Republicans are trying to lose by less in key blue areas in Wisconsin

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Next week, Republican delegates from around the country will descend on Milwaukee, Wis., for the party's national convention. As Republicans look to November, they have a new strategy in this key swing state. They're hoping to win over some votes in key blue areas, and they are calling the strategy losing by less. Maayan Silver from member Station WUWM explains.

MAAYAN SILVER, BYLINE: If you ask Hilario Deleon, a Cinco de Mayo event earlier this year in Milwaukee was a perfect place to engage people about politics.

HILARIO DELEON: How are you doing, folks? How are you doing? What's wrong? Let's have a conversation.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: No.

DELEON: No?

SILVER: Or maybe not. Some voters do swing by and pledge support to former President Donald Trump at the Republican Party of Milwaukee County's table. But it's an uphill battle. In 2020, around 70% of Milwaukee County's vote went to Joe Biden. As the chair of the county's GOP, Deleon thinks outreach at events like these can make inroads for Trump in Milwaukee.

DELEON: For a long time, Republicans have kind of left it alone and thought it's a lost cause. Well, now they're starting to wake up and realize that if you lose by less in cities like Milwaukee, you can take the rest of the state because the rest of the state will carry for President Trump.

SILVER: With Operation Connecting Milwaukee, Deleon is trying to dig up people who may lean conservative but not vote often and also connect with independents, libertarians and disaffected liberals. It's a strategy Bill McCoshen endorses. The Republican strategist says Milwaukee is a key part of winning the state.

BILL MCCOSHEN: There's about 10 counties that represent about 50% of the vote statewide. That's where they ought to concentrate the majority of their resources.

SILVER: As Republicans in heavily blue areas try to lose by less, Republicans in the conservative-leaning Milwaukee suburbs are also trying to step up their efforts. That's because the GOP has seen an erosion of support there in recent years, as the suburbs diversify racially and economically and splinter on issues like abortion.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Welcome, everybody. Welcome.

SILVER: It's standing room only at a GOP watch party in one of those conservative-leaning suburbs, Ozaukee County, a couple of weeks ago for the first presidential debate. John Richmond is here, and with a soda water and lemon in hand, the retired financial adviser says he's also volunteering with the county party. As he goes out door-knocking, he wants to tell people how important it is to vote this year.

JOHN RICHMOND: And rather than getting into kind of any argumentive (ph) situations, my approach to this is just let's give each candidate a report card. And you can start with Afghanistan.

SILVER: Republicans here have been focusing on immigration and the economy. In the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll on the presidential race, Trump was seen as stronger on those issues than Biden. The Second Amendment is also a way to find GOP-leaning voters, says Cheryl Rebholz. She's on the board of the Ozaukee County GOP and opened the first indoor shooting range in the county.

CHERYL REBHOLZ: And what I volunteered to do is set up voter registrations at my gun range because we have the data that a lot of Second Amendment gun owners do not vote.

SILVER: Alex Leykin is the chair of the Ozaukee County Republican Party. He says they're looking to bring new voters to the polls who haven't voted before or haven't voted in a long time. He says this is a big deal because his county used to be about 60% Republican.

ALEX LEYKIN: In the latest elections, we've been closer to 53%. And so all we need to do to win the state of Wisconsin - not Ozaukee - all we have to do is get that to about 57. From 53 to 57, if we can make that small change in Ozaukee, we win Wisconsin.

SILVER: As Republicans try to lose places like Milwaukee by less, they're also trying to win GOP-leaning suburbs by a little bit more. For NPR News, I'm Maayan Silver in Milwaukee.

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