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I'm here with Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin. We were in Green Bay, Wisconsin. You call this state the battleground state.
Yeah, you're not hedging on this.
You say your race is fifty to fifty. The presidential race here is fifty to fifty. One of the reasons I wanted to come here was see if the polling sort of is meted out on the ground, how close is it and what's your path to victory as you see in Yeah.
So we've been a battleground state for some years now.
If you think of twenty sixteen, Donald Trump won the state by seven tens of one percent and it was the tipping point state for him to win the presidency. But four years later, Joe Biden won Wisconsin by six tenths of one percent. That's like one or two votes per precinct in our state. And this looks like it's going that same path. So now everything comes down to turnout.
Which side really gets their voters out, does the hard work for those who are still undecided there's a handful still and helps them get to the polls and reminds them that their vote is their power.
I should say, we're sitting on your campaign bus and your multi day buster on you. You acknowledge that that the balance of the Senate sort of hangs on this seat. How do you navigate that and does it push you maybe more moderate as a result. Is you kind of think of just the rule or the importance of this seat to Democrats?
You know, I think really the choices here are really between somebody myself who's been fighting for the working people of this state and a candidate who is much more
interested in multimillionaires and big corporations. And that couldn't be on clearer display when you look at the fact that he supports a four trillion dollar tax cut that would disproportionately impact and benefit multimillionaires like himself in big corporations, whereas I'm trying to get working people to tax cuts, the child tax credit, the deduction for those who are starting up a business, deductions to make home ownership more available to first time home buyers.
Those are the things that I want to see through.
But that that contrast couldn't be on sharper display between myself and Eric Hovedy. And then you know, how would he pay for that? Fortrillion dollar tax cut. He proposes a plan that would reset federal spending to levels from the last decade, and if we did that, it would mean cuts to Social Security about six thousand dollars a year for the average beneficiary. I mean, we couldn't be more different on the economy and fighting for working people.
I think wisconsinates want somebody who is working every day for them.
On the economy.
We look at our poll, the Bloomber Morning Console poll, we look at other polls, the economy is the number one issue in each and every one of them.
Is that true?
As you talked to voters here in this state, is that the thing that they want to hear about from you, that they and you'd care the most about.
It is certainly top of mind for voters who haven't seen any relief from the inflationary prices that were caused by the pandemic and the screwed up supply chains. You know, those supply chains have been addressed, but the corporations haven't buy at the grocery store every week or you know. So while inflation has gone up over three years by fourteen percent, corporate profits at the same time have gone
up seventy five percent. My voters who are really squeezed by these prices want a cop on the beat helping them, and so I support legislation that would empower the Federal Trade Commission to go after corporate price gouging, investigate it, try to have a champion for consumers on the job.
We were in Sheboygan yesterday and after you gave your speech, I talked to somebody who's supporting you, and I said, tell me about this place. And he began to pour out places where there were companies who have been there or had reduced their footprints, and Cohler is chief among them, and he sort of wondered what would bring them back. This is stock and trade rhetoric for your opponent, for former President Trump as well. He's telling voters that these
companies will come back. Are there mechanisms by which you can do that? Or is it time for voters to sort of recalibrate their expectations for what a manufacturing renaissance would look like in this country.
Yeah?
So, first, Cohler is still an iconic business, very very close by to Sheboygan. Have, I believe sold one of their divisions, but they're still making sinks.
Flawsets shower heads.
Writing that area of the state, and they have a very strong workforce. So but I want to answer your question because I consider myself one of the buy America champion of the United States Senate.
So when we're passing.
Big pieces of legislation, like we got to make sure there's buy America rules attached to this. And I was successful in getting permanent by America rules attached to the Infrastructure Bill, to the Chips and Science Act, to the Inflation Reduction Act. That is bringing jobs back to Wisconsin right now and keeping some jobs here that might otherwise have left. Give you an example in Kenosha County, there's a company called san Mina that makes circuitry type of things.
We needed a specific type of circuitry for our broadband build out. The Infrastructure Bill pledges to get every residence and every business hooked up to high speed Internet, and so our Commerce secretary, because of the Buy America rules, was able to go overseas engage the CEO of a company and say I need your product, and he said, go ahead and buy it. Well, there's this problem buy America rules. It means that you have to produce them in the US while they found a compatible company, sand
Mina in Kenosha. Two hundred new jobs right now being created because of buy America rules. I think that's one very powerful tool to bring jobs back and to actually get.
A leadership role in some industries that we have.
Previously given up and given away to other countries.
I want to ask you about healthcare, which of course complements the economy. You've talked a lot about the Dobb's decision. Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, promised massive reforms to Obamacare at a speech earlier this week. How critical is that an issue for you? How much is that resonating with voters? Sort the viability of the Affordable Care Act of Obamacare.
Yeah, my opponent, Eric Company has said he wants to repeal it in its entirety. I helped write it when I was in the House of Representatives. The achievement of getting health insurance companies to cover people with pre existing conditions was life altering for millions of Americans. Millions of Americans have insurance today because the companies can no longer
say no and cherry pick their customers right. And I wrote the provision that allows young people to stay on their parents' health insurance till they tell turned twenty six. That's another game changer for folks right out of high school whose first job probably isn't going to offer full health insurance. And so we have to strengthen and build
upon the Affordable Care Act. But we cannot go through another period of time where Republicans are threatening to repeal it and people are feeling the lack of certainty about their future, their ability to have the basic security that health insurance provides.
We have women that left. Vice President Harris delivered a big speech yesterday, her closing argument, and she acknowledged the fact that there were still voters who don't know her. I feel like they don't know her what she stands for. Could you just give us some anecdotes, some sense of who she is that might help those voters understand how she operates, what she's like as somebody who worked with her so closely in the Senate and now with her as Vice President.
Yeah, well, I just looked at her resume. She was the top prosecutor for the largest state in the country and held perpetrators to account. She on the Judiciary Committee was masterful at holding power to account. I think that that's one thing that you need to know about Kamala Harris is that's been her history, and I think she's going to be a really really strong president.
On the bus with Senator Tammy Baldwin in Green Bay, Wisconsin,