WAUKESHA - The presidential race finally arrived in the Wisconsin battleground Tuesday as Vice President Mike Pence sought to improve enthusiasm in a reliable Republican stronghold.
Pence kicked off President Donald Trump's campaign against former Vice President Joe Biden with a pair of appearances in Waukesha County to focus on two issues important to the Wisconsin GOP: school choice and religious faith.
Pence held a round table discussion on charter and private voucher schools at Waukesha STEM Academy with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who was influential in the launch of the nation's first school voucher program in Milwaukee in 1990.
Later Tuesday, Pence will open the Trump campaign's "Faith in America" tour with a rally in Waukesha featuring former Gov. Scott Walker and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.
Pence said Wisconsin "has been in the forefront" of the choice movement and called Trump a "great champion" of choice.
"He loves this state, he loves this issue," Pence said of the president.
But the visit was met with a small protest that included teachers from the Waukesha School District who said they opposed district superintendent Todd Gray's decision to host an event on such a divisive topic without notifying his own staff.
"We have a secretary of education who has no experience with public education, and they're in a public school having a (discussion) about choice schools," said Carrie Kummrow, co-president of the Waukesha Education Association. "We were told it was not a political event, but a social event."
Monica Whaley, a parent and special education teacher in the district, said people are "outraged that the district would do something like this when this administration has cut funds for and disparaged public schools."
"It just smacks of hypocrisy," she said
Pence lauded Gray, who will soon retire, and said the Trump administration is working on a new program to make more than $5 billion available through so-called "Education Freedom Scholarships" in the spirit of programs offered by the district Gray oversees, which includes a mix of charter and virtual schools and the freedom to choose to enroll your student in any school.
Under the proposal Pence has repeatedly promoted, the scholarships would be created through a $5 billion annual federal tax credit for businesses and individuals who voluntarily donate to scholarship granting organizations.
State Senate Majority Scott Fitzgerald and Jim Bender, of School Choice Wisconsin, were among those in the audience at the Waukesha STEM Academy, which is a district charter school.
DeVos said in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic the last few months "have been challenging to educators across the country."
She said parents "are very eager for a return to some kind of normalcy whatever that means to each student and their family."
Over these past few months DeVos said there has been a lot of learning about "what education might look like going forward," while also providing "an unprecedented opportunity to continue to rethink what a K-12 experience should look like for every child."
The Pence appearances were something of a warm-up for President Donald Trump, who on Thursday will visit Fincantieri Marinette Marine to discuss expansion plans at the shipyard. He is scheduled to do a Fox News town hall in Green Bay to be televised Thursday night.
Trump is expected to discuss a $5.5 billion Navy contract awarded to the shipyard to build the service's first new frigate and options for up to nine more, which could result in the creation of more than 1,000 jobs.
The Biden campaign will also hold a virtual event Friday focused on Milwaukee. The event will be led by the former vice president's wife Jill Biden and U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, of California, who is being seriously vetted as a potential vice presidential pick for the Democrats.
Pence's visit seeks to improve support in the deeply red Milwaukee suburbs, where he won in 2016 but by the smaller margin than 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
Trump’s support in the suburban counties appears to be even softer now, according to recent polling by the Marquette University Law School.
SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE: Trump and Pence visits underscore the GOP's need to shore up the base in Wisconsin
This week's events accompany the release of the latest Marquette University poll, which in May showed a static presidential race, with Biden leading Trump by 46% to 43%.
The poll also showed Trump's approval of handling the outbreak had declined — 44% approval to 51% disapproval in May, compared to March when it stood at 51% approval and 46% disapproval.
The Trump campaign's in-person events this week are being held at a time when the virus has slowed considerably in Wisconsin but has not disappeared. On Monday, the number of cases in the state had surpassed 25,000 since March with about 250 new positive tests reported over the last 24 hours.
To underscore the risk the virus still poses as the 2020 campaign resumes and businesses reopen amid the pandemic, tickets to Pence's Pewaukee event require attendees to agree not to sue the Trump campaign if they contract the virus.
Republican Party of Wisconsin chairman Andrew Hitt said the waiver "seems like a responsible thing for the campaign to do to convey that it is a personal decision whether to attend an event or not."
But Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesman Philip Shulman said the Trump administration is "encouraging people to risk their lives as they try to cover-up their deadly mistakes by slowing down testing."
The event is expected to include temperature checks, social distanced seating, hand sanitizer and masks available for attendees.
Craig Gilbert of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
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Trump campaign returns to Wisconsin with Mike Pence visit to tout school choice, religious faith - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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