powerballwinning|Harris, Walz hold campaign rallies in key swing states Wisconsin, Michigan

by Xiong Maolingpowerballwinning, Hu Yousong

DETROIT, United States, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, and her running mate Tim Walz on Wednesday held rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan -- two key swing states Republican nominee Donald Trump's campaign has been aiming to flip this year.

"Tim and I have a message for Trump and others who want to turn back the clock on our fundamental freedoms: We're not going back. We're not going back," Harris said at a rally in an airport hangar outside Detroit, Michigan, Wednesday night, sparking the crowd to chant "Not going back."

The campaign said there were 15,000 people at the rally, the largest of this campaign so far. Protesters of Israel's war in Gaza interrupted Harris' speech, before being escorted out.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow and Governor Gretchen Whitmer were among the speakers at the rally.

"If President (Joe) Biden hadn't dropped out, then we didn't really have a chance against Trump, and now I feel like it has completely energized Democrats and independents," Lynne Burns, who drove two and a half hours from Grand Rapids, Michigan, to attend the rally, told Xinhua.

Earlier in the day, the duo held a rally in the rural area of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, which drew some 12,000 people. At around the same time, Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance spoke at a manufacturing company in Eau Claire.

Wednesday's rallies in the Midwest came just one day after Harris announced that she has picked Walz, six-term U.S. House Representative and two-term governor of Minnesota, as her running mate.

Observers said Walz could help boost support for the Democrats in the Midwest.

"He comes from that part of the country, knows how to talk to ordinary Midwesterners, and talks about ways to boost economic opportunities for the middle class," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

The five-day online voting by thousands of Democratic delegates concluded on Monday evening, and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced around midnight that Harris had received 99 percent of the delegate votes, officially securing the party's presidential nomination.

Walz made debut as Harris' running mate at a rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, which kicked off a multi-day tour hitting multiple battleground states. As the rally concluded, the DNC announced that the two had been officially certified as the party's 2024 nominees.

Vance, who was in Philadelphia shortly before the two arrived, criticized Walz's performance as governor, labeling him "one of the most far-left radicals in the entire United States government at any level."

On his social media platform Truth Social, Trump attacked Walz in a series of posts on Wednesday, lashing out at his "horrible policies" and "extreme record."

The race between Harris and Trump is currently very tight. According to the polling data compiled by the U.S. election information website Real Clear Politics, as of Wednesday, while Harris leads the former president by an average of 0.5 percentage points in national polls, Trump still leads in several key swing states.

In Wisconsin and Michigan, however, Harris leads Trump by an average of 0.5 percentage points and 2.0 percentage points.■