'We've never faced a threat like this': Kamala Harris, Liz Cheney pitch undecided Wisconsin voters

BROOKFIELD – With just two weeks to go before Election Day, former Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris were back in Wisconsin Monday making their pitch to undecided voters.

This time, the duo chose the highly coveted Waukesha County, one of the traditionally deep red suburban counties surrounding Milwaukee in which Democrats have made inroads in recent years.

In April's GOP presidential primary, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley won about 14% of the vote — just over 9,000 votes — in Waukesha County.

The campaign of former President Donald Trump has reportedly been considering deploying Haley to make the campaign's case, particularly to on-the-fence female voters, ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

More: JD Vance visits crucial Waukesha County to encourage Catholics to vote for Trump

On Monday, Harris and Cheney spoke in front of a friendly audience at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts in Brookfield.

Conservative former talk show host and fellow Trump critic Charlie Sykes, who moderated the conversation, opened by jokingly welcoming the audience to a production of "The Odd Couple."

"I never thought that I would be here, you never thought that I would be here, but that's because this is not a normal election," he said. "This is not an election between Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives."

Here's what to know about Harris's and Cheney's second joint appearance in Wisconsin:

VP Kamala Harris, former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney push 'Country Over Party' message

Harris, Cheney and Sykes framed a second Trump term as a threat to the U.S. and the world.

Flanking them were supporters and banners that read, "Country over Party" and, in all caps, "A new way forward."

"We've never faced a threat like this before, and I think it’s so important for people to realize this Republic only survives if we protect it, and that means putting partisan politics aside and standing up for the Constitution and for what's right and loving our country," Cheney said to applause from the audience.

Cheney said Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, also presented a threat to the Republic because he would do whatever Trump wanted.

Audience questions touch on abortion, Social Security and Medicare, toxicity in politics

Audience members asked questions of Harris and Cheney and touched on hot-button topics, including abortion.

Harris said she’s spoken with people on the campaign trail who may not agree with abortion but did not intend to invite the harm that is coming to pregnant women.

“We are seeing the harm, there are more and more people who are agreeing that this should not be the government making this decision for women and their families,” she said. “And the way that we will address this is eventually, Congress needs to pass a law restoring those protections and we need to agree that in our society, we should not have laws that are treating people in a way that is causing such harm.”

Cheney said that while she is pro-life, she has been “troubled” by what’s happened since the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe vs. Wade in 2022.

“There are some very fundamental and fundamentally dangerous things that have happened and so I think that it's crucially important for us to find ways to have the federal government play a role and protect women from some of the worst harms that we're seeing,” she said.

Another question from the audience focused on the lack of civility in American politics. Cheney pointed out that debate is good in politics, and that tough conversations are a part of the job as a politician.

Harris agreed.

“The strength of our democracy requires a strong two-party system. It really does. It requires that we have healthy debate, that we have healthy debate based... based in logic and fact and that we debate it out,” she said. “Have good, vigorous debates. Have a good fight over policy that's good for democracy, but not to point our fingers and call each other names over trivial, petty grievances.”

Harris-Cheney Wisconsin visit follows others to battleground states Monday

Monday's event in Wisconsin followed other "moderated conversations" earlier in the day in the swing states of Pennsylvania and Michigan.

All three "blue wall" states are considered critical in the race for the White House.

Event marks second appearance in Wisconsin with Liz Cheney, VP Kamala Harris

This event marks the second time Harris and Cheney campaigned together in Wisconsin.

Earlier this month, Cheney made her first campaign appearance with the Democratic ticket when she and Harris appeared together in Ripon, known as the birthplace of the Republican Party.

In that appearance, Cheney called on Republicans with doubts about Trump to follow her lead in crossing party lines when they cast their ballots in November.

Republicans encourage early voting ahead of Harris, Obama visits

Trump's campaign slammed the joint visit as Harris "showing off irrelevant former 'Republicans' of the past."

“Another incompetent Harris administration is the last thing Wisconsinites want or need, regardless of Liz Cheney’s opinions,” Team Trump Wisconsin Communications Director Jacob Fischer said in a statement.

In a call Monday afternoon, prominent Republicans encouraged Wisconsinites to vote early in person at their clerk's offices starting Tuesday.

Brian Schimming, the chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said voters "can't afford to wait."

"From my perspective, as the party chairman, for every person that votes early, we save resources and can spend it on people who may be undecided," he said. "We go out and get those many people who think like us, who act like us, who believe like us, who live like us. There's hundreds of thousands of them in this state. They go out and vote this year, and Donald Trump will be back in the White House."

Previously, Republicans avoided encouraging voters to vote absentee by mail, or to use drop boxes. But Monday, U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil told voters to use "every legal means to get the vote out" this year.

"Encourage everyone to take advantage of all the legal tools in the toolkit to have their vote counted," he said.

Republicans have continually challenged drop boxes in the state, and Trump has repeatedly said falsely that the drop boxes and absentee voting are rife with fraud. In July 2022, the then-conservative state Supreme Court ruled that drop boxes were illegal and that they could not be used anywhere other than election clerk offices. This summer, the court's new liberal majority reversed that decision, allowing drop boxes to be used in the August primary and for the Nov. 5 election.

At the time the decision was reversed, Schimming said the ruling was "a setback for both the separation of powers and public trust in our elections."

U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden also used the call to criticize Harris and highlight three things he believes the election is about: gas, groceries and grandkids.

"We're having difficulty filling up a gas tank and grocery cart on the same day in the United States of America, and it simply was not like that four years ago. We're concerned about the security and the future of our children and our grandchildren like we haven't been in such an incredibly long time," he said. "It just wasn't like that four years ago."

Hannah Kirby and Lawrence Andrea of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this story.

Alison Dirr can be reached at [email protected]. Laura Schulte can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What to know about Kamala Harris-Liz Cheney discussion in Wisconsin