Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Donate to our newsroom

Menu

Topics

  • Abortion
  • Politics
  • Education
  • LGBTQ+
  • Caregiving
  • Environment & Climate
  • Business & Economy
View all topics

The 19th News(letter)

News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Please complete the following CAPTCHA to be confirmed. If you have any difficulty, contact [email protected] for help.

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email [email protected] to subscribe.

This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected].

  • Latest Stories
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Ways to Give
  • Search
  • Contact
Donate
Home

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

Topics

  • Abortion
  • Politics
  • Education
  • LGBTQ+
  • Caregiving
  • Environment & Climate
  • Business & Economy
View all topics

The 19th News(letter)

News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Please complete the following CAPTCHA to be confirmed. If you have any difficulty, contact [email protected] for help.

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email [email protected] to subscribe.

This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected].

  • Latest Stories
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Ways to Give
  • Search
  • Contact

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th News(letter)

News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Please complete the following CAPTCHA to be confirmed. If you have any difficulty, contact [email protected] for help.

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email [email protected] to subscribe.

This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected].

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Election 2024

Harris leans into symbolism of the victorious underdog on eve of election

The vice president closed out her whirlwind campaign on the Rocky steps in Philadelphia as Donald Trump made a final appeal in Grand Rapids.

Oprah Winfrey holds up Vice President Kamala Harris' hand as she arrives onstage during a campaign rally on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Oprah Winfrey holds up Vice President Kamala Harris' hand as she arrives onstage during a campaign rally outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, on November 4, 2024. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images)

By

Grace Panetta, Mariel Padilla

Published

2024-11-04 23:16
11:16
November 4, 2024
pm

Republish this story

Share

  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Email

Republish this story

PHILADELPHIA — Vice President Kamala Harris gave her final appeal to voters in Pennsylvania with the last rally of her presidential campaign.

Harris spoke from the famous Rocky steps — “a tribute to those who start out the underdog and climb to victory” — in front of the Philadelphia Art Museum, an iconic location known for the eponymous film that represents an underdog beating the odds. Her star-studded closing rally, featuring celebrities including Lady Gaga and Oprah, capped off an extraordinary and whirlwind 106-day campaign that began in late July.   

“America, it comes down to this: just one more day in the most consequential election of our lifetimes, and the momentum is on our side,” Harris told supporters. “Our crowd has tapped into the ambitions and the aspirations and the dreams of the American people.” 

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

At Harris’ first rally as a candidate the day after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, hordes of relieved, energized and hopeful Democrats packed into a high school gym in West Allis, Wisconsin, with makeshift merchandise and aspirations of electing the first woman president. Harris returned to Milwaukee on Friday for a get-out-the-vote rally where she was introduced by rapper Cardi B and invigorated the crowd and promised to once and for all “turn the page on an era of politics” defined by former President Donald Trump. 

Harris and Trump barnstormed battleground states for a final time on Monday, making a series of stops in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan. On Monday evening, the Harris campaign produced a simulcast of rallies featuring running mate Tim Walz and other surrogates and musical performances in battleground states around the country.  

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, on November 4, 2024. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images)

Trump held rallies in Raleigh, North Carolina; Reading and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Meanwhile, Harris made appearances across Pennsylvania, including in Scranton, Allentown, Pittsburgh and ended the night in Philadelphia. Trump won Pennsylvania, a critical battleground state, by some 40,000 votes in 2016; Biden flipped it back by 80,000 in 2020. 

The Harris campaign rapidly scaled up an expansive ground game, telling reporters on a call Sunday that over 90,000 volunteers have helped knock on 3 million doors in battleground states. In her swing through Pennsylvania on Monday, Harris herself knocked on doors in Reading. 

“Here’s the thing about all of us: We like hard work,” Harris said in her stump speech. “Hard work is good work. Hard work is joyful work. And make no mistake, we will win.”

The campaign did “an amazing job” reaching voters in Wisconsin, said Myra Edwards, a voter at Harris’ Milwaukee rally.  

“They are penetrating in the most expert way,” she said. “It’s hard to imagine who they haven’t reached.” 

Sue O’Malley-Sheehan, who had spent the weekend canvassing in the Philadelphia area, said the mood on the ground was “energetic.”

“It was reaffirming all the excitement,” she said at the Monday rally. “There was an electricity of positivity in the air.” 

While Harris’ tone was celebratory and forward-looking, Trump’s message was darker, consistently chaotic and marked by often-racist and sexist, false and rambling tangents. He referred to Harris as “ incompetent,” blaming her for the state of the country in often apocalyptic terms. Trump described the United States as an “occupied” country, overrun by violent undocumented immigrants, buckling unsustainable high costs of living caused by poor leadership and on the brink of a nuclear World War III. 

Former President Trump pumps his fist as he walks off stage at the end of a campaign rally in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Former President Trump pumps his fist as he walks off stage at the end of a campaign rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, on November 4, 2024. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“Tomorrow you have to stand up and tell Kamala that you had enough, you can’t take it anymore,” Trump said in Raleigh on Monday, encouraging the audience to vote. “I mean what a terrible job — what they have done to our country. And you’re going to say that to her. You’re going to say, ‘You’ve done a terrible job, you’re grossly incompetent. We’re not going to take it anymore. Kamala, you’re fired. Get the hell out of here.’”

Harris will spend election night at her alma mater of Howard University in Washington, D.C., while Trump’s campaign will host its watch party at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, near his home at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

Harris said that from the start of her campaign, it has not been a fight against something but “a fight for something — a fight for a future with freedom, with opportunity and with dignity for all Americans.” 

“We finish as we started: with optimism, with energy, with joy,” she said. “Knowing that we the people have the power to shape our future and that we can confront any challenge we face.” 

Republish this story

Share

  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Email

Recommended for you

VP Kamala Harris speaks to supporters during a campaign rally at West Allis Central High School.
‘A historical event’: Eager supporters and makeshift merch crowd Harris’ first campaign rally
Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz hold hands as they greet supporters from the stage.
Harris introduces ‘Coach Walz’ to the national stage
Former President Donald Trump, seen from the back, speaks at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden.
Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally caps off a campaign defined by racist and sexist attacks
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz
Harris chooses Gov. Tim Walz — an abortion rights and public education advocate — as running mate

The 19th News(letter)

News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Please complete the following CAPTCHA to be confirmed. If you have any difficulty, contact [email protected] for help.

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email [email protected] to subscribe.

This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected].

Become a member

Explore more coverage from The 19th
Abortion Politics Education LGBTQ+ Caregiving
View all topics

Our newsroom's Spring Member Drive is here!

Learn more about membership.

  • Transparency
    • About
    • Team
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Community Guidelines
  • Newsroom
    • Latest Stories
    • 19th News Network
    • Podcast
    • Events
    • Careers
    • Fellowships
  • Newsletters
    • Daily
    • Weekly
    • The Amendment
    • Event Invites
  • Support
    • Ways to Give
    • Sponsorship
    • Republishing
    • Volunteer

The 19th is a reader-supported nonprofit news organization. Our stories are free to republish with these guidelines.