I Was at the Harris-Walz Philadelphia Rally. My Ears Are Still Ringing. (2025)

The scene within a few blocks of Temple University’s Liacouras Center in Philadelphia was a mess. Long lines for various groups of attendees to get into the arena—general public, VIPs, media—stretched and snaked around several city blocks, with heaps of empty plastic water bottles strewn about the streets and sidewalks while people waited, at length, in the heat. Summer rain showers came and went.

Inside the arena, everything was set up for a sensory-expanding laser show. Each rallygoer was given an LED wristband that flickered between red, white, and blue, as if this was the American leg of a multiyear global tour. A DJ was spinning the house music; the audience was swag surfing (some better than others). On the concourse outside the arena, lines to get food and drinks were long to the extent that even when individual vendors ran out of food and drink, as they mostly did, there were still, for some reason, lines.

The atmosphere was so suspiciously bustling, in fact, that I had to check to make sure I was at the right place: Wasn’t this supposed to be a rally for a Democratic presidential ticket?

The last two Democratic presidential nominees, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, had their own political skill sets. Generating arena-rock electricity was not among them. The sheer energy of the crowd at the Philadelphia introduction of the Kamala Harris–Tim Walz presidential ticket on Tuesday—an event from which my ears are still ringing—was something I hadn’t seen in Democratic presidential politics since the early days of the last Democratic president. There will be plenty of twists, turns, and down moments to come for Harris-Walz in the next 90 days. But the fresh new Democratic ticket, and the recognition that Democrats don’t have to submit to defeat in November, has unlocked a euphoria that Democratic audiences have long kept suppressed behind caution and fear.

The ecstasy was ever the more impressive given the awkwardness of the day’s news. Despite the debut of the ticket being in Philadelphia, the most populous city of the election’s pivotal swing state, the Democratic nominee had just that morning denied the state’s popular governor, Josh Shapiro, a spot on the ticket. Philly will let you know what it thinks—and you could’ve taken me blindfolded to a mystery site and I would’ve been able to tell instantly by the crowd that this was Philly—and there was some risk that Walz might not have gotten the best reception.

“We must take a page out of my grandmother’s book, that we remember that our Democratic nominee has spoken,”Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, an early speaker at the event, told the crowd. “That’s it. Period, end of story.”

Shapiro came out to a hero’s welcome for his speech, earning deafening roars matching those for Harris and Walz later on.

“I love you, Philly,” Shapiro began when he was finally able to get a word in. “And you know what else I love? I love being your governor!”

Shapiro was gracious in his speech, going to lengths to praise both Harris and Walz—the latter of whom he does enjoy a genuine friendship with. But part of me wondered if Shapiro, in even a subconscious way, was putting an extra bit of oomph into his show as a way of saying “This is what you could have had.” He spoke for a particularly long time with the home-field crowd. They ate up every word. I had the good fortune of being positioned near the most obnoxious section of the crowd that would, for better or worse, originate the many spontaneous chants that broke out throughout the night. A single mention of J.D. Vance’s name from Shapiro was enough to elicit from them a speech-pausing rendition of “HE’S A WEIRDO!”

“If I hear you right, you’re chanting, ‘He’s a weirdo,’ ” Shapiro said. “I love you, Philly.” And the emergence of the “weird” talking point, of course, provided him a perfect segue into his praise of Tim Walz.

Is Shapiro stewing about not having been chosen? There’s been some reporting since Harris’ decision that Shapiro was having doubts down the stretch about leaving the governorship. (That could just be what his team put out there when they recognized Shapiro wasn’t going to get it.) There’s been a debate, one that the GOP has encouraged, about whether the criticisms of Shapiro for his pro-Israel stance during the Gaza war—which hasn’t been meaningfully different from that of the other VP competitors—were antisemitic. Shapiro offered his own masked, but hardly subtle, commentary on the matter toward the end of his speech.

“I want to just say this,” Shapiro said, slowly and deliberately. “I lean on my family, and I lean on my faith, which calls me to serve. And I am proud of my faith.”

At the end of Shapiro’s speech, another reporter in the press pen turned to me and said, “Chose the wrong guy.”

Fortunately for Democrats, the Philly crowd loved the guy Harris chose, too.

Walz looked as taken aback as anyone while he was on his stroll to the dais alongside Harris as Beyoncé’s “Freedom” thumped over the loudspeakers. He was clearly mouthing “wow,” and giddy enough taking in the rapturous crowd that I wondered if he might misstep and fall off the narrow sliver of stage.

Harris, who announced for the first time that she was “officially the Democratic nominee for president,” could barely get a word in. That didn’t seem to bother her. (For the most part. Both Harris and Walz worked to tamp the crowd down when chants of “LOCK HIM UP” broke out during their respective speeches.) She introduced Walz by the various titles he’s held in his career: “husband,” “dad,” “Congressman Walz,” “Sergeant Major Walz,” “Mr. Walz, “Coach Walz”—and it was the last one that she mostly stuck with.

“Only in America,” Harris said, was it possible for two people of such different backgrounds and heritages to join together to make it “all the way” to the White House. Chants of “USA! USA!” broke out. As Politico’s Jonathan Martin described the moment, “It was the stuff of Republican nightmares.”

Walz effectively captured not just the mood in the room, but in Democratic politics, when he opened his remarks by thanking Harris for “bringing back the joy.” After some well-received throat clearing, Walz ultimately received Shapiro-like roars from the crowd when he mentioned that crime was up during the Trump administration—“and that’s not even counting the crimes he committed.” Walz played other hits, too, calling the Trump ticket “creepy and, yes, they’re weird as hell.” The governor, who had reportedly never spoken from a teleprompter before, also earned the admiration of the faithful when he said he “can’t wait to debate” J.D. Vance.

“That is,” he added, “if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up.” We’re not so sure how long this joking reference to a meme will remain in the stump speech. But things happen when you’re overexcited, and Democrats haven’t flexed this muscle in a while.