Wisconsin Democrats welcome VP Kamala Harris to Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) – Vice President Kamala Harris touched down in the Badger State with Democratic leaders at her side.

"I think she is going to win, and like I said, she is going to be the 47th President of the United States," Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said.

Johnson and his family were on the tarmac waiting to greet Harris as she stepped off Air Force Two on Tuesday.

Governor Tony Evers was also there to welcome the Vice President, who was joined on her trip from Washington D.C. by Wisconsin U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin.

Baldwin, who like Johnson and Evers has backed Harris' bid for president, was notably absent from the campaign stops President Joe Biden made in Wisconsin when he was still in the running. In regard to this, her campaign previously told CBS 58 that she was focusing on her re-election bid.

As this was the first campaign rally as the likely candidate for the Democratic Party, Johnson said choosing Milwaukee was smart.

"I think [Harris] is here in Milwaukee because voting is important, it's really, really important. We don't make history unless people vote, and this is one of the critical states that any candidate for president needs to win and I've said this before, that whoever wins Wisconsin, is going to be the person who wins the White House," Johnson said.

Harris supporters who lined up outside West Allis Central High School to catch a glimpse of her agree that the battleground state should be a focus of the Harris camp.

"Well, I am a momala for Kamala," West Allis resident Grace Bernier said. "I think it's smart to pay a lot of attention to Wisconsin. I mean it's been critical in the last couple of elections, and I think it will be critical again this time around."

Oak Creek resident Linda Hansen brought a stool to sit on while she waited for a chance to see Harris in person.

"I came unfortunately too late. It was already full, and I couldn't get in. So, I probably won't see her at all, but I am here in support of her," she said.

Supporters said that Harris being the likely nominee has reinvigorated the Democratic Party and that they believe in her abilities and ideologies.

"She knows it all. She's had it at every level in the government, from being Attorney General and Senator and Vice President, she has the experience that we need," Hansen said.

According to the Harris campaign, between Sunday afternoon and Monday night, they raised more than $100 Million, with 62 percent being first-time donors.