With Election Day fast approaching, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are making their final appeals to Wisconsin voters, holding rallies within seven miles of each other Friday night in the Milwaukee area. This battleground state, where recent presidential races have been won by razor-thin margins, is seeing an intense last-minute push for votes from both parties, with Milwaukee County squarely in their sights.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city, is a Democratic stronghold with the highest concentration of Democratic voters in the state, especially among the Black population. However, the city’s conservative-leaning suburbs are crucial for Republicans, and Trump is looking to regain ground in areas where he saw support wane in 2020. The former president narrowly won Wisconsin in 2016 but lost it by a slim margin in 2020, largely due to a drop in suburban support and an increase in Democratic turnout in Milwaukee. Now, both campaigns are investing heavily in voter outreach here, knowing that Milwaukee County could once again be decisive.
“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. Trump’s rally is set for downtown Milwaukee, while Harris’s event is taking place in a nearby suburb. These appearances may be the candidates’ last in Wisconsin before Election Day, as both sides acknowledge the state’s importance in securing the needed 10 electoral votes. In fact, four of the past six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a single point or fewer than 23,000 votes.
In 2020, it was the absentee votes from Milwaukee, counted early in the morning after Election Day, that ultimately swung Wisconsin in favor of President Joe Biden. Democrats know that they need a strong turnout in Milwaukee to counter Trump’s support in the suburban and rural areas of the state. Harris is hoping to recreate, and possibly exceed, the turnout from 2020, when 79% of Milwaukee voters cast their ballots for Biden.
Trump’s strategy, by contrast, focuses on narrowing the Democratic margin in Milwaukee by courting undecided and moderate voters in the suburbs. “It’s a lose-by-less mentality,” Deleon explained, highlighting the importance of minimizing the Democrats’ advantage in the city.
Earlier in the day, Harris visited Janesville, a southern Wisconsin city, where she addressed union members from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. During her speech, she emphasized her administration’s commitment to labor rights, stating, “Nobody understands better than a union member that as Americans we all rise or fall together.” She also promised to reduce unnecessary degree requirements for federal jobs and urged private sector employers to do the same. Harris described Trump as “an existential threat to America’s labor movement,” citing his administration’s record on manufacturing and worker protections.
In Milwaukee, Harris continued to criticize Trump’s stance on health care. Speaking to a packed audience at a high school in Little Chute, she argued that Trump’s policies threaten to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, potentially rolling back protections for people with pre-existing conditions. “Access to health care should be a right, not a privilege for those who can afford it,” she said, while also promoting her plan to expand Medicare coverage for home health care to assist the “sandwich generation” who are raising children while caring for elderly parents.
Meanwhile, Trump’s supporters in Milwaukee are enthusiastic and hopeful, anticipating a victory. Many believe that Democrats can only win by, in their words, “cheating,” a narrative Trump himself has repeatedly advanced. “I feel the Democrats can only win if they cheat,” said Matt Kumorkiewicz, a retired carpenter from Oak Creek. Many of Trump’s supporters wore reflective safety vests, a response to Biden’s controversial comment seemingly implying that some Trump supporters were “garbage.”
Trump spent part of his day in Michigan before coming to Milwaukee, stopping at a restaurant in Dearborn, a predominantly Arab-American city. Despite Trump’s strained relationship with some members of the Arab community due to his 2017 travel ban on Muslim-majority countries, his campaign continues to seek broader appeal among these voters.
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Angela Lang, founder of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities in Milwaukee, noted that many Milwaukee Democrats are feeling “anxious and cautiously optimistic.” She believes that Democrats learned crucial lessons from 2016, when Hillary Clinton famously did not campaign in Wisconsin after her primary loss. Harris, by contrast, has visited the state nine times, five of those visits focused on Milwaukee and its suburbs.
In a final push to connect with Black voters, former President Bill Clinton joined local faith leaders in Milwaukee for an event celebrating African American culture and music. This effort underscores the Democrats’ commitment to engaging Black voters, a key demographic that could tip the scales in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Republican Party Chair Brian Schimming suggested that Harris’s frequent visits to Milwaukee indicate a defensive posture, while Trump’s campaign sees itself on the offensive. The candidates’ simultaneous rallies underscore Milwaukee County’s centrality in the election, as both parties work tirelessly to secure every possible vote in the final days.
As Trump and Harris rally their bases, Milwaukee’s role in determining the outcome of the election has never been more evident. With polls showing a tight race, both campaigns are laser-focused on winning over Milwaukee voters, ensuring that the state remains one of the nation’s most hotly contested battlegrounds.
