Pence Starts Battleground Campaigning In Wisconsin

Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence was in Wisconsin on Wednesday to kick off a series of campaign events in battleground states.

Gov. Scott Walker introduced Pence, who is the governor of Indiana, to a crowd of a few hundred people in the Republican-stronghold of Waukesha as a “full-spectrum conservative” and “one of us.”

Former Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz beat the GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump in Wisconsin’s April primary thanks in part to endorsements from Walker and other conservative leaders.

Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, dropped out of the race in May.

Keith Patterson, of Sussex, said he didn’t vote for Trump this spring, but hearing the right message from Pence could strengthen his support for the pair in November.

“I’ve heard that he’s a pretty conservative guy, and so I was just looking for some confirmation of that and hear him enunciate some of those values,” Patterson said.

Pence did just that when he described the kind of Republican leadership he provided to Indiana and that Trump would bring to the White House.

“You live within your means, make the right investments in education, innovation and reform, the right investments in roads and bridges and letting keep more of their hard-earned tax dollars through tax relief and tax reform,” Pence said to cheers from the crowd.

Leslie Lauersdorf, of Racine, has supported Trump from the beginning, but she said she is hoping to hear the campaign message change.

“Hillary bashing is fun. There’s definitely enough there to hit. But he needs to start coming out with more specifics,” she said.

Pence didn’t mention specific policy proposals, but he did offer ideas about what Trump would do in the White House other than keep Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton out of it.

“If you want a president who will build strong borders and uphold our laws, if you want a president who will upend the status quo in Washington, D.C., and appoint justices who will uphold our Constitution, we have one choice,” Lauersdorf said.

Pence promised Trump would provide the same kind of Republican leadership Walker has brought to Wisconsin.