'He's anointed': Donald Trump's Wisconsin faithful cloak the 2024 race in messianic zeal
NEW LONDON – Before Waupaca County Republicans sat down for their “Lincoln-Reagan-Trump” dinner here late last month, they bowed their heads for a prayer centered squarely on November.
A local pastor began by saying “we pray for these upcoming elections” and asking God to be “with every ballot box or be with every voting station.” He hoped young people would see that “America needs their votes.”
Not long later, local conservative radio host Joe Giganti stood before the crowd of about 200 people and invoked God once more. He was direct.
“This isn’t really a battle of Republican versus Democrat. It’s not even a battle of conservative versus liberal. It’s a battle between good and evil, God and the devil,” Giganti said to cheers and whistles.
“And we must choose God.”
The remarks at a gathering of local Republicans in a rural Wisconsin town about 40 miles west of Green Bay reflected a snapshot of how some Republican base voters in this swing state view the rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump this November.
Trump still has a hill to climb in Wisconsin. Nearly 60% of voters view the former president as unfavorable, more than 120,000 Republican voters picked someone else in Tuesday's presidential primary (including candidates that have already dropped out) and overall enthusiasm trails levels from four years ago.
But recent interviews show zeal for Trump within the grassroots of the Wisconsin GOP has not dampened.
In New London, guests dined in front of life-sized cardboard cutouts of Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan and Trump. They ate brownies festooned with Trump flags and entered a raffle for a “Trump 2024” shotgun with the words “Take America Back” printed under the gun’s loading port.
A week ago, those signs were on display again as Trump swept into Green Bay on Tuesday for his first campaign stop in Wisconsin of the election cycle. There, Trump railed against Biden over his handling of illegal immigration and again dove into his signature issue: the 2020 election.
As if it was at a Packers home opener, the crowd loudly embraced his false claims that election malfeasance snatched a reelection victory from him.
“I’ll tell you, it’s pretty incredible the level of enthusiasm and support that people have for President Trump,” said Doug Reich, chairman of the Republican Party of Brown County who attended Tuesday’s rally during an early April snow. “I was honestly taken aback a little bit by how many people braved the elements … just to get in.”
The rally took place as the percentage of voters feeling "very enthusiastic" about voting this year has dropped from January 2020 to January of this year by nearly 20 percentage points, according to data gathered by the Marquette University Law School poll.
The drop is largely driven by Democrats concerned about Biden's appeal, poll director Charles Franklin said, and has increased since the president's State of the Union address. While voters in the camps of both major parties are struggling to match previous enthusiasm levels, supporters of Trump are farther ahead than those of Biden, he said.
"Broadly, that in terms of favorability towards Trump, Republicans were more favorable to him in January of 2020 than they are today. But his favorability, generally and with Republicans, has been improving over the last year," Franklin said. "So, he's not in terrible shape."
"On enthusiasm," he added, "Trump supporters are way more enthusiastic than Biden supporters."
Democratic Party of Wisconsin chairman Ben Wikler said enthusiasm among the Trump base has not turned into fundraising that has surpassed Democrats' in Wisconsin. He characterized Trump's polarizing nature as a double-edged sword within the GOP party.
"What's striking when you look at the GOP is that there's a core of very enthusiastic diehard Trumpers, and then a much larger group of voters who really can't stand the idea of a Trump presidency, sometimes with extraordinary passion," Wikler said.
"You can see that the division within the Republican Party in the Republican (presidential) primary results with 124,000 voters in the Republican primary rejecting the nominee not based on any policy disagreement that has been discernible, but really just saying they don't want Trump."
Trump faithful brave rain and sleet in Green Bay
On Tuesday, the Trump faithful withstood rain and sleet while waiting in line to get into the rally in downtown Green Bay.
Robin Menucci, 59, drove from Burlington in southeastern Wisconsin to Green Bay and arrived four hours early, which turned out to be not early enough to avoid standing outside.
"I could not pass up the opportunity to see my president," she said, wearing a pink Women for Trump baseball cap. "He hasn't been to Wisconsin in a long time, and I knew nothing was going to stop me."
Two friends, Pam Nowak and Jeanne Gritt of Black Creek, said Tuesday's rally was a "once in a lifetime" opportunity and have supported Trump since 2016. They believe his faith aligns with theirs.
“He’s anointed from God,” Nowak said.
Most rally attendees interviewed at Tuesday's event told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the issue key to their support is immigration.
"We should have secure borders, lower the inflation rate, lower crime and then lower gas prices," Nate Kromrey, 19, said. The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay freshman said the fall election will be his first as a voter.
Immigration and the economy were top of mind to voters Tuesday, reflecting the priorities of Wisconsin voters broadly, according to Franklin. "Trump has a big advantage in which candidate would handle the issue better," Franklin said. "Biden is ahead on abortion policy, but not by nearly as much as Trump is on those first two issues."
“I think it’s just slowly getting stronger,” Joel Bartel, chairman of the Waupaca County GOP, said of support for Trump. “Have you gone to the grocery store today? I think a lot of it is the economy. I really do.”
Elsewhere, Republicans expressed concerns over election security. Some reiterated Trump's false claims that he won the state in 2020, despite recounts, court rulings and a nonpartisan state audit confirming Biden's about 21,000-vote victory.
"We're definitely gonna win Wisconsin for Trump," said Chris Martinson, of New London. "But the question is: Will it get stolen again like it did in 2020?"
But even with an energized fan base, there are serious warning signs for Trump in Wisconsin.
The former president won just over 78% of the vote in Wisconsin’s presidential primary. But more than 120,000 Republican primary voters chose someone else over the former president — a potentially troubling figure in a state where the last two presidential elections were decided by just over 20,000 votes.
Local Republican leaders, however, brushed off questions about those results.
Bartel, from Waupaca County, said he was not concerned "at all" about 20% of Republicans choosing candidates who had dropped out of the race and predicted they would line up behind Trump as the nominee in November. Reich, the Brown County GOP chairman, said that there "should be debate" within the party over its leadership.
"I think those people, though, will come around to Trump," Reich said. "Obviously as Republicans we share a lot more in common with one another — even the folks that maybe supported Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis initially — we clearly have a lot more in common with each other than we do with the Democrats."
Looming over Trump are four indictments covering 88 criminal charges. Republicans have largely painted those charges as politically motivated, and many in the GOP have acknowledged the indictments have only bolstered Trump’s support with his base.
Wikler said Trump's recent statements calling those prosecuted for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol "hostages," and using the word "bloodbath" to describe the effect of a Biden reelection on tariffs, have resulted in energy on the Democratic side.
"It's like the anti-Trump coalition's foot has been on the accelerator and finally the wheels are getting traction," Wikler said. "Last November, December, and beginning of the year, I had questions of whether the energy would be there and what we're seeing, from all the different metrics that we look at, is the the at the energy is back."
Franklin said Trump's legal woes and personality have kept his race against Biden in Wisconsin tight despite his advantages on the issues.
"On personal characteristics, it's more of a mixed bag. Biden is certainly seen as much more too old than Trump is, but Trump is seen as more corrupt and doesn't have the right temperament to be president," Franklin said. Half of voters polled also believe Trump committed illegal acts following the 2020 election, according to Franklin.
"The Trump personal characteristics is one of the things that's keeping Biden in the race," he said.
To that end, Ken and Ahnna Groholski of Manawa told the Journal Sentinel they were not sure if they would vote for Trump in November. Both said they had concerns about Trump’s temperament and rhetoric.
"He just doesn't make sense sometimes when he's talking," Ahnna Groholski told the Journal Sentinel. "He's all about himself, it seems like."
Asked about Trump’s indictments, Ken Groholski said he thinks Trump “is definitely guilty of a lot of those things,” noting he thinks Trump is partly responsible for the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and could have done more to stop the attack.
Still, he said he would “possibly” still vote for Trump.
“What other choices do we have?” Ahnna Groholski interjected.
Steve and Burdie Alles of Wauwatosa, both in their 70s, said, for them, Trump is the "lesser of two evils."
"How would I say this? I'm not thrilled with either candidate," Burdie Alles told the Journal Sentinel. "But I'm definitely not in favor of Joe Biden having another four years."
Steve Alles said he believes Trump "is a little healthier" — a sentiment most voters echoed — "but still, neither one of them should be in there running."
The grassroots, however, is eager to see Trump back in the White House.
"I feel it among my coworkers, among my friends, family — everybody is ready for change," Menucci, the rally attendee from Burlington, said.
Danielle DuClos and Benita Mathew of the Green Bay Press-Gazette contributed to this report.
Lawrence Andrea and Molly Beck can be reached at landrea@gannett.com and molly.beck@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Donald Trump's Wisconsin base cloaks 2024 race in messianic zeal
