Daily Times

In western Wisconsin, where family-run dairy farms dot the rolling green hills and eagle-watchers peer into the sparkling marshland, signs for Donald Trump and Joe Biden stand directly across each other on neighbors’ yards.

In a polarized United States where Democrats and Republicans increasingly self-segregate, this stretch of the Upper Midwest alongside the Mississippi River looks as close as regions get — and, if the November 3 vote is tight, it could prove pivotal for the whole election.

Hillary Clinton infamously never campaigned in Wisconsin in the main stretch of 2016, acknowledging later that Trump’s victory in the state that had gone Democratic for three decades was her biggest election surprise.

The two campaigns are taking no chances one month before the election. Trump had been planning his fourth trip to Wisconsin since August until being infected by Covid-19 and Biden — who leads in all published polls — has already visited twice in person despite curtailing travel due to the pandemic.

“Four years ago, we were told that Hillary Clinton could even beat a loaf of bread,” said Rikardo Jahnke as he sold apples in Viroqua, a growing haven for artists surrounded by Republican-leaning farmers and buggy-driving Amish.

“Last time we felt ignored by the Democratic Party. It looks like they’re paying more attention,” said Jahnke, sporting a mask that read, “VOTE,” over his bushy gray beard.

Western Wisconsin and neighboring parts of Minnesota — where Trump made major inroads in 2016 but lost — are among the few rural US areas where substantial numbers still vote Democratic, a phenomenon some trace to the region’s heavily Scandinavian roots.

On his organic dairy farm, Darin Von Ruden knows the names for all 50 of his cows as they roam in the field, the maple leaves on the surrounding trees beginning to turn vivid orange.

Von Ruden, who leads the Wisconsin Farmers Union, said that a staggering 2,290 dairy farms have shuttered in the state since Trump took office, which he blamed on the growing power of big agricultural companies and overproduction.

“Do we want to get down to having only one or two entities controlling our food system?” Von Ruden said, voicing hope that a Biden administration would look into a Canadian-style system that manages dairy production.

He scoffed at fellow farmers who backed Trump’s anti-immigration agenda, noting that more than half of dairy workers are immigrants — often undocumented Mexicans and Central Americans.

“Why would you vote for someone who says he wants to get rid of all your help?”

Worries about urban values

Still, Von Ruden acknowledges that most farmers lean Republican, with the dairy industry praising Trump’s efforts to open the Canadian market.

At his 500-cow Morning Star Dairy, John Schaller said he wanted fewer regulations — and would worry about the direction of the United States under Biden.

“They seem to be pushing more socialism on us than anything else. Instead of having people being accountable and working for their stuff, just giving out free this and free that,” he said. “That’s not what made the country great.”

“We seem to have got through a couple of hundred years without it,” said Schaller, who recently welcomed Vice President Mike Pence to his farm.