FROM:       Danielle Melfi, Biden for President Wisconsin State Director
TO:               Interested Parties
SUBJECT: Biden for President Wisconsin enters the fall strongly positioned for victory
DATE:         September 18, 2020

With less than seven weeks left until Election Day and ballots arriving on doorsteps, Biden for President Wisconsin is in a strong position to win the Badger State and send Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House.

As President, Joe Biden will restore the soul of our nation, rebuild the backbone of our economy — the middle class — and unite our country. President Trump has failed Wisconsinites. From his mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis and its economic fallout, to his broken promises on bringing back Wisconsin manufacturing jobs and helping farmers, President Trump has made Wisconsinites’ lives worse.

Wisconsin is ready for a real leader — and Joe Biden is the right candidate with the right message for voters and the right vision for the future. He has a plan to address issues important to voters, like stopping the spread of COVID, ensuring all Wisconsinites have access to quality and affordable healthcare, and improving our economy for everyone, not just the wealthy and well connected.

Across the state, our campaign is running a voter contact program focused on quality conversations with voters across Wisconsin to meet voters where they are and earn every vote. The campaign is firing on all cylinders — last weekend alone, organizers and volunteers reached out to nearly 1 million Wisconsin voters over two days.

Joe Biden is the leader Wisconsin needs

  • Joe Biden is focused on beating the COVID-19 pandemic and building a real economic recovery that brings everyone along. This message is resonating in every corner of the state — from Milwaukee to Superior and La Crosse to Green Bay — and will turn Wisconsin blue in November.
  • Donald Trump is facing strong headwinds in Wisconsin in 2020. Despite grand promises in 2016, Wisconsinites are worse off economically than they were before he took office: Unemployment is double what it was in September 2019 and the state remains down 260,000 jobs over the year; Wisconsin led the country in farm bankruptcies in 2019 after Trump’s erratic trade war; and now, Wisconsin families are being forced to navigate the dire economic impacts of Trump’s failure to respond to the coronavirus.
  • Joe Biden has a plan to Build Back Better that will create millions of good-paying jobs and ensure that the future is Made in America. As President, Biden will pursue a pro-American worker tax and trade strategy to fix the harmful policies of the Trump Administration and give our farmers, manufacturers, and workers the fair shot they need.

Democrats are strongly positioned for victory

  • There has been a tremendous amount of enthusiasm amongst Wisconsin Democrats in recent elections. In 2018, Democrats swept all statewide races and flipped legislative seats, including an Assembly seat once held by Scott Walker and a state Senate seat that had been in Republican control for 17 years. In fact, since 2016, Democrats in Wisconsin have won seven out of eight statewide races. In recent elections, there has also been high turnout in Democratic rich areas. For example, in Democratic stronghold Madison, turnout for August’s election was 38.95% compared to a turnout rate of 22.7% in 2016. As more than one million voters have already requested their mail in ballots, voters are channeling this enthusiasm for the 2020 general election.
  • In recent public polls, Joe Biden’s lead has remained steady. Surveys have found that a majority of Wisconsin voters feel Biden cares about people like them, while a majority don’t say the same about Trump. Trump’s “public safety” message is notresonating in Wisconsin — in fact, after Kenosha, an overwhelming majority of Wisconsin voters do not approve of how Trump has handled protests.

Source: Real Clear Politics Polling Average, 4/1/20-9/12/20

We aren’t taking a single Wisconsinite for granted

  • We’ve always said this would be a close race — and no matter what the polls say, our campaign won’t take anything for granted in Wisconsin.
  • The campaign has held hundreds of virtual surrogate events in every market — speaking directly to the economic issues that matter to Wisconsinites with leaders they trust. For example, Senator Tammy Baldwin has held numerous “Buy America” events in Western Wisconsin and Milwaukee and former Packers Super Bowl winning coach Mike Holmgren held a virtual press conference highlighting the economic impacts on Green Bay businesses due to Trump’s failure to address the pandemic.

Virtual press conference with Mike Holmgren in Green Bay

We are building a strong and diverse coalition

  • Biden for President is assembling the broad, diverse coalition it takes to win Wisconsin. Our campaign has invested in dedicated staff to reach key communities and mobilize voters — women, African-Americans, Latinos, LGBTQ+ individuals, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, organized labor, and more. Weekly, we hold spanish language, Hmong, and LGBTQ+ phone and text banks contacting thousands of Latino and AAPI voters.

Op-ed from State Rep. and Milwaukee Alder JoCasta Zamarripa in the Spanish Journal
  • In Milwaukee, a key Democratic stronghold, the campaign has a dedicated team, including a Milwaukee Director, as well as other staff members focused on mobilizing African American voters. The campaign is also based in Milwaukee — a first for recent Democratic presidential campaigns. The campaign holds numerous events per week focused specifically on Milwaukee voters, such as Divine 9 voter mobilization phone banks and “Shop Talk,” roundtable discussions on the challenges impacting Black men across the country.

Divine 9 “Weekend of Excellence” Organizing Event in Milwaukee
  • In addition to staff, Biden for President recently launched new TV ads in Wisconsin that speak to Black and Latino communities. The campaign also has numerous ads across Af-Am and Spanish language radio in Milwaukee.

We are meeting the moment with effective organizing and advertising

  • The Wisconsin Democratic Coordinated Campaign and Biden for President Wisconsin have a battle tested organizing program. Much of the organizing team has been in place since before the 2018 election. They are well-versed in the virtual campaign environment, having run a successful statewide election in April in the midst of the pandemic where Jill Karofsky won a 10.6% victory over the Trump-backed candidate, Dan Kelly.
  • As the election gets closer, our organizing team continues to ramp up outreach to voters to discuss what’s at stake in this election. Since May, the organizing team has held more than 2,500 virtual events, the vast majority of which are localized to individual communities with a focus on local community members speaking with their neighbors. This past weekend, our organizers increased overall output by 20% more than any weekend to date. Over the course of the weekend, the organizing team reached out to nearly one million Wisconsin voters over the phone.

Phone bank kickoff with Doug Emhoff in Western Wisconsin
  • Biden for President has been up on TV in every market across Wisconsin since June — even while the Trump campaign has been temporarily dark for numerous weeks. According to a recent Politico report, the Biden campaign outspent the Trump campaign 8-1 on Wisconsin airwaves in August.

We are helping voters understand how to cast their ballot

  • Our campaign has launched the largest and best-resourced voter protection program in history. Our Wisconsin Voter Protection Team has been on the ground since February —  six months longer than in past elections.
  • We are also engaging in a large-scale voter education campaign to ensure that Wisconsinties know how and when to cast their ballot. IWillVote.com/WI includes new resources to walk voters through the process of casting their ballot. We have held numerous events across Wisconsin aimed at ensuring voters have the information they need to make their voice heard, including a “Sister to Sister” roundtable in Milwaukee with Congresswoman Gwen Moore which focused on voter education, a statewide student organizing event to ensure voters on campus have information about registering to vote, and a Voter Protection Rally headlined by Stacey Abrams.
  • In the coming weeks, the campaign will hold numerous additional events focused on voter education in markets around the state.

Where we go from here

  • We are seeing incredible enthusiasm across the state — more than one million Wisconsin voters have already requested their ballots by mail. In the coming weeks, you will see our campaign mobilize our resources to ensure that Wisconsinites can make their voices heard at the ballot box.
  • As voters begin to receive their ballots, we will continue to discuss Joe Biden’s plans to not only recover from the pandemic, but build Wisconsin’s economy back better. From his “Made in America” plan that will create millions of good paying union jobs, to his proposal to penalize companies for offshoring, Joe Biden knows what steps we need to take to rebuild Wisconsin’s economy.
  • The campaign will also continue to focus on persuading and mobilizing key voters — from Madison to Milwaukee to La Crosse, organizers and volunteers are full steam ahead to ensure all voters know the stakes of this election and have the information they need to cast their ballots.
    • This past weekend, the campaign held more than 275 organizing events in communities in every corner of the state to discuss what’s at stake in this year’s election. Over the course of the weekend, more than 4,500 volunteers completed shifts, reaching out to nearly 1 million voters over the phone. We will continue to build on this organizing success every weekend leading into the election.
    • The campaign will continue to hold surrogate events across the state focused on economic issues important to Wisconsinites. For example, last week, State Senator Patty Schactner joined well-known local brewery owners for an event focused on Joe Biden’s build back better plan to help businesses recover from the pandemic.

There are 46 days until November 3rd and Biden for President Wisconsin is going to use every single one of them to persuade and mobilize Wisconsinites to cast their ballot for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

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