Four years ago, Kenosha, Wisconsin became a flashpoint in the debate about policing and racial justice. On August 23, 2020, Rusten Sheskey, a white Kenosha police officer, shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back seven times, paralyzing him. That sparked protests and unrest that left downtown Kenosha scarred. White armed militias came to town, saying they were there to “protect businesses.” Then, on August 25, 2020, Kyle Rittenhouse, a white 17-year-old from Illinois, shot and killed two protesters and injured a third.
Kenosha found itself at the intersection of national discussions about politics, policing, racial justice, protesting and First Amendment rights, and guns and the Second Amendment. These political questions spread nationally and got the attention of both presidential candidates at the time: Democrat Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, a Republican. Both visited Kenosha, with Biden calling for systemic change and reconciliation and Trump calling for “law and order.”
These messages resonated in Kenosha, a county of about 170,000 people with a strong urban-rural divide. The City of Kenosha, with a majority of the county’s Black and Latino population, voted for Democratic candidate Joe Biden, by about 6,600 votes in 2020. The county, which is whiter and more suburban and rural, turned out for Trump, as it did in 2016. Kenosha County’s choice of Trump in 2016 was the first time it picked a Republican for president since Richard Nixon in 1972.
Wisconsin remains an extremely close swing state in the 2024 election. Trump is again the Republican candidate for president, and he continues to make crime a central issue of his campaign. Often, he makes false claims. Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris has been seeking to define herself on policing, criminal justice and her record as a prosecutor, before Republicans do it for her.
So, on the fourth anniversary of tremendous turmoil in Kenosha, in another presidential election year: what are voters in this swing county thinking?
Kenosha has changed since 2020
The political moment is different in Kenosha, as elsewhere around the country. The COVID-19 pandemic has subsided. Communities aren’t swelling with protests against police brutality. There have been other events in Kenosha since 2020 that have alarmed activists seeking racial justice in policing, but many people here say that it’s calmer. The City of Kenosha also has a new police chief who some racial justice activists say communicates better with them than past chiefs.
Recently, the Kenosha Police Department held a Kenosha Night Out event that aims to improve police-community relations. Local pastor Lawrence Kirby says he was in Kenosha when tensions spiked in 2020. He says crime and policing are still on his mind, but it’s not in the number one spot anymore.
”I’m more concerned about the middle class and what policies will build out the middle class, what policies will allow Black and brown folks to have a seat at the table economically? What policies will protect those opportunities and diversity initiatives?”
How are the candidates resonating with Kenosha voters?
Kirby, who calls himself “pro-life and anti-racist,” says “democracy itself” is at stake in this election, “when you think about voting rights and what legislation will continue to support fair and equal voting rights for citizens.” He says, “Donald Trump is not a Republican. I think his interests seem to be more self-aligned. And just also, I guess the dichotomy of claiming to be a law-and-order president, yet convicted of so many felonies is an interesting platform for me.”
Kirby says Harris is a refreshing change. “From a strategic standpoint, I've long said the party that introduces a new candidate will probably win this next election,” he says.
Harris is also inspiring some non-voters. Alyssa Nuñez was also at Kenosha Night Out with her kids. The 33-year-old transportation supervisor says she lived right down the street from Jacob Blake in 2020. She didn’t like Trump’s messaging at the time. “Trump comes off very racist, and [referring to Rittenhouse] for him to support anybody that shot a gun and shot at a crowd of people, killing people, and then supported that killer at that time was very unfortunate to the city, and not a good look for Trump. Not a fan.”
Nuñez has never voted before but says she might this year. “I feel like this would be the only year that I'm actually willing to vote,” she says, “because a woman's now gonna be an option. So, I feel like we should have had an option of a woman a long time ago. Women, I feel like would be a little smarter, or think a little different than men.”
It also inspires her that Harris is half Black and half Indian. “I love that,” she says. “I'm Hispanic. I'm half white, half Mexican. So, I mean, that's even better.”
Bonnie Hammond is a white 66-year-old who was at Kenosha Night Out. She appreciates Harris’ message that, as a prosecutor, she’s dealt with all sorts of perpetrators and “knows Donald Trump’s type,” referring to his 34 felony convictions for orchestrating hush money payments.
“She's the law and order, not him,” says Hammond. “You know, she's actually doing things about it, you know, law and order. And you know, he's a convicted felon and a rapist, and, oh my God, I don't want him anywhere near power. Isn't he going to be sentenced two days prior to the election? Do I really want a convicted felon in the White House. No!”
Racial justice activists are cautiously optimistic about Harris
Kirby, the Kenosha pastor, says he’s “not necessarily a ‘defund the police’ person.” “But I do think police reform is needed in a major way, and in some ways it’s happening here in Kenosha [pointing out the new police chief].”
Leaders of Kenosha is a racial justice group that seeks “to empower and engage Black Americans and their communities … so they are able to achieve total excellence.” It has ten initiatives, including racial equity, ending police brutality and advocating for resources for underserved communities.
Tanya McLean is the group’s executive director. Leaders of Kenosha doesn’t endorse candidates, but McLean says she’s free to speak about her personal opinions. She says in 2020, her decisions were guided by the COVID pandemic, finances “and the police shootings and just race relations and social justice in our country overall.”
She says, this election, racial justice is “neck and neck” with the economy as her top issue.
McLean says Harris is a better choice than Trump, but she’s still a politician. “She's going to say what she needs to say, to achieve her goal of being in office right now,” says McLean. She says that Harris’ background as a prosecutor would have been a handicap in 2020 but is not as much now. “I mean, I know it's still an issue, because you hear about how many Black and brown people she's incarcerated, but you know, people have to do their own research on that. … There's propaganda on all sides.”
While McLean says she isn’t very excited about Harris, others are “definitely excited about her.” “And you know what that would mean for this country?” McLean asks. “I mean the first African American woman in the White House. Of course, that's amazing. It's just like when President Obama was in. That will be an amazing day. We just need her to do what she says she's going to do for the people. And if she can do that, then I will be super excited.”
Trump supporters accept a modified 2024 law-and-order message
At the Kenosha Harbor Market bordering the Lake Michigan lakefront, Kenoshans peruse local businesses’ food and crafts.
Greg Hilderbrand is sitting at a picnic table with friends, taking a break from the shopping. He’s an account manager who says Trump’s law-and-order message swayed him in 2020, when there was unrest over the shooting of Jacob Blake. He says it is still part of his calculus now.
“Because you take a look at just the border and some of the crime and unrest that's still happening even in the college campuses, you know, the anti-Semitic protests and things like that. It just seems like there's still a strain of unrest.” Hilderbrand says. He likes Trump’s rally speeches about crime and immigration. “[He should] focus on the economy as well,” he says.
The economy is the top issue for Wisconsin voters according to the most recent Marquette Law School poll.
Susan Herstedt is at a nearby picnic table with her nephew. She is a white, retired IT manager who voted for Trump in 2020 and says she will again this year. She says Harris’ record on crime is a “joke,” starting with her responses to the protest movements in 2020.
“I mean, I can remember when her public record as a prosecutor came out in 2020, when, you know, before she dropped out of the presidential race. She proved it by paying for bail for the paid protesters throughout the country, starting that fund.”
Harris did tweet support for the Minnesota Freedom Fund in 2020, that was set up to pay cash bail and immigration bonds for people who can’t afford it, but she did not start the fund.
Eighty-two-year-old Herstedt says, now, her three top issues are the border, the economy and law and order. She says part of law and order in 2024 is a candidate’s record on immigration. “Why would we put [Harris] in charge of law and order? Look at all the illegals that haven't been vetted.”
While there may be a relative calm in Kenosha, others still see divisions
Underlying the calm in Kenosha is a continued urban/rural and racial divide.
Fatimah Barushok leans progressive. She’s Black, lives in Kenosha and witnessed everything that happened there in 2020. She says safety and reproductive rights are her top issues.
“I want to hear what [the presidential candidates are] going to do regarding making people safe. And what I really want to hear — I want to hear a uniter. It seems like the country is so divided. I mean, in my neighborhood, I never really cared what people’s signs were on their lawns, or political leanings. But now I feel like I don't even want to put my signs out. I never felt unsafe. But I feel when I see people driving around Kenosha with huge Confederate flags and things like that, it scares me. I feel bad for the younger generation.”
She’s going to get out to volunteer and do political work this year, but not door to door. “I won't knock on doors because I'm afraid to,” she says.
Maddie McGuire is white, lives in the City of Kenosha and voted for Biden in 2020. She’s now thinking about Trump as an option because, “I think that we need somebody that's going to jump in and change how we are. Something's got to be changed. We got to be united more. I think that Trump is more uniting instead of pulling people apart.”
The most recent Marquette poll found that 58% of registered voters in Wisconsin feel that Trump does not have “the right temperament to be president," 56% feel that Harris does have the right temperament.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” says Ron Moe, a white former Marine who lives in Kenosha. Moe is sitting on a bench a few paces from a memorial to Kenosha’s fallen fire and police officers. He’s wearing a t-shirt that says “Pick banjos not fights.”
Moe says he liked Trump’s approach to law and order in Kenosha back in 2020. He remembers the smell of smoke from buildings burning in the unrest. “Depending on who wins, the difference will be profound,” he says.
The 2024 Democratic National Convention will take place in Chicago this year, just an hour south of Kenosha. Wisconsin voters will get a nod when Harris speaks in Milwaukee at a rally at Fiserv Forum Tuesday night. It’s where Republicans held their national convention in July. Trump VP pick JD Vance is visiting Milwaukee Friday, as well, underscoring the importance of the swing state.
