'I feel hope': Kamala Harris, Tim Walz ignite raucous capacity crowd at Arizona rally

It was hard to tell whether 108-degree temperatures outside Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale on Friday were brought on by the Arizona summer or energy crackling through the thousands lined up to see presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

“I’m just excited, I’m hopeful," 19-year-old Daisy Martinez from west Phoenix said of the vice president's ascent. "I wanna see the change a woman president can make. I'm excited to vote, I've gotten my parents to vote."

Young and old, rallygoers expressed near-universal sentiments to The Arizona Republic while waiting in line: hope and excitement. Ellen Mandinach, a 67-year-old from Scottsdale who attended the rally with her husband, Eli Gruber, shared Martinez's feelings about Harris.

“I feel hope, I feel optimistic, I feel excitement she’s young, she’s vivacious and she brings a lot of the ticket,” Mandinach said.

Martinez, Mandinanch and Gruber were among the roughly 15,000 that the vice president's campaign estimated braved the summer heat to enthusiastically greet Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on their first visit to the state since rocketing to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket.

And in return, Harris' campaign was prepared to greet its supporters.

Lines into the venue moved quickly as volunteers with the campaign handed out hand fans, water bottles and Gatorade to combat the heat. Near the entrance, Mexican popsicles were available to help attendees cool down as they filed into the venue. Erika Felix, the owner of La Michoacana Al Natural, said the campaign contracted her to hand out more than 3,000 "paletas."

That stands in contrast to the campaign infrastructure in place during a June rally held by former President Donald Trump in Phoenix. Lines into the venue ran slowly as vendors hawked cold water — only bottles warmed by that afternoon's high of 111 degrees were available for free. Eleven attendees were hospitalized that day.

While the Glendale Fire Department was not immediately available to say if it responded to heat-related incidents, Rep. Ruben Gallego's speech at the Friday rally was interrupted when a rallygoer suffered a medical incident.

Harris and Walz spoke to the crowd after speeches from Gallego and a joint appearance from Sen. Mark Kelly and Gabby Giffords. The top of the Democratic ticket received a raucous welcome from the crowd that waited for their arrival for hours.

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Rallygoers more optimistic than they were 1 month ago

Among the thousands in attendance at Friday's rally was 22-year-old Christian Campbell from Gilbert, who spoke to The Republic about his feelings heading into November.

“I’m definitely excited now that the Democratic nominee is Kamala Harris instead of Joe Biden,” Campbell said. "I just think that she's more capable of running the country well."

For him, abortion access is the biggest issue heading into the polls in November. Campbell also said he was excited about Walz as the vice presidential nominee.

"I think they are going to do a great job together," he said. "I really like his opinions on LGBTQ rights, he's always been an advocate for that, which I really appreciate."

Donna Williams, a 59-year-old attorney from Goodyear, was excited for her first opportunity to see Harris on Friday. A lifelong Democrat, she felt excited for the party following the nomination of Harris.

"I think my excitement is wrapped around everyone else's excitement, the fundraising that's happening, the volunteerism in that time period," Williams said. "I had anxiety, I still have that same anxiety about the alternative, if Harris and her running mate are not successful, I worry for the country."

The atmosphere wasn't universally positive. A handful of counterprotesters and supporters of Donald Trump stood outside the venue as people filed in, heckling and jeering passersby. Pro-Palestinian protesters marched outside the building and raised a stir inside the rally as Harris spoke. Still, Glendale police did not report any major incidents connected to the counterprotests.

Debi Kovach of Chandler said her optimism was tinged with cautiousness. But it's optimism she didn’t have when Biden was still in the race.

“Trump is a master media manipulator, and the things that he was throwing at Biden were sticking, and people were perceiving him to be different than I think he actually is,” said the 71-year-old retired marketing and communication professional. “I think he would still have been a far better president than Trump, but I think we got to get everybody excited about it to make it happen.”

With Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee now, Kovach said she has a chance to also energize younger voters.

“I love seeing the younger people more excited now,” she said. “I love to see the groups that were disinterested more excited.”

Megan Seele of Phoenix is one of those younger voters. The 23-year-old Phoenix resident agrees that Harris is doing a good job resonating with her generation.

“We've been watching a lot of the social media, like TikToks and all of that,” Seele said. “I think that is really big for our generation. I think she's doing really good connecting with them.”

Reporter Shawn Raymundo contributed to this article.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Harris and Walz ignite Arizona Democrats at capacity-crowd rally