At one of the largest political rallies in Nevada’s modern political history, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz continued their tour as the new Democratic presidential candidates on Saturday – one of the clearest signs of renewed Democrats’ hopes in the swing state.

Campaign officials said more than 12,000 people attended the event at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas – by far the largest crowd at a Nevada campaign rally this election cycle. Local police kept another 4,000 people from entering the arena, concerned about the heat.

The rally marks the final stop on a week-long tour of swing states that was launched after Walz – the 60-year-old Minnesota governor and military veteran – was chosen as Harris’s running mate last week.

Nevada’s appearance on this electoral list was no coincidence: Democrats are showing renewed vigor in keeping the Silver State with the Democrats after Harris replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket and they have seen a corresponding increase in donations and poll numbers (including in Nevada).

And in Nevada, amid the usual rhetoric of her campaign speech, Harris made a new promise: eliminating the federal tax on tips for restaurant workers and others in the service industry. It was a rare moment of political unity – the idea was first floated by former President Donald Trump at his Nevada campaign rally in June and later taken up by the state’s elected officials, including Democrats.

In a post on his Truth Social account on Saturday, Trump accused Harris of copying his proposal, saying, “She won’t do it, she just wants to do it for political reasons!”

It’s a political promise that was quickly praised by Culinary Union Workers Union Local 226, the politically influential union that endorsed Harris and Walz late Friday ahead of their trip to the state. The union represents more than 60,000 workers in Reno and Las Vegas.

As they have at other campaign events this past week, Harris and Walz touted their pasts – she as a prosecutor, attorney general and senator, he as a former teacher, National Guard member and congressman – and explained how their administration will protect people’s rights. Harris portrayed the election as an ideological battle, with Democrats aiming for “the future” and the Trump campaign stuck in “the past.”

In response, the crowd chanted: “We are not going back.”

“If Donald Trump wants to start a fight over our most basic freedoms, we say go ahead,” Harris said.

The excitement was clearly felt among the more than 15 participants who The Nevada Independent Many of them said Saturday they felt more energized and engaged with Harris leading the electoral roll and Walz by her side. The campaign saw 4,300 volunteer shift sign-ups at the event, more than at any previous rally, a campaign official said.

Alexandra Freer, 35, said she would not have gone to a rally if Biden had been the Democratic nominee.

“I think he’s a good guy in general, but we needed someone new. I wasn’t very excited to vote for Joe,” Freer said. “It’s exciting. I’m much more excited.”

Walz/Harris

In her 27-minute speech, the vice president touted her record as a prosecutor and repeated a phrase she had used many times this week: she knew “Donald Trump’s type” from her own past of prosecuting “sexual assaulters who abused women, fraudsters who defrauded consumers, and con artists who broke the rules for personal gain.”

Harris emphasized abortion access in her speech, saying Trump would sign a national abortion ban, “but we will not allow that to happen because we trust women.” Walz told the story of his daughter Hope, who was born through artificial insemination, implicitly overshadowing Republican opposition to some fertility treatments.

She also called the immigration system “broken” and vowed to pass a bill stalled in the Senate that would have increased funding for the Border Patrol and stopped processing most asylum claims when the number of migrant encounters reached a certain threshold. The bill failed after Trump urged Republicans to oppose it.

“He talks big about border security, but he doesn’t follow through on his words,” Harris said of Trump.

The rally was Harris’ seventh appearance in Nevada this year – and by far the largest – after campaigning for Biden six times before, including events to woo Latino and Asian American voters. Walz also made a brief stop at a Biden campaign field office in Reno in June.

Unlike previous visits, the scope of Saturday’s visit was unmistakably larger. The state’s entire Democratic congressional delegation — Reps. Steven Horsford, Susie Lee and Dina Titus and Senators Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto — preceded Harris and Walz, along with a casino doorman and a member of the Culinary Union and a campaign staffer from North Las Vegas.

For many people in Southern Nevada, Saturday’s rally was also the first time they were able to hear Walz in person.

Walz’s speech focused on his background – he grew up in rural Nebraska and had 25 students in his graduating class. His parents taught him the importance of “generosity toward others and working for the common good.” He highlighted his time on the House Armed Services Committee, where he helped, with Republican support, pass “the most comprehensive veterans package since the GI Bill.”

“I learned the art of compromising without compromising my values,” Walz said.

He also tended to characterize Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance (R-OH), as “weird” – a strategy he first used in a television interview when he was running for Harris’s running mate and which has since become a central point of the campaign’s messaging.

“Cutting back reproductive freedoms, banning books, raising the price of insulin, trying to hurt unions – nobody is asking for this weird crap,” Walz said.

A campaign with energy?

Rochelle Jeter said she could think of only one apt comparison to the excitement she experienced on Saturday: Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Jeter, 73, had never attended a political rally before, but was among the first people to enter the Thomas & Mack Center, carrying a purple umbrella to protect her from the triple-digit heat.

“I am encouraged and pray that it continues,” she said. “I will do what I can to contribute.”

It is comments like Jeter’s that have instilled greater confidence among Democrats, especially given the large number of volunteer supporters and the high level of interest in the campaign immediately after Biden’s decision to drop out of the race.

But will this “Harrisment” last until November?

There has been relatively little polling in Nevada so far, although some surveys released since Biden dropped out of the race showed a much closer contest. The Cook Political Report, a leading election forecaster, put Nevada at “decide” this week after previously leaning Republican. The state hasn’t supported a Republican presidential candidate since 2004, but Republicans have won other statewide elections, and post-Obama presidential margins have become increasingly narrow in the state.

“This is going to be a close race until the end, so we shouldn’t pay too much attention to the polls,” Harris said in her speech.

Anne Yeh, a 75-year-old retired nurse who describes herself as a regular attendee at political events, but described the energy she has seen since Harris’ campaign began as unprecedented.

“We’re getting more involvement from young people,” Yeh said. “We’re getting more involvement from black people. We have women coming from all over. They’re reaching out to the general public.”

“For the first time, not everyone has to be a CEO,” she said, pointing to Walz’s background as a teacher and his childhood on a farm.

Lisa Agramonte, a 56-year-old teacher from Clark County, said Harris was the reason she showed up on Saturday.

“She’s on fire,” she said. “I’m all for her.”