Kamala Harris ushers in 2024 contest with Wisconsin visit focused on Biden's broadband efforts

PLEASANT PRAIRIE – Vice President Kamala Harris made multiple stops in Wisconsin to tout Biden administration broadband efforts Thursday just weeks before Republican presidential candidates descend on Milwaukee for the first major event of the 2024 election cycle.

The Wisconsin visit was the first for Harris in a campaign season that is once again expected to thrust the battleground state into the national spotlight. Milwaukee is ground zero for GOP efforts to topple Democratic incumbent President Joe Biden, with the city currently gearing up for the first nationally televised debate between leading Republican candidates on Aug. 23.

Her visit also came just days after President Donald Trump was accused of organizing a conspiracy to steal the 2020 election in a historic indictment that referenced some of Wisconsin's top Republicans, including 10 who signed on to pose as fake electors in Trump's effort to overturn his loss to Biden. It's unclear whether Trump, the current GOP frontrunner, will attend the debate.

Harris did not mention Trump but critiqued what she called "bully culture that exists coming out of some people" during remarks at a campaign fundraising event outside North Point Lighthouse in Milwaukee.

"We've got work to do, in terms of being that role model that we have been for the world and what it means to be a democracy," Harris said. "When you're a role model, people watch what you do to see if it matches what you say."

More: Wisconsin fake elector scheme is at the center of Donald Trump indictment

She kicked off her day alongside U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., at Sanmina Corp.’s electronics manufacturing plant near Kenosha, where Swedish telecommunications company Nokia plans to manufacture new broadband network electronics products beginning in 2024.

The manufacturing initiative will add up to 200 jobs and expand the Sanmina facility. Nokia is the first company to manufacture broadband electronic products in the United States, something Harris said is a "direct result" of the Biden administration's economic plan.

"When President Biden and I took office, we decided to invest in the working people of America — to create millions of jobs, to rebuild American manufacturing, to repair our roads and bridges, to expand clean energy production, to replace every lead pipe in our nation to connect every home to high-speed internet, and to make sure that every person, no matter where they start, has access to opportunity and the tools that they need to thrive. All that is called Bidenomics," Harris said. "And Bidenomics is working."

The Biden administration announced in June that Wisconsin will receive more than $1 billion in federal funds to expand high-speed internet access throughout the state. The money comes from Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program funds approved in the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.

"High-speed internet is not a luxury," Harris said Thursday. "It is a basic necessity."

Federal standards require an internet connection to have download speeds of 25 megabytes per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of 3 Mbps to qualify as high-speed broadband. Nearly 22% of rural Wisconsinites lack adequate broadband services, according to a 2021 Federal Communications Commission report, more than three times the state average.

Brian Schimming, chairman of the Wisconsin GOP, called Harris' visit "nothing more than a failed attempt at damage control" for the Biden administration in a statement Thursday.

"Wisconsin households know that 'Bidenomics' is more than they can afford," Schimming said. "The sales pitch won't land for Wisconsin families who are worried about decreasing real wages, the humanitarian crisis at the border, rampant crime and disarray overseas.”

Infrastructure and manufacturing have been a cornerstone of Biden's domestic agenda ahead of his 2024 reelection bid. Biden visited a labor union training center near Madison in February following his State of the Union address to promote an economic plan he said would address the challenges of an aging population and a stagnant workforce.

Wisconsin will likely be a crucial state in Biden's reelection challenge and is one of four currently listed as a "toss-up" by election handicapper Sabato's Crystal Ball, along with Arizona, Georgia and Nevada.

A Marquette University Law School poll from June 28 found Biden would fare better in a hypothetical 2024 election rematch with Trump than Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Biden led DeSantis by a narrow margin of 49% to 47% but notched a nine-point lead against Trump, 52% to 43%.

Wisconsin is also shaping up to be a tight battleground in the Republican presidential primary, with Trump favored by 31% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in the same poll. DeSantis registered 30% support.

Harris made two campaign stops in Milwaukee following her appearance in Pleasant Prairie. She last visited Wisconsin ahead of the 2022 midterms.

More: The indispensable state: Why Wisconsin could again be the electoral 'tipping point' in 2024

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Kamala Harris ushers in 2024 contest with Wisconsin visit on broadband