Biden decision upends election just days after Republicans unite behind Trump in Milwaukee

A failed assassination attempt of a former president. A national party convention with virtually no dissent. An incumbent president withdrawing from the race later than any in modern history.

The past eight days have been unlike anything in modern American history — and the never-happened-befores are very likely to continue.

Republicans emerged from their party’s national convention in Milwaukee more confident than ever that former President Donald Trump will win another term. Just a few days later, they were forced to rip up their playbook, with President Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race.

“I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in a Sunday afternoon statement on social media. A short while later, he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place.

That decision was welcomed by some Republican officials, including Brian Schimming, chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin. 

Biden “just endorsed the worst vice president of the modern age to be his replacement,” he wrote on social media. “If (Biden) thinks his best decision was (selecting Harris as his running mate) I’d hate to hear what he thinks his worst decision was.”

Others, though, pushed for caution. “Despite a great convention, Republicans should take nothing for granted,” former Gov. Scott Walker wrote on social media.

That sentiment was commonplace among some party insiders in Milwaukee last week, cautioning that overconfidence could lead to complacency and an all-too-familiar outcome in November.

Some, like former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, said a Trump victory in November seems inevitable.

“I think we’re going to win,” he said in an interview before Biden dropped out of the race. “I don’t think there’s even a question.”

That bullishness was echoed by dozens of other Republicans interviewed by Wisconsin Watch in Milwaukee, a city where many residents had mixed feelings about hosting the Republicans and Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to invalidate thousands of their legally cast votes in 2020.

Steve Garner, a Republican from Texas, simply said there is nothing that could prevent Trump from winning this November.

“Trump’s not going to lose,” he told Wisconsin Watch last week. 

But there was an undercurrent, particularly among the Wisconsin delegation, that there is still work to be done. Since Trump won the White House in 2016, Republicans have been on a losing streak in the key swing states on Nov. 5 — Michigan, Pennsylvania and, especially, Wisconsin.

The election isn’t over among Trump’s most fervent supporters, said Schimming, the state party chair. The state GOP has brought in $768,000 this year, compared with $10.9 million raised by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, according to campaign finance reports filed last week.

“It’s going to be won out on the streets of Milwaukee and Greenfield and Sun Prairie and Wausau and Eau Claire and La Crosse and Green Bay,” Schimming said.

“We have to go earn the win,” he added. “If I hear anybody say it’s ours to lose, we’re going to have to go down to Froedtert (hospital) to get my foot out of their backside.”

The convention highlighted how synonymous the Republican Party has become with Trump. In Milwaukee, convention goers celebrated a party platform that reflects that fusion — and likely divides Americans.

On Wednesday evening, “MASS DEPORTATION NOW!” signs were distributed on the convention floor, demonstrating how far the party has moved from wanting to both secure the border and reform the country’s immigration system. 

The party’s platform, which calls for deporting “millions,” is not dissimilar from Project 2025, a set of hard-right policy proposals for a future Republican administration. Were such a proposal to become policy, it would cause major disruption to Wisconsin’s dairy industry.

Democrats, in the aftermath of the convention, ran ads encouraging people to read up on Project 2025, betting that the far-right agenda will turn swing voters off on a second Trump presidency. The former has sought to distance himself from Project 2025 in recent weeks.

At every turn of the four-day event, Republicans preached a message of “unity” as some of Trump’s fiercest intraparty critics, like former Gov. Nikki Haley, R-South Carolina, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, bent the knee.

Thompson, attending his 12th RNC, recalled how at his first convention in 1976 there was a fist fight on the convention floor during the nomination battle between Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan on the way to Ford losing to Jimmy Carter. He contrasted that with the unity on display in Milwaukee.

“This close to the election,” he said, “with the Democrats in disarray and the Republicans unified, wouldn’t you bet on the Republicans?”

Harris said in a Sunday statement that she was ready to take the torch.

“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” she said. “Over the past year, I have traveled across the country, talking with Americans about the clear choice in this momentous election. And that is what I will continue to do in the days and weeks ahead. I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party — and unite our nation — to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.”

Some Democrats on Sunday began preaching their own message of unity, with many prominent party members — but notably not all of them — rallying behind Harris.

“Kamala Harris is a fighter,” said Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski, a Biden surrogate who quickly endorsed the vice president Sunday. She noted that Harris’ history as a prosecutor leaves her well equipped to litigate the political case against Trump, especially on an issue like abortion rights, which has been a persistent vulnerability for Republicans since Roe vs. Wade was overturned in 2022.

“We’re going to continue to talk about our values,” Godlewski said, adding that Democrats will continue to push their message about issues like the economy, climate change and abortion rights as members of the party rally around Harris.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin echoed that sentiment on Sunday.

“Joe Biden promised to be a bridge to the next generation; we’re crossing that bridge right now,” she told reporters in Stoughton. “I think you’re going to see a lot of unity, a lot of excitement, a lot of people inspired by this moment.”

Forward is a look at the week in Wisconsin government and politics from the Wisconsin Watch statehouse team.

This article first appeared on Wisconsin Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.