In Wisconsin, Democrats Hope Competing Down Ballot Helps Harris, Too

For the first time in 13 years, Wisconsin Democrats are contesting a number of local races. Even a few thousand voters energized by the candidates at their door could make a difference in a tight presidential contest.

Jamie Wall, a Democratic candidate for State Senate in Wisconsin, canvassing in Green Bay, Wis., on Monday.

John Soletski’s brick Arts and Crafts house, with its Trump-Vance yard sign and its Trump flag festooned with guns, was not on the list as Jamie Wall, a Democratic candidate for Wisconsin’s State Senate, knocked on doors on Monday evening in a working-class neighborhood in Green Bay.

So when Mr. Soletski dashed out to meet him, there was no guarantee it would go well.

“I like the way you’re out here — you don’t see that very much,” said a beaming Mr. Soletski, a 64-year-old with a yard business. He offered Mr. Wall his hand and a pinch of Copenhagen tobacco snuff that the candidate politely declined. “I’m voting for the Trump guy,” he said, “but I’m reading up on all the others.”

It was the kind of exchange Democrats are hoping for as they hit the streets of Wisconsin, rounding up votes in the first truly contested state legislative races in 13 years. An energized Democratic Party, awakened like Rip Van Winkle after perhaps the most systematic gerrymander in the country, is eyeing newly competitive local districts for a possible updraft effect — ideally benefiting both Vice President Kamala Harris and Senator Tammy Baldwin, whose seat is critical to Democrats’ hopes of keeping control of the chamber or at least holding Republicans to a narrow majority.

In a state that President Biden won in 2020 by 20,682 votes, and former President Donald J. Trump won in 2016 by 22,748, even a few thousand voters energized by the candidates at their doorstep could make a difference. Ben Wikler, the chairman of Wisconsin’s Democratic Party, said issues like abortion, school funding and Medicaid expansion — all decided by the State Legislature — would drive “a small but incredibly consequential group of voters to the polls.”

“This is really a secret weapon,” he said.

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“I like the way you’re out here — you don’t see that very much,” John Soletski said as Mr. Wall knocked doors in his working-class neighborhood.Credit…Jim Vondruska for The New York TimesImageRepublicans have controlled the State Legislature since 2011, aided by voting maps the party drew heavily in its favor. Last year, the State Supreme Court ruled that new maps should be drawn.Credit…Jim Vondruska for The New York Times

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