MILWAUKEE (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will host rallies within 7 miles of each other Friday night in the Milwaukee area as part of a fevered final push for votes in swing-state Wisconsin's largest county.
Milwaukee is home to the most Democratic votes in Wisconsin, but its conservative suburbs are where most Republicans live and are a critical area for Trump as he tries to reclaim the state he narrowly won in 2016 and lost in 2020. One reason for his defeat was a drop in support in those Milwaukee suburbs and an increase in Democratic votes in the city.
“Both candidates recognize that the road to the White House runs directly through Milwaukee County,” said Hilario Deleon, chair of the county's Republican Party.
The dueling rallies — Trump is in downtown Milwaukee and Harris is in a suburb — may be the candidates' last appearances in Wisconsin before Election Day. Both sides say the race is once again razor tight for the state's 10 electoral votes. Four of the past six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a point, or fewer than 23,000 votes.
It was absentee votes from Milwaukee, which typically are reported early in the morning after Election Day, that tipped Wisconsin for President Joe Biden in 2020.
Democrats know they must turn out voters in Milwaukee, also home to the state's largest Black population, to counter Trump's support in the suburbs and rural areas. Harris is hoping to replicate, and exceed, turnout from 2020 in the city, which voted 79% for Biden that year.
Trump is trying to cut into the Democrats' margin. Deleon called it a “lose by less” mentality.
Before heading to Milwaukee, Harris campaigned in the southern Wisconsin city of Janesville, where she talked up her support for organized labor in a speech at an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers local.
“Nobody understands better than a union member that as Americans we all rise or fall together,” Harris said. She promised to eliminate “unnecessary” degree requirements for federal jobs and push private sector employers to do the same.
She called Trump an “an existential threat to America’s labor movement."
Harris said Trump is “one of the biggest losers of manufacturing jobs in American history,” hanging on the word “loser’ as she was flanked by union workers in bright yellow T-shirts.
Trump, whose base includes working-class voters, has made sporadic efforts to reach out to rank-and-file union members, who have traditionally been core to the Democratic coalition.
Harris later went after Trump on health care, telling hundreds who packed into a high school in Little Chute, Wisconsin, that the former president wants to undo the Affordable Care Act law and take the United States back to the days when insurers could deny coverage to people with preexisting conditions.
“Access to health care should be a right and not just a privilege for those who can afford it,” the vice president said. She also pushed her proposal to have Medicare pay for home health care to help the “sandwich generation” of people who are raising kids while caring for elderly parents.
Trump supporters waiting in line for his Milwaukee rally said they are feeling optimistic about his chances of winning next week.
“I feel the Democrats can only win if they cheat,” said Matt Kumorkiewicz, 55, a retired carpenter from nearby Oak Creek, echoing a common refrain from the former president.
He and several others in line were wearing yellow reflective safety vests in response to Biden’s comment seemingly calling Trump supporters “garbage.”
“We’re not garbage,” he said.
Peter Schmidt, 66, said he bought a vest from a street vendor for $15. Others in the crowd were wearing garbage bags.
Trump spent the afternoon in the Detroit area, where he stopped at a restaurant in Dearborn, the nation's largest Arab-majority city, to meet with supporters. Many in the community remain distrustful after his first act in office in 2017 was to sign an executive order effectively banning travelers from predominantly Muslim countries.
In Milwaukee, a lot of Democrats are "anxious and cautiously optimistic," said Angela Lang, founder and executive director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities in Milwaukee.
“Especially given 2016 when there wasn't the same amount of energy, I think it’s clear Dems learned lessons about the importance of Milwaukee and Wisconsin as a whole,” she said.
In another late outreach effort targeting Black voters, former President Bill Clinton campaigned with local faith leaders on Thursday night at a center for celebrating African American music and arts in Milwaukee.
Hillary Clinton did not campaign in Wisconsin in 2016 after her primary loss, a mistake that Harris is not repeating. The Friday stop will be her ninth in the state as a presidential candidate and her fifth to Milwaukee or its suburbs. It will be Trump's 10th stop in Wisconsin, not counting the Republican National Convention, which was held in Milwaukee, and his third visit to the Milwaukee area.
Wisconsin Republican Party Chair Brian Schimming said that Harris having to return to the Democratic stronghold of Milwaukee shows she is on defense while Trump is on offense.
The Milwaukee Election Commission estimated on Thursday that it expects to receive more than 100,000 ballots by Election Day. But that lags early vote returns from the conservative suburbs.
“The question no one knows the answer to is who those voters are voting for,” said Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler. “My feeling is that there may be some pleasant surprises for Harris.”
Lang, the Milwaukee organizer, said it is a tradition for many voters her group contacts to cast their ballots on Election Day. And if they don't?
“Then we’re in a world of trouble,” said Mandela Barnes, a former lieutenant governor and president of Power to the Polls, a group that’s been working to boost turnout.
Trump’s rally is being staged in the same arena where the Republican convention took place three months ago. The Harris rally, to be held at the state fair park in West Allis, will include the rapper Cardi B, who is slated only to speak, and performances by GloRilla, Flo Milli, MC Lyte, The Isley Brothers and DJ Gemini Gilly.
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Associated Press writers Darlene Superville in Washington and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.