Both presidential campaigns visit Wisconsin Monday, eye Minnesota visits this week
(Photo by Mason Trinca/Getty Images)
(FOX 9) - All eyes were on Vice President Mike Pence and his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris Monday as both campaigns made stops in Wisconsin.
Winning Wisconsin is a major priority for Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the race for the White House, but Minnesota’s role is still in question.
Pence made a campaign stop in La Crosse, Wisconsin where he blasted Biden’s response to violent protests. Across the state, Harris was in Milwaukee where she met with the family of Jacob Blake, whose shooting sparked protests and riots in Kenosha.
“Wisconsin may be the state that decides the presidency,” said Professor David Schultz, a Hamline University professor.
He thinks it could end up being the key state.
“Wisconsin is one of six or seven states that are really competitive in terms of the election and some people are thinking that by the time you sort out even those six or seven states, the one state that’s really in play is Wisconsin.
The latest FOX News poll had Biden ahead 50 percent to 42 percent in Wisconsin, but Trump won the state in 2016 by less than a percentage point. He hopes to repeat that success there.
Across the border in Minnesota, Trump visited three weeks ago, signaling that his campaign thinks it’s a battleground.
This week, Donald Trump Jr. will be in Duluth Wednesday and Lara Trump will be in Minneapolis Thursday.
Jill Biden will also be visiting the state Thursday.
Schultz pointed out that Minnesota has not been a swing state. The last Republican to win Minnesota was Richard Nixon and polls have had Biden with a comfortable lead in Minnesota.
Schultz believes Biden and President Trump are still testing the waters in Minnesota. If polls tighten in the next couple of weeks, it could make Minnesota a battleground state after all.
“But if it looks like, at this point, Minnesota’s out of grasp for Trump, he may start to move his resources elsewhere and say, gosh, a dollar I put in here I can’t put in Wisconsin, for example, so I think this is a critical next two weeks that are coming up.”