Wisconsin. PBS Wisconsin Original
production. 2024 Election coverage Walsh
people PFAS. >> Oh, it really is good to be
back in Wisconsin. >> The now official Democratic
nominee for president, Kamala Harris, returns to the Badger
State with a big rally in Eau Claire just two weeks after her
last visit, this time with her vice presidential pick Tim Walz
in tow. The Trump campaign closely trails Harris in the
polls and to events in Wisconsin, with JD Vance holding
a much smaller campaign stop just a few miles down the road.
I'm Frederica Freyberg tonight on "Here& Now" Murv Seymour
reports on the presidential campaign, stumping again in
Wisconsin. And Charles Franklin gives us the latest on how the
candidates match up in his latest poll. Then a preview of
the Republican primary in Green Bay's congressional district and
Milwaukee County's continued funding struggle. It's "Here&
Now" for August nine. >> Funding for here and Now is
provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS.
Wisconsin. once again on Wisconsin this
week, when Democratic presidential candidate Kamala
Harris hosted a huge rally in Eau Claire with her new running
mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The Republican VP, JD
Vance, came to town to Here and Now reporter Murv Seymour was
there. To see what the vaccine looks like for the push for key
votes in key swing states in the 2024 presidential election has
made its way to rural parts of western Wisconsin.
like, look like. For the second time in just over two weeks,
candidate Harris and Air Force two are back in Wisconsin as she
fires up support in her run for the white House. So let's make
sure Tim Walz goes from Midwest nice to Midwest Vice in front of
her biggest crowd ever in Wisconsin. An estimated 12,000
people packed the fairgrounds of the Eau Claire event district in
the area known as High Country. >> I think we had most of
western Wisconsin here and half of Minnesota.
and our next door neighbor, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz,
with top Wisconsin Democrats paving the way.
>> Hello, everybody. We love you.
hometown Grammy winning singer Bon Iver. This time, candidate
Harris has come to introduce her newly announced running mate to
rural Wisconsinites, with hopes that they and other
Midwesterners like what vice presidential candidate and
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz brings to the ticket. As a
former military man, teacher and high school football coach, I
don't need you telling me about our health care.
>> I don't need you telling us who we love, and I sure the hell
don't need you telling us what books we're going to read.
>> The path to the white House runs right through this state,
and with your help, we will win in November. We are going to
win. >> Getting inside high country
to see this Democratic duo hasn't been easy. Some walk for
miles and waited in traffic for hours to be a part of the
growing momentum of the Harris campaign. What do you like about
Walz as a candidate for vice president?
>> He's just one of us. He's a good old upper Midwest boy and,
as they say, you can sit down at a coffee shop with Walls and,
feel right at home. He's just like my next door neighbor.
>> Well, I think it will be really important because there's
still a lot of rural. And maybe he can relate to that dynamic of
the population that maybe Kamala wouldn't. But I think that will
really help open some people's eyes.
powered political campaign swinging through Eau Claire
right now. Across town, vice presidential Republican
candidate JD Vance is here to also rally the troops.
>> What can you do for Wisconsinites up here in the
upper northwest? Wisconsinites in a 30 minute
question and answer session, specifically with Wisconsin
based reporters. >> Why would people in Wisconsin
want to have a beer with you? He accuses candidate Harris of
dodging the media she's running for the media, refusing to
answer tough questions and hoping that a basement campaign
is going to earn her a promotion.
know he's stumping in the shadows of the Harris Walls
campaign to offer voters a contrast. With less than three
months until Election Day, it's unlikely this will be the last
time these two campaigns cross paths in Wisconsin, as they
continue to crisscross battleground states to woo
voters in small, large and rural rallies. Reporting for here.
Now. I'm Murv Seymour in the aftermath of Joe Biden's
withdrawal, Charles Franklin set to work on a new poll looking at
how Kamala Harris squares against Donald Trump.
>> This new touch point in the fast moving race for President
with the Marquette University Law School poll out this week,
the polling looks at both national numbers and the state
of play in Wisconsin. Poll director Charles Franklin is
here to walk us through the results. And thanks for being
here. >> So this poll went into the
field before Kamala Harris picked Tim Walz for VP. What's
your sense of that choice for Democrats and whether he helps
Harris in Wisconsin? >> The short answer is it's too
early to tell what little national polling we have before
he was picked shows that over 60% of the public doesn't know
enough about him to have an opinion. So this immediate
rollout is a critical time for establishing that image for
Democrats to do it positively. Republicans to be critical of
him, so I think the best answer is we don't know. Vice
presidents usually aren't a big effect. The best estimates is
they boost the vote in their home state by between 1 and 2
percentage points. But that's just a generalization.
>> So at the top of the ticket, your national poll shows that
among likely voters, it's 53% for Harris and 47% for Trump.
Now that's a definite uptick over the Biden-trump matchup.
>> Yes, Biden and Trump had been running sort of head to head.
This is definitely better in the national numbers than it is in
the state numbers that we'll get to, I think what we saw was a
big boost in how people view Kamala Harris, and especially a
boost in enthusiasm for Democrats.
Wisconsin numbers. Then among again, likely voters, the
numbers sit at 50% for Harris and 49% for Trump in your latest
poll. So much has changed in this race, with Joe Biden bowing
out. But it's still running about even. Yeah, here in the
state, as opposed to the national numbers, we were
virtually tied in June before the debate.
after the debate and the replacement with Harris. What
that misses, though, is how much Biden's support fell off between
the debate and when he dropped out. The polling averages of
other people's polls, not mine, because we didn't poll in
between, showed Biden losing between 3 and 4 percentage
points. Trump opening up a 4 or 5 point lead in this poll. When
we asked if Biden had stayed in, would you vote for Biden or for
Trump? Trump was leading by 4 or 5 points.
>> Well, and speaking of Biden jumping out and Kamala Harris
jumping in, let's talk about enthusiasm to vote in Wisconsin
in your current poll, you say 61% say they are very
enthusiastic about voting. That's up from 46% in June.
>> Yes, a 15 point increase in being enthusiastic all year
long. We've seen enthusiasm running between 15 and 20 points
below where it was at the same time in the 2020 election cycle,
and that had not budged from last November through June. But
now this substantial 15 point rise, in enthusiasm.
>> But how does this break down by party, then?
>> Not surprisingly, it's Democrats who've had the biggest
bump up. They're up 22 points in enthusiasm. They had languished
considerably even in June before the debate. Republicans had also
gone up by about seven points. And that represents I think, the
convention bounce for the nominee of nomination of Donald
Trump, as well as perhaps some post assassination attempt
effect. Biden's dropping out, though. Really stepped on the
post-convention bounce that you might have expected for the
Republicans. kind of erased the Republican
advantage in that way, right? >> I think so it's so hard to
separate these things out because during the convention,
there was the sense that Trump was very likely to win. And that
shows up in our data of public opinion as well, once Biden
jumped out, Harris came in and the Democrats consolidated
convention got largely nullified.
Senate race in Wisconsin. Democrat Tammy Baldwin is up
five points on her Republican challenger, Eric Hovde, among
likely voters, but up eight points when respondents were
asked if you had to choose. I'm wondering what are the
implications of that question and those results?
>> the she's been up 5 to 7 points in most of our polling
since Hufty got in the race. About 14% say they haven't made
up their minds in the Senate race. And it's those folks that
we ask, well, if you had to choose, what would you do? It
doesn't shift the balance very much. A couple of points, but it
does show that still voters are making up their minds about
these two Senate candidates, and especially Hufty, who's
than Baldwin. >> As to issues in the race, the
most important issues to Wisconsin voters are these the
economy one abortion, two. Immigration three. Now Wisconsin
voters placed the issue of abortion, of at higher
importance than nationally. Does that surprise you?
>> Yes. It's an interesting thing. Partly that may be
because of what happened after the Dobbs decision overturned
Roe versus Wade, and we went back to our 1800s law for a
while. And then court cases about that. What we've seen in
Wisconsin all along is that Democrats have ranked abortion
number one, but independents, including now put it fairly low
down on their priority list, as do Republicans. This is a little
bit of a shift raising that. Immigration has also been
falling a little bit over time. Now just barely into third place
behind abortion. But there does seem to be a gap between
Wisconsin opinion on this and national opinion.
>> All right. Charles Franklin, thank you so much for being
here. Thank you. The eighth Congressional District in
Wisconsin is gearing up for a special election following Mike
Gallagher's departure as a Aditi Debnath reports, three
Republicans are vying for the primary nomination in August to
face the sole Democratic candidate in November's general
election. people here in northeast
Wisconsin, great Republicans running, and Roger Rath served
12 years in the state legislature, including as Senate
president, until stepping aside in 2023. I think it's important
that we have someone from northeast Wisconsin, blue colla,
worked with their hands, understands how decisions out
there, how they impact families here in northeast Wisconsin,
state Senator André Jacque served 14 years in the state
legislature and currently represents part of northeast
Wisconsin in the state Senate. >> He's running on his record of
bipartisan cooperation. >> Everybody is going to tell
you what you want to hear at election time. I'm the guy that
means it. outside his Senate district due
to redistricting, emphasizes his experience tackling issues like
government spending. >> I bear the scars of having,
you know, spoken my conscience and fought for my constituents.
>> Both Jack and Rath bring to the table years of experience in
the state legislature. Tony Wied, a political outsider and
former business owner, sees his lack of political experience as
an asset. Tony Wied did not respond to multiple requests for
an interview. However, in an audio interview with Wisconsin
Public Radio, he said this I have that real world experience
of actually operating things and growing and building businesses,
and I can actually go and make a difference. The three
Republicans share common ground on issues like inflation.
>> Federal government has to stop spending money.
at the baseline expenditure. Line item and, and basically,
get into zero based budgeting and border security. Really the
first thing is we have to have a vetting and an orderly process
for anybody that's looking to come into the country.
>> We need to build the border wall.
>> Each candidate has their unique selling points. Wied
touts his endorsement from former President Donald Trump.
>> I'm very proud. The only candidate endorsed by President
Trump in this race. This is an honor of a lifetime.
>> Senator Jack highlights his endorsements from law
enforcement and pro-life conservative credentials.
really from the taxpayers perspective, eliminating any
abortion. I've done that systematically at the state
level. They're actually far more that exists at the federal
level. Governor Scott Walker, wants to
make it mandatory for public employees to work in person.
>> It's time we brought civil service reform to Washington. I
will take that issue that I worked on and was able to get
through with Governor Scott this race. I'll be able to go
and make strong advances on that issue on day one.
>> Despite Trump's endorsement of Wied, both Roth and Jack
remain confident in their campaigns.
have their endorsements. I don't know how much weight that in
particular has. given some bad information, but
at the end of the day, he supports winners. We're going to
win this election. >> The primary election is set
for August 13th. Reporting from Appleton. I'm Aditi Debnath for
"Here& Now" >> What a swing even with a new
county sales tax increase that helped Milwaukee County see a
budget surplus for the first time in decades in 2024, the
county government is now staring down a nearly $20 million
deficit by the end of the year. What is happening? We turn to
Milwaukee County Supervisor times ahead. And thanks for
being here. >> You're welcome. Vladimir.
>> So there was a surplus. Now you're grappling with projected
deficits. What is happening? >> Well, it's a combination of
things. It's, we have a big deficit in the sheriff's budget
and the overtime that's over. You know, $7 million. And that
number is not going to get smaller. We've not seen, the
projected sales tax revenue come in. I mean, people are not
spending as much as we projecte. So the sales tax projections
that revenue is lower, and then we looking at future the health
care costs, those are on the rise and, and those are things
that are difficult to control, with many departments that are
running, you know, positive. But there's just some areas in the
county budget that are, that are struggling big time right now.
>> So I understand that the sales tax hike was supposed to
generate $82 million in revenue since last July, and then there
was another 7 million that came from the state by way of shared
revenue. How much worse would it have been without that?
>> Well, yeah, that's I mean, we wouldn't be able to start
tackling the pension problems that we had based on, you know,
the scandal back in the early 2000. So we would be in a worse
position without the sales tax. But we still were always looking
at major issues in the next five years. I mean, those numbers
have gotten easier. It'll be easier to deal with or grapple
with, but, they're still going to be challenging, challenging
days and years ahead. >> What is the situation with
the sheriff's department over time? Why why is that happening?
>> Well, we just don't have enough deputies. And they're
they're doing their mandated services, and it's coming at a
cost. Add overtime. The state of Wisconsin ranks 50th out of 50th
in law enforcement spending, so that's not I think a category of
the state should be proud of, so I think that's something that
that Milwaukee County and all counties and municipalities
should be looking at. >> So you're looking to the
state to give you more money to help with that sheriff's
department deficit? >> Well, I think that's one
conversation that needs to take place. I mean, I don't think the
solution is pulling our sheriffs off the highways. I mean, we're
mandated to have them in the courtrooms. You know, we have to
have them in the jails and the House of correction. And so the
solution is not just let's not work them. We have to and these
are officers and these deputies, they don't, want to always be
working all this overtime. It's coming at the expense of their,
you know, personal well-being and their health, you know, so
it's a very difficult situation. But I think the state needs to
step up. >> And what have you heard from
the state legislature as to whether or not that's something
that they would consider doing? >> You know, we haven't had
those conversations, I mean, this was just brought to us, you
know, how dire it is, but it really shouldn't be a shock. I
mean, it took a lot to get the sales tax and to do this whole
shared revenue, plan. And I don't think the county was
treated fairly to begin with. I don't know why we had to tax our
residents an additional, you know, 0.4% when we ship it. They
should have been fixing the shared revenue in a different
manner. I mean, we ship over a half $1 billion more to the
state every year. And when they decide to do this new formula,
they're giving us $8 million and saying, go tax your residents.
Another 80. I think we got really shafted by by the state.
So, you know, we're the economic engine of the state. And, you
know, we are funding things in superior in lacrosse and Oshkosh
and Madison and Middleton and Sun Prairie. And yet, you know,
we have to tax our residents to, to just, you know, can cost to
continue. Basically. >> Are you being heard on that
in Madison? heard or not, but I mean, I
think they look at us at some in the state legislature look at us
as like a giant sucking sound of money being just vacuumed out of
the state coffers, that's how it's been for decades, that kind
of mindset. And then they make, I think, poor decisions as well.
Like, why should the taxpayers be on the hook for Amfam field
when you have an owner, you know, spending money on European
soccer teams, why should the county taxpayers pay $4 million
a year for the Fiserv, when one of the owners sold his share and
made $660 million, so this is these are decisions that the
state has made. There's $6.5 million right there. The state
has taken away from Milwaukee County and put towards, you
know, stadiums for billionaires. We I don't know how far we're
going to get, you know, on, help with the sheriff's department.
>> All right. We leave it there. Supervisor Steve Taylor will be
will be watching this as it develops. Thanks so much.
you. >> Turning to education, the
mental health struggles of Wisconsin's young people
continue as screen times go up and social supports go down.
That's according to the latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey
conducted by the Department of Public Instruction. As students
outlined the pressures they face, one said, quote, people
around my age that you consider Gen Z are struggling. The
technology you have built has given us more self-hatred,
unachievable expectations, new crushed our sense of
communication. Please understand find ourselves, and it is
difficult when the world that we look up to can be so cruel and
we feel we need to go through it alone. To better understand
these challenges, we turn to Linda Hall, director of the
Wisconsin Office of Children's Mental Health. Thanks very much
for being here. >> It's my pleasure.
>> So what stands out as real trouble areas in children's
mental health? In Wisconsin? >> Well, we know from the most
recent Youth Risk Behavior survey that anxiety is up. Half
of our kids are feeling anxious all the time, about a third are
depressed on a daily basis. They're feeling sad and hopeless
every day for two weeks, about 25% of kids are considering
seriously considering suicide. subpopulations, marginalized
groups, we see those numbers jump even higher. So
unfortunately, these are trends that have been developing for
more than a decade, we'd like to really see them turn around, but
this is what we're dealing with right now.
particular report anxiety and depression, for anxiety. Well
over half of them. And your office said, quote, our girls
are in trouble. What is driving this,
for our girls about body image and even suicide when girls turn
to social media, they are just being flooded with messages
about being thinner, about ways to commit suicide, there's just
a lot going on there. And we really, we really need to help
them as best as possible, curate their social media use and do
less of it. Get away from it. >> Because your report also
discusses the fact that there is increasing screen time outside
of school work, how does that increasing time contribute to
these things? >> Well, in a number of ways we
know that it decreases the amount of time that kids spend
in physical activity, which is a protective factor. It decreases
the amount of time they sleep at night, which is also very
important for mental well-being. And it decreases the time that
they're interacting with other, students and other people in
their life on a personal basis. And those things are very
healthy. >> 1 what other external factors
are driving overall mental health problems? You know, that
kids that kids worry about? >> Well, when we look at all the
data that we can find about kids, we see that they they do
identify academic issues as number one. But after that, they
look at things like they're concerned about climate change,
they're concerned about school safety. I think this new data
shows that a very large percentage of kids don't feel
safe at school. So there's that there's gun violence and
political divisiveness are all things that are adding up to
their anxiety. And and a lot of that contributes to a lack of
belonging. That's the other factor that we are looking at
most of all is belonging, because we see that as being
critical to how kids feel about themselves, whether they fit in
at school, whether they show up at school, and then whether they
succeed at academics, which we know. All of those things are
important for their adult lives and for their earning power and
careers as adults. >> What can the state do to help
with this? is to increase, sustainable
funding for mental health supports at school. We know that
we are in a shortage of professional mental health,
providers. And but there are many things that we can do at
school, and we can create positive climates where kids
feel like they belong. And we know that investments that have
been made in the past have made a difference. But we need to
make more. >> And what can families do?
>> You know, the number one thing, probably for families
around screen time is to create a family media plan. There are
lots of, tools for how to do that, but create a plan so that
everybody in the family is being conscious of how much their time
they're spending on on screens, and they're limiting it. Reduce
your time online and increase your time hanging out with
friends. >> All right. Good advice. Linda
Hall, thanks very much. Thank you for more on this and other
issues facing Wisconsin, visit our web site at PBS Wisconsin.
Org and then click on the news tab to see all of our election
coverage. Visit Wisconsin Vote.org. That's our program for
tonight I'm Frederica Freyberg. Have a good weekend.
>> Funding for "Here& Now" is provided by the Focus Fund for
Journalism and Friends of PBS.