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By Ewan Palmer
News Reporter
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Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign team has compared the size of the crowd at Ohio Senator JD Vance's event in Michigan on Wednesday.
Harris and her recently announced running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, appeared together in the key swing state in front of an estimated 15,000 people at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
The same day, Vance, former President Donald Trump's 2024 running mate, also gave a speech in Michigan from the steps of the Shelby Township Police Department in Macomb County. At the event, which was much more low-key, he also answered questions from the press.
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Vance's appearance in Michigan, which was more of a news conference than a campaign rally, drew a crowd of a few dozen people, including members of the media.
In a post on social media, Harris' team shared videos of both events, highlighting the size difference between the vice president's and the senator's crowds.
The post has since been viewed more than 375,000 times on X, formerly Twitter, and reshared 2,000 times.
Resolute Square, a pro-democracy group, posted a similar video mocking Vance's crowd size compared to the vice president's.
The video uses the same footage of the sparse crowd at Vance's event, which was originally posted by Michigan reporter Maggie George, but adds audio of a baby crying.
Resolute Square's video, which has since been viewed more than 140,000 times on X, compares Vance's small Michigan crowd to the estimated 12,000 rallygoers at Harris' campaign event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, who chanted, "This is what democracy looks like."
Newsweek has contacted the Trump-Vance campaign for comment via email.
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Over the years, Trump has repeatedly cited the size of the crowds at his rallies as proof of his popularity, sometimes exaggerating the numbers.
During a recent rally in Georgia—where sections of empty seats could be seen—Trump suggested that Harris got a large crowd at her late July rally in the swing state because she had "entertainers."
Rappers Megan Thee Stallion and Quavo appeared at Harris' campaign event in Atlanta.
"And it all started to unfold when they started to leave about 10 minutes into the speech," Trump said during his speech at the Georgia State University Convocation Center in Atlanta on August 3.
"It was very boring. I don't need entertainers. I fill the stadium because I'm making America great again. That's our entertainment. That's our entertainment: making America great again," he continued.
Barry Burden, a professor of politics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, suggested that Harris' ability to draw large crowds would benefit her in the 2024 race.
"It has been a point of pride among Trump's supporters that his rallies have attracted much larger crowds than did Biden in 2020 or Clinton in 2016," Burden told Agence France-Presse.
He added, "Now that Harris is speaking to large crowds that rival or exceed Trump's, this rationale for believing Trump is the advantaged candidate disappears."
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