'Catholics for Trump' event set for March 19 in Milwaukee postponed due to coronavirus

MILWAUKEE -- President Donald Trump's scheduled "Catholics for Trump" event scheduled for March 19 at the Wisconsin Center in downtown Milwaukee was postponed Wednesday, March 11 due to coronavirus.

Catholics have been on the winning side of presidential elections since 1976. They voted for the winner in each race except when they went for Al Gore. FOX6 News is told 91,000 Catholics in Wisconsin who go to church are not registered to vote.

President Trump won Wisconsin by less than 23,000 votes in 2016.

"We're a somewhat more Catholic state than some of the other states in America, and generally, if you're a politician, you want to grab groups of voters," said Mordecai Lee, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. "In other words, you're in the wholesale business. You can't just pick up one voter at a time,"

The Pew Forum found one out of four Wisconsinites are Catholics.

Democratic Party of Wisconsin's Philip Schulman said the president should not visit.

"He and the vice president, who are supposed to be leading the fight against the coronavirus, to take their focus elsewhere, where it shouldn't be," Schulman said.

Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday the campaign was making decisions on a day-to-day basis.

"I'm very confident that the campaign will take the very best information and make the very best decision going forward," Pence said.

Pence was scheduled to campaign in Wisconsin the same day as President Trump.

Archbishop Jerome Listecki's message to Catholics

Meanwhile, Archbishop Jerome Listecki said Wednesday the Catholic Church would not be hosting or sponsoring the event. His complete statement to Catholics is as follows: