Kamala Harris campaigned in Madison, Wisconsin, the state’s deep-blue capital and college town that Democrats hope will mobilize enough voters to turn the election in the presidential candidate’s favor.

“We know it’s going to be a close race until the end,” Harris said. “We’re the underdog in this race and we have hard work ahead of us.”

In the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, voters in Wisconsin achieved razor-thin majorities. Donald Trump won the state in 2016 by about 22,000 votes, and in 2020, Joe Biden narrowly beat Trump by just under 20,000 votes.

Polls in Wisconsin so far show a neck-and-neck race between Harris and Trump. Three polls conducted this week underscore how close the race here could be: Polls from AARP, Marist and Quinnipiac University suggest the race here is virtually tied, with Harris just one point ahead of Trump in both polls.

During the election campaign, Harris emphasized her support for abortion rights, a centerpiece of her campaign and a mobilizing issue for young voters.

“It’s immoral,” Harris said of the numerous abortion bans that came into effect after the Roe v. Wade ruling was overturned. “We have to agree that you don’t have to give up your faith or your deeply held beliefs to agree that the government shouldn’t tell you what to do.”

Harris described meeting the mother of a young woman who died of sepsis after being denied an abortion in Georgia.

“Amber Nicole Thurman,” Harris said. “I promised her mother I would say her name every time.”

Whoever wins the majority of votes in Wisconsin will receive the state’s full 10 electoral votes, giving the state disproportionate influence in the presidential election. Groups like Madison’s large student population will play a critical role in deciding the outcome. Some of those students attended Friday’s rally.

“It’s just so nice to see someone who is really joyful,” said Kaitlin Olson, a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. During Biden’s painful debate performance against Trump, Olson said, “It was like, ‘This is scary.’ Now that Kamala is running, I’m like, ‘OK, a little more joy.'”

“I think we’re going to accomplish more than we expected,” said Jake Leismer, a college freshman who took the bus off campus and joined Olson and a group of students at the rally.

The Democratic-coordinated campaign, which campaigns for Democrats on all ballots, has hired seven full-time campus organizers across the state and a youth organizing coordinator, according to a source familiar with the Harris campaign’s staff activities in Wisconsin. Kelly Connor, a Madison-based campus organizer, said the campaign has been met with enthusiasm — even hosting a bonfire to ceremonially burn copies of Wisconsin’s gerrymandered electoral maps, which the state abandoned this year after years of organizing by progressive and Democratic parties.

“We have a lot of volunteers who have never volunteered before and want to get out and knock on doors,” Connor said.

The “Young People Effect” in Wisconsin was on full display in 2023, when college students flocked to elect Janet Protasiewicz as a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, creating a liberal majority on the bench. At the heart of the race was abortion access, which has been locked in litigation since Roe v. Wade, which sparked a 175-year-old ban in the state.

“They know what’s at stake,” Connor said. “This election is about fascism versus democracy, and students are ready to do whatever it takes to make sure Donald Trump never sets foot in the White House again.”