Kamala Harris to Visit UW-Milwaukee on Thursday

Vice President Kamala Harris is visiting UW-Milwaukee on Thursday as part of her presidential campaign as the Democratic nominee, Media Milwaukee has exclusively learned.

Multiple students have received random invitations via text message to the Oct. 17 event, which is labeled a meet and greet. The messages request that they RSVP in advance of the event.

WTMJ4 previously reported she was scheduled to land at Mitchell International Airport at about 7 p.m. Wednesday. It’s also been widely reported that Harris will be campaigning in Milwaukee.

However, the specific location where she will be appearing in Milwaukee Thursday has not been reported until now.

The event was originally slated to be held in the Peck School of the Arts, according to a student worker who requested anonymity.

The event will be at the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center, located on campus at 2100 East Kenwood Blvd., that student was told.

The text message was given to Media Milwaukee by UWM student Ethan Wise, one of multiple students unsure of why they were selected for the event. Wise does not plan on attending the event.

“I tend to stay away from politics,” said Wise. He originally thought the message was spam but Media Milwaukee has confirmed that it is real.

A second UWM student, Emily Lange, also confirmed that she received the same invite.

“That would have to be all with the campaign,” Angelica Duria, UWM’s director of Strategic Communications told Media Milwaukee when asked about the Harris event. “I am in the dark. I have zero information at this point.” 

Asked if she was aware that Harris is coming to UWM, Duria said,  “I can not confirm it. You will need to go to the campaign.” 

The UWM Police Department also declined to confirm her visit.

“I cannot confirm anything,” Police Lieutenant Heather Maus said.

Derrick Honeyman, a Wisconsin spokesperson for Harris’s campaign, did not answer a request for comment. Media Milwaukee also left a message for the state Democratic Party’s Comms team.

The chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, Brian Schimming, told Media Milwaukee, when contacted for comment about Harris’s visit to UWM, that he believed the Harris campaign picked UWM because “they are operating on the assumption that with younger voters and particularly university students, many of whom are voting for the first time, that she might have appeal to those voters.”

But he said he believes she is “underperforming “ with all categories of voters, including young voters. “What she has to do is go shore up the base that she should have locked down already and does not,” said Schimming.

He added, “We are going to see President Trump back in the state very soon.”

The preparations at UWM have been performed in secret but students have noticed additional law enforcement on campus for days.

“There has been Secret Service on campus since Sunday,” said Zach Curran, a freshman at UWM.

Despite not receiving an invite, Curran hopes to be part of the crowd that the Harris campaign hopes to be “the best welcome that she has had in Wisconsin so far,” according to what they wrote in the text.

“I wanted to go,” said Curran. “If she is elected, there’s something really awesome to say about being in the presence of the first elected female president. It’s something you tell your kids about.”