Some showed up because they admired her stance on the issues: economic policy, reproductive freedom, a ceasefire in Gaza. Others came because they can’t bear the thought of another Trump presidency.

Others gave a one-word answer to why they attended: “change.”

More than 300 people flocked to the IBEW union headquarters in Concord on Wednesday for a rally with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, who’s on the road campaigning for his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris. It was the largest event to date in the state for Harris or President Joe Biden this election cycle, a campaign spokesperson said.

Harris has performed well in New Hampshire since announcing her candidacy for president, according to polls that show she has surpassed former president Donald Trump’s by several points. Still, a smattering of Trump supporters rallied outside the event with chants of “We love Trump” and “Close the border now.” On Sunday, too, a caravan of several hundred Trump supporters rolled through Concord.

Attendees at Wednesday’s rally like Sophie Reynolds and Lucy Vitali, who are both sophomores at Dartmouth College, said they align with Harris’s position on reproductive freedom and abortion access. They also said they like the vice president’s positions on gun control and the environment.

Many view Harris as the anti-Trump.

“I like having a candidate that goes directly against everything that Trump stands for,” Reynolds said.

The rally focused on reproductive freedom, an issue that several candidates in New Hampshire’s gubernatorial and congressional races have included as a large part of their platforms. Emhoff recounted to the audience the day the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which protects the right to abortion. He said he heard from Harris, his daughter and his mom that day.

“Never would my mother … have imagined a world where she would have enjoyed more reproductive freedom than her granddaughter,” Emhoff said. “Here we are, two years later, and we have seen a devastating impact.”

Since then, 22 states have succeeded in banning or restricting abortion access, according to a New York Times tracker. New Hampshire lawmakers rejected such a law when the House of Representatives voted 363-11 against a bill that would’ve banned abortions after 15 days of pregnancy. An effort to enshrine abortion as a constitutional right received a majority of votes in the legislature earlier this year but failed to meet the two-thirds supermajority requirement to amend the state constitution.

Emhoff and other speakers, including a woman who shared her own story of needing abortion access, Congresswoman Annie Kuster, and several Democratic lawmakers and advocates, all doubled down on what they referred to as “Trump’s Project 2025.” The Trump campaign has maintained its independence from Project 2025, resulting in Paul Dans, who spearheaded the conservative policy blueprint at The Heritage Foundation, stepping down on Tuesday after backlash from the former president.

Speakers at the rally warned of Project 2025’s plans for widespread abortion restrictions if Trump gets reelected, and they told the crowd that cutting access to abortion often means cutting access to other medical care, too.

Dr. Maris Toland, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Bedford, told the crowd that when lawmakers cut funding for clinics that perform abortions, they’re also cutting funding for routine reproductive care.

“These laws don’t just affect Americans seeking abortion,” Toland said. “They change the landscape of how doctors train, where healthcare providers choose to live and practice, and the ability to offer other important services, like cancer screening and routine gynecologic care, when clinics close their doors.”

The Association of American Medical Colleges reported earlier this summer that U.S. states with abortion bans receive fewer medical residency applications, and Scientific American has reported that some doctors and healthcare workers are hesitant to practice in states with those bans.

Some states, including New Hampshire, have pushed to cut funding for reproductive healthcare clinics, which often provide additional services like birth control, screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and other preventative treatments. Not all clinics shutter, though, when abortion bans and funding cuts take place. In many states, clinics have survived by focusing on those other aspects of reproductive care.

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, or send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.