That was not immediately evident at the Wisconsin Republican convention in Green Bay on Saturday, where party leaders largely sidestepped mention of coronavirus, other than to call it a \u201ccommunist China exported plague\u201d, in favour of an assault on Black Lives Matter that marked out the ground the party wants to fight the election on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen violent mobs taking to the streets in order to erase our history,\u201d Congressman Mike Gallagher, who represents a Wisconsin district, told the conference.<\/p>\n

Katrina Pierson, the former spokesperson for Trump 2016 and an adviser to this year\u2019s campaign, said that as a black woman she thought it important that Republicans remind African Americans voters it was their party under Lincoln that freed those who were enslaved.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen black Americans wake up, it\u2019s game over,\u201d she said, to tepid applause.<\/p>\n

In an effort to stir that awakening, the party is pushing the widely derided claim that \u201cnobody has ever done more\u201d for African Americans than Trump in creating jobs for minorities, criminal justice reform and combating poverty. But Piersen undermined her own case with language sure to alienate large numbers of black voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Black Voices for Trump coalition will be taking on Black Lives Matter. We have the candidate that has the policies that prove black lives matter, because he believes that all lives matter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A Soviet defector, Yuri Maltsev, broadened the attack on the Democrats by warning the dangers of democratic socialism. The Republican party, he said, is all that stands between freedom and communist \u201cslavery\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no such thing as democratic socialism. It\u2019s the same as democratic Auschwitz,\u201d he said, to some gasps.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin\u2019s Republican party was one of the few to go ahead with an in-person state convention this year. Few of the mostly elderly delegates were wearing masks, in a reflection of how widely their use is now seen as a political statement in parts of the country.<\/p>\n

Among delegates to the convention there was no great confidence in a strategy of attacking Black Lives Matter and painting the Democrats as Stalinists.<\/p>\n

Vicky Ostrey, representing Germantown on the edge of Milwaukee, is not confident Trump will win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be a tough re-election,\u201d she said, reflecting a view widely heard from Republican activists, particularly in rural Wisconsin where Trump needs to win big again to offset any surge in re-motivated Democratic voters in the cities.<\/p>\n

The threat to Trump\u2019s grip on the White House comes not only from a resurgence in the Democratic vote, but in the loss of independent and moderate Republican support in Wisconsin. That has been steadily eroding as the president alienates former voters piecemeal with his assaults on the military, the justice system and broader democratic norms.<\/p>\n

Democrats still lose in Waukesha county west of Milwaukee, one of three solidly Republican counties around Milwaukee seen as an important test of Trump\u2019s ability to hold on to the support of prosperous college educated voters. But Democratic candidates have taken an increasing share of the ballot in recent elections for the US Senate, governor and state supreme court.<\/p>\n

Matt Lowe, the 29 year-old chair of Waukesha\u2019s Democrats, attributes that in part to Republican voters abandoning Trump, but also to a shift in priorities of those Democrats who are not enthusiastic about Biden.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of younger, more progressive voters see this as a referendum on Trump\u2019s whole presidency, not just coronavirus,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m a millennial who is also straight, white, cis, living in a fluid community. I know that if Donald Trump is elected for four more years I will most likely be OK as an individual.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I know that my LGBT friends, my friends of colour, the friends who are less likely to be as safe in a Trump America, they will not be OK. For a lot of younger voters who may be more idealistic, radical, they see that this is more than their ideology. It\u2019s about protecting those who need them as allies to vote to help protect them. It\u2019s a motivation to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there are still four months to the election in a year in which events have moved fast.<\/p>\n

Franklin said the president could win back support if the economy improves over the summer, but warned that Trump\u2019s pushing for the reopening of schools and universities will damage him if it resulted in a surge in coronavirus cases in the run-up to the election.<\/p>\n

There is also the question of how the pandemic will affect voting, particularly if many polling stations are closed in the major cities as they were for April\u2019s elections, causing long lines. But some voters waited for hours to cast their ballot, reflecting an apparent determination to counter Trump. More than 60% voted by mail, an option likely to be widely taken up for the presidential election.<\/p>\n

Whatever it takes, Lobley is determined to be heard this time, even if he is not hugely enthused by Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

\u201cBiden talks good, but he\u2019s trying to get the majority of black people on his side to get the votes. I know what he\u2019s doing,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the important thing is to get rid of this president.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n