WASHINGTON — With the stage set in Cleveland, both presidential candidates are chomping at the bit to finally square off.
"I am looking very forward to the debate,” Pres. Trump told reporters outside of the White House on Tuesday.
And while all eyes will be on Ohio, the host state for the first presidential debate, Michael Wagner, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, believes Wisconsin might get quite a bit of attention from the candidates on stage as well.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to hear either Pres. Trump or Former Vice Pres. Biden mention somebody that they met in a town in Wisconsin over the last couple of weeks as they’ve been campaigning here,” said Prof. Wagner. “We’re sure to hear them talk about Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. It’s the kind of thing that can remind voters in states like ours that they’re ground zero for this election.”
More than 137 million votes cast in 2016, and only about 80 thousand in those three states secured Donald Trump’s electoral college victory. It’s why both teams have ramped up their in-person appearances in Wisconsin but are voters here tuned in?
“I think there is a high level of interest in the debate in Wisconsin,” said Prod. Wagner. “Most of that interest comes from committed partisans who already know how they’re going to vote but there’s also some interest of those some folks who are the coveted Obama-Trump voter, folks in rural Wisconsin who gave Barack Obama a 2:1 support in 2008 and did the same for Trump in 2016.”
With Wisconsinites’ interests seemingly piqued, Prof. Wagner believes we can expect swipes at both candidates’ record in the state.
“Biden can talk about critiques of the Trump administration for the Foxconn plant that was supposed to come to Wisconsin that Trump bragged about but never really came,” he said. “By the same token, Trump can criticize Biden for how at the end of his administration, voters in Wisconsin didn’t feel compelled to turn out in the same numbers as they did for Obama, which helped lead Trump to the presidency four years ago.”