Former President Barack Obama and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz at a rally in Madison on the first day of early voting. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

Former President Barack Obama, on the first day of early voting in Wisconsin, encouraged people in one of Wisconsin’s major liberal strongholds for Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Dane County is one of two major liberal hubs in Wisconsin, a critical state that could swing the presidential election. The importance of the area this year has been highlighted by recent visits from Harris herself last month, and from former President Donald Trump, who visited Dane County earlier this month following Wisconsin Republicans’ advice to work to eat into Democratic margins in the state’s fastest growing county.

“If you haven’t voted yet, I won’t be offended if you just walk out right now,” Obama said to an energetic crowd at Alliant Energy Center. “Go vote.” 

Gov. Tony Evers, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan and vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz also spoke at the rally.

Throughout his speech, which lasted about 40 minutes, Obama made the case that electing Harris and Walz would help improve the lives of Americans, while also criticizing former President Donald Trump. 

“We know this election is going to be tight, it’s going to be tight because a lot of Americans are still struggling,” Obama said. Harris, he said, “knows what it’s like to scrap and to work hard — to see her mom worry about the bills, so does Tim. So if you elect them, they will be focused on your problems.” 

“Kamala Harris and Tim Walz don’t have concepts of a plan,” Obama said, referencing Trump’s comment during the September debate about his vague ideas for replacing the Affordable Care Act. “They have an actual plan to make your life better.”

Obama said the plan would include cracking down on corporations for price gouging, making it more affordable to build or buy a home, limiting out of pocket health care costs and cutting taxes for middle-class Americans.

Obama highlighted the Trump administration’s decision to not follow the pandemic playbook that his own administration left during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“If somebody tells you it does not make a difference whether you elect someone who’s competent, somebody who cares about you, somebody who listens to experts and listens to ordinary people and knows what their lives are like and what they’re going to do, it makes a difference,” Obama said. 

The election is about more than policy, he added, saying that it’s also about “values.” To Trump and his “cronies” freedom  means getting away with whatever they want, he said. “We believe true freedom means we get to make decisions about our own life.” 

“Do not boo! Vote,” Obama told the crowd. “They can’t hear you boo. They can hear you vote.” 

Walz had a similar theme in criticizing Trump ahead of Obama. 

“There’s something, not just nuts, but cruel about a billionaire using people’s livelihood as a political prop,” Walz said about Trump’s recent shift working at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania. “His agenda lets corporations not pay people for overtime and diminishes those very people that he was cosplaying as… That restaurant wasn’t even open. It was a stunt… That five minutes he stood next to the deep fryer I’ll guarantee you that’s the hardest that guy’s ever worked.” 

Walz also took some jabs at Elon Musk, a tech billionaire and owner of social media platform ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) who has been campaigning for Trump.

“I’m gonna talk about his running mate — his running mate, Elon Musk,” Walz said. “Elon’s on that stage jumping around, skipping like a dipsh*t.”

Walz accused Musk, who recently offered people $1 million to sign a PAC petition, of trying to buy the election. 

Walz ended his speech by saying that they are still the “underdogs” in the campaign. 

“We know we’re going to leave it all in the field, Wisconsin. We got same-day voter registration and it’s open today,” Walz said. “We need you door knocking. We need to call.” 

The rally’s message resonated with Carey Medina, a 28-year-old from Madison. 

“[Walz] just really seems like a relatable guy and like some of those speakers were saying it — what you see is what you get…,” Medina said. “That’s amazing. We need that. We need leaders for the country that are working for the people, not for themselves.”  

Medina said that she was planning on trying to go to vote early after the rally, and she learned some information that could help her make the case to undecided voters. One piece of information she said she learned is that elections in Wisconsin are decided by a few votes per voting ward — a point made by Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway who also addressed the crowd. Both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections were decided by a little over 20,000 votes in Wisconsin, or about three votes per precinct.

Medina said the issues at stake in the election made her want to go canvas this year — this would be her first time. She said one of her top priorities is reproductive rights as well as the separation of church and state.

Reproductive health issues were a focal point at the rally for speakers and attendees alike. 

Cindy McCallaster, who moved to Madison earlier this year to be close to her family, said reproductive rights are important to her because of her six grandchildren. Hope Bank of Madison, who attended the rally with McCallaster, said she benefited from Roe v. Wade because she was able to decide not to have children.

Bradley Whitford, the former West Wing actor and Madison native, gave an impassioned speech that highlighted the issue. He spoke about how his dad used to serve as the president of Planned Parenthood in Dane County. 

“He was just a dad. Loved his wife and his daughters, and thought they deserved agency over their own bodies and access to the health care they need,” Whitford said. “But now the guy who brags about sexual assault is also bragging about the fact that he overturned Roe v. Wade and stripped those fundamental rights away.”

Whitford named some of the women who have faced devastating consequences under abortion bans. One of the women, Amber Nicole Thurman, died after she took abortion pills, encountered a rare complication and was denied emergency medical care due to Georgia’s abortion ban. 

Obama pointed out Trump’s conflicting statements on abortion access, saying he has “tied himself into a pretzel.” 

“When [Trump] ran for the first time, he said he’d support punishing women who got abortions. Then a few weeks ago, he says, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be your protector,’” Obama said. 

With two weeks to go, rally goers expressed anxiety about the presidential election. Bank of Madison said she is “a little bit terrified, hopeful, but terrified for sure.” 

“It seems unthinkable that [Trump] could be elected again, but we were also confident in 2016. There’s a sense of horror and dread,” Bank said.