President Joe Biden flew to Wisconsin Friday to shore up voter confidence in this critical swing state after a stumbling debate performance last week fueled speculation that he might drop out. He told a cheering crowd of hundreds of supporters packed into the Sherman Middle School gymnasium in Madison, “I’m the nominee of the Democratic Party.” 

Reading fluidly and energetically from a teleprompter, he acknowledged that last week’s debate with former President Donald Trump “wasn’t my best performance.” He spoke directly to the doubts expressed by some elected officials and liberal pundits — including the The New York Times editorial board, which has urged him to quit the race and make way for a different Democratic nominee. Those calling for him to drop out are ignoring the will of the voters, he said, “who voted for me in primaries all across the nation.”

“Guess what, they’re trying to push me out of the race,” Biden told the diverse crowd packed into the gym as well as an overflow room (the campaign estimated total attendance at more than 1,000). “Let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m staying in the race!”

“I’m not going to let one 90-minute debate wipe out three and a half years of work,” he added, to raucous cheers and chants of “four more years!”

“There’s a lot of discussion about my age,” Biden said, joking “I know I look 40.” “I wasn’t too old to create over 50 million new jobs,” he said, segueing into a litany of his accomplishments, including expanding health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, reducing student debt, and putting the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. “Do you think I’m too old to restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land?” he asked the crowd, to a resounding “No!” He got the same response as he asked if people believed he was too old to ban assault weapons, make billionaires pay higher taxes and to beat Donald Trump

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers took the stage just before Biden to give him a plug. “With the help of the American Rescue Plan Act we were able to rebuild Wisconsin’s economy from the ground up,” Evers said, crediting Biden with investments that created hundreds of thousands of jobs, replaced contaminated wells, expanded internet access and rebuilt infrastructure in the state. 

“The thing about me and Joe,” Evers said, “we’re not flashy. Nor are we fancy. We’re not for political drama or fanfare. We put our heads down and do the work. We always try to do the right thing.”

Other Democrats, including Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway made the case that a second Trump term represents an existential threat and that reelecting Biden is essential. “I have to be honest with you, I’m afraid,” Rhodes Conway said. “The specter of dictatorship looms over America.”

“The only people with the power to stop Donald Trump are you,” Wikler told the crowd.

“Joe Biden took office amidst the wreckage of Donald Trump’s failed insurrection, an attempt to overthrow democracy in America on Jan. 6,” Wikler added, saying Biden “helped us to stabilize, helped us to refocus on rebuilding a country that works for working people.”

He praised Biden’s “patriotism, his decency, his empathy, his steely determination” and his ability to “get back up.” “And we know that he is asking us to get back up,” Wikler added, leading the crowd in a chant of “Get back up!”

Notably absent was Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who is in a close race against Republican challenger Eric Hovde. The most recent Marquette University Law School poll shows Baldwin leading Hovde by a narrow margin. The same poll, released before the debate, showed Biden and Trump in a dead heat. Baldwin has deflected questions about whether she believes Biden should drop out of the race.

Olivia Saud, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who came to the rally at Sherman Middle School to see Biden in person, said she watched the debate and “I understand the concern.”

“I also understand the concern of Trump being president,” she said, adding, “I’m one of those people who subscribes to anything that’s blue I’m going to vote for at this point.”

Among her peers, Saud said, “I know a lot of students that are not really proud of how he handled Israel and Palestine. I also know that they feel he doesn’t really represent their beliefs and the policies they stand for. They feel he’s too old. But there are also people who will vote for him. It’s a mixed bag.”

Saud said she doesn’t know what Biden can do at this point to increase support among young voters. “A better debate performance — a little bit more on top of things — would have helped. I think with respect to Israel and Palestine it’s a little late now to fix things so people who are in that camp would support him.”

She had heard talk about Vice President Kamala Harris possibly replacing Biden, she said, but was not sure if Harris or another candidate would fare better than Biden with young voters.

Hernán Rodriguez, a recent UW graduate who now works full-time in higher education, came to the rally because “a goal of mine has always been to see a president live in person,” he said. 

“I think at this point it’s very likely,” he’ll vote for Biden, he said. “I think it’s all doors open, because who knows what could happen in the next few months.”

Asked what he hoped to hear from the candidate, Rodriguez said, “I think hope is important. At this point you listen in on the national conversation, it’s rather bleak, at least from the left, in terms of how well he’s doing in the election, what’s to come, the implications if he loses. So really, I want that spark — that spark in the base, that spark from Biden. So hopefully he’ll spark some momentum and turn things around.”

Tanya Cornelius, a member of the Ojibwe nation who works in tribal affairs, was also open to hearing what Biden had to say. It meant a lot, she said, that Biden appointed the first Native American cabinet member in history, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, and that his administration had done a lot of work to recognize tribal sovereignty and to uncover the dark history of the federally sponsored Native American boarding schools. 

“Every Native American person you meet has some contact with those schools,” she said — because almost every Native family has been affected. “The idea was to annihilate the Indian population.” 

“I’m a third-generation descendant of a survivor,” she said.  Growing up in Wisconsin, away from her Ojibwe family in Michigan, she lost her connection to her culture and language, she said. Now her children and grandchildren are trying to reclaim that connection. 

Biden has been good on Native American issues, she said. “I saw no movement from the Trump administration on upholding tribal sovereignty.”

Should Biden stay in the race? 

“I’m here to find out,” Cornelius said.

Jim Singer, an electrician and a member of IBEW Local 159, came to the rally to support Biden. 

“I think everybody’s worried. I think he’ll come through,” Singer said of the debate. “It’s one bad night. I’m not going to judge his whole presidency based on one bad debate.”

Among his top concerns in the election, Singer said, are democracy, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and workers’ rights. 

He agrees with the characterization of Biden as the most pro-labor president in recent history. “I’ve been in the trades 36 years, I’ve never seen work the way I’m seeing it now,” he said.

Singer said he thinks the large number of voters who tell pollsters they have less confidence in Biden than Trump on the economy are missing the big picture.

“I think the economy — people are so focused on the inflation. And while inflation is part of it, you have to look at the work situation,” he said. “There is so much work nationwide. I get it, the inflation is not good. That will come down. That will get under control. But right now, in my opinion, the economy is smoking.”

It does worry him, he added, that “there’s a faction of people that are pushing for him to step aside. I don’t think it’s a good move. I think if we throw all our resources and our support behind him, I think he’ll be fine.”

At the end of the rally, as Biden left the stage to the strain’s of the Tom Petty song “Won’t Back Down,” Singer was satisfied.

“I like it,” he said. “He’s fine. We’ll win.”

Biden stayed on stage as the rally ended to shake hands with the supporters arrayed behind him. Then he approached the mic one more time and the music stopped. “I won’t forget this,” he said. “God love ya.”

Joe Biden had a clear message at his Wisconsin rally on Friday: he isn’t going anywhere.

“There’s been a lot of speculation – what’s Joe going to do?” said Biden. “Here’s my answer: I am running and am gonna win again.”

He dismissed concerns about his age.

“We’ve also noticed a lot of discussion about my age,” said Biden. “Let me say something. I wasn’t too old to create over 50m new jobs.”

Biden focused largely on Donald Trump, decrying the January 6 insurrection and warning that a second Trump term could bring about the end of democracy.

“Donald Trump isn’t just a convicted criminal,” Biden exclaimed. “He’s a one-man crime wave.”

If Biden can find enthusiastic supporters amid a struggling campaign, it might be here, in Madison, Wisconsin, a liberal city with a history of turning out Democrats in droves during presidential elections.

“I support him no matter what,” said Marcy Wynn, a Democratic party activist attending Biden’s Wisconsin rally on Friday.

The rally formed part of a blitz of public appearances intended to reinvigorate support for Biden, whose faltering and confused debate appearance last week has spurred Democratic party leaders and donors to call for him to step down.

Ben Wikler, the chair of the Wisconsin Democratic party, acknowledged that Biden’s debate performance had sparked anxiety within the party.

“There’s no question that the debate was rough,” said Wikler. “It was even more scary watching the US supreme court announce that presidents have immunity from prosecution.”

Biden’s campaign has cast the 2024 presidential election as a choice between democracy and dictatorship, pointing to Trump’s attempted self-coup in 2020 and the rightwing Heritage Foundation’s autocratic Project 2025 plan as evidence.

“The specter of dictatorship looms over America,” said Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, while addressing the crowd. At stake, said Rhodes-Conway, is the “right to vote and to have a government that is accountable to we the people.”

Biden was joined on Friday by an entourage of Democrats, among them the progressive Democratic congressman Mark Pocan and Wisconsin governor Tony Evers, who both spoke at the rally.

“If I had to summarize the last couple of years it would go something like this – Democrats getting shit done,” said Evers, who emphasized the state’s use of federal dollars to supplement infrastructural developments and repairs during Biden’s term in office. “The future of democracy runs right through the state of Wisconsin.”

Biden’s difficult debate performance – and the supreme court’s decision to grant presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution – underscored the stakes of the election and raised fears about Biden’s ability to garner enough support to beat Trump in November.

The Wisconsin rally drew some of Biden’s strongest supporters – including Pat Raes, the president of Wisconsin SEIU, a union representing service sector workers.

“Fearmongers,” said Raes, when asked about the reaction to Biden’s debate last week. “I can’t think of another person as smart as Biden.”

Earlier in the morning, Wendell Mullins – a retiree who lives near the middle school where the Friday rally was held – reacted with considerably less enthusiasm.

Mullins watched the scene unfolding from his front yard and wondered how much good Biden’s last-minute effort would do.

“Right now, if the election was held tomorrow, Trump would beat him easy,” said Mullins. “I’m 82 years old, so I know pretty much how I feel, and I’m sure he doesn’t feel much better.”

Madison, Wis. — The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Friday that officials can place ballot drop boxes around their communities in this fall’s elections, overturning its own ruling two years ago limiting their use in the presidential swing state.

The court limited the use of drop boxes in July 2022, ruling then that they could be placed only in local election clerks’ offices and no one other than the voter could return a ballot in person.

Conservatives controlled the court at that time, but Janet Protasiewicz’s election victory in April 2023 flipped the court to liberal control. Seeing an opening, Priorities USA, a progressive voter mobilization group, asked the court in February to revisit the decision.

At least 29 other states allow for absentee ballot drop boxes, according to the U.S. Vote Foundation, and expanded use in Wisconsin could have major implications in the presidential race.

Wisconsin again figures to be a crucial swing state after President Joe Biden barely won it in 2020 and Donald Trump narrowly took it in 2016. Democrats believe that making it easier to vote absentee will boost turnout for their side.

The justices announced in March they would review the ban on drop boxes but wouldn’t consider any other parts of the case. The move drew the ire of the court’s conservatives, who accused the liberals of trying to give Democrats an advantage this fall. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in April urged the court to again allow drop boxes.

The court ruled 4-3 on Friday that drop boxes can be utilized in any location.

Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, one of the court’s four liberal justices, wrote for the majority that placing a ballot in a drop box set up and maintained by a local election clerk is no different than giving the ballot to the clerk, regardless of the box’s location. Local clerks have great discretion in how they administer elections and that extends to using and locating drop boxes, she added.

“Our decision today does not force or require that any municipal clerks use drop boxes,” Bradley wrote. “It merely acknowledges what (state law) has always meant: that clerks may lawfully utilize secure drop boxes in an exercise of their statutorily-conferred discretion.”

All three conservative justices dissented. Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote that the liberals are simply trying to advance their political agenda and criticized them for ignoring the precedent set by the 2022 ruling.

“The majority in this case overrules (the 2022 decision) not because it is legally erroneous, but because the majority finds it politically inconvenient,” Bradley wrote. “The majority’s activism marks another triumph of political power over legal principle in this court.”

The popularity of absentee voting exploded during the pandemic in 2020, with more than 40% of all voters casting mail ballots, a record high. At least 500 drop boxes were set up in more than 430 communities for the election that year, including more than a dozen each in Madison and Milwaukee — the state’s two most heavily Democratic cities.

Trump and Republicans have alleged that drop boxes facilitated cheating, even though they offered no evidence. Democrats, election officials and some Republicans argued the boxes are secure and an Associated Press survey of state election officials across the U.S. revealed no cases of fraud, vandalism or theft that could have affected the results in 2020.

Republicans who control the Wisconsin Legislature intervened in the case, arguing that the justices should leave the 2022 ruling alone. Their attorney, Misha Tseytlin, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Friday.

Matt Fisher, a spokesperson for the state Republican Party, called the decision a “setback.”

“This latest attempt by leftist justices to placate their far-left backers will not go unanswered by voters,” he said in a statement.

Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell, who administers elections in the state’s most Democratic county, called drop boxes a “common sense tool.” He said they make the election process more convenient and easier for rural and disabled voters and help reduce that number of ballots that arrive after election day too late to be counted.

“Having drop boxes in place for the 2024 elections in August and November will encourage civic participation in our democracy,” McDonell said in a statement.