ASHWAUBENON - President Donald Trump will return to northeast Wisconsin today to make a final plea to voters in a key region that helped him flip the state four years ago.
Trump is scheduled to speak at 2:30 p.m. at Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport, his third stop in the battleground Badger State within the past week. The visit comes weeks after he contracted COVID-19 and was forced to cancel another Green Bay event.
Despite the near-freezing temperatures, at least a few people showed up 12 hours in advance.
John Smith, of Appleton, and his 17-year-old son, Montana, said they got there at 2:30 a.m. and were the first in line. He said he wanted Montana to experience the crowd, energy and Trump, firsthand.
"It's his first rally. I don't think he's ever going to experience it again," Smith said. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing, this close to an election. It should be worth seeing, obviously Trump being Trump."
Food trucks including the Dough Shoppe and the Booyah Shed were set up along the tarmac near the Jet Air hangar to serve attendees, and other vendors set up booths to sell Trump merchandise.
The president's rally is expected to draw a large crowd as Wisconsin health officials plea with residents to stay home to contain an outbreak they deemed a "nightmare scenario." In Brown County, 15 people died from COVID-19 in three days this week as Green Bay continues to see one of the highest infection rates in the country.
Brown County, De Pere and Oneida Nation health agencies released a joint public health alert on Friday, just hours before the president's visit, urging residents to cooperate with safety protocols and with contact tracing efforts.
"With record high numbers of positive cases, hospitalizations and staffing shortages, there has never been a more critical time for the community to act now and help stop the spread," the statement said
The Trump campaign has screened attendees and provided masks at previous rallies, usually held outdoors. In the hours leading up to the rally, most but not all of those who stood in line were wearing masks.
"It is more important now than ever to avoid large crowds, especially here in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where we are seeing some of the most rapid spread of COVID-19 in the United States," health officials from Bellin, Prevea, HSHS and Aurora BayCare said in a statement. "Any kind of large gathering could have additional negative effects on a community already fighting community-wide spread."
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Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich was more blunt.
"It's just a really bad idea," he said.
Republican Party of Brown County Chairman James Fitzgerald said Trump's supporters can choose whether to attend the rally and encouraged people to consider the advice of medical professionals before making that decision. He noted that the event will be held outside, with masks and hand sanitizer available.
“This president has chosen to take his message to the American people rather than being bunkered down," Fitzgerald said. "He realizes who he is and what he stands for, and he brings a message of optimism versus our opponent who talks about the dark days ahead."
Democratic nominee Joe Biden will also visit Wisconsin today as both campaigns take a final lap through a state at the heart of the presidential race. U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Attorney General Josh Kaul will stump for Biden in Green Bay ahead of Trump's speech and hold additional events in Appleton and Oshkosh.
By visiting the Green Bay media market, Trump returns to an area he secured by 18 points in 2016 and must win handily if he wants to reclaim the state.
"I think there’s no path to him winning Wisconsin without him doing very well in this media market," said Mark Graul, a Republican strategist who ran George W. Bush’s campaign in Wisconsin in 2004.
Unlike 2016, Tuesday will mark the conclusion of an election that began in earnest weeks ago with record levels of absentee and early in-person voting due to the pandemic. As of Friday morning, over 1.7 million voters across the state had returned absentee ballots, including nearly 88,000 in Brown County.
Trump also faces recent polling that shows him trailing the former vice president. Biden was ahead 5 points among likely voters in a Marquette University Law School poll released this week and up by 9 in a poll from the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Smith, the president's supporter from Appleton, said he knew in his gut Trump would win in 2016, but this year he is not so sure. He said he hopes Trump wins to keep power split between Republicans and Democrats, so they have to work together. He said term limits for the House and Senate might help heal the divide between conservatives and liberals.
"When I was growing up in the '80s, '90s and 2000s, they worked together. Now they’re just so divided and dug in that I don’t think that’s going to change until both parties bring in the new guard," Smith said. 'Both parties are at fault for that, that I will admit."
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