After watching President Joe Biden’s faltering debate performance in late June, 69-year-old retiree Mary Criswell said “the whole mood just went in the tank.”

But six weeks later, Criswell was among the more than 12,000 people cheering on Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Saturday during their first rally in Las Vegas since becoming the Democratic ticket for president.

It was Criswell’s first time attending a political event since Barack Obama ran for re-election in 2012.

“The energy level, the excitement, everybody's just so excited for her to be here,” Criswell said.

Saturday’s rally — an hourslong affair at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center that was bigger (and louder) than any Nevada event held by Biden — captured the wave of enthusiasm that has supercharged the Harris campaign in recent weeks.

In the first three weeks after Biden’s exit, the Harris campaign in Nevada recruited more than 10,500 volunteers, up from the roughly 2,500 volunteers recruited the three weeks prior. In that same period, the Harris campaign’s paid organizing program for high school students (which is predominantly Latino) saw a 1,400 percent increase in applications compared to the three weeks prior to Biden’s exit.

And at Saturday’s rally — the biggest political event in Nevada in recent memory, even with about 4,000 people prevented entry for heat-related concerns — the campaign recruited more than 5,000 volunteer shift sign ups, the highest number of shift sign ups at any Harris campaign event to date, an official said. Of these sign ups, 1,000 were for events held Sunday.

The momentum has shown up in other ways — Harris has posted better numbers in national and Nevada polls than Biden, and more elected officials are on board, with Nevada’s entire Democratic congressional delegation speaking at Saturday’s rally, which had not happened during Biden’s visits to Nevada this cycle.

At an event Friday at the Clark County Republican Party offices, Nevada GOP Chair Michael McDonald attacked Harris and Walz as being “the most liberal, dangerously liberal people ever to run for this office.” He accused Harris of being responsible for the surge in border crossings and called Walz “gutless” for his response in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in 2020.

Many rally attendees who spoke with The Nevada Independent said they typically aren’t active politically (some noted that this was their first political rally), but were excited enough about the Harris-Walz ticket to wait in the triple-digit heat for hours.

The interviewees’ excitement did not arise from any specific policies, but rather centered around the potential for Harris to be the first female president, her ability to beat Trump and her background. The campaign has faced criticism for not releasing a policy platform, and Harris said it plans to release an economic platform in the coming days.

Alexandra Freer, 35, said she wouldn’t have gone to a rally if Biden were still the Democratic nominee.

As someone with volunteer experience, she said she thinks this energy is essential because it allows more people to specifically push for greater organizing in swing states such as Nevada.

“It matters significantly in a campaign — how you rally, where you go and how you try to gain those independent voters, and those voters that are not Democrat but don't want to vote for Trump,” she said.

That sentiment was echoed on X by Michelle White, a longtime Democratic political operative and former chief of staff to Gov. Steve Sisolak.

“As someone who spent a good chunk of my career organizing events & rallies in NV, I can confirm that this is absolutely mind blowing,” she wrote in response to a video about the rally’s crowd size. “Vegas is notoriously difficult when it comes to building crowds.”

When Biden was the Democratic nominee, some of Ibeth Soto’s friends were thinking of canceling their voter registration because they had no interest in voting, she said before Saturday’s rally.

Now, the 23-year-old said she is finding it easier to convince her friends to vote, particularly because of Walz, who has been lauded by progressives for helping pass policies such as universal free school meals and protections for transgender youth.

“Even convincing people to vote for [Biden] was like, ‘Oh just vote for him, because he’s not Trump,’” Soto said. “This, it has more points like, ‘Oh, she's so much younger than Trump. She has better things going on in Tim Walz.’”

For a while, Michelle Tkacz, 49, said she became so disheartened with politics that she completely unplugged from social media. She only logged back on when she heard Biden wasn't going to run again, and was “shocked” (in a good way) after learning Harris had selected a fellow Midwesterner in Walz.

“I feel he was a great pick,” Tkacz said. 

Laurie Solverson’s voice slightly shook as she reflected on the Harris campaign. Her father, who died last December, was a union member for the Teamsters. She said she thinks that if her father was still alive, he’d be ecstatic about the Democratic campaign. 

Solverson’s mom, who is in her 90s, is “also super happy,” she said.

“It's affecting everyone,” she said. 

And for Kirk Anthony Ford, a 59-year-old educator, Saturday’s rally showed “we’re happy again in America.”

Ford said he thinks part of the American identity was lost under Trump, especially after the Jan. 6 insurrection. While he greatly appreciated Biden — calling him the “greatest selfless leader of our generation — he, too, has noticed a change with Harris and Walz.

“We're gonna get the culture back on track,” he said.