Kamala Harris, pictured at a 2019 rally in Oakland, raised $81 million for her presidential bid in the first 24 hours after President Biden announced he would not seek reelection. (Tony Avelar / Associated Press)
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) – Presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris, received a notable endorsement on Wednesday as she’s set to visit the Badger State for the second time since President Joe Biden stepped aside in the race.
According to a press release from the Green New Deal Network, which did not originally endorse Biden before he stepped aside due to his support of Israel in the war against Hamas as well as his approval of a large fossil fuel project in Alaska, Vice President Harris has received their key endorsement despite recent data showing support for the deal could harm her electability chances with a key voting base in swing states.
This endorsement comes as Harris’s upcoming tour with her soon-to-be-announced running mate will include “a stop in Western Wisconsin,” and a recent analysis by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty found that the Green New Deal would cost the average family in Wisconsin more than $40,000 in new costs per year, cause $200 million in losses to Wisconsin farmers, and cause a $2.5 billion hit to the state’s dairy industry—or $2,000 per cow.
Back in 2019, famed policy expert and political strategist Douglas Holtz-Eakin stated that the Green New Deal would cost U.S. taxpayers between $50 trillion and $90 trillion to fully implement. In a statement made by then Sen. Kamala Harris during CNN’s 2019 climate crisis town hall, who ran for president during the Democratic primary in 2020, she said, “If they (the GOP) fail to act, as president of the United States, I am prepared to get rid of the filibuster to pass a Green New Deal.”
Harris is not the first elected official who’s gone on record supporting the deal to visit or be from Wisconsin, as U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin has received endorsements from several notable Green New Deal supporting groups, such as the Sierra Club, Environment America, the League of Conservation Voters, and the National Resources Defense Council, who help make up The Climate Action Campaign due to her voting in favor of notable climate change-oriented bills like the Growing Climate Solutions Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.
When asked about the network’s endorsement of Harris and WILL’s analysis, Hovde campaign spokesperson Ben Voelkel said Wisconsin voters will have a choice to make come November, saying, “Sen. Baldwin and VP Harris are so out of touch that they are willing to throw our state’s economy overboard and bankrupt Wisconsin farmers by forcing the Green New Deal on all of us. While Eric Hovde will fight for Wisconsin, after 25 years in Washington, Sen. Baldwin only wants to stand up for her far-left special interest backers.”
As of Wednesday, pollster Nate Silver has former President Donald Trump’s odds of winning in November at 57% with a 274 to 264 electoral college victory, while the latest Harvard/Harris poll shows Trump by four percentage points over Harris nationally with leans.
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