KAUKAUNA – Eight years ago, Bernie Sanders was the Democratic favorite in Wisconsin. He won the Badger State’s presidential primary against the party’s eventual nominee, but lost the same contest four years later.
Now Sanders has returned to Wisconsin alone. Not as a surrogate for President Joe Biden, but to reverse the Democratic Party’s struggle to win the enthusiasm of its voters.
A Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday found that voting enthusiasm among Wisconsin residents remains low, with 46 percent saying they were very enthusiastic about voting, down from 59 percent in June 2020. Voters with high voting enthusiasm overwhelmingly support Trump, 61 percent to 39 percent.
That struggle “exists, and it’s real, but it’s an issue we’re dealing with,” Sanders told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Thursday before a visit to the Plumbers and Steamfitters United Association Local 400 headquarters in Kaukauna.
For Demetri Lafkas, a 43-year-old ecologist from Green Bay, it would be “ideal” if Sanders were on the ballot in November.
“But under the current circumstances, I think we have to go with Biden,” he said. “I love everything Bernie is doing, everything he’s done in the past and everything he’s doing now. It’s great to see him here.”
Sanders is using that loyalty to build enthusiasm for Biden. But he is not in Wisconsin to campaign with Biden’s team, nor is he promoting his events as rallies for anyone on the ballot, including his Senate colleague Tammy Baldwin.
Nevertheless, Biden’s press secretary in Wisconsin, Timothy White, said the president was pleased to have Sanders in the state “to campaign for the only candidate in this race who is fighting for working people: Joe Biden.”
In his appeal to local voters, Sanders acknowledges the gaps in Biden’s support.
“Look, I tell (voters) that they may not like everything Joe Biden does. I disagree with Biden very much, for example, on the current events in Gaza and his support for (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu.” On the other hand, Sanders said, “Biden has done a very good job on many issues.”
“We’re working together to bring down the outrageous cost of prescription drugs. Biden has been very strong in his advocacy of women having control over their own bodies, not the government. And there’s an existential issue out there, and that’s climate change,” he said. “And what I’m saying to people is: If you let Trump win, you’re saying you’re supporting someone who believes climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese, and that’s absolutely insane.”
Sanders pointed out that Biden made history as the first president in the country’s history to participate in a picket line when he joined the United Auto Workers in their strike outside Detroit last year.
When asked about Baldwin’s status in the race – she is leading her Republican opponent Eric Hovde by a larger margin in the Marquette poll than Biden is ahead of Trump – Sanders said Baldwin “has always understood that our job is to stand up for working families, not the rich and powerful. And I think that resonates well with Wisconsin voters.”
Sanders, 81, is making more than half a dozen stops in Wisconsin this week, with his first rally in Racine County on Wednesday night. There he will meet supporters who would rather see him on the ballot to run against former President Donald Trump. His message to them: Trump is worse than Biden.
Sanders’ rally in Kaukauna was one of three events in Wisconsin aimed at union members. He held events at UAW buildings in Mount Pleasant and Sheboygan on Wednesday and Thursday.
According to Marquette’s latest poll, union households were evenly split between Biden and Trump.
Planning events with union members was no accident, Sanders said.
“I want to make it clear to workers that the contrast, especially for union members, is extremely stark: In Biden, we have probably the most union-friendly president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” Sanders told the Journal Sentinel. “The contrast between Biden and Trump is like night and day.”
Ronna Swift, 81, of Appleton said the president is doing a “great job” and sees Sanders’ presence as motivating for Democrats.
“Bernie has always stuck to his platform, and he has all the connections and the experience, and I think what he’s doing now on the campaign trail shows what kind of person he is,” Swift said. “They disagree on a lot of things, but they both talk to each other and are long-time friends.”
“It was a good day. The Democrats are the party of us, not the party of me, and we were all together today.”
The economy was the most important issue among Wisconsin voters in the latest Marquette poll, with 31 percent giving it the highest priority. More than 50 percent of voters thought Trump was the better candidate on this issue.
Sanders said the Biden administration has not done enough to highlight its successes, which include lowering prescription drug costs, providing money to improve infrastructure and transitioning the country to renewable energy sources.
Even that is not enough, Sanders said – Biden must also tell voters what he would do in another four years.
“I think Biden supporters need to realize that the American people are hurting,” Sanders said. “Yes, we’ve seen progress, but 60% of our people are still living paycheck to paycheck. There’s more income and wealth inequality in America than ever before.”
To win over hesitant voters, Sanders said, the president should present a plan for a second term: raising the minimum wage, making it easier for workers to unionize, expanding Medicare coverage, expanding Social Security, and a comprehensive initiative to build affordable housing and public housing across the country.
Joe and Deb Scherer, who attended Thursday’s rally, support Trump in November but wanted to “see how far (Sanders) will go with his socialist program for the rest of the country.”
“I think he’s going to sugarcoat what the Democrats can do for the people,” Deb Scherer added before Sanders’ rally. “The direction our country is going is very serious. That’s why I don’t like Biden. I don’t like Bernie. I don’t like them taking us toward socialism.”
About 250 people attended the event. Sanders spoke for about an hour and answered questions.
One of them was 16-year-old Scott Frechette, who lives on the Menominee Reservation and attended the event with his grandmother Nina White. Frechette asked Sanders to speak about the opioid epidemic.
“This is something you hear about every day. We have a very big crisis (on the reservation),” Frechette said. “These are stories that touch us deeply.”
Molly Beck, Jessie Opoien and Abra Richardson can be reached at [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].
