It’s official. Biden is the Democratic nominee. Trump is the Republican nominee. They racked up the delegates to win their respective primaries on Tuesday night, and now the die is cast: it’s a rematch.
Biden responded by getting on Air Force One—and flying to Wisconsin.
It was his fifth visit to the Badger state since the midterms. Kamala Harris has been here three times in that period, and so has the First Lady.
And the other guy? Nowhere to be seen. In fact, the number of times Trump’s reared his head in the Badger State since the midterms is… zero.
(Mike Pence’s visit doesn’t really count, given that he was running against the guy who tried to incite a mob bent on murdering him, and, to put it mildly, we haven’t seen much of Melania Trump either.)
If you want to understand the Biden campaign’s relentless focus on Wisconsin, it says it right there in the headlines: “battleground Wisconsin,” “Wisconsin vote still up for grabs,” and “Wisconsin Could Sway the Presidential Election.”
The President of the United States knows that, to win another term, you’ve got to win the state where Vice President Harris lived as a five-year-old. The state where this administration has announced $6.6 billion in investments from the bipartisan infrastructure law and $2.5 billion from the American Rescue Plan. The state where 1.2 million residents who depend on Social Security and Medicare ring out with a resounding NO to Trump’s proposed cuts. The state where voters are fired up in the fight for reproductive freedom and democracy. The state where the progressive movement was born.
In past elections, I’ve gotten calls from reporters asking me whether Wisconsin was being overlooked or taken for granted. This week, for the first time, a reporter asked me if Wisconsin is getting too much focus. To me, that’s a sign that something’s going right.
Because of the ridiculous institution of the Electoral College, born of a compromise with enslavers, Wisconsin voters have an outsized say in the fate of the whole nation. It’s a power we didn’t ask for, but it’s one that it’s our responsibility to use—on behalf of our own communities, and on behalf of everyone.
And in this moment—with the general election finally underway, a few short weeks before our local elections on April 2, just 235 short days away from the polls closing on November 5—we recommit to doing everything we can to fight for the future of democracy, freedom, decency, and opportunity in this state and country we love.
Anything else would be malarkey.