David Crowley is bringing Kamala Harris to Wisconsin on Oct. 26 to prop up a campaign that has trailed in fundraising, messaging, and manpower. Harris spent four years as vice president overseeing record illegal border crossings, a disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, and inflation that hit working families hardest. Crowley is betting the Harris brand will sell better when they arrive with a Milwaukee County executive’s name on the ballot.
“I’m not an ally. I’m an accomplice. I’m going to be with you no matter what.” Crowley is the local version of the border policy Harris oversaw nationally: fewer tools for enforcement, more protection for people who entered illegally, and the costs shifted to taxpayers and crime victims.
President Biden assigned Harris as border czar. Illegal crossings reached historic highs on her watch. Gotaways numbered in the millions. Fentanyl and other drugs crossed in record-breaking quantities that killed Americans every day. She had previously said an undocumented immigrant is not a criminal and supported treating illegal crossings as a civil matter. The Biden-Harris administration later changed the talking points. The numbers did not change until political pressure forced a different approach late in the term.
Crowley has already said where he stands on the same issue. When a supporter asked how he would respond to ICE, he answered, “I’m not an ally. I’m an accomplice. I’m going to be with you no matter what.” He has said he sees no scenario in which Milwaukee County would partner with federal immigration authorities and has opposed honoring ICE detainers. That is the local version of the border policy Harris oversaw nationally: fewer tools for enforcement, more protection for people who entered illegally, and the costs shifted to taxpayers and crime victims.
Inflation hit 9.1 percent under the Biden administration. Trillion-dollar spending packages that Harris supported as vice president and that Democrats in Congress passed drove the surge. Grocery bills, rent, and energy costs rose for working families. Harris and President Biden spent years insisting the problem was temporary or the fault of corporations.
Crowley has already shown he shares the same approach to government. He raised Milwaukee County’s sales tax from 0.5 percent to 0.9 percent and celebrated with cake. He has approved property tax levy increases in most of his budgets while the county faces structural deficits projected at $50.8 million in 2027 and more than $168 million by 2031. He voted against a middle-class income tax cut that Evers later signed. His campaign wishlist includes repealing Act 10, which the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty estimates would cost school districts and local governments more than $2 billion a year, plus universal pre-K, expanded BadgerCare, and a $20 minimum wage. Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin has estimated the combined annual cost of his agenda at more than $6 billion. When pressed on how he would pay for it, he offered no dollar figure.
Crowley already flew to California for a high-dollar fundraiser with Harris and Sean Penn. Now he is bringing her here. Wisconsin rejected Harris in 2024 by fewer than 30,000 votes. Crowley is asking the same voters to accept the border numbers, the Afghanistan exit, the inflation, and the higher taxes that followed as the model for the next governor.
The pattern is consistent. Harris promised expansive benefits and delivered higher costs and weaker enforcement. Crowley is promising the same package for Wisconsin residents. Voters who lived through the last four years of Biden can see what’s coming with Crowley.
