Trump is stepping up his campaign in Wisconsin with four visits in eight days

JUNEAU, Wis. (AP) – Donald Trump On Sunday, he visited Wisconsin for the fourth time in eight days as his campaign focused attention on a key state where Republicans worry about whether he can match Democrats’ enthusiasm and turnout.

“They say Wisconsin is probably the hardest swing state to win,” Trump said in his opening remarks at an airplane hangar in rural Juneau, where the overflow crowd spilled onto the tarmac. “I do not believe that.”

Wisconsin voters are already casting mail-in ballots and in-person early voting begins October 22nd. Trump stood on stage for nearly two hours and touched on the third rail of Wisconsin politics by overlapping with a Green Bay Packers game, drawing derision from Democrats. But that didn’t stop thousands of people from sticking with Trump as he urged his supporters to start voting by mail as early as possible so they turn out to vote “in record numbers.”

“If we win Wisconsin, we win the presidency,” Trump said.

Wisconsin is consistently close in presidential elections, but has only gone Republican once in the past 40 years, in 2016, when Trump won the state. A victory in November could make it impossible for the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris take the White House.

“In the political chatterbox, they’re worried,” said Brandon Scholz, a retired Republican strategist and longtime political observer in Wisconsin who voted for Trump in 2020 but said he won’t vote for either Trump or Harris this year. “I think Republicans are right to be concerned.”

Trump won the state in 2016 by fewer than 23,000 votes over Democrat Hillary Clinton and lost in 2020 by just under 21,000 votes against Democrat Joe Biden.

On Tuesday, Trump made his very first visit to Dane County, home of the liberal capital of Madison, in an effort to get the Republican vote in the state’s Democratic strongholds. Dane is Wisconsin’s second largest and fastest growing county; Biden received more than 75% of the vote four years ago.

“To win statewide, you have to have a 72-county strategy,” former Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, said at the event.

Juneau is a town of 2,000 people about 50 miles north of Madison in Dodge County that Trump won in 2020 with 65% of the vote.

Early arrivals filled the hangar, far outnumbering the available seats. A large banner behind the stands read “Vote Early.”

“Make sure we show up because you know what, I was in Madison,” U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, a Juneau native, said at the event. “I was in liberal Madison and they’re going to show up. We must do the same because we are the firewall that keeps this country independent and free.”

Jack Yuds, chairman of the county Republican Party, said support for Trump is stronger in this part of the state than it was in 2016 or 2020.

“I can’t keep signs,” Yuds said. “They want everything he has. If it says Trump, you can sell it.”

According to media tracking firm AdImpact, Trump’s campaign and outside groups supporting his candidacy, Harris and her allies spent $35 million to $31 million on advertising in Wisconsin from her July 23 candidacy through Oct. 1.

Harris and outside groups supporting her candidacy had more advertising time reserved in Wisconsin from Oct. 1 to Nov. 5, more than $25 million, compared to $20 million for Trump and his allies.

The Harris campaign has 50 offices in 43 counties with more than 250 employees in Wisconsin, said spokesman Timothy White. The Trump campaign said it has 40 offices in the state and dozens of employees.

Harris rallied supporters in Madison in September at an event attended by more than 10,000 people. On Thursday she has appealed to moderate and disaffect conservatives by holding an event in Ripon, the birthplace of the Republican Party, alongside former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, one of Trump’s most prominent Republican opponents.

Harris and Trump focus on Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the “blue wall” states that went for Trump in 2016 and went for Biden in the next election.

While Trump’s campaign is optimistic about its chances in Pennsylvania and the Sunbelt states, Wisconsin is seen as a bigger challenge.

“Wisconsin, a tough state,” said Trump senior campaign adviser Chris LaCivita, who worked on Republican Sen. Ron Johnson’s victorious 2022 reelection campaign.

“I mean, look, this is going to be very, very close until the end. But where we are now organizationally compared to where our organization was four years ago, I mean, it’s completely different,” LaCivita said.

He also called Michigan a bigger challenge. “But again, these are states that Biden won and led, and so there will be fights until the end, and we will not give up any of this ground.”

The candidates are about evenly matched in Wisconsin, according to a series of polls that have shown little movement since Biden left office in late July. The same polls also show great enthusiasm from both parties.

Mark Graul, who managed then-President George W. Bush’s campaign in Wisconsin in 2004, said the number of campaign visits shows Wisconsin’s crucial role in the election.

The key for both sides is getting rare voters to vote, he said.

“In my opinion, much more important than rallies,” said Graul.

Mark Seelman of Watertown said the energy and size of the crowd signaled that Trump was strong in Wisconsin.

“Everyone is in,” he said during Trump’s speech. “It’s time for a change.”

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Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, and Jill Colvin in Butler, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.