CLINTON, IOWA – JANUARY 06: Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks to guests during a rally at Clinton Middle School on January 06, 2024 in Clinton, Iowa. Iowa Republicans will be the first to select their party’s nomination for the 2024 presidential race when they go to caucus on January 15, 2024. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Former President Donald Trump visited Waunakee Tuesday afternoon, making his first ever stop in the Democratic stronghold of Dane County.
The stop marks a change in strategy for Republicans in Wisconsin, who have regularly written off the fastest growing county in the state because of its reliably Democratic voting residents. Some Republicans, including former Gov. Tommy Thompson, have pushed for the party’s candidates to make more stops in the area because despite having no chance of winning the county, it is still home to the third most Republicans in the state.
In 2020, when Trump narrowly lost to President Joe Biden, he won 22.9% of the Dane County vote.
Trump’s visit was the first time a GOP presidential nominee visited Dane County since Bob Dole did in 1996.
“I think he’s got to come and really tell the people ‘I want your vote, I’m here in Dane County because I’m going to compete for your votes all over the state of Wisconsin,’” Thompson told reporters Tuesday.
The Trump campaign also made a stop at a museum in Milwaukee, the state’s largest city and also a Democratic stronghold, for an event meant to focus on a pro-school choice message.
Hundreds of Trump supporters attended the rally at Dane Steel on Tuesday where Trump was supposed to deliver remarks on agriculture and the economy. Instead, as he often does at rallies, his speech took a number of detours, including a large section on foreign policy in which he discussed a large-scale missile attack by Iran on Israel Tuesday morning. Trump said that if he was not re-elected, there was a risk of “World War III.”
“Ever since Iran has been exporting terror all over the world, it has just been unraveling,” Trump said. “The whole Middle East has been unraveling and, of course, the whole world has been unraveling since we left office.”
After the event, Democrats criticized Trump’s remarks for not addressing the needs of Wisconsin voters.
“Today was yet another speech from Donald Trump where he told stories about himself and aired his personal grievances, went on weird and irrelevant tangents, and spread lies to distract and divide instead talking about real solutions to issues facing Wisconsin families,” Mike Browne, deputy director of liberal advocacy group A Better Wisconsin Together, said in a statement.
Republican Party of Dane County Chair Brandon Maly told the Cap Times that to win statewide, Republicans need to hit at least 23% of the Dane County vote.
“Everybody needs to turn out, everybody needs to invest,” Maly said. “So yes, more investment is happening here than before. Because, simply put, if we want the math to add up, we have to do better in Dane County as Republicans.”
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