Biden campaign announces Milwaukee headquarters for Wisconsin election push

MADISON - President Joe Biden will base its Wisconsin campaign operation out of Milwaukee ahead of the 2024 election, the first time a Democratic presidential nominee has made the state's largest city a state campaign headquarters in at least two decades.

Biden campaign officials said Tuesday the move to center efforts in Milwaukee reflects the campaign's focus on Black and Latino voters and suburban women in the Milwaukee area. The headquarters, the exact location of which was not immediately disclosed, will be one of 44 offices across the state operated by the Biden campaign and state and national Democrats, according to the Biden campaign.

“Our headquarters and the 43 other offices will serve as home bases for voters rallying behind President Biden and Democrats’ agenda of defending our democracy, protecting women’s reproductive freedoms, and lowering costs for families,” Garren Randolph, campaign manager for Biden's Wisconsin campaign arm, said in a statement.

Biden's campaign headquarters opens a day before the president is scheduled to spend the night in Milwaukee on a tour of the upper Midwest, stopping in Milwaukee on Wednesday and Saginaw, Mich., on Thursday.

His Wisconsin stop is the latest in a string of visits from Biden and his surrogates in recent weeks, including Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has not yet visited Wisconsin this election cycle.

Milwaukee is its own battleground within one of the country's few swing states, with both of the major parties vying to win over Black voters at a time when enthusiasm for voting is down.

Since 2004, turnout among Black voters in Milwaukee has significantly lagged white voter turnout during presidential contests, with the exception of 2012 — when then-President Barack Obama's re-election bid triggered unprecedented levels of voting in the city.

The turnout in majority-Black wards almost was 79% in 2012, compared with an average of 81% in majority-white wards.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin in 2020 opened an office on the north side of Milwaukee in an effort to reach Black and Latino voters. RPW chairman Brian Schimming told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in the fall the party's chief priority ahead of the 2024 election cycle was to staff up the office.

Schimming said the new Biden headquarters won't "erase the damage of Bidenomics for working people."

"Instead of asking for their votes, Joe Biden should spend his time in Milwaukee apologizing for his failed policies," Schimming said.

A spokesman for Trump's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Biden campaign announces Milwaukee base for Wisconsin election push