State Democratic Chair Says Health Care Will Be ‘Front And Center’ In 2020 Campaign

The new head of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin says health care will be “front and center” in the party’s campaign to defeat President Donald Trump.

Democratic Party of Wisconsin chairman Ben Wikler spoke to reporters in a conference call Monday, a day ahead of Trump’s official campaign re-election kickoff. Wisconsin Democrats elected Wikler to lead the party earlier this month. He was previously a senior adviser for MoveOn.org.

Wikler said Trump is particularly vulnerable in Wisconsin because of his previous support for a failed GOP bill that would have eliminated the Affordable Care Act.

It’s a similar argument to one Democrats made all over the country in 2018, including in their successful campaign against former Gov. Scott Walker.

“Trump’s attacks on health care will backfire on him in Wisconsin in 2020 just like Scott Walker’s did on him in 2018,” Wikler said.

During a recent interview with ABC News, Trump called the ACA a “disaster” and said he would propose a new overhaul of the law in the next couple months.

Wikler said that would benefit Democrats.

“Every time we talk about health care, it activates memories in peoples’ minds about what Trump tried to do to their health care,” Wikler said. “If health care is the No. 1 issue in voters’ minds in 2020, Trump will lose Wisconsin in a landslide.”

Wikler said Trump’s record on taxes and tariffs would also hurt him in Wisconsin, saying the president’s trade policies were to blame for the state’s shrinking number of dairy farms.

He also forecast a “blue wave” in the April 2020 presidential primary, an election that will fall on the same day Wisconsin voters pick the state’s next Supreme Court justice.

Health care has dominated the Democratic primary for president, with several of the candidates coming out in support of a “Medicare for All” health care system.

Republicans attacked that idea in the 2018 election, and there are signs the GOP could take a similar approach in 2020.

“Democrats are pushing a radical government takeover of our health care system that would force 3.5 million Wisconsinites off their private insurance plans,” Republican Party of Wisconsin spokesman Charles Nichols said in a written statement. “Moreover, their extreme $32 trillion plan will lead to longer wait times, less choice and the further explosion of healthcare costs. This is not a winning message for the Badger State.”

Trump won Wisconsin by 22,748 votes in 2016, becoming the first Republican to carry the state since President Ronald Reagan won it in 1984.