WASHINGTON — Wisconsin has been a fiercely contested battleground state in the last several presidential elections.
President Joe Biden’s visit Wednesday, and the vice president’s trip next month, are signs that Wisconsin will be a battleground state again next year, said Charles Franklin, a professor of law and public policy at Marquette University Law School.
“The bottom line here is Wisconsin's a swing state, and Biden must keep it in his camp,” said Franklin.
Biden will visit Wisconsin on Wednesday to tout the administration’s spending on roads, bridges and other infrastructure and how Wisconsin has benefitted. Marquette Law School’s most recent poll shows that Wisconsin voters favor Biden over Trump by two points. and Biden is trying to keep that lead.
“In other swing states, Trump has leads of two to four points or so,” Franklin said. “That means Wisconsin is completely vital for Biden to maintain his slight better performance here.”
On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that Wisconsin will be the first stop on a multi-state campaign to highlight the stakes for abortion rights in the election. She’ll be in the state on Jan. 22, the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The landmark decision, which constitutionally protected the right to an abortion, was overturned by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority last year, thanks to the three justices that Donald Trump nominated for the high court.
Wisconsin allows abortions up to 22 weeks of pregnancy, and the court’s ruling has motivated supporters of abortion rights to register and vote.
“I want people to be able to have their own decisions and be able to be safe in their decisions,” Wisconsin resident Ashton Hageman said in November.
Harris’ nationwide tour is an attempt to energize supporters of abortion rights to turn out for the Biden-Harris ticket next year.
“Abortion played an important role in the gubernatorial election last year, and played an important role in this state Supreme Court election in April,” Franklin said. “Polling here, including mine, consistently shows 60-65% majority that say abortion should be legal in either all or most cases.”
The Wisconsin Republican Party responded to the announcement of their visits in a statement to Spectrum News.
“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris know they have lost the trust of Wisconsin voters,” said Matt Fisher, the spokesman for the Wisconsin Republican Party. “No publicity tour will mend the fences broken by the higher prices, lower wages, and declining Wisconsin GDP courtesy of Bidenomics.”
Republicans are trying to energize their supporters in Wisconsin, too. The GOP held its first debate of the 2024 campaign in Milwaukee last summer, and the national party will return to the city next July for the Republican National Convention.