On the eve of the election, Ohio Sen. JD Vance made his final campaign stop in Wisconsin ahead of the final day of voting on Nov. 5. Both Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Vance addressed voters in La Crosse on Monday morning to appeal to the swing state electorate.
Supporters filled a room on the second floor of the La Crosse Center, the same building where former President Donald Trump held a town hall event this past August. Doors opened at 7:30 a.m., by 8:30 a.m. the group stood for the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem.
Chairperson of the Republican Party of Wisconsin Brian Schimming addressed the crowd first. He urged everyone to support Republican candidates up and down the ballot, including Eric Hovde for U.S. Senate, incumbent Derrick Van Orden for the U.S. House of Representatives, and Republicans running for Wisconsin state Senate and Assembly seats.
Congressman Tom Tiffany followed Schimming with a similar message. Tiffany explained, in order for Trump to have a successful presidency the House of Representatives must sustain a republican majority and to do so supports should vote for Van Orden.
“Because you know what’s going to happen?” Tiffany asked the crowd. “If god forbid democrats get the house back and we have President Trump, what’s the first thing they are going to do? They are going to impeach him.”
Ballots of Wisconsin voters include a statewide referendum question, where voters will answer yes or no to change the language on a bill which restricts noncitizen voting in Wisconsin’s Constitution, an already enforced law. Tiffany reminded the group to vote yes, “Only citizens should vote in the state of Wisconsin,” he said.
Republican Rep. Van Orden addressed the crowd after Tiffany and, like the speakers before him, emphasized the tight margins that will determine the outcome of this election. All the morning’s speakers referenced the number 20,000, as Biden won Wisconsin by a this margin of votes in 2020.
“20,000 votes is the difference between security our border and having a country that doesn’t truly exist. 20,000 votes is the difference between prosperity and poverty,” said Van Orden.
A Marquette Law School poll shows Harris and Trump in a head-to-head race in Wisconsin, Harris with a 1 percent edge over Trump. There is a large difference in vote choice between those planning to vote on Election Day or to vote early in-person—groups that favor Trump—and those voting absentee by mail—who strongly favor Harris, as stated in the survey data.
Vance took the stage as the crowd chanted USA. The senator was accompanied by his wife Usha Vance, who took a seat in the audience.
Gov. Walz spoke two blocks away from Vance only an hour after the Vance event kicked off. Vance noted both VP Nominees in the same city.
“I don’t think any of us have ever had the kind of day that Tim Walz is going to have today. Where he has got to go around and convince the American people that Kamala Harris can be the president of the United States, thats tough work,” said Vance. “I think that is the toughest job in the United States of America.”
A frequent jab at Harris in the Trump-Vance campaign is the claim that the Harris administration would mirror Biden’s, with Vance branding her as a “candidate of more of the same.” Vance connected her to the frustrations voters have about the economy.
“Kamala Harris is more of the same high grocery prices, Kamala Harris is more of the same unaffordable housing. Kamala Harris is more of the same chaos around the world and Kamala Harris is more of the same wide open border,” Vance said.
He emphasized that voters don’t need to agree with every policy he and Trump support, but he pointed out that, under the Trump administration, people could afford their bills, the U.S.-Mexico border was secure and wages were on the rise.
“Are you better off than you were four years ago?” Vance asked the people of Wisconsin. “I think that most of us would say absolutely not.”
The answer is simple explained Vance, “Kamala Harris broke it and Donald J. Trump will fix it.”
Vance cited a case out of Prairie du Chien, WI where police said a man affiliated with a transnational gang attacked a woman and her daughter. Van Orden had mentioned the same case in his remarks to the crowd, along with Trump at a rally on Sept. 7 in Mosinee, WI. This is case is consistent with the campaign’s focus on illegal immigration raising violent crime rates.
“You know the most important thing Kamala?” Vance asked. “If you want to stand for women and young girls, is you want to make our communities safe enough for women and young girls to walk down the street and not get sexuality assaulted…”
Vance explained that illegal immigration has broader impacts beyond crime, it affects public schools and the health care system as well.
On the topic of schools in Wisconsin, Vance said, “You’ve got thousands upon thousands of children in Wisconsin schools who don’t even speak English because they are the children of illegal immigrants.” He cited this as a reason why the quality of education has decreased.
In his final visit to Wisconsin this campaign cycle, Vance delivered a closing message to voters, to assure them that Trump would offer strong leadership—a quality he claims Harris lacks.
“My friends, tomorrow we are going to give the American people better leadership, we’re going to make Donald Trump the next president, and we’re going to do it together,” concluded Vance.
