EAU CLAIRE, Wisconsin — Vice President Mike Pence and Ivanka Trump toured Wisconsin on Thursday with an impassioned appeal to American workers that another four years of President Trump offered the best way to rebuild the economy, even as the state was dealing with a fresh surge in coronavirus cases.
They toured a plant making kitchen countertops in Eau Claire to deliver a “Made in America” message that they hope will help retain a state they won by fewer than 23,000 votes in 2016.
Trump used her experience in her father’s construction company to praise the work she had seen.
“What you do is incredible,” she said. “I came from a building background. … I’ve seen a lot of laminates. This is unbelievable, the advances, the craftsmanship.”
This was what her father was fighting for every day, she told the audience at Midwest Manufacturing Countertops.
“Made in America creates jobs in America,” she said.
The vice president laid out a stark choice between a Democratic nominee who had backed globalizing trade deals that cost American jobs and a president who was standing up to China.
But he also addressed the vacancy on the Supreme Court. After paying tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, he brought the socially distanced crowd to its feet by insisting that the president and the Senate would perform their duties.
“President Donald Trump will do his constitutional duty, and this Saturday at 5 o’clock he’s gonna nominate a principled conservative woman to the Supreme Court of the United States,” he said.
“And after the United States Senate fulfills their duty to advise and consent … we’re gonna fill that seat.”
He arrived amid a surge in new coronavirus cases that prompted Gov. Tony Evers to declare a fresh public health emergency on Tuesday.
“We are seeing an alarming increase in cases across our state, especially on campus,” the governor said as he pleaded with students to stay out of bars and wear masks.
The state has the second-highest rate of positive coronavirus tests in the country, at 17%, according to a tally maintained by Reuters.
The result is that Wisconsin finds itself at the confluence of forces shaping this year’s election. Not only was it a surprise win for Trump in 2016 — by fewer than 23,000 votes, making it a top target of Biden — it has been at the center of protests against police brutality and racial injustice after Jacob Blake was paralyzed in Kenosha after being shot in the back by an officer in August.
As a result, both candidates and their highest-profile supporters have crisscrossed Wisconsin.
Biden visited an aluminum foundry in Manitowoc, about 70 miles north of Milwaukee, on Monday. The setting fitted with his message, a class-based appeal to American workers while painting Trump as pandering to the rich, but he also used the occasion to accuse the president of trying to divert attention from the pandemic.
“I worry we’re at risk of becoming numb to the toll that’s taking on us,” he said. “We can’t let that happen.”
And last week, Trump announced $13 billion in aid for farmers affected by the pandemic during a visit to central Wisconsin. He highlighted dairy producers and growers of cranberries and ginseng.
But the latest polls give Biden a clear lead. An average maintained by RealClearPolitics puts the Democratic nominee almost 7 points ahead of Trump in Wisconsin among likely voters.
Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll, said Trump would need to turn out his base and increase his margins in counties he won last time if he was to hold the state.
“It will take strong turnout and a very large vote margin in the north and west of the state,” he said. “That is where Trump dramatically over-performed Romney in 2016, and he needs to do it again.”
So far, he added, there is little sign that is happening. Although 51% of respondents approve of the president’s economic performance, only 36% give him a favorable rating for his handling of the summer’s protests, and 41% approve of his pandemic response — the latter being the most important of the three crises in voters’ minds, according to Franklin.
