Trump plans visit to La Crosse as candidates fight for votes in western Wisconsin

Former President Donald Trump will visit La Crosse on Thursday, his first return to Wisconsin since the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month.

The town hall in western Wisconsin is an indication of how important that swathe of the state is for the Republican presidential nominee, and comes weeks after Vice President Kamala Harris held a rally in Eau Claire.

According to a campaign press release, Trump will meet with La Crosse-area voters and learn about economic concerns.

“The notorious swing state voters are eager to discuss kitchen table issues with President Trump and his commonsense solutions are exactly what will drive voters to the ballot box in droves this November,” the release states.

Western Wisconsin has long been viewed as a battleground region in one of the nation’s premier battleground states, and both campaigns are fighting for every vote in a state where presidential margins are razor thin.

But Democrats especially have the most ground to gain there, according to John Nichols,  a progressive journalist from Madison who has written books about the state’s politics.

“That’s where, in Wisconsin, if the Democrats do well, they win,” he previously told WPR.

The Harris campaign rallied in Eau Claire shortly after adding Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to the ticket as her running mate.

“It’s notable, very notable, that the first stop of the 2024 Democratic ticket…was in Eau Claire, in western Wisconsin, right in the heart of the area where Democrats have to do well,” said Nichols.

That part of western Wisconsin is also home to a hotly competitive congressional race. Democrat Rebecca Cooke, a small business owner from Eau Claire, recently won a bruising three-way Democratic primary to take on Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Prairie du Chien, for Wisconsin’s third Congressional district, which stretches north from the southwestern-most corner of the state up to Eau Claire.

Van Orden flipped that district from blue to red in 2022. Democrats in Wisconsin and nationally have that campaign in their sightlines as an opportunity to gain seats in the U.S. House.

In a statement, the Harris campaign criticized Trump’s record on economics and the Project 2025 conservative policy agenda developed by some of his campaign allies.

“In every corner of the state, Trump’s extreme Project 2025 agenda would hurt Wisconsinites: killing Wisconsin jobs and shipping them overseas, imposing a tariff that could cost middle-class families $3,900 a year, banning abortion in the state and across the country, and cutting essential support for farmers,” the statement reads. “Wisconsinites look forward to his explanations.”

While western Wisconsin is a battleground region, the entire state, where presidential races are typically decided by less than a percentage point, will be hard-fought. For that reason, both campaigns are expected to swing through repeatedly over the remaining months of the presidential cycle.

Trump was last in Wisconsin to accept his party’s nomination at the RNC in Milwaukee in July. During his acceptance speech, he repeatedly nodded to the importance of winning votes in the Badger State.

And Trump’s La Crosse visit won’t even be his campaign’s only Wisconsin visit of the week. His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, will give remarks in De Pere, near Green Bay, on Wednesday.