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and this is with a conflict
going on.

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>> Although President Trump
retained strong positive

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influence among Republican
primary voters in light of

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his overall slipping poll
numbers, this week's

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episode of Inside Wisconsin
Politics considered the

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optics of Republicans
running for Congress or

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governor campaigning
alongside him. Here's what

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they had to say about it.
>> If you look back in

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history more on the
Democratic side, there is a

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history of some candidates
not only not sure if they

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want to sit next to an
unpopular president in a

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midterm election. In 2010,
President Obama came to

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Madison. There was a big
question of whether Russ

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Feingold was going to
appear on the stage. In the

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end, he did. But all the
weeks leading up to it, his

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campaign wasn't sure he
might be in Africa. He had

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some other things going on.
And that was really a

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political question of does
he want to be seen with him?

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And he ended up losing that
race. That was the Tea

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Party wave before it was
just two years ago.

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President Biden visited
Madison off that disastrous

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debate performance. Tammy
Baldwin was elsewhere. She

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didn't come to Madison to
be with the president.

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That's about campaign
optics.

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>> The president right now
has some of his lowest

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approval ratings throughout
his time in office. But

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farmers in particular have
really helped deliver him

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victories. I believe in his
last election, he won the

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vast, vast majority of farm
dependent counties in the

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country. And yet a lot of
his policies, tariff

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policies in particular,
have really been connected

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with some of the pain that
farmers have been feeling.

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So tariffs that have caused,
you know, weakened overseas

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markets for for corn and
soy, and then increased

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prices on steel and
aluminum. So we have seen

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changes in his policies in
ways that are, I think,

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aimed really directly at
trying to appeal to these

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farmers. Earlier this week,
he signed an executive

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order to lower some tariffs
on agricultural equipment

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in particular. And so now
he's coming to Wisconsin to

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talk directly to farmers
and kind of try to make

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sure that that part of his
base is secure.

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>> The Republicans need
this area, and they need

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Trump's voters to come out
when he is not on the

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ballot. Republicans across
the state struggle to get

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turnout, especially in
western and northern

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Wisconsin. That is the Maga
base of this state in the

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seventh and the third. And
without those voters, they

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could really struggle in
the fall. So they actually

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need to attach themselves
even closer to Donald Trump

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at this point, even if it
looks like, politically
