WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is putting Westby, Wis. on the map Thursday. Located in the western part of the state, Westby is a city of about 2,300 people in Vernon County, near La Crosse.
“I like to say that we're a swing county, in a swing region, of a swing state,” said Wayde Lawler, chair of the Vernon County Democratic Party.
Biden is traveling to Wisconsin in his official capacity as President. Vernon County went for former President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and flipped for former President Donald Trump in 2016, and voters there picked him again in 2020. Trump beat Biden by less than 800 votes in the county four years ago.
“These voters vote based on the conditions of the economy. They vote based on how their lives are going,” said Anthony Chergosky, an associate professor of political science at UW-La Crosse. “There do seem to be quite a few voters out here in the western part of Wisconsin that have weaker ties to the political parties and are thus more likely to be persuaded by the events of the campaign.”
A White House Official told Spectrum News that Biden promised to be a president for all Americans "in small towns and big cities, rural America and communities that for too long have been overlooked by federal investment."
"President Biden will travel to Westby to show how his and the VP’s Investing in America agenda is delivering for those communities," the statement goes on to say.
Lawler praised the Biden administration's efforts in Vernon County.
“The administration's decision to invest so heavily in infrastructure, including broadband, has been huge,” Lawler said.
President Donald Trump will visit Mosinee on Saturday, a city with less than 4,500 people as of the 2020 Census. Mosinee is in Marathon County in central Wisconsin. Trump visited the area four years ago and beat Biden in that county by about 14,000 votes the last time around.
“Central Wisconsin is a perfect breeding ground for conservative values, family values,” said Kevin Hermening, chair of the Marathon County Republican Party.
This visit, Trump is expected to speak about the impacts of inflation under the Biden administration and his own economic record when he was in the White House, which Hermening applauds.
“I saw an unprecedented level of increased hiring and profitability,” he said.
Jacob Fischer, a spokesman for Trump’s campaign, said he is running to represent every Wisconsinite from big cities to small towns.
“While out of touch Democrats have long believed that Wisconsin only consists of two cities—Madison and Milwaukee—President Trump and Senator Vance know the state and voters spans much wider," the statement reads. "Team Trump believes voters in northern and central Wisconsin are equally as important to those in southern Wisconsin ... It's why the Trump-Vance ticket will continue to show up in places Democrats know nothing about like Mosinee.”
Chergosky explained small towns are “relevant to the math” that both parties are dealing with, as they try to gain an advantage in Wisconsin.
“The larger cities are clearly going to prefer Harris,” he said. “And although the suburbs have been a problem spot for the Republicans in the Trump-era, the small towns and the rural parts of the state have been very favorable for Donald Trump and the GOP ticket here in Wisconsin. So by campaigning in small towns, the Trump campaign is really playing to its strengths and is trying to motivate voters in an area where they already have some momentum.”
Chergosky said Biden’s visit to a rural area such as Westby could help Democrats limit their margin of defeat.
“It's often assumed that Republicans dominate rural areas and Democrats dominate urban areas, and there's a lot of truth to those assumptions, but there are still millions of Democrats around the country who live in small towns; there are still millions of Republicans who live in big cities,” Chergosky said. “So both parties need to turn out the vote everywhere, and sometimes they really want to drive up their margins in the areas where they're already strong, and sometimes they really just want to limit the damage in areas where they aren't so strong.”
Chergosky said visiting a variety of communities across the state will continue to be a priority for both parties as we approach Nov. 5.
“If this election is once again decided by about 20,000 votes, then any region in Wisconsin could make the difference,” Chergosky said.