Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is trying to win votes in two Wisconsin strongholds for Democrats: Dane County and Milwaukee County.
He spoke in both communities Tuesday, using his Milwaukee appearance to promote taxpayer-funded tuition vouchers for religious and private schools. Or, as supporters call it, school choice.
Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R) says he’s been advising former President Trump not to allow a repeat of what happened in the 2020 presidential race and in many other statewide contests. That was, Thompson said, Democrats rolling up big vote margins in several cities, especially Madison and Milwaukee.
“We have to go, and we have to contest every vote in the state of Wisconsin," Thompson said he told Trump.
Trump has been taking Thompson’s advice—speaking Tuesday at a manufacturer in the Madison suburb of Waunakee. Trump then headed to Milwaukee for what many supporters thought was going to be a large rally but turned out to be a small group promotion of taxpayer-funded school vouchers.
Thompson reminded event attendees at Discovery World that more than 25 years ago, he had a big hand in steering taxpayer money to what was going to be low-income Milwaukee parents who wanted their kids at private and parochial schools.
”We went all the way up to the Supreme Court, and we won. And now, choice is all over the state of Wisconsin," Thompson boasted.
Trump soon came on stage, and after long, low-energy remarks about illegal immigration and inflation, Trump promised to back what he called universal school choice, stumbling a bit over the words.
“I believe that school choice is the civil rights issue of our time. A child’s fate should be, and be determined by their, it has to be determined by their love of education, by their parents, by so many factors. But it can’t be determined by a zip code," Trump said.
Three Milwaukee former or current school voucher students and a parent shared the stage with Trump. The Republicans invited them to speak. Recent graduate Michaella Lawrence said she learned a lot at her high school.
“We learned about Christ-like behavior and how to show that in the outside world. A person like me going to college now, you get to the outside world, and it’s like, ‘Wow, a lot of these people really need Jesus,'” Lawrence said.
UW-Milwaukee Professor Emeritus Mordecai Lee is a former Democratic state legislator and longtime observer of the school voucher movement and Tommy Thompson.
Lee said it makes sense for Trump to campaign in Milwaukee and deliver a message to conservative voters here: "'Please don’t get discouraged. Just because Milwaukee will go Democratic, I need every single vote I can squeeze out,' Lee speculated Trump saying, adding, "And that’s probably a pretty good strategy.”
Lee gives Thompson and Trump good marks for promoting school vouchers, saying it’s long been a wedge issue Republicans use to try to steer more low-income voters away from the Democratic Party.
Lee said the problem is, as researchers have shown, including recently, the Public Policy Forum, school choice has done little to improve educational achievement in Milwaukee.
“For the first ten years or so, there were very controversial arguments about the research, showing there did not appear to be much of a difference in the outcomes. And now that we’re several decades into the program, we’re seeing this indeed is the case," Lee said.
Supporters of public schools have other concerns about voucher schools, including the diversion of money from public classrooms with many low-income students, fewer reporting requirements at private schools, and the ability to deny admission to some kids.
The campaign of Democratic candidates Kamala Harris and Tim Walz did not take the day off from Milwaukee. Harris’ husband and Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, spoke at a local manufacturer. In a Fox6 video stream of the event, Emhoff said Trump’s promise to extend the 2017 federal income tax cuts would add to the federal debt.
“To continue the tax cuts for those who don’t need it, it would add another six trillion dollars if he got another term. Right. I see everyone looking at me. That’s not good," Emhoff said.
On Oct. 3, Vice President Harris is scheduled to campaign in the Fox Valley. Trump promises he’ll be back in Milwaukee soon, with a rally at the Fiserv Forum, and will also campaign in Green Bay—as Wisconsin continues its battleground status.
Polls show Harris and Trump remain in a tight race here.
