MILWAUKEE — This week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee will give top leaders from Arizona and host Wisconsin an opportunity to discuss how the swing states can flip the presidential race back to red after both went blue in 2020.
Gina Swoboda, Arizona GOP chair, expects to exchange ideas with top Wisconsin GOP leaders, including Chair Bryan Schimming, since they’re two of just a handful of states likely to determine the election on Nov. 5.
Wisconsin has a stronger history of voting Democrat for president than Arizona, but Swoboda believes she can take a lot from Badger State Republicans.
“Bryan Schimming is a tremendous person and he runs the party beautifully and has an extensive network of offices that are open on the ground all the time,” Swoboda told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Monday. “We have to build that infrastructure in Arizona.
“Arizona was red for a long time and maybe we don’t have that kind of infrastructure.”
Swoboda doesn’t expect that infrastructure to be perfected by the general election, but it’s a good chance for the first-year chair to push back on what has become a more Democratic state in polling numbers over the past few years.
Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in 2020 was the first time a Democrat won Arizona’s electoral votes since 1996.
Wisconsin, meanwhile, has forged a different path in becoming a swing state. Trump’s 2016 win in the state was the first Republican one since 1984. Both states were decided by less than a percentage point in 2020.
Swoboda has plans for how she can help push Wisconsin, which she believes has a “serious presence as a state party,” back to Trump and the Republicans.
“They’re probably going to learn from us on how to work with your own base and your election teams that are officials,” Swoboda said.
How close are 2024 presidential races in Arizona and Wisconsin?
In good news for the GOP, polling averages in both states lean in favor of Trump less than four months before the election.
National website RealClearPolitics, which tracks polls and publishes updated averages, had Trump leading by 5.7% in Arizona and 3% in Wisconsin as of Monday. On the same date in 2020, Biden led by 6% in Wisconsin and 2.8% in Arizona.
Swoboda said to make those numbers a reality in November, the strategy needs to be to target specific groups of people and avoid being broad.
“My friends in Nebraska, who I love, they can do a broad messaging campaign,” Swoboda said. “They just need their people to show up.
“If you’re in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona or perhaps Nevada, people looking at that are going to have to really kind of target where you are turning out and really kind of micro-target.”
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