Wisconsin Republicans see JD Vance as VP pick who could help Trump cement Midwest vote
Twelve years ago, Republicans nominated Wisconsin’s Paul Ryan for their presidential ticket. They fell short of the White House.
Now, as Republicans in Milwaukee this week made another Midwesterner their vice presidential nominee, Wisconsin Republicans say they see opportunity.
“As with most swing states, we’re looking for surrogates. We’re looking for people who can come in and identify with voters quickly,” Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Brian Schimming said of Ohio Sen. JD Vance, whom former President Donald Trump picked Monday as his running mate.
“And he can do that."
Wisconsin Republicans gathered for the Republican National Convention largely praised Trump’s selection of Vance as one that can resonate with voters in the region. They pointed to Vance’s background growing up in poverty in Kentucky and Ohio, his time in the Marines and quick ascension to the Senate.
U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, a Republican from Glenbeulah, referenced Vance’s 2016 memoir "Hillbilly Elegy” in which Vance detailed his mother’s struggle with addiction and said he thinks Vance will “view America through the prism of somebody with a different background than a lot of politicians have.”
“That’s good for everybody,” Grothman said. “It’s good for people to have experienced a lot of backgrounds in America, and that’s what J.D. Vance has done.”
Some, like Schimming, view Vance’s selection through a more regional lens. The Ohio senator could appeal to voters in Rust Belt states through the Midwest that will be crucial in the upcoming election. Battleground states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan are critical in the path to the White House, and Trump and President Joe Biden are in a tight race in Wisconsin, according to recent surveys.
“(He’s) Midwestern, which helps us probably uniquely because we’re one of the few states in the Midwest here in play,” Schimming said.
Trump himself hinted at just that in a post on Truth Social announcing Vance as his vice president, writing that Vance during the campaign “will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond…”
But just how influential Vance will be on the ticket is not clear. Vice presidential picks do not tend to greatly impact presidential races, according Barry Burden, a political science professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
There is “little evidence,” Burden said, that putting Ryan, a Janesville Republican, on the ticket with Utah Senator Mitt Romney in 2012, caused Romney to perform better in Wisconsin. Former President Barack Obama defeated Romney in Wisconsin by more than 6 points that year.
“Vance might be most helpful in strengthening the connection between the Trump campaign and rural white voters,” Burden said. “The GOP has been gaining ground in rural areas in the Trump era and will need to fare well there again to make up for shortfalls in urban and even some suburban communities.”
Opinion: A Trump clone? Much-needed youth? What you said about Trump’s VP pick of Vance
He added that Vance’s presence on the ticket could complicate Democrats’ path to victory in must-win blue wall states, like Wisconsin and Michigan in the upper Midwest.
Democrats, meanwhile, attacked Vance this week as an “enabler of Trump’s “extreme MAGA agenda.” The Biden campaign said Vance "will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6: bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people."
Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin on Tuesday noted she has co-authored “several measures” with Vance and pointed out they both come from states with manufacturing backgrounds. She said he’s “very new to politics.”
More: Outside RNC, Democrats hit Trump on abortion, unions, Milwaukee 'horrible city' comment
“What we have to keep our focus on is the difference between what Democrats stand for and our ticket and what they stand for,” Baldwin said. She referenced a conservative think tank’s controversial blueprint for a future GOP administration: “Project 2025 is extremely scary, and voters need to know that.”
New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, speaking at an event with Baldwin, noted Vance's opposition to abortion, including in cases of rape and incest. "They don't stand for the values of the majority of the American people when it comes to things like health coverage, with reproductive rights and more," he said.
Still, Wisconsin Republicans gathered in Milwaukee projected excitement when it came to Vance.
Schimming dismissed questions about Vance's stance on abortion, saying it's the "presidential candidate who is driving the issues and driving where people are. Donald Trump has not been laid back about saying, 'Look, I'm not signing a national abortion ban.'"
And Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker joked that Vance was a “Big Ten guy,” referencing the collegiate sports conference, and said Wisconsinites can “razz him” about his alma mater, Ohio State University.
Walker acknowledged Vance’s potential regional appeal, saying “Midwesterners definitely feel a strong bond,” but said his “personal story” is more important.
“I think in Wisconsin, one of our appeals nationally is that Donald Trump’s the guy fighting for the forgotten men and women — the people who feel left out by Washington,” Walker told the Journal Sentinel. “JD Vance’s family is exactly those sorts of people.”
Vance, Schimming said, is welcome in the state whenever he wants to visit.
“Any time he wants to come to Wisconsin,” he said with a laugh, “I will put him in the car. I will personally drive him around.”
Laura Schulte, Mary Spicuzza, Hope Karnopp and Tamia Fowlkes of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: JD Vance seen as pick who could cement Midwest vote for Trump
