JD Vance courts Wisconsin’s Catholic voters in Waukesha

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance held a “faith rally” Sunday in Waukesha, tapping into familiar GOP talking points of safety at the southern border and inflation.

“You know, the average Wisconsin family is spending $1,000 more per month to afford what they could have afforded when Donald Trump was president,” Vance said.

“If you dare to believe in a secure southern border, Kamala Harris will call you a racist,” Vance continued. “Saying you don’t want fentanyl in your communities makes you a racist.”

Vance, the only Catholic candidate on either national ticket, spoke to hundreds of supporters at an aircraft hangar at the Waukesha County Airport for about 30 minutes before taking questions from the press.

The event was promoted as a faith rally, but Vance, who was baptized in 2019, spoke very little about his own faith.

That could be because abortion is one of the most divisive issues in the election.

Vance did, however, repeat Trump’s claims about abortions are being performed in the ninth month.

“Donald Trump and I are going to fight for the right for you to live your values, because frankly, when you see a surrogate of Kamala Harris insulting people of Christian faith, I think you should say, ‘You’re fired,’” Vance said.

The Ohio senator has been a key figure in the Trump campaign to mobilize the Catholic and Christian vote and held similar faith-based rallies in Pennsylvania and Georgia. 

But Catholics are not a monolithic voting bloc. 

An October Marquette Law School poll found  36 percent of Catholic respondents in Wisconsin supported Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris while 52 percent supported former President Donald Trump.

Pew Research Center found about half of Catholics who are registered voters identify with or lean toward the Republican Party, while 44 percent affiliate with the Democratic Party.

The number of Catholics is decreasing in the United States. About 20 percent of Americans describe themselves as Catholic, down from 24 percent in 2007, according to the same Pew report. 

Before Vance took the stage, U.S. Congressman Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wisconsin, said Catholics don’t have the best voting record. He urged the crowd to change that. 

U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde also spoke, and attended the Packer game with Vance before the Waukesha event. The Packers beat the Houston Texans 24-22.

“It was a high-risk proposition to come to Wisconsin on a Sunday during a home game,” Vance said. “Either we’re gong to have a really fired up crowd or a really pissed off crowd — we’ve got  a fired up crowd. But we’ve got a more important fight on our hands, and that is to beat Kamala Harris and the Democrats, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.” 

With the election just 16 days away, Harris will be in Waukesha County on Monday to participate in a moderated conversation with Republican former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney.

When asked by a reporter, Vance said his opinion of Liz Cheney is “low.”

Harris’s running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, will be in Racine on Tuesday, and will appear in Madison with Democratic former President Barack Obama to encourage early voting.