'It's hard to defend the president': Warning signs flash for Trump in Wisconsin
NBC News
ADAM EDELMAN
Jul 5th 2020 9:13AM
Dennis Boyer, a former lawyer who retired years ago to his farm in southwestern Wisconsin, says there's no question whom he and many people he's talking to are voting for in November: It's Joe Biden.
Boyer, a self-described independent voter who said he didn't vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton in 2016, said the coronavirus pandemic — despite not being as virulent in the state as in many others — has "really exposed problems that pretty much connect to everything," to the point that "voters of all stripes here really have a reason to oppose Donald Trump."
"It's a convergence of all the big issues of our time: health care, race, inequality. Even basic decency and human dignity. I think it's really activating a lot of people here and certainly activating a lot of people who weren't terribly active here in 2016," said Boyer, who does remote part-time work with a nonpartisan nonprofit that promotes civic engagement through conversation.
"Almost any way you cut it, it's hard to defend the president," he said.
Although the general election is still months away, interviews with a number of Wisconsin voters, current and former lawmakers, party officials, political strategists, pollsters, politics watchers and union officials paint a picture of a critical battleground slipping from the president's grasp. Despite middle-of-the-pack COVID-19 infection, death rate and unemployment numbers, the sources said there are warning signs for Trump's re-election campaign in nearly all corners of the state, which he turned red for the first time since 1984.
And while enthusiasm for Biden isn't exactly robust, his campaign's increased investment in and attention to Wisconsin — as well as a litany of unforced errors by Trump and the subsequent laggingpoll numbers his campaign is seeing — are enough to concern even the state's most prominent Republican.
"It's tough for him any time, and every time, really, he's not talking about issues related to the economy or to safety or to public health," former Gov. Scott Walker said in an interview when asked whether Trump's handling of the pandemic and recent remarks like his stated desire to "slow down" testing for the virus were jeopardizing his chances of winning again in Wisconsin.
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