Harris campaign builds anticipation for ‘major moment’ Ellipse speech

Harris campaign leadership previewed the speech Tuesday morning, anticipated to be before a crowd of 40,000 people, as an address that will underscore the contrast between the vice president and former President Donald Trump. The campaign first applied for a permit for 7,500 people last week, updating it over the weekend for 20,000 and then on Tuesday for 40,000. Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith has estimated more than 50,000 people will attend.

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“We really feel like tonight’s a major moment for the vice president to make her closing argument to the American people,” Harris campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon told reporters. “We are very focused on making sure we’re doing everything in our power to reach the voters that are still making up their mind and making sure they hear directly from the vice president.”

O’Malley Dillon described undecided voters as people who are “exhausted” by and “frustrated” with the hyperpartisan, divided political system under Trump and “his chaos, his lack of focus on real solutions about the things that the American people are concerned about.”

During her speech, set to start at 8:15 p.m., Harris will discuss her proposals to lower prices and her broader agenda for the middle class, criticize Trump for his abortion policies, and encourage voters “to turn the page from Trump” and support her “new generation of leadership,” according to O’Malley Dillon.

“We are not at this location by accident,” O’Malley Dillon said. “We believe the Ellipse is significant, and it’s significant for two reasons. One, of course, is the backdrop of the White House. It’s really a reminder of the gravity of the job, how much a president can do, for good and for bad, to shape the country and impact people’s lives.”

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“It’s also a stark visualization of probably the most infamous example of Donald Trump and how he’s used his power for bad, really focusing on himself, and spreading division and chaos, and inciting a mob to try to maintain his own power and put himself over the country,” she added of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. “It’s a place that certainly we believe helps crystallize the choice in this election between a candidate seeking unchecked power in Donald Trump and another that’s really offering real solutions to chart a ‘new way forward.’”

In comparison, Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021, drew a crowd of about 53,000 people at the Ellipse before some of them marched to the Capitol and ransacked the building in an attempt to stop the certification of the Electoral College results.

With seven days to go, O’Malley Dillon projected confidence about Harris’s chances of winning next Tuesday, saying, “We feel very good about where we are” as the campaign continues to persuade, not only mobilize, voters. “The vice president’s coalition is independents, it’s Republicans, and it’s Democrats,” she said.

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“As we’re getting closer to the deadlines for early vote closing out, we are seeing increased growth of our folks turning out,” O’Malley Dillon said. “We are seeing a higher clip of our model of support for new registrants and lower propensity voters. And we are also seeing that yes, Republicans, Trump supporters, are voting. They’re voting early. They’re voting early in person, but they are mode-shifting. So these are people that are going to vote no matter what. … We are seeing them vote more and earlier, but what we’re not seeing is signs of overwhelming enthusiasm of people that aren’t going to vote.”

After her speech, Harris is scheduled to campaign in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin on Wednesday, as well as Arizona and Nevada on Thursday.