Eight years ago, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.) accused Donald Trump voters of failing a “moral test” by supporting him. Now the vulnerable Democrat is pleading for their votes.
Baldwin has spent recent days campaigning in rural red counties, seeking to recruit what she calls “Trump-Tammy voters”—Wisconsinites who she hopes will pull the lever for both her and the former Republican president in the tightly contested swing state.
“There’s a lot of split-ticket voters,” Baldwin told the New York Times last week. “Obviously, there’s a difference between a midterm and a presidential, but I know some Trump-Tammy voters.”
In a 2016 speech, Baldwin gave a different assessment of Trump and his supporters.
“Donald Trump might be one of the most offensive and hateful and unacceptable presidential candidates we’ve ever had,” said Baldwin in a June 2016 speech to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. “So what does that say about the people who support him?”
[embedded content]
She also claimed that people who voted for Trump were aligning themselves with white supremacist leader David Duke.
“Will [Republicans] make it clear to those around them that they belong to the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, but not the Republican Party of Donald Trump or David Duke?” Baldwin said. “Or will they fall in line behind their nominee and by supporting him lend their support to his poisonous rhetoric and his dangerous policies?”
In a similar social media post from the time, Baldwin claimed that Trump voters were “failing [a] moral test” by backing the Republican candidate.
Republican operatives said Baldwin’s past comments show her animosity toward Trump supporters and likened her statements to Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” remarks in 2016.
“Tammy Baldwin has regularly bashed the more than 1.6 million Wisconsinites who voted for President Trump as immoral,” said Tate Mitchell, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Baldwin’s decision to disparage her constituents is reminiscent of Hillary Clinton calling Trump supporters deplorable.”
Baldwin’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Split-ticket voters are expected to have a major impact on the Senate election in Wisconsin, a state where presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Trump are currently tied in the polls. During Baldwin’s last election in 2018, around 10 percent of the Wisconsin electorate split their ticket between her and Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker, the senator told the Times.
In recent months, Baldwin has been ramping up her outreach to Trump voters. She hit the campaign trail last week with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat with a reputation of appealing to moderates and conservatives. She has stumped in rural pro-Trump areas, touted her support for “Buy America” policies, and run campaign ads boasting that she got “President Trump to sign her Made in America bill.”
The Senate race between Baldwin and Republican challenger Eric Hovde is one of the most competitive in the country and could determine party control of the upper chamber next year.
Original News Source – Washington Free Beacon
Running For Office? Conservative Campaign Management – Election Day Strategies!