(Headline USA) President Donald Trump and Kamala Harris hosted rallies within 7 miles of each other Friday night in the Milwaukee area as part of a fevered final push for votes in swing-state Wisconsin‘s largest county.
Milwaukee is home to the most Democratic votes in Wisconsin, but its conservative suburbs are where most Republicans live and are a critical area for Trump as he tries to reclaim the state he narrowly won in 2016 and lost in 2020.
“Both candidates recognize that the road to the White House runs directly through Milwaukee County,” said Hilario Deleon, chair of the county’s Republican Party.
Harris’s aircraft touched down at Milwaukee’s airport about 40 minutes ahead of Trump’s private plane, which he has dubbed Trump Force One. The planes parked near each other, but the candidates did not cross paths.
Both venues drew roughly the same number of people, based on crowd estimates provided by each campaign.
The two rallies — Trump was in downtown Milwaukee and Harris in a suburb — may be the candidates’ last appearances in Wisconsin before Election Day. Both sides say the race is once again razor tight for the state’s 10 electoral votes. Four of the past six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a point, or fewer than 23,000 votes.
It was “absentee votes” from Milwaukee, which typically are reported early in the morning after Election Day, that tipped Wisconsin for President Joe Biden in 2020.
Democrats must turn out voters in Milwaukee, also home to the state’s largest Black population, to counter Trump’s support in the suburbs and rural areas.
Trump is trying to cut into the Democrats’ margin.
Trump, whose base includes working-class voters, has reached out to rank-and-file union members, who have traditionally been core to the Democratic coalition.
Trump supporters waiting in line for his Milwaukee rally said they were feeling optimistic about his chances of winning next week.
“I feel the Democrats can only win if they cheat,” said Matt Kumorkiewicz, 55, a retired carpenter from nearby Oak Creek, echoing a common refrain from the former president.
He and several others in line were wearing yellow reflective safety vests in response to Biden’s comment calling Trump supporters “garbage.”
Trump spent the afternoon in the Detroit area, where he stopped at a restaurant in Dearborn, the nation’s largest Arab-majority city, to meet with supporters.
Wisconsin Republican Party Chair Brian Schimming said that Harris having to return to the Democratic stronghold of Milwaukee shows she is on defense while Trump is on offense.
Trump’s rally was staged in the same arena where the Republican convention took place three months ago.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
