Wisconsin plays a key role in Harris' outreach to Trump-skeptical Republicans
Source: NBC News
Oct. 28, 2024, 5:00 AM EDT
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has been stacking up Republican endorsements in Wisconsin, a key swing state that has been central to her effort to attract voters from across the aisle who are skeptical of Donald Trump. Over the past week, Harris snagged the public support of outgoing Republican state Sen. Robert Cowles, the longest-serving member of the Senate, and Shawn Reilly, the formerly Republican mayor of Waukesha, one of the state’s biggest GOP strongholds.
The battleground state, where elections are regularly decided by razor-thin margins, is a top priority for both campaigns, with Harris, Trump and their running mates scheduled to made stops there in the final full week of the presidential race. Beyond the two endorsements Harris received that got national attention, several other local Republicans, from former sheriffs to members of the Legislature, have backed Harris in recent weeks.
The wave started in earnest last month, when former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, a longtime staple of national Republican politics who is now a fierce Trump critic, backed Harris at an event in Wisconsin, a state she has now been to twice with her. “I was a Republican even before Donald Trump started spray tanning,” Cheney joked during her first visit last month in Ripon. “I tell you, I have never voted for a Democrat, but this year I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Ripon, in Fond du Lac County, is recognized as the birthplace of the Republican Party in 1854. It and the site of Cheney’s other event this month in Waukesha County also hold a more modern distinction: Both places are home to large pockets of voters who opposed Trump in the GOP presidential primary.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/wisconsin-harris-outreach-trump-skeptical-republicans-rcna177361