Second gentleman Doug Emhoff to campaign in central Wisconsin

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff will appear in central Wisconsin this weekend to campaign for his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris.

The Harris for President campaign announced that Emhoff will speak on Saturday at the Hmong Wausau Festival. He’ll also lead a voter canvassing event in Stevens Point.

The Hmong Wausau Festival draws thousands each year for sports and dancing competitions, food vendors and other attractions. It’s put on by Wausau’s Hmong American Center, a nonprofit that offers services for Hmong families. The director of the Hmong American Center, Yee Leng Xiong, is a Democratic candidate for state Assembly.

The area is not a Democratic stronghold. Marathon County went to Republican Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. But the city of Wausau leans Democratic, and is home to the nation’s highest concentration of Hmong people. It was a demographic President Joe Biden courted when he ran for president in 2020.

The visit is Emhoff’s first campaign appearance in Wisconsin this year. It comes less than a week after Biden announced he would not seek the Democratic nomination, and just days after Harris received the support of enough delegates to become the party’s presumptive presidential nominee.

Harris campaigned on Tuesday in suburban Milwaukee.