Wisconsin is one of the most critical battleground states in the 2024 presidential election. Senator Ron Johnson joins us to discuss Wisconsin's political landscape and the GOP strategy to secure his state’s electoral votes. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.
Morning Wire
Battleground Wisconsin: Sen. Ron Johnson on 2024 Election | Sunday Extra
(upbeat music) Vice President Kamala Harris made her first campaign stop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this week, just days after the GOP held their nominating convention in the same city. Wisconsin is one of the most critical battleground states in the 2024 presidential election. In this episode, we sit down with Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson to discuss the importance of his state, the GOP strategy to win its electoral votes and his thoughts on the current political climate. I'm Daily Wire editor and chief John Bickley. It's Sunday, July 28th, and this is an extra edition of Morning Wire. (upbeat music) - Have you ever heard of a data broker? They're the middleman collecting and selling all those digital footprints you leave online. You might be surprised to learn that some data brokers are not just selling your information to advertisers, but to organizations like the department of Homeland Security and the IRS. So protect your online privacy today by visiting expressvpn.com/wire. That's eXPR ESS VPN.com/wire and you can get an extra three months free expressvpn.com/wire today. - The following interview was conducted during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. - Joining us now is Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin to discuss a few different things. Thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate you talking with us today. - Well, John, welcome to Wisconsin in Milwaukee. So about Wisconsin in Milwaukee, this is a battleground state. I wanted to ask you a few questions about the battlegrounds in general. Always the election comes down to the battleground states and we've seen some polling suggesting that Republicans are in a good position. Donald Trump is in a good position. And particularly with your state, which has been one of the true battlegrounds in the last couple of elections, where do things stand? Do you feel in terms of Republican support in the state of Wisconsin? - You know, we're evenly divided state. I don't know any better way of putting that. We're a state and I think you're finding this out with just generally nice people. Got common sense, they're hardworking. They don't like bombast, they like genuine. And go quite honestly at different aspects of different parties appeals to people differently around here. From my standpoint, it's extremely important Wisconsin that no matter what your beliefs are, people believe you believe them. They want to make sure that you're genuine. So any people running for office here need to display that in general. It takes a strong ground game. The advantage that Democrats have on Republicans, and this is pretty well true in most states, you've got the urban areas that have higher Democrat populations. And then you've got the rural areas that tend to be more conservative Republican. So if you're a Democrat running for office, you just concentrate on those two or three limited geographic areas where Republicans got to go all around the state and you've got to mind every possible vote from every community, every small county, or less popular county, you can. It's just a bigger, more difficult challenge. And also understand the diversity within that. You've got manufacturing hubs, you've got rural hubs, you've got outdoor hubs. So it's just a more difficult challenge running as a Republican conservative. - Do you feel that the Republican party has upped their ground game in the state of Wisconsin this year? - Well, certainly that's why I've always done during my elections, you know, just really focused on field staff and county chairs and community captains, neighborhood captains, that type of thing. You're just trying to organize it that way. It'd be nice to be able to set that up once and but to keep going, but it tends to hatch field over time and you know, very quickly. So each new campaign has to just reestablish that. You can kind of go back to the faithful volunteers to do it time and time again, but you know, even faithful volunteers get old and have to be replaced. - Have you seen signs of improvement though in terms of Republican presence? - Certainly, what I've witnessed is outreach, for example, in Milwaukee here to the African-American community, to the Hispanic community, that those are genuine outreaches. I just came from an event where we, they're premiering the documentary on Joshua Glover, which is a wonderful story if you're not aware of it. This is a runaway slave from Missouri, a found sanctuary in work here in Racine, and the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. They arrested him. The community of Racine was outraged, so they drowned the jail. Upwards, maybe 5,000 people freed him. Our Supreme Court ruled the Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional. I think we're the only state that did that. He escaped to Montreal to live his life. But part of that presentation, we talked about a program that I helped start with a wonderful person, Pastor Jerome Smith, that has since passed one of my staff members, Orlando Owens, called the Joseph Project, where we take people who participate in this thing, formerly incarcerated people, drug ill call problems, people really kind of sometimes hit rock bottom, they want to transform their lives. Four days of training, three hours a day, we instilled the necessity of committing to yourself success and attitude, set them up with interviews, teach them how to interview, how to get past their past, and they get in life changing jobs. And it's a real success story. I mentioned because that is a demonstration of the genuine effort. I'll tell you, so a lot of the participants are African-American, Hispanic, we have to begin. We've got white men when women, again, the primary criteria is you want to change your life. And we do so, and I don't talk about all that much. It does get some news coverage, but people in the community, they hear about it, and they realize this is a genuine effort on the part of this Republican U.S. standard, try and help people. And I think that, to me, that's the best way to handle politics is through action. You talk as cheap, you actually have to live your beliefs. - Sure, you know, we've seen national polling that shows Hispanic and the Black voters warming up more and more to Republicans, particularly Hispanic voters by a large margin lately. Do you see that happening in your state and other battleground states? And could that play a key role in this coming election? - I think it'll play a crucial role. You know, I think every demographic benefited during Trump's first term, up until the COVID recession, I mean, real wages were up, tax cuts for everybody, inflation remained low, times were good. Had the largest number of people employed. It was a record economy at the time. And people compare that to the 40-year high inflation, which devalued their dollar, which they're still struggling with, their wages haven't kept up. And so we get kind of ornery about that. So, yeah, I mean, it seemed to work pretty good back then. I don't like what's happening right now. So let's give these folks a look. And I think people are surprised with the Hispanic community that they are not supportive of an open border. A flood of illegal immigrants could create competition for their jobs and their livelihood as well. You know, obviously they're not opposed to migrant population. They just want it legal. They want people to go through the same legal steps that they went through come in this country. - A lot of that is, it's really common sense. And this week was historic. We had a attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the left, one American dead, heroic father, very tragically. How has that changed the national landscape in this election? First of all, how has it changed President Trump? I know a lot of people that don't support him, you know, don't even view him as human, but he is. And he almost lost his life. He was saved by a whisker. As you said, an American hero died in that same incident. Okay, that has to affect you and impact you. One of my thoughts, you know, the episode happened very quickly. He was up, seemed to be okay. My thought was, he doesn't need this. He didn't need it in 2016. What, why is he doing this? Why is he giving up his fabulous life? Well, I know why he is, 'cause he loves this country. You know, he's got the confidence in himself. I mean, he looks at all the stupidity and you know, I can do better than that. Somebody's got to do better than that. I'll step out to play and do it, and he did it. I don't know of a political figure that's been tormented more than President Trump, targeted more. So he knew in 2023, you know, he announced to run for President again, he knew he was getting into it. He knew he'd be vilified. I don't think he ever could have possibly anticipated the level of lawfare, the weaponization of government against him personally. He knew he was risking his life. Those of us in public service, you know, we know their threats. You know, there's always that risk, and we, I don't think about it. Try not to think about it. It's paralyzing if you do this, but he knew he's taking a risk, and now he experienced that risk. But he hopped right up, strong, resolved, and why? 'Cause he loves this country. I hope all of his detractors at least take that away from this. He doesn't have to do this. He's doing it 'cause he loves this country. He realizes it's imperial. He wants to do what he can do to save it. And right now, he's taking that moment as a catalyst to do what has to be done this nation first and foremost is heal it, unify it. So I guess I'm asking people on both sides, as much as you just trust the folks on the other side, why not give it a shot? Why not give both these presidents a benefit to doubting that they're sincere. They recognize this can't go on this way. This political division is gonna destroy this country, and it's going to lead to even greater violence. It's time to step away from the brink and listen to these two presidents who are calling for healing and unity. Let's do it. Now it's not gonna appeal to everybody, but I think the vast majority Americans would appreciate that. And do you feel in the end if Trump is the one that wins in November? Do you believe he can unite this country? If the other side gives him a chance, I'll never forget he was on his way out to a Marine one one time. And this after some New York fans here was complaining about his behavior. And so the press was asking about it. And he kind of stops and he goes, he asks about my behavior, my behavior? My behavior is dictated by the way you treat me. I mean, put yourself in a position. He becomes President of the United States. Immediately they start lying about him, producing the Steele dossier, which was a dirty trick for the Hillary Clinton campaign. Obama knew it, Biden knew it, Brandon knew it. They all knew it. The FBI knew it. And yet they put us through two years of political turmoil. Again, you just got elected President of the United States. You want to save this country, and they're doing this to you, and it never stopped. It never stopped. So I think he's willing to rise above it. I think it's a life-changing experience. And we need that. You know, I ran as a Tea Party candidate. We're more than a children's future. I've been saying that's the greatest threat to America. For the last couple of years, I've been saying it isn't anymore. Right now, the greatest threat to Americans are horrible political division, but here's the good news. Here's the optimism. We're not a naturally divided people. I mean, on the big things, the major goals in life, safety, security, prosperity, we all share those goals. Most Americans love this country. Most Americans want to see other Americans succeed. We want to see people globally succeed. I mean, those are big issues that we all agree on. So why are we so divided? Well, it's because it got political figures, got political movements. They're purposely dividing us for political advantage. Don't let them get away with it. Resist it. - Well, I hope a lot of people are willing to accept that message going into this year, and after that what we've just witnessed, we need it. Senator, thank you so much for joining us. - Well, thanks for the opportunity to join me in walking. - Thank you. - That was Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, and this has been an extra edition of "Oneing Wire." (upbeat music) (clicking)