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    • Both party leaders in Wisconsin are hoping for a rematch between Harris and Trump
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    Both party leaders in Wisconsin are hoping for a rematch between Harris and Trump

    Vaseline Posted on

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    MADISON — Wisconsin Democratic and Republican party leaders came away with different conclusions from Tuesday night’s debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, but they agree on at least one thing: They’d like to see the two face off again before the Nov. 5 election.

    “I don’t know if there will be another debate. I hope so,” Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

    “I would love it,” said Ben Wikler, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party. “I’m already looking forward to the next one. I’m going to have to buy a lot more popcorn.”

    There is currently no second debate on the agenda.

    Wikler spoke to the Journal Sentinel on his way home from a debate viewing party in Brown County, which Trump won by more than 10,000 votes in 2020 and by nearly 14,000 in 2016. The mood at the party’s Green Bay office was “buoyant,” he said.

    More: A bipartisan group broke bread at a Wisconsin debate watch party. Here’s what they heard.

    That kind of energy could provide momentum in elections down the ballot, Wikler said, especially as candidates run in new constituencies. He added that he watched the debate with three state Assembly candidates who planned to knock on doors and repeat Harris’ message on the debate stage.

    “I think this is a situation where a rising tide lifts all boats, because the Republican threats to reproductive freedom in particular and their efforts to manipulate the economy for the benefit of the super-rich are at the heart of the election at every level of the ballot,” Wikler said.

    “When candidates are pushing the same message in every local context across the country, especially in a state like Wisconsin that has banned abortion and knows we’re one bad election away from banning abortion again, it really comes alive.”

    More: Kamala Harris moves to 4-point lead over Trump in Marquette poll of Wisconsin voters

    Schimming expects Republicans to retain their majorities in both chambers of the Legislature, but that there will likely be more elections in the Assembly than in the Senate.

    He argued that debates rarely change the dynamics of a campaign, with the notable exception of President Joe Biden’s struggling performance against Trump in June before he withdrew from the race in July.

    “I think the bases are so tightly locked that no one from either side is going to budge,” Schimming said of Tuesday’s debate.

    “Debates don’t usually change the fundamentals of a campaign, and I don’t think last night’s did. The fundamentals of the campaign are this: It comes down to seven states. It probably comes down to three of the seven states. The bases are pretty solid where they are, and independent voters in state polls or national polls are influenced by the economy, inflation, the border, violent crime in some places … and kitchen-table issues,” Schimming said.

    Trump has missed some opportunities, Schimming said, but he argued that the former president has successfully raised the question of why Harris has not yet achieved her policy goals during her time as vice president. And no one should be surprised that Trump “likes to throw a punch every now and then.”

    “I’m not sitting here sweating this morning. I think he did a good enough job on the big issues that he needed to do a good enough job on,” he said. “She has fundamental, enormous problems that Donald Trump doesn’t have. Everybody knows what Trump stands for.”

    Wikler argued that Harris could dodge these questions, distance herself from Biden and Trump and “offer a new path forward.”

    He also noted that Trump has continued to repeat the false claim that he won Wisconsin in 2020 and did not say during Tuesday’s debate whether he would sign a national abortion ban. Those positions underscore “the fundamental threats to freedom and democracy that have been at the heart of the last two major elections in Wisconsin,” he said.

    As for the elephant — or in this case, the cat named Benjamin Button — in the room, neither Wikler nor Schimming exaggerated or ignored the potential effects of Taylor Swift’s post-debate endorsement of Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

    “It’s written in a way that makes sense to people who don’t normally think much about politics. It just lays out the basics of what’s at stake, including … questions about reproductive freedom,” Wikler said.

    Wikler said he appreciated that Swift didn’t voice her support with the assumption that her audience already agreed with her.

    “The goal is to convince and encourage people to realize that they are a powerful voter,” he said.

    Schimming expects the show of support to convince some young voters, especially women, but countering her message is not a top priority for the party.

    “But I’m not dismissing anything. When you have an election where things are decided by 20,000 or 30,000 votes, you’re stupid to dismiss anything,” Schimming said. “I guarantee you the Democrats are more worried about Bobby Kennedy’s support (for Trump) than we are about Taylor Swift’s (for Harris). But I’ve also been around long enough to know that people are affected by different things, and you have to pay attention, so I’m not dismissing anything.”

    “I tried to convince her not to do it,” he joked.

    Jessie Opoien can be reached at [email protected].

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