Trump Campaign Makes a Stop in Waukesha Headlined by Vivek Ramaswamy

The Trump campaign made a stop in Waukesha to drum up support for the Republican nominee for President without the nominee himself.

Neither Donald nor Lara Trump, who was scheduled to speak, were in attendance at tonight’s rally. A group of surrogates was entrusted to voice Trump’s vision for America headlined by former Republican Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

In his speech, Ramaswamy likened Trump to such American political icons as Abraham Lincoln and John Quincy Adams, both storied abolitionists, and quoted Malcolm X. He also touched on the deep state, law and order, national pride, the economy, and immigration.

“I say this as the kid of legal immigrants to the United States,” Ramaswamy said. “Your first act of entering this country cannot break the law. And that is why if we have had the largest influx of illegals into this country, we will have the largest mass deportation in American history.”

Both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris – and their surrogates – have been focusing on battleground Wisconsin. Harris was in Madison recently, and Trump will be in Prairie du Chien on Saturday. In addition, Gwen Walz, the wife of Harris’s VP Tim Walz, is campaigning in Waukesha and Grafton on Thursday.

The issues that matter to voters in Wisconsin are widespread and varying, but there are some key issues that made an impact on those in attendance at Wednesday’s Trump rally, one of which is maintaining peace.

“Peace and safety is something that is very important to me,” high school student Cade Martin said. “I see Trump handling that a lot better than the Biden-Harris administration. Under the Trump administration, there were no new wars started, the first time it ever happened since Jimmy Carter.”

The Trump campaign will need to attract as many new voters as possible to win the key battleground state that is Wisconsin. Young voters are a demographic the Trump campaign has had difficulty courting, however, there are some issues that resonate with them they feel Trump will satisfy namely fixing the economy.

“I was an adult at the tail end of the Trump administration,” said Luke Userra, a 22-year-old history teacher. “I was able to pay for my own gas, I was able to go out and do my own stuff. I remember everything was so affordable. Under the Biden-Harris administration, everything is so much more expensive. The energy bill is more expensive, gas is more expensive, grocery, anything you can think of is more expensive.”

Userra wasn’t the only person with the economy at the front of his mind.

“During his administration, my dad was better off financially,” said Jerell Patterson, a 38-year-old Milwaukee resident. “So much so that he was considering voting for Trump. Seeing that change in him led me more to consider voting down-ballot Republican.”

“Prices have gone up, wages haven’t,” Ramaswamy said, fueling the sentiment.

Meanwhile, also on Wednesday, Harris, in a media advisory promoting the Gwen Walz event, wrote that Walz “will speak about the clear choice in this election between Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, who are fighting for a new way forward that protects women’s reproductive freedom and lowers everyday costs for families.”

Harris also sat down for an MSNBC interview. “Donald Trump has a history of taking care of very rich people,” she said in a Wednesday news release. “My perspective on the economy is, when you grow the middle class, America’s economy is stronger.”

Whatever the deciding issues will be, the Wisconsin polls show a close race. Waukesha is Wisconsin’s largest Republican county which had over 250,000 ballots cast in a vote that was decided by nearly 20,000 votes in Wisconsin in 2020.