Joe Biden to make 4th trip to Wisconsin with Racine visit next week

President Joe Biden will return to Wisconsin for the fourth time in 2024 next week, his campaign confirmed to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Biden, a Democrat, plans to visit Racine on May 8, where he will deliver official remarks and then hold a campaign event.

The trip follows Republican former President Donald Trump's second stop in Wisconsin this year.

"President Biden is showing up yet again to speak with Wisconsinites about the issues that matter most to us, including his administration’s historic investments in our communities, economic gains made under his leadership, and he and Vice President Harris’s commitment to defending fundamental freedoms," Garren Randolph, Wisconsin Democratic coordinated campaign manager, said in a statement. "Wisconsin voters will show up for President Biden and Vice President Harris this November just like we did in 2020."

More: In interview, Trump doesn't commit to accepting Wisconsin election results if he loses

With polls showing a tight presidential race in this battleground state, Trump rallied a crowd in Waukesha on Wednesday around immigration and economic issues. It was his first rally since his criminal trial began in New York last month; he's accused of falsifying business records during his 2016 campaign to conceal an affair.

As Biden continues to campaign across the country, Trump has spent much of his time in a Manhattan courtroom.

"Never forget our enemies want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away your freedom. I'm never going to let it happen, " Trump said in Waukesha on Wednesday. "They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you."

The Biden campaign has highlighted its commitment to Wisconsin, noting that this is the first time the Democratic presidential nominee has made Milwaukee a state campaign headquarters in at least two decades. That site is one of 46 general election offices across the state, according to the campaign, including one in Racine.

The Biden campaign also noted that the Republican National Committee declined to renew its lease in its Hispanic outreach center in Milwaukee’s south side Lincoln Village, and the location is slated to become an ice cream shop.

Trump's first Wisconsin rally of the 2024 election was in Green Bay early last month. There, he attacked Biden over his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Wisconsin is one of just a handful of states that will decide the next presidential contest, and Biden and Trump are locked in a tight rematch of 2020. A Marquette University Law Poll released last month showed Trump leading Biden 51%-49% among both registered voters and likely voters.

Jessie Opoien can be reached at jessie.opoien@jrn.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Joe Biden to make 4th trip to Wisconsin with Racine visit next week