Walz Rallies Supporters on Wisconsin’s First Day of Voting, Alongside Obama

The two men railed against Donald Trump and urged voters to return their ballots early, as polls show a close race in the state.

Share full article

Former President Barack Obama took the stage with Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota at a rally on Tuesday in Madison, Wis.

Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota raced across battleground Wisconsin on Tuesday, exhorting voters to get to the polls on the state’s first day of early voting and just two weeks before Election Day.

At a rally in Madison, Mr. Walz appeared alongside former President Barack Obama for the first time on the campaign trail, giving Mr. Obama a bro hug onstage. The two took turns, in successive speeches, laying into former President Donald J. Trump and stressing the urgency of the moment to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, who leads the Democratic presidential ticket with Mr. Walz.

“Our team is running like everything is on the line, because everything’s on the line,” Mr. Walz told the crowd of thousands at an event center. He urged voters to avoid complacency, suggesting that a second term for Mr. Trump would be even more chaotic than the first and that he was “far more dangerous” now.

“He is not the 2016 Donald Trump — this is a brand-new version,” Mr. Walz said. “The consequences of putting him back into office are deadly serious.”

In Racine on Tuesday night, he addressed comments from John Kelly, a former Trump chief of staff, who said recently that Mr. Trump had told him during his presidency that he wished he had generals like Adolf Hitler’s. “As a 24-year veteran of our military, that makes me sick as hell,” Mr. Walz said. “The guardrails are gone. Trump is descending into this madness.”

In Madison, Mr. Obama was lighthearted as he began, making jokes and telling the audience that Mr. Walz was “the kind of person who should be in politics.”

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.