President Joe Biden's trip to Milwaukee brings campaign home to the Democrats' crucial 'blue wall'

President Joe Biden returned this week to the so-called "blue wall" that was crucial to his 2020 victory as he looks to build momentum for his reelection effort — a two-day trip through Wisconsin and Michigan that began in the battleground of Milwaukee.

Biden spent the night in Milwaukee as he made official presidential and campaign stops in the swing state's largest city — a community that traditionally supports Democrats but also where Biden has to build back enthusiasm among Black voters if he wants to carry the state, one of a crucial number of states like Michigan and Pennsylvania traditionally dubbed the Democrats' "blue wall."

The trip comes a day after both Biden and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump clinched their respective parties' nominations following primary contests Tuesday — assuring a rematch of the 2020 election that rocked the nation.

At a Boys & Girls Club north of downtown Wednesday, Biden argued his administration would reverse the destruction of the Black middle class by rebuilding neighborhoods, including the Sixth Street corridor, which will benefit from a nearly $40 million federal investment to convert the thoroughfare into a more pedestrian-friendly area.

"The story of Bronzeville here in Milwaukee is one that we see all across the country. Our interstate highway system laid out in the '50s was a groundbreaking connection of a nation's coast to coast," Biden said at Pieper-Hillside Boys & Girls Club at North Sixth and West Cherry streets. "The purpose of it was to transform the way people live, work and travel. Instead of connecting communities, it divided. These highways actually tore them apart."

He said more than a century ago the Bronzeville neighborhood "was the home of a thriving hub of Black culture and commerce, homes and apartments owned by Black families.""Black small businesses, from hotels to jazz clubs, to restaurants ... But by the '60s so-called urban renewal swept this country."

Biden said the construction of I-94 and I-43 decades ago resulted in the teardown of thousands of homes and businesses. Sixth Street, where Biden delivered his speech, was widened to accommodate more traffic, displacing residents and business owners.

"Sadly, too many communities across America faced the loss of wealth, prosperity, the possibilities and (that) still reverberates today. Imagine all those homes, the mom and pop stores, that could have been posted and passed down from family and family," he said. "Imagine what they contributed then and what they could have contributed all these years."

Biden returned to Milwaukee days after delivering a fiery State of the Union speech that served as an unofficial kickoff to the general election campaign against Trump.

But Trump blasted Biden for arguing to voters his policies would improve economics for Milwaukee families.

"Today, Joe Biden is touting his failed 'Bidenomics' policies in Wisconsin — but Americans aren't buying it. Thanks to Bidenomics, they can't afford it," Trump said in a statement.

Republican Party of Wisconsin Brian Schimming said in a statement: "Instead of paying us a visit to brag about his abysmal record, the President should be offering working families an apology for Bidenomics."

Biden is putting a tighter focus on Milwaukee at a time when his reelection hinges on winning Wisconsin a second time and, in part, on boosting voting enthusiasm among Black voters who have not voted with the same eagerness since Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, was in office.

The crucial role of Black Milwaukee voters in Wisconsin elections

Black voters in Milwaukee play a crucial role in the outcome of each presidential contest in Wisconsin, the nation’s quintessential battleground. They make up less than 10% of the state’s electorate but carry enough voting power to deny national Democratic victories if turnout in the city’s Black neighborhoods 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 Obama's reelection 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.

While predominantly white wards continued steady turnout at 77% in 2016 and 84% in 2020, Black voter turnout experienced a steep decline, falling in 2016 to around 58%, and then again to around 51% in 2020.

That paints a troubled picture for Democrats heading into a potential rerun of the 2020 matchup.

Biden, the Democratic incumbent, is not — at this point — inspiring broad excitement among Black voters interviewed in recent months by the Journal Sentinel who traditionally vote for Democrats.

To that point, Biden on Wednesday also stopped at East Highland Avenue to open his Wisconsin campaign's state headquarters. It's the first time a Democratic presidential nominee has made Milwaukee its home base.

"For generations Black, Brown, Native American, Asian American, Native Hawaiian communities weren't fully included in our democracy or our economy. But yet by pure courage, heart and grit, and never gave up they pursued the full promise of America," Biden said Wednesday. "Today, we're recognizing that history to make new history."

Though Trump has not yet visited Wisconsin since launching a new campaign for a second term in the White House, he will also need to scramble for votes in Milwaukee.

Statewide races in Wisconsin are often decided by around 20,000 votes — including the first matchup between Biden and Trump in 2020.

Biden heads to Saginaw, Mich., on Thursday, a key bellwether of how that state votes in presidential elections and an area likely to be fought over by both campaigns.

Like Wisconsin, Biden flipped Michigan back to Democrats in 2020 from Trump's historic win in 2016. Trump won Michigan in 2016, beating then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by two-tenths of a percentage point.

"The president loves Milwaukee, he loves Wisconsin," Karine Jean-Pierre, spokeswoman for Biden, said in an interview Wednesday with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"Obviously, we're going to be making a lot of trips, especially coming out of the State of the Union, to make that very clear about how he wants to build an economy from the bottom up, middle out, and not leave anyone behind."

Hope Karnopp of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Todd Spangler of the Detroit Free Press contributed to this report.

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

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Biden trip to Milwaukee brings focus to crucial 'blue wall'