With all eyes on Milwaukee ahead of the first 2024 Republican presidential primary debate, the Democratic National Committee and President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is counting on Wednesday night being a “race to the right.” 

What You Need To Know

  • The Democratic National Committee and President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is counting on the Republican presidential primary debate to be a “race to the right," that will help Democrats in the general election in 2024

  • The DNC plans to fly a banner during the debate and will have multiple billboards around the venue criticizing the “MAGA” agenda, per a DNC official 

  • Biden's campaign said they have not had any substantive conversations on whether Biden will debate Trump ahead of Nov. 2024 should the two be their respective parties' nominees 

“As they race to the right to secure a far-right base, they're nailing themselves to positions that they just cannot recover from in November for the general election,” Biden-Harris 2024 campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond told reporters on a call Tuesday. 

The DNC will not be shy in making that point – with the committee planning to have a plane fly during the debate displaying a banner as well as multiple billboards around the venue criticizing the “MAGA” agenda, a DNC official confirmed to Spectrum News. 

Those on Tuesday’s call specifically honed in on the issue of abortion, warning the debate will be a “race to who can be the most extreme on banning abortion nationwide” – and betting on the issue drivers voting away from the GOP. 

“In red states and in blue states and in presidential battleground states, when abortion is on the ballot, Democrats and abortion rights win,” Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., said. “So tomorrow night the choice could not be more clear.” 

Smith pointed to outcomes in often Republican-dominated states like Kansas and Ohio. Last year, voters in Kansas rejected an effort to remove protections for abortion rights from the state constitution. And earlier this month, voters in Ohio rejected a measure that would have made it more difficult to pass a citizen initiative in November that seeks to enshrine abortion rights in the state.  

When asked by a reporter about whether the Biden campaign team plans to address former President Donald Trump’s absence at the debate, Richmond said it doesn’t matter because “they are all playing out of the same playbook.” 

“Whether he's on the stage or not, his extreme agenda will be,” he said. 

Trump’s decision to skip on Wednesday has sparked conversations about whether it will give Biden an excuse to not debate his former 2020 rival should the two be their parties’ nominees once again next year – with Trump’s former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany making the argument that it would on Fox News on Monday. 

Communications director of Biden’s campaign Michael Tyler said they “haven't had any real substantive conversations about that quite yet,” but argued they are not surprised Trump is skipping. 

Biden’s campaign already announced it will spend $25 million on ads in key swing states including Wisconsin and Milwaukee specifically as GOP candidates head to the city for Wednesday’s debate. 

On Tuesday, Biden’s reelection team announced that on Wednesday, it will launch its first “state-specific” ad in Wisconsin as part of that $25 million ad blitz. The ad will feature a Milwaukee-based cement mason and mother of two talking about how the Democratic president’s policies have impacted her, according to a press release from the campaign. 

The ads will air over the next 16 weeks on television and digital platforms like YouTube and Instagram with a specific focus on President Biden’s manufacturing policies. 

Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee are also slated to hold a press conference in Milwaukee ahead of the debate on Wednesday, “where America will be introduced to the most extreme slate of candidates in history,” the campaign said in a statement.

Richmond, DNC chair Jamie Harrison, Madison, Wis., Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway, and Wisconsin’s Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler are expected to speak.