MADISON, Wis. — With six weeks to go until Election Day, Democrats and Republicans show no signs of letting up on reaching out to voters across battleground Wisconsin.
While former President Donald Trump has pulled ahead in polls from three key Sun Belt states according to a New York Times/Siena poll, Vice President Kamala Harris seems to have gained ground in Wisconsin based on a new poll released this week from Wisconsin Watch that shows her up by as much as seven points among likely voters.
Even when MassINC Polling Group’s nearly 4-point margin of error is factored in, Harris still would hold a narrow lead, yet that is not something the state party is taking for granted.
“I will tell you, in 2016 and 2020, the RealClearPolitics polling average was off by seven points both of those years, so we don’t know whether the polls have a systematic error this year,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler explained. “But what we know, is that we want to wake up the day after the election knowing that we all did everything we could.”
With 41 days to go, Wikler said it is about people power and having a strong ground game.
“What each of us can control is whether we pour extra hours into volunteering, whether we put up a yard sign and recruit our neighbors to do the same thing, whether we’re texting the young people in our lives and making sure that they’re registered to vote,” Wikler added. “That kind of work, the work that happens when you walk into the local office and sign up for a volunteer shift, that’s the thing that gives you those few thousand extra votes that tip a statewide election in Wisconsin.”
Republicans, who are on the trail in Wisconsin with local and national surrogates this week, said they are ready to hustle in the remaining days too.
"With both the White House and control of Congress on the line, Wisconsin Republicans are primed and ready for the homestretch of this campaign,” WisGOP Chairman Brian Schimming said in a statement. “We are confident that voters are ready to turn the page and move on from the incompetence and chaos of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden."
Meanwhile, the campaigns continue to fill their calendars with stops in Wisconsin.
A Harris campaign official confirmed to Spectrum News that Gwen Walz, the wife of Democratic nominee for Vice President, Tim Walz, will make stops in the so-called “WOW” counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee, and Washington on Thursday, which have typically been Republican strongholds.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump will return to the Badger State on Saturday for a rally in Prairie du Chien.
Since she jumped into the race for president, Harris has visited Wisconsin four times. When Trump returns on Saturday, it will be his third trip within that same time frame since President Joe Biden dropped out.