WATERTOWN, Wis. — The border crisis has emerged as a top concern for voters in Wisconsin — as the critical battleground state gears up for one of the most competitive US Senate races on top of a historic presidential election in November.
Democrat incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin is likely to face off against multimillionaire Republican challenger Eric Hovde when voters head to the polls later this year.
Baldwin, who is a fierce Kamala Harris ally, is now coming under scrutiny over her soft-on-immigration record, especially as Harris has emerged as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Voters fear that a Balwin and Harris win could leave the besieged southern border wide open.
“I don’t think the border is a border state issue anymore,” Kyle Schroeder, Chairman of the Wisconsin Young Republicans, told The Post, insisting that immigration is one of the top three issues for younger conservative voters aged 18-40 in Wisconsin.
“Ultimately their voting records [on immigration] have been an absolute disaster,” the 28-year-old added of the prospect of a Harris presidency and Badlwin third term.
“They voted to allow previously deported felons to return without penalty. They’re two peas in the pod at the end day.”
Baldwin — who refused to appear with President Biden at a rally after his rocky debate performance then enthusiastically endorsed Harris within hours of Biden stepping down — shares a similar record as the Democratic presidential nominee, who was once coined the Biden administration’s “border czar.”
Both Baldwin and Harris voted against Kate’s Law, a bill that would mandate five-year prison sentences for illegal immigrants with felonies apprehended in the United States.
It was named after Kate Steinle, a 32-year-old woman who was killed in San Francisco in 2015 by an illegal migrant from Mexico who had seven felony convictions at the time of his arrest and had been deported from the US to Mexico six times.
Baldwin voted against cloture on Kate’s Law in 2016, effectively helping to kill the bill. Harris also helped kill the bill when it came back up in 2017 in the Senate.
Those votes are both taking center stage again after Sen. JD Vance — now former President Donald Trump’s running mate — reintroduced the bill in February of this year following the violent murder of Laken Riley allegedly at the hands of an illegal immigrant who had been previously deported.
Baldwin and Harris also voted against an immigration amendment to the Broader Options for Americans Act, which would have mandated the detention of an illegal migrant convicted of any DUI, even as a first offense.
Had that amendment been approved, it could have meant the detention and eventual deportation of Victor Manual Gomez-Acosta, a Mexican man who was living in the US illegally, before he allegedly stabbed his wife and daughters to death earlier this year.
“Kamala Harris’ open border policy has thrown once-stable cities into discord as they grapple with the influx of new residents,” Badger State small business owner Cori Houston told The Post.
“Tammy Baldwin’s illegal immigration record is no better. The ongoing challenges facing these communities only suggest that their election will worsen conditions for regular American citizens,” Houston added.
Houston also expressed concern about Harris’ record on immigration as a prosecutor in California.
“A glance at San Francisco reveals her indifference to the issues of immigration and homelessness in her own community — why would she care about ours?” she asked.
As San Francisco District Attorney, Harris supported the city’s decades-old sanctuary city policy and refused to seek the death penalty in the gruesome killing of a father, Tony Bologna, and his two sons, Michael and Matthew, by an illegal immigrant from El Salvador — despite calls from the mother and widow.
In 2018, Baldwin and Harris voted against cloture on Senate Amendment 1948 — an amendment that would have made sanctuary cities ineligible for certain federal law enforcement grants.
“Sen. Baldwin and VP Harris opened our borders and let criminals, terrorists and deadly drugs enter the US without any consequences,” Hovde, Baldwin’s likely rival in the 2024 Wisconsin Senate race, told The Post.
“As more and more illegal immigrants commit shocking violent crimes on a seemingly daily basis, Sen. Baldwin and VP Harris are dangerously wrong for Wisconsin.”
However, Baldwin’s team defended her record by pointing to her vote in February for a bipartisan border security compromise intended to cut back border crossings.
“Earlier this year [Baldwin] voted for the bipartisan border deal that would have added hundreds of Border Patrol agents, shut down the border to illegal crossings, and helped stop fentanyl and other illegal drugs from coming into our country,” Baldwin’s spokesperson, Andrew Mamo, said.
“While that bill was supported by Republicans, Democrats, and the US Border Patrol, her opponent Eric Hovde said he would have voted against the bill because he is more interested in playing politics with this issue than addressing the problem.”
The bill, which was tied to funding for Ukraine, ultimately failed to pass.
A Fox News poll, released July 26, shows Baldwin leading Hovde 54% to 43% among registered Wisconsin voters. The same poll shows Harris and Trump neck-and-neck in the Badger State.
Baldwin, meanwhile, appeared alongside Harris as a show of support at her first campaign rally as presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in Milwaukee on July 23.
“I had the privilege of serving with Tammy when I was in the United States Senate,” Harris told the crowd at the rally.
“And she is always fighting for the people of this state. And I know that the folks that are here are going to make sure you return her to Washington, DC, in November.”