Bill Clinton calls on Wisconsin church members to vote for their children’s future

MILWAUKEE (CN) — Former President Bill Clinton called on community members to vote for their children’s future at a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday.

“I am honored to do right by my grandchildren on the campaign trail for Kamala Harris, and that is really what this election is all about,” said Clinton.

Speaking to a crowd of more than 50 community members and congregants of Holy Redeemer Church of God In Christ at The Institute For The Preservation of African-American Music and Arts, Clinton blasted former President Donald Trump’s record and promised that Harris would take care of every American.

Clinton’s primary attack came in calling Trump boastful and a liar.

“If you said, ‘its such a beautiful day today,’ he would pop up to say he made it happen,” Clinton said. “If you followed that up with, ‘but it rained two days ago,’ Donald Trump would say that it never would have rained if he were in the White House.”

The former president spent most of his remarks questioning Trump’s accomplishments while in office, saying that he skated by on his predecessor former President Barack Obama’s good policies for his first three years and will do the same thing again when President Joe Biden leaves office.

“President Obama created 8 million new jobs in his first three years, and Trump created 6.4 million in the same amount of time. Plus, Trump and Biden both promised huge infrastructure bills. Only one of them delivered,” Clinton said.

Although the primary agenda seemed to be to cast a shadow over Trump’s presidency, Clinton also praised Harris’ plans for affordable healthcare, access to housing and clean energy. He noted that gas prices are down since Biden entered office, and said Harris would keep them down, earning a few “Amens” from the crowd.

The event was steeped in faith — a member of Holy Redeemer’s choir began with a song, followed by a pastor to lead the room in prayer for Harris’ safety and success in November before Wisconsin Representative Gwen Moore spoke about Trump’s “bad vibe.”

“I met Trump and Harris, and, for those of you who are going off ‘vibes,’ I will tell you that Donald Trump had a seriously bad vibe about him,” Moore said, earning an eruption of applause and laughter from the congregation.

Ben Robinson, a director at Paradise Memorial Home in Milwaukee, said he aligns more with the “old Republicans” before the Trump-era but is proud to be voting for Harris this year.

“I vote Democrat now for the people in my community, because Donald Trump is not good for this country. All I can do is rest my hat on the hope that enough people will see that and vote accordingly,” he said.

Much of the crowd said felt that their faith guides them in the voting booth. Jerry Carson, a member and guitarist at Holy Redeemer church, said he hopes that everyone votes with God in mind.

Clinton isn’t the only former president on the campaign trail for Harris in the swing state. Obama spoke to a packed stadium in the state’s capital just last week on the first day of early voting, where he told voters “they can’t hear your boo’s, but they can sure hear your vote.”

Between both campaigns, there has been a countless other campaign events in the Dairy State in recent weeks.

In addition to the usual rallies with Democratic leadership, the Harris-Walz ticket also brought out the cast of NBC’s “West Wing” and will host a concert with celebrity musicians Cardi B, Flo Milli, DJ Gemini Gilly, GloRilla, The Isley Brothers and MC Lyte on Friday.

The Trump campaign didn’t miss with their celebrity guest this week either — beloved former quarterback Brett Favre, who retired from the Green Bay Packers in 2010. Many Wisconsinites mourned that loss for several seasons, and Trump is tapping into that loyalty.

Before the 2016 presidential election — when Trump beat out Hillary Clinton by just 22,000 votes — Wisconsin was a reliably blue state decided by consistently narrow margins.

In 2020, Biden flipped the state once again by less than a percentage point. Trump highly contested the victory, with challenges reaching as high as the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which largely decided that the former president’s qualms with the state’s election process were just too late.

The final Marquette Law School survey of Wisconsin before the election has Harris up by just one point, but many polls say the race is dead even or leaning Trump. These projections are on par with what the state has seen in every election since 2000.

One week into in-person absentee voting, the Wisconsin Elections Commission is reporting a 40% increase in early turnout compared to 2020.