U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One as he departs Washington for a trip to Florida at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., July 31, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
APPLETON, Wis. – Seeking to distract from the Democratic National Convention scheduled for Milwaukee, President Donald Trump is traveling to the battleground state of Wisconsin on Monday, where he will face a familiar foe: suburban Republican women who an overwhelming majority disapprove of him and his handling of the coronavirus.
Trump won Wisconsin by less than 23,000 votes in 2016. He is currently trailer Former Vice President Joe Biden is up five percentage points among likely voters in the state and plans to attack Biden's economic “failures” at a scaled-down campaign rally at an airplane hangar in Oshkosh, just south of Green Bay in northeastern Wisconsin.
The critical swing area, known as the Fox River Valley, suffered a rash of virus outbreaks around meat processing plants in April.
Despite the president's claims that the “suburban housewife” is on his side and Biden is “going to destroy the suburbs,” Trump trails Biden by 20 points among suburban women in Wisconsin.
“I'm not on his side,” said Erin Argall, 39, of Appleton. He voted for Trump in 2016, but now plans to vote for Biden. “I mean, I have a job, but I'm the most typical suburban housewife — white, affluent, young kids, my husband has a good job. We don't vote for him,” she said.
The president's trip to Wisconsin — the second stop in Minnesota, Arizona and Pennsylvania, all states where he trails Biden in the polls — comes as his approval rating among suburban women across the country continues to decline. Biden also largely erased Trump's advantage with white voters, which carried Trump to victory in 2016, according to a recent PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll.
Argall, a Christian and lifelong Republican who has long been frustrated with the president's rhetoric, attacks on his enemies and rhetoric toward women, described the president's handling of the coronavirus as “erratic” and a failure of leadership.
“I cringe when I hear him talk because it doesn't make sense,” she said, noting the president's continued claims that the virus “will go away.”
“And now we've lost thousands and thousands of lives,” Argall said. Just over 1,000 people have died in Wisconsin from COVID-19, which has killed more than 167,000 people across the country in total.
READ MORE:Trust in Trump falls due to COVID-19 as Biden's support rises
Perhaps more important, Argall said, is that Biden is better equipped to lead the country out of the current economic crisis — a small punch to the president's planned message to Wisconsinites on Monday, though a small majority of Wisconsin voters currently approve of the president's handling of the economy.
But Trump still enjoys deep support in the state's most politically divided region. Mary Brock, 62, of Appleton, said the president was handling the virus as best he could.
“Everybody wants to blame Trump, but I don't know how much I trust Fauci,” she said, referring to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, whom Trump has at times criticized as contradicting him.
Democratic and Trump campaign officials acknowledge that any reduced turnout in the conservative northeastern state threatens Trump's chances in Wisconsin, especially after Democrats boosted turnout in the area to flip a state Supreme Court seat earlier this year. and hold a U.S. Senate seat in 2018. A dozen women in the district who voted for Trump in 2016 said in recent interviews that they were currently undecided.
“Wisconsin is balancing on a knife's edge where wherever you lose voters is a risk,” said GOP strategist Brian Reisinger.
Democrats criticized the president's trip to Wisconsin and say Biden is taking health concerns into account by not visiting the state during the DNC.
“It must be a sad place for a sitting president to react so desperately and recklessly,” said Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, a Democrat.
But Trump advisers predict virus cases will drop before November and polls will tighten, though the White House has warned governors in private calls about possible outbreaks in the Midwest, home to some of the most critical states battlefield.
“Unlike Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton four years ago, President Trump will never snub Wisconsin,” said Trump campaign senior adviser Steve Cortes. “He will go there to show that he is a commander in chief who is working hard to build our great American renewal.”
Marcia Steele is the chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Winnebago County, which includes the site of Trump's Monday rally. She's also an urgent care nurse who has seen a stream of COVID-19 cases in the area. “If it's got a significant crowd,” Steele said of Trump's Oshkosh event, “I'll probably have them in 12 to 14 days.”
