Vice President Joe Biden visited Madison Friday to urge a crowd of 1,128 to cast their ballots for presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and U.S. Senate candidate Russ Feingold.
Biden stressed the importance of this year’s election up and down the ballot. He spent equal time praising both Democratic nominees, calling the policies of their opponents, Donald Trump and Ron Johnson, one and the same.
Trump and Johnson are “cut from the same political, ideological cloth,” he said.
He denounced the Republican candidates’ policy parallels on the environment—calling them “climate-change deniers”—and theeconomy. He said both are in favor of cutting the federal minimum wage and also keeping tax breaks for the wealthy.
Trump and Johnson's policies could not be more of a “stark contrast” from Clinton and Feingold’s, Biden said.
He highlighted the Democratic candidates’ opposite initiatives, centered around strengthening the middle class.
“The middle class is not a number,” Biden said. “It’s being able to send your kids to a park and know they’re going to come home safe. It means being able to own your home and not just rent it if you choose to. It means being able to send your kid to a local high school and if they do well they can get to college. It means when one of your elderly parents passes, you can take care of the other.”
He said getting there starts with Clinton and Feingold’s plan to invest in the environment, infrastructure and education, which would create jobs and reduce income inequality.
The vice president’s last-minute visit is the most high-profile among several top Clinton surrogates to campaign in Wisconsin all season.
It comes just after a rough week for Democrats. Last Friday, a new development emerged in the Clinton email scandal, which has drawn the presidential race closer nationwide.
The Marquette Law School poll results Wednesday showed Feingold’s advantage in the U.S. Senate race tightened to just one point, with him at 45 percent and Johnson at 44 percent.
Clinton leads Trump by six points in the Marquette poll.
