President Obama offered an official endorsement of Hillary Clinton Thursday, and announced their first campaign stop together will be in Wisconsin. They plan visit Green Bay Wednesday, June 15.
Wisconsin is viewed as one of their strongest opportunities to sway voters. But it comes down to one county in particular.
"The politics of winning Wisconsin this fall is about reaching those few persuadable voters, who are in Brown County," says Mordecai Lee, a Political Science Professor at UW-Milwaukee.
Brown County, home to Lambeau Field and Green Bay, is the last remaining battleground area in the state. Thirty-six percent of voters there identify themselves as independent.
"You've got chunks of blue-collar workers, the old manufacturing kind of economy," Lee describes. "Then, you've got chunks of higher-education, higher-income Republicans. You put together that mix, and all of the sudden it looks like there's some ground in between them."
Those swing voters make our state more important than many people realize.
"We're sort of looked at as measly, little Wisconsin," Lee says. "We're only 10 electoral votes. But when you think about the few states that can flip between red and blue, we're one of those few states, and all the sudden 10 electoral votes is a lot."
That means Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the presumptive nominees, will focus a lot of their time and money on us.
"Sure, we'll get tired of hearing the attack ads," Lee says. “But the issues important to us, the Wisconsin agenda, will go to the very top of the pile.”
Clinton lost to Bernie Sanders in Wisconsin's primary election. Details of her stop in Green Bay with Obama have not been released. And there's no word yet on when Trump might visit next.
