Of all the uncontrollable riots in the country this summer, the riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, may have the most significance in the context of November’s presidential election.
Vivid images from the days following the police shooting of Jacob Blake show a city devastated. Rioters blocked traffic. They stole gasoline from a nearby gas station to start a fire that destroyed many petite businesses, a car lot, an apartment building and a Family Dollar store.
Other businesses that were not burned down were looted and their windows and doors were broken.
It’s a war zone and no one wants to live in it. Nobody wants their children and grandchildren to live in a war zone. No one wants to own and operate a business in a war zone.
Therefore, no candidate running for president should remain quiet about it. Because in times like these, people want security and the assurance that their elected officials can support them.
The potential electoral consequences don’t just stem from the fact that riots, destruction and lawlessness are taking place in a swing state. This is because Kenosha is the common man of mid-sized American cities.
For decades, people have known that city officials in Portland and Seattle look the other way when anarchists run rampant. No matter where in this country one lives, when people see Kenosha, they see their hometown, their suburbs, their schools, Central America, and they say, “By the grace of God, that’s where this country is.”
They want to see who will rise to the occasion.
Wisconsin State Representative Bryan Steil immediately arrived on the scene. The Republican who represents Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District, which includes Kenosha, said the question he heard from those on the scene after the massive destruction of the business district was: Who will take action?
“Overall, people want public safety restored in the city of Kenosha,” Steil said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “I don’t think they care if it’s done by a Republican, Democrat, or the man on the moon. They just want it done. They want to see leadership.”
Steil said he was deeply concerned about insufficient resources after two nights of rioting, so he asked local officials and community members if they were willing to receive additional federal support. They said yes, and he called the White House.
“I called the president and he graciously gave me time to discuss the situation in Kenosha and, at my request, called the governor and offered additional resources,” Steil explained.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers “rejected that offer,” Steil said.
The next night, two people were shot in the ongoing chaos.
The next day, Steil said, Evers extended the White House offer again and accepted it.
The death in Kenosha during the riots and the Democratic governor’s alleged lack of response prompted a flurry of tweets from Democratic politicians such as Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, calling for an end to rioting, violence and harassment in their own cities.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden did the same. It doesn’t take long to wonder why this suddenly happened. Riots have been going on in Portland for months. The same goes for the DC protests.
CNN’s Don Lemon let the cat out of the bag Tuesday night when he told his colleague Chris Cuomo: “The riots have to stop. … You can see it in the polls. You can see it in the focus groups.”
A Marquette Law School poll found that Wisconsin voters backed Black Lives Matter protests in June 61% to 36%. However, at the beginning of August, 48% of people were against it and 48% approved it. This represents a net swing of 25 points. This survey was conducted prior to the recent riots in Kenosha.
Kenosha County voted for both former President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump. He ran Republican Scott Walker for governor and then against him. Republican Ron Johnson and Senator Tammy Baldwin won twice.
This is the most turbulent county in the most turbulent state in 2020.
This is where Biden should have been immediately on Tuesday morning, calling for serene and order.
“This is a place where President Donald Trump has provided the kind of leadership for humanity to restore public safety now – not tomorrow, not next week, not next year. Now,” Johnson said in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
Kenosha County borders Lake Michigan to the east, where it retains its early Rust Belt roots thanks to the railroad and factories along it. Its western part has a rural character. The center of the district is where the most development has been recorded in the last few years.
Crossed by Interstate 94, connecting it to Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago, its growth has been fueled by its location, Illinois tax waiver and renowned work ethic.
The county has a population of just under 170,000 and the city of Kenosha has almost 100,000, making it the fourth largest city in the state and on Lake Michigan.
People come here to live in peace of mind. When this peace is broken, it’s tough to imagine them wanting to settle for someone who doesn’t have their back.
“I talked to a lot of people today who were scared,” Steil said. “They were concerned about their public safety, the safety of their family, their home, their petite business. You can hear it. That’s true”.
In his speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night, Vice President Mike Pence addressed the violence in the streets, admonishing Biden for not doing so at his convention a week earlier.
“Let’s be clear: the violence must end, whether in Minneapolis, Portland or Kenosha,” Pence said. “Too many heroes have died defending our freedom to watch Americans kill each other.”
In 2016, Trump flipped the Great Lakes “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin on cultural and economic grounds. No state embodied this change better than Wisconsin. If security concerns in Kenosha persist, November 3 may not be a good night for Democrats.
Salena Zito is a CNN political analyst and a reporter and columnist for the Washington Examiner. Reaches Everyman and Everywoman through leather journalism, traveling from Main Street to the Beltway and all places in between.
