On this Labor Day 2020, Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris head to Wisconsin for some campaigning among the cheeseheads, beavers, and cows. Joe Biden visited Kenosha last week to meet with the family of Jacob Blake, the Black man shot seven times by police there in August. Both Donald Trump and Biden campaigns need a win there, but Trump needs it more. Polls indicate his path to 270 electoral votes is narrower (NYT):
If he holds every other state he captured in 2016, the president must win at least one of the three pivotal Big Ten states to claim re-election: Michigan, Pennsylvania or Wisconsin. With his campaign increasingly concerned about his ability to win again in Michigan, where it has cut its advertising, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania loom even larger. And if Mr. Biden can run just slightly stronger in the state of his birth and early childhood than Mrs. Clinton did and win Pennsylvania, Mr. Trump’s hopes may rest entirely on Wisconsin.
Pence and Harris head to different parts of the state, one redder, the other bluer.
The vice president is speaking to employees at the Dairyland Power Cooperative in La Crosse, a heavily white Mississippi River city at the western edge of the state. Ms. Harris, who is making her first trip to a battleground state since joining the Democratic ticket, is visiting with union workers and leaders as well as African-American businesspeople and pastors in Milwaukee, the Black hub of the state.
What has Texas senator Ted Cruz got to do with Wisconsin, you didn’t ask? Well, the Republican, sometime-thespian and Dr. Seuss fan is peeved that the cast of The Princess Bride is reuniting for a script read to raise money for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin (CNN):
Donors to the Wisconsin Democrats will receive invitations to a livestream on September 13 at7 pm ET for a script read of William Goldman’s 1987 cult classic. The star-studded cast, including Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Carol Kane, Chris Sarandon, Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn, Billy Crystal and director Rob Reiner have agreed to join the virtual table read. A cast Q&A will be moderated by Patton Oswalt after the performance.”
Anything you donate will be used to ensure that Trump loses Wisconsin, and thereby the White House,” the donation page says.
The event sent Cruz’s torture machine to 50. In a tweet Saturday, Cruz called The Princess Bride “perfect” and said he wishes it would stay out of “Hollywood politics.”
Democrats’ Wisconsin state chair Ben Wikler invited Cruz to join the party.
Cruz has been known to quote lines from the film and to imitate the actors.
Crystal in 2015 called Cruz’s impression “a little creepy,” but said he should “have fun storming the White House,” even though a win “would take a miracle.”
Cruz did not get one, Trump did. Let’s hope it takes another miracle for Trump to win Wisconsin again.
Enjoy your Labor Day.
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