AILSA CHANG, HOST:
In the lead-up to the 2016 general election, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton did not visit battleground Wisconsin. When that state went to former President Trump, it marked a historic crumbling of the Midwestern blue wall that Democrats had depended on. As Wisconsin Public Radio's Anya van Wagtendonk reports, Democrats have never forgotten that election night. And this year the Harris campaign is all in on Wisconsin.
ANYA VAN WAGTENDONK, BYLINE: Days after launching her presidential campaign last month, Vice President Kamala Harris held her first public event in the Milwaukee suburbs, and she was clear about the state's importance.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: The path to the White House goes through Wisconsin.
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: Yes, it does.
VAN WAGTENDONK: Just two weeks later, Harris brought newly minted running mate Tim Walz to Eau Claire in western Wisconsin.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TIM WALZ: Hello, Eau Claire.
(APPLAUSE)
WALZ: Isn't it good to have a candidate who can pronounce the name correctly?
VAN WAGTENDONK: In all, Harris has been to the state six times this year. That's because, along with Pennsylvania and Michigan, Wisconsin is part of the so-called blue wall. It's a fortress of battleground states that Democrats see as must-win. And they remember how disastrous it was when that wall crumbled on election night of 2016. While they awaited a victory for Hillary Clinton, former President Donald Trump instead narrowly flipped each of them to his camp.
JOHN NICHOLS: Democrats, up to that point in 2016, they were saying, well, you know, wait for Wisconsin. Wisconsin will clean up a lot of this mess.
VAN WAGTENDONK: That's John Nichols, a progressive writer who's authored books on Wisconsin politics. He says Clinton didn't visit the state, and the lesson since then is never take the Midwestern battleground for granted. Wisconsin has just 10 Electoral College votes. That's the fewest of the blue wall states. But Nichols says Wisconsin's tiny margins make those 10 votes a critical bellwether.
NICHOLS: Oddly, because Wisconsin is so frequently close, what that means is that if you do figure out Wisconsin, if you figure out how to campaign effectively in Wisconsin, you tipped the balance.
VAN WAGTENDONK: In 2020, Biden clawed Wisconsin back. Like with Trump's win, victory swung on just over 20,000 votes. On a recent windy Saturday in Milwaukee's Washington Park, Democrats hosted a gathering to connect with local voters. A couple dozen attendees ate mac and cheese and collard greens, and kids played cornhole on a set still painted with the Biden campaign logo. Milwaukee Congresswoman Gwen Moore said Democrats know they're fighting for every last voter.
GWEN MOORE: Here in Wisconsin, we take nothing for granted. We understand that every single vote counts.
VAN WAGTENDONK: Nearby stood Jaliah Jefferson, a Democratic Party organizer. Jefferson says the memory of losing in 2016 fuels a lot of volunteer work.
JALIAH JEFFERSON: People, a lot of the times, they come into the office, and they say they want to get involved because they know that they could have done more in 2016, and then they saw the result of that.
VAN WAGTENDONK: That ground game has been building for years, according to Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler.
BEN WIKLER: When it goes well, it's a real sense of, like, we did that. You know, it might not have happened if we hadn't done everything.
VAN WAGTENDONK: And the pressure is also on for Republicans. They signaled their investment in winning Wisconsin by holding the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month. Andrew Iverson is the executive director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
ANDREW IVERSON: If Democrats know they need to win Wisconsin, Republicans know they need to win Wisconsin. So it all comes down to this state.
VAN WAGTENDONK: Iverson said they're working to outperform in traditional Republican areas, like rural communities of the Milwaukee suburbs, and to cut into Democratic margins in cities. The party recently opened an office in a largely Latino part of Milwaukee, an effort to make inroads with a historically Democratic voting bloc.
IVERSON: There isn't one or two areas that we can just fully focus on. We need to do well in every single corner of the state.
VAN WAGTENDONK: With less than three months before Election Day, both candidates are expected to criss-cross Wisconsin at least a few more times. And Harris' seventh visit is already on the books. While the Democratic National Convention goes on in Chicago next week, she'll head up the highway for another rally in Milwaukee. For NPR News, I'm Anya van Wagtendonk. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.