events, at least for a while. She’ll continue to invite big names to come feature themselves, attracting people who are really only there to see them, but the media will use this as a way to generate a groundswell.
Harris can win this. So while her crowds might be thousands and thousands of people fewer than Trump’s at her rallies, we should always assume she’s ten points ahead. By the time the smoke clears, there can be no doubt that Trump won. No amount of foul play should be able to fool anyone.
If anything, we should pretend like her rallies are all about the excitement around Harris from a grassroots perspective.