I Was at the Kamala Harris Rally in Atlanta. What You’re Seeing Is Very Real. (2024)

In the past two years, Vice President Kamala Harris has made so many visits to Georgia that Atlantans frustratedly joke that perhaps she doesn’t know that there are 49 other states or that maybe she’s looking for real estate in the Southern city. But when Harris came to Atlanta on Tuesday night, the tenor of things was noticeably different.

This time, she was visiting not as a Biden surrogate, but as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. For the first time in a long time, the commentary around her trip—her 15^th since becoming VP—was less about the traffic her motorcade would cause (which it did!) or skepticism about the Biden administration’s need to pander to Black Georgians. This time, her agenda was clear: Harris was in town to rally Democrats to vote for her for president in November. She was making the case for herself.

“I am very clear the path to the White House runs right through this state,” Harris said to an explosive crowd Tuesday night. The audience of 10,000 people—which her campaign told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the largest she’s drawn in the week since kicking off her campaign—was ecstatic. There was chanting, cheering, singing, and dancing for hours in the lead-up to and throughout the event.

Lining the seats and gathered on the floor of the Georgia State Convocation Center were residents from surrounding neighborhoods and further out suburbs and counties. They spanned generations and races; many wore “Harris for President” tees and buttons, and held signs that said phrases like “Herstory in the Making.” Numerous attendees described the rally as “fun” and “invigorating”—words that haven’t been associated with the Democratic Party much lately. Although Harris didn’t take the stage until just after 7 p.m., supporters began gathering outside the arena at 1 p.m. When it started to rain, they stayed, tucking themselves under corners of the building, jackets, and umbrellas. By 4:30 p.m. the line to get inside was so long it extended along a bridge over the interstate. Ashley Matta, who wouldn’t reveal her age except to say she’s in her “late 30s” and who lives in Atlanta, said she’s never been to a political rally before, but wanted to come to Tuesday’s because she’s excited about the election. “I had to come out to support the first female president,” she said.

The rally itself was a uniquely Atlanta event with the city’s love for hip-hop and passion for activism on display. Before singing her hit “Body,” rapper Megan Thee Stallion said, “I know my ladies in the crowd love their body. And if you want to keep loving your body, you know who to vote for.” Behind her, a banner declared that “Hotties for Harris” were present. Meanwhile, the rapper Quavo—a native Atlantan—gave a speech about admiring Harris’ promise to fight gun violence, saying, “You can’t understand the struggle of gun violence if you’re not in the field or the heart of it, so one thing I learned about working with Vice President Harris is that she always stand on business.” (Quavo’s nephew and fellow Migos rapper Takeoff was fatally shot in 2022.)

It wasn’t just celebrities who came out to support Harris. It felt like the whole Georgia Democratic machine was present. Former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, state Democratic Party chair Rep. Nikema Williams, and Mayor Andre Dickens all spoke ahead of Harris, reiterating her qualifications and praising her record in the Senate and, especially, her work as a prosecutor. They hammered the message that Harris is a prosecutor who believes in the rule of law while Donald Trump is a convicted criminal—contrasts Harris also emphasizedin her own speech.

The crew of politicians, especially Abrams, highlighted Harris’ role in the Biden administration during the COVID recovery, in forgiving student loan debt, and in investing in historically Black colleges and universities, and reiterated that even though she entered the 2024 race late, she has been planting the seeds for success for years. After all, remember all those trips to Atlanta?

The crowd danced the Electric Slide and the Cupid Shuffle, and Swag Surfed as the DJ, Tammi Norman, rotated through a playlist of hip-hop, R&B, pop, and Afrobeats. She also led chants and changed lyrics to songs to include Harris’ name. It certainly felt like some songs were chosen to motivate voters, and others, like, say, “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar, were chosen to call out Donald Trump and J.D. Vance for being “weird”—another message Harris hit on in her own speech when she asked the crowd, “By the way, don’t you find some of their [Trump and Vance] stuff just to be plain weird?” (This mirrors a recent Democratic strategy, somewhat pioneered by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, to just call the Republicans “weird” for their political positions, especially on reproductive rights and personal freedoms.)

At another point, the DJ declared, “I know someone who’s not scared to debate” before playing Bone Crusher, Killer Mike, and T.I.’s “Never Scared.” The matter of Trump’s unwillingness to debate Harris came up several times, with Ossoff saying, “Apparently Donald Trump is too scared to debate Vice President Harris. The candidate dodging debates is the candidate losing.” Harris had the final word on the topic when she slowly and deliberately said, “Well, Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage because, as the saying goes, ‘If you got something to say, say it to my face,’ ” to roaring cheers.

Throughout the rally, Trump’s name elicited loud boos and chants to “lock him up.” Bridget Jones, 48, who attended the rally with her partner, Brian Shepherd, 53, said her whole family is invested in seeing Harris win. “We’ve heard Donald Trump saying some concerning things and don’t want four more years of that,” she said.

Shepherd said the palpable excitement in the arena was undeniable, and he had a few theories as to why Democrats are fired up and having fun again. For one thing, he said, “it’s nice to witness history, but getting to be a part of it from the ground up is a whole other level.”