WAUNAKEE, Wis. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump planned to spend the hours ahead of Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate campaigning in Wisconsin, stopping in a critical Democratic county that is crucial to Democrat Kamala Harris ‘ hopes for winning the key battleground state.
Trump was scheduled to appear at a manufacturing facility in Waunakee, a suburb of Wisconsin’s capital city of Madison in the Democratic stronghold of Dane County. Trump has never campaigned in Dane County before and didn’t visit as president.
Later Tuesday, Trump was expected to hold an event at a museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city and home to the largest number of Democratic voters and second-largest number of Republicans. His appearance there will also give him reach into the city’s conservative suburbs, a part of Wisconsin where his support has softened but where he must do well to win.
Trump was expected to focus his comments on the economy. On Saturday, he held a rally in western Wisconsin where he blamed Harris for crimes committed by people in the country illegally.
Both of his planned stops come ahead of Tuesday’s debate between Trump’s running mate JD Vance, a senator from Ohio, and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota.
Dane County, the location of Trump’s first stop, is Wisconsin’s fastest-growing county and an economic engine for the state, fueled by jobs in the health care and tech industries. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin.
Dane County’s population grew by about 30,000 people between 2016 and 2020. It has gone up by another 13,000 since then, based on the most recent U.S. Census Bureau estimate.
That presents a challenge for Republicans, especially given that nearly 90% of registered voters in the county cast a ballot in 2020. President Joe Biden won 75% of the vote that year in Dane County, beating Trump by 181,000 votes in the county while carrying the state by fewer than 21,000. Hillary Clinton beat Trump in Dane County in 2016 by 47 points, and Trump won the state by less than a point.
It’s a point former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson said he made to Trump. In remarks to the crowd before Trump arrived, Thompson said the former president should “go where the opposition is,” including Dane County, home of the liberal state capital of Madison.
“And, the retort was, ‘Isn’t Madison very liberal?’” Thompson said. “Yes, but Dane County has the third most Republican votes in the state of Wisconsin and all we have to do is increase them.”
Democratic presidential candidates have long come to Dane County to hold massive rallies to fire up the base. Harris campaigned there on Sept. 20, holding a rally in Madison that attracted more than 10,000 people.
Waunakee, which bills itself as the “only Waunakee in the world,” is slightly more Republican than the county as a whole. In 2020, Trump got 36% of the vote there compared to less than 23% countywide.
Trump was to speak at Dane Manufacturing, a metal fabricator that has a long history of hosting Republican candidates and officeholders. In Milwaukee, Trump will speak at Discovery World, a science and technology museum along the shores of Lake Michigan.
