GOP 'laser-focused' on Wisconsin as 'tipping point' of 2024 election: report

The Republican Party is preparing to gather in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the first presidential primary debate of the 2024 cycle, hosted by Fox News, Young America Foundation, and the right-wing Google alternative Rumble.

Their choice of venue matters, reported USA Today.

"Several analysts are already predicting that Wisconsin will the 'tipping point' state that decides when one of the tickets crosses the crucial threshold of 270 electoral votes," Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin-Madison elections expert, told USA Today reporter Sudiksha Kochi. "For these reasons the major parties and candidates are laser-focused on the Badger State."

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson agreed, noting that Republicans are also planning to hold their 2024 National Convention in the city. "I think folks in the state will pay attention to the happenings of the convention, will have a better line of sight as to what the eventual nominee will say and seek to do, were he or she to be elected president of the United States," he said. "Doesn't necessarily mean that they'll win Wisconsin though."

Wisconsin is historically a closely-divided state. Since 2000, Barack Obama has been the only presidential candidate to carry the state by double digits, in 2008, and the state narrowly backed former President Donald Trump in 2016 before supporting President Joe Biden in 2020. Trump is running for the nomination once again, raising the possibility 2024 could be a rerun of 2020.

The GOP debate itself has been a subject of controversy. To qualify for the stage, candidates have to accept a pledge to back the eventual nominee, but at least one candidate, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, has fought with the party to try to get a stipulation that candidates don't have to support a nominee if they are convicted of a felony — a clear nod to Trump's criminal indictments. The Republican National Committee has refused to add this carveout.