On Saturday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivered a speech at a rally in Wisconsin, aiming to solidify a key part of his voter base: the working class and rural white Americans.
Wisconsin is a battleground state that could determine the outcome of the election.
In the town of Mosinee, with a population of approximately 4,500, Trump took the stage, not far from the city of Wausau with about 40,000 residents. However, both are hours away from the major population centers of Milwaukee and Madison in the state.
Marathon County, where Mosinee is located, used to be politically competitive, having supported Democratic candidate Barack Obama in 2008. Since then, the county has shifted to the right, backing Trump in both 2016 and 2020 by around 18 percentage points in each election.
During his speech, Trump called for an amendment to the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, stating that if the vice president conceals the “inability” of the President to perform the duties, both should be removed from office.
According to the 25th Amendment, if the President dies, resigns, or is impeached, the Vice President assumes the role of President.
Trump said, “I will support amending the 25th Amendment to include that if the Vice President lies or conspires to cover up the ‘inability’ of the U.S. President, that shall be cause for immediate impeachment and removal, which is what they are doing.”
Trump mentioned Joe Biden’s poor performance in the presidential debate in June. He said, “Think about it, if he didn’t participate in that debate, he would still be in the race.”
Since President Biden suspended his 2024 presidential campaign activities, Trump and his Republican allies have been accusing Vice President Harris and other White House officials of concealing the President’s true mental health condition.
According to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in August, nationally, Harris leads Trump by 13 percentage points among Hispanic voters, while Biden led by only 5 points in this group in May. She has also increased her support among African Americans, with a 7-point lead over Biden in this group.
However, these polls show that her support among white voters has seen little improvement.
The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that white voters without college degrees, a longstanding base of the Trump coalition, still support the former president by 25 points. During the Trump-Biden election, their support for Trump was at 29 points.
Trump’s advisors and allies have recently told Reuters reporters that to defeat Harris, it is crucial for the former president to maintain his advantage among this group.
This is especially important in the northern “Rust Belt” states, including Wisconsin, which have a significant rural population that is predominantly white. Trump heavily relied on these voters when he swept the swing states in the Rust Belt, defeating Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.
One of the reasons Biden won the White House in 2020 was because he managed to bring some of these voters back to the Democratic camp.
While Trump’s campaign team has identified Hispanic and African American males as key growth points for the Republican Party, Trump’s recent campaign activities have mostly taken place in small towns in the Rust Belt, which are not very diverse.
Two of Trump’s advisors told Reuters that JD Vance, Trump’s running mate and Ohio Senator, is expected to focus on the relatively remote rural areas of the Rust Belt in the final weeks before the election.
(This article referenced reports from Reuters and CNN)