Tuesday night's rally in the battleground state of Georgia was, by far, the largest stage yet for Vice President Kamala Harris to push back on the attacks from Republican presidential opponent Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.

Backed by a crowd of about 10,000 supporters packed into Atlanta's Georgia State Convocation Center, Harris didn't just throw punches, she dropped the gloves and invited Trump to come at her.

"You may have seen he pulled out of the debate in September he had previously agreed to," Harris said. "Here's the funny thing about that: So he won't debate, but he and his running mate seem to have a lot to say about me...well Donald, I do hope you'll consider to meet me on the debate stage. Because, as the saying goes," she paused, looking directly down the barrel of the camera to rising cheers from the crowd. "If you've got something to say, say it to my face."

Harris' trip to Georgia sought to build on an influx of momentum, money and new volunteers that have flooded the campaign since she became the Democratic Party's likely nominee just over one week ago. And the rally, which featured a music performance from Megan Thee Stallion and remarks from Atlanta rapper Quavo of the Migos, was the highest marker yet of the campaign's momentum.

During her rally, Harris laid out a campaign vision as one focused on the future, "where every person has the opportunity to build a buisness, to own a home, to build intergenerational wealth," and, to borrow a theme from her boss, President Joe Biden, "building up the middle class."

Trump's, she said, is "focused on the past." Harris again sought to marry Trump to Project 2025, a right-wing presidential transition agenda helmed by the Heritage Foundation, advisors to every Republican presidency since the 1980s. Though Trump has disavowed Project 2025, his own agenda promises to cut taxes on corporations, wipe out existing clean energy investments and jobs, and repeal existing policies seeking to establish equitable housing.

"America has tried these failed policies before, and we are not going back," Harris said.

She repeated an early theme of her campaign, positioning herself as the prosecutor, drawing from her career as California Attorney General and San Francisco District Attorney, staring down the crook, noting Donald Trump's past running a for-profit real estate "university," his civil liability for sexual abuse and his conviction of 34 felony fraud counts. 

Harris also pushed back on his attacks on her immigration record, a major conservative point of attack. Harris, they say, is the Biden administration's "border czar" responsible for increased migration across America's southern border. She called up her past as California's attorney general, prosecuting transnational gangs, drug cartels and human traffickers. (In a 2014 report, then-AG Harris's office reported that state agencies "disrupted or dismantled 140 drug, money-laundering and gang organizations," arrested about 3,000 individuals and seized nearly $28.5 million in anti-drug law enforcement actions.)

"Donald Trump has been talking a big game about securing our border, but he does not walk the walk," Harris said. "Or, as my friend Quavo would say, he does not walk it like he talks it."

Trump, meanwhile, spiked a bipartisan border deal that Harris said was "set to pass" before he stepped in.

"He tanked a bipartisan deal because he thought it would help him win an election, which goes to show that Donald Trump does not care about border security. He only cares about himself," Harris said.

After the event, the official said, Harris joined an organizing call to thank volunteers and talk about ways to get involved with the campaign. Harris is also expected to meet with reproductive rights advocates in Atlanta on Wednesday. 

Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler noted that the campaign this week will look to mobilize voters around reproductive rights – an issue already front and center of Harris’ campaign that will take on extra significance after Iowa’s strict new abortion law went into effect on Monday – as well as President Joe Biden’s new call for major reforms to the Supreme Court. 

The vice president was introduced by Tyler Greene, an entrepreneur and graduate of Morehouse College, a historically Black men’s university in Atlanta, and Quavious "Quavo" Marshall. Quavo has become a staunch gun safety advocate after the 2022 shooting death of his nephew, Kirshnik Khari Ball, better known as his fellow Migos member Takeoff. Harris attended a gun violence summit hosted by Quavo last month on what would have been Takeoff’s 30th birthday.

"Yeah, we changing the culture again," Quavo said, announcing Harris as the first African American woman to run for president. "So if you never voted before, make sure you get out and vote, right now, because it's real."

Led in by the performance from Megan Thee Stallion, who told the crowd (especially her fans, who she lovingly calls "hotties") that they're "about to make history with the first female president," before correcting herself: "the first Black female president! Let's get this done. Hotties for Harris!"

Harris was joined on the trip by Georgia’s two Democratic senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, as well as Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Ga., and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, all of whom stopped with Harris at Paschal's, a historic Black-owned restaurant. Paschal's, a campaign official said, was a destination for civil rights leaders during the height of the movement. Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams was also in attendance at the rally, getting a shout-out from Harris.

The rally followed a busy weekend for Harris' campaign, the first full weekend with the vice president as the party’s likely choice for the top of the ticket in November.

Over the weekend, Harris' campaign hosted more than 2,300 events across the country and dispersed volunteers to knock on 126,000 doors and 768,000 phone calls. In total, the campaign has seen 360,000 volunteers sign on to join the team in the week since Harris became the likely nominee and raised more than $200 million, the campaign said. 

“As the vice president herself said on Saturday, we are the underdogs in this race but the groundswell of support around the vice president is real and it is meaningful,” the campaign’s battleground states director, Dan Kanninen, told reporters on the call. “Our task now is to translate that enthusiasm into action.” 

Harris’ team touted its efforts on the ground in swing states as an advantage over Trump, highlighting the campaign’s 600 staff based in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. The campaign added it is set to add 150 staff members to the area at the beginning of August and will double its teams in Arizona and North Carolina. 

In Georgia specifically – which Biden won by less than a percentage point in 2020 – the campaign said it opened three additional offices over the weekend ahead of Harris’ visit Tuesday. 

“Georgia was famously decided by 11,780 books in 2020 and we expect it to be as close, as competitive this year and that's why we have the team and the operation in place to make sure that we can turn out every single Harris voter in the state of Georgia,” Tyler said.