PEWAUKEE, Wis. (CN) — Vice President Mike Pence launched his “Faith in America” rally tour in a Milwaukee suburb Tuesday, returning to a reliably conservative area of a key battleground state to drum up enthusiasm among the president’s base less than five months from the election.
Pence and his entourage were greeted with sunny, temperate weather and hundreds of supporters Tuesday at the Ingleside Hotel in Pewaukee, part of a belt of staunchly red counties immediately surrounding Milwaukee’s Democratic stronghold that President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign seeks to retain despite some signs of vulnerability.
Trump carried Waukesha County by around 28 points in the 2016 presidential election, but in 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney won the county by about 35 points.
Some local conservatives in the Badger State with both grassroots and establishment support have not fared terribly well in recent elections. Democratic Governor Tony Evers beat two-term incumbent Republican Governor Scott Walker, who appeared at Tuesday’s rally, as part of a blue wave in the 2018 midterms that resulted in liberals taking every statewide office.
In April, liberal-leaning Dane County Circuit Court Judge Jill Karofsky comfortably beat conservative Justice Daniel Kelly in a contest for a 10-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, despite the fact that Kelly is a longtime denizen of Wisconsin’s conservative inner circle who earned repeated endorsements from Trump.
At the rally in Pewaukee on Tuesday, supporters of the Trump-Pence ticket lined up to have their temperatures taken and receive single-use surgical masks from health care workers acting on behalf of the Trump campaign, seemingly indicating the campaign and supporters alike are cognizant of the inherent risks in carrying out large gatherings in the midst of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Ticket buyers were also required to sign a waiver releasing the Trump campaign from liability if any attendee should contract the coronavirus at the event, a legal measure also taken at Trump’s somewhat underwhelming but nevertheless controversial rally in Tulsa on Saturday.
The Badger State has been without any overriding state-level public health guidelines since the conservative-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court ended the governor’s Covid-19 lockdown order in mid-May.
Since then, Wisconsin’s 72 counties and hundreds of municipalities have been tackling the pandemic in piecemeal fashion. On June 4, Waukesha County upped its recommendation for large gatherings from 50 to 100 people, well under the combined tally of Trump supporters, media and law enforcement at Tuesday’s rally.
A representative with Waukesha County clarified Tuesday that the county does not currently have an order in place regarding the coronavirus and that the large gatherings guideline is simply a recommendation to provide businesses with the flexibility to operate during the pandemic.
Before the rally, Trump supporter Dave Dickson worked a merch table selling “Make America Great Again” hats, colorful campaign T-shirts and flags, and paper masks bearing the president’s face.
Dickson, who is originally from Florida, told Courthouse News he has been organizing on Trump’s behalf since at least the 2016 South Carolina primary, a race Trump won with just over 32% support on his way to an upset victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton that fall.
“Trump’s been a real anomaly,” Dickson said. “He’s a businessman, I think we need a businessman to run the country. It’s a lot better than the alternative,” he said in reference to career politicians like former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
Dickson said Tuesday he does not understand how anyone could support Biden.
“I respect Joe Biden, but he’s past it,” Dickson said.
Trump’s history as a businessman and his focus on the economy also resonated with a supporter named Bill, who chose not to reveal his last name.