Northeast Wisconsin is getting a lot of attention from the Democrats presidential ticket this week. Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz spoke at a rally in Green Bay Monday night. Presidential nominee Kamala Harris will be there on Thursday, as part of a Wisconsin swing that also includes Milwaukee.
WUWM explains why Packerland is in the picture, and important statewide.
You kind of figured that Minnesota Gov. Walz, a former high school football coach who Vice President Harris often calls “Coach Walz,” would make football references when he visited the home city of the Green Bay Packers. Especially since Walz has said he’s a big fan of the Minnesota Vikings.
The pigskin praise came early Monday evening when Walz told the crowd at a downtown convention center that he had just come from the Packers' stadium, Lambeau Field.
“First visit. My staff was like, ‘Don’t say anything about the Vikings.’ I was like, ‘That’s like telling somebody not to swear in church. Of course you don’t do that.’ What do they think? I’m a football guy. That’s like a religious experience over there," Walz said.
Walz took the stage with fellow Democrats, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers. Walz made another football reference, connecting some of this fall’s key political races with the National Football League division that includes the Packers, Vikings and Detroit Lions — all of whom are playing well.
“This year, the road to the Super Bowl, the road to control the Senate, and the road to the White House, goes right through the NFC North," Walz predicted.
Walz also quoted the Packers’ legendary coach from the 1960s — Vince Lombardi.
His football focus comes as Walz has been trying to get more men to vote for the Democratic ticket — as polls show more men supporting Republican candidate Donald Trump and more women backing Harris.
Turning serious, Walz even directed a portion of last night’s speech to men. “I’m going to make a message to the guys here. You got any women you love in your life — your wives, your daughters, your mothers, your friends — let’s not forget, their lives are literally at stake in this election. Let’s be very clear," he said.
Walz was referring to the overturning of Roe vs. Wade protections for reproductive freedom two years ago, aided by Trump’s three appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Democrat said too many women since have been denied medical care or have had it delayed.
Walz also warned men that the conservative-backed Project 2025 document calls for restricting fertility treatments.
He also mentioned that he’s a gun owner and a hunter.
The Wisconsin Republican Party was not impressed with the Walz visit, calling him a "far-left extremist" and criticizing his record in Minnesota.
But Walz’s message went over well with Princeton, Wisconsin. Resident David Hilkes, who said he is an angler not a hunter, but was still wearing camouflage-colored pants.
“And that’s part of my reason that I wore my camo, to see that he does have support from outdoorsmen. I’m a realist there, too. I’m probably outnumbered. But it takes all of us," Hilkes said.
Any support Walz and Harris can get from smaller communities in northeast Wisconsin is a plus, as overall the region leans Republican. But UW-Green Bay Emeritus professor of political science Michael Kraft said within the area, the largest city, Green Bay, goes for Democrats.
And Kraft said visits like Walz and Harris are doing this week can lead to votes.
“You help make the campaign more concrete, more realistic. You motivate supporters. People pay a little more attention to the news, they talk to one another. And somehow, that dynamic is a presidential visit does drive a higher turnout rate," Kraft told WUWM.
Kraft said the visits by the Democratic ticket can even help throughout the Fox Valley media market, “including Appleton, Neenah, Menasha, Oshkosh, Fond du Lac — obviously has many Democratic voters.”
But Kraft cautioned that Republicans will be trying to boost their support in northeast Wisconsin, too. Vice presidential nominee JD Vance, a senator from Ohio, has campaigned in Green Bay. And recently in Milwaukee, Trump promised a Green Bay rally, the day before one of the Packers games.
But will Trump have a local band playing the Packers fight song, as Democrats did at the Walz event? At the end of the song, the bandleader shouted, "Go, Pack, Go!"
