RIPON, Wis. — With 33 days to go, the presidential campaign stops in Wisconsin kept coming this week.
After former President Donald Trump made a pair of campaign stops in traditionally Democratic counties on Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Thursday.
Harris brought her rally to a place where conservative values run deep: Ripon—the birthplace of the Republican Party.
Harris is the first major party presidential nominee to campaign in Ripon. However, former Vice President Mike Pence stumped at the college in 2020.
Unlike then, Harris has her work cut out as she doubles downed on her “president for all Americans” approach with the hopes of appealing to Republicans and Independents in Fond du Lac County, where Trump won 62% of the vote in 2020.
“Every endorsement matters, and this endorsement matters a great deal,” Harris told crowd.
In the home of the “Little White Schoolhouse” where meetings in 1854 led to the birth of the Republican Party, former Rep. Liz Cheney, one of the party’s fiercest members, hit the trail for the first time with the Democratic nominee for president.
“As a conservative, as a patriot, as a mother, as someone who reveres our constitution, I am honored to join her in this urgent cause,” Cheney said. “Putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration. It is our duty.”
Cheney, who lost her seat in Wyoming to a Trump-backed candidate two years ago, endorsed Harris last month.
Days later, her father, former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney also said he would back Harris in November.
From the trail Thursday, Harris praised them for putting country over party.
“Liz Chaney really is a leader who puts country above party and above self—a true patriot and it is my profound honor, my profound honor, to have your support,” Harris said to Cheney who stood by her during Thursday’s remarks.
Harris’ fifth trip to the state since launching her campaign came as a group of more than 20 Republicans from Wisconsin—some former officials, some not—also put their support behind her for president.
According to the campaign, more than 200 staffers who worked for four previous Republican presidential nominees have backed her too.
“Fiserv, I saw her at West Allis, and I saw her in Madison, so this is the fourth place I’ve seen her,” Sandy Solo of Milwaukee said. “So, I pull up and I didn’t know [there] were going to be so many people here, but it looks like it’s going to be a lot of people, and that’s exciting.”
Supporters who showed up Thursday said the Republican support speaks volumes.
“I think it’s a big thing to have two different parties on the same stage talking about maybe the same topics, different topics, how they agree, how they disagree, whatever it is,” Fisher MacKenzie, a student a Ripon College, said. “I mean, I think it’s important. I think it’s a good way to unite people.”
Knowing she can’t win over Republicans, or even Independents, on every issue, Harris told the crowd gathered on the grounds of Ripon College they can count on her to uphold three things: the constitution, the fundamental principles of America, and the rule of law.
“And if people across Wisconsin, and our nation, are willing to do what Liz is doing—to stand up for the rule of law, for our Democratic ideals, and the constitution of the United States, then together I know we can chart a new way forward,” Harris said. “Not as members of any one party, but as Americans.”
Meanwhile, Republicans criticized Cheney for breaking from the party.
"Liz Cheney is a stone-cold loser who is so desperate for relevance and attention that she has debased herself by campaigning with a weak, failed, and dangerously liberal Kamala Harris,” Trump Campaign Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement. “The both of them are made for each other— proponents of endless wars, killers of Social Security, and enemies of American workers."
The latest Marquette Law School Poll released Wednesday shows among both registered
and likely voters in Wisconsin, Vice President Harris holds a four-percentage point lead over former President Donald trump. However, that is within the margin of error which means the race is still very close.