WATERTOWN, Wis. — Chicago’s central location serves the Democratic National Convention delegates and thousands of protesters well, but the nominee is heading back to Milwaukee Tuesday in a surprising visit as the convention carries on without Kamala Harris for the day.
While Donald Trump rallies Tuesday in Detroit, running mate JD Vance will also be in battleground Wisconsin but much closer to the Illinois border, in Kenosha.
While Trump enjoyed four days of wall-to-wall swing-state media coverage in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, Harris will have to leave her convention to rally in a swing state — and she’s chosen the same location the RNC was held, the Fiserv Forum.
The move follows a recent pattern as Harris modifies her policy positions — even borrowing Trump’s “No Tax on Tips” campaign slogan — and attempts to present herself to voters as more centrist than boss President Biden.
Harris is expected to highlight her new agenda in Milwaukee, focusing on her $1.7 trillion economic plan, which includes a $6,000 child-tax credit, government price control of groceries and medical-debt forgiveness.
Vance’s event south of Milwaukee, at the Kenosha County Courthouse, will focus on crime and safety. The location, message and date of the senator’s visit couldn’t be more carefully orchestrated.
“The timing for Vance’s visit is perfect,” Republican Party of Kenosha County Chair Sandy Wiedmeyer told The Post.
Almost exactly four years ago, Kenosha police shot 29-year-old Jacob Blake, leading to days of rioting and the yearlong saga of teenage gunman Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot and killed two of the rioters.
“With the DNC just south of Kenosha in Chicago and the Harris rally on Tuesday just to the north in Milwaukee, J.D. Vance and the Trump campaign must show Kenosha that they remember that devastating summer and will stand with our city and all cities to protect all Americans,” the chairwoman emphasized.
Running mate Tim Walz will join Harris in Milwaukee Tuesday.
“J.D. Vance has been very vocal about Tim Walz’s lack of response to the Minneapolis riots,” Wiedmeyer noted. “This hits close to home as the people of Kenosha remember all too well both the riots of 2020 that devastated our city and the slow response of our own Governor Evers.”
“In the aftermath of the riots in Kenosha, historically blue areas in our county began to turn red. The people of Kenosha are increasingly fed up with radical-left policies. It is a critical county for both our state and the nation,” she added.
Harris and Walz will reportedly watch the evening speakers of the DNC’s Day Two with rally attendees at the Fiserv Forum. Chicago natives former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, will speak Tuesday at the convention.
Milwaukee is 80 miles, or a two-hour drive, directly north of Chicago, up the shore of Lake Michigan. Whether any of the thousands of DNC protesters will follow the vice president up to Wisconsin is unknown.
The Milwaukee Democratic Party did not respond to a request for comment.
