Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visits Milwaukee as VP pick nears
MILWAUKEE - Political watchers call it the "veepstakes."
Vice President Kamala Harris next week will campaign with whoever she picks as her running mate, with a stop in battleground Wisconsin.
On Wednesday, July 31, one of the names floated, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, visited Milwaukee.
He's not the favorite to get the Democratic vice president nomination, but gamblers betting on the pick rank him in the top five.
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A Politico headline earlier this week read, "‘We all realize it’s unlikely.’ But Pete Buttigieg’s VP stock is rising," and another from The Hill wrote "Buttigieg is everywhere as Harris' team weighs running mates."
The Transportation Secretary joined Gov. Tony Evers on Wednesday, on part of the new Amtrak Borealis line at Milwaukee Intermodal Station.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
It runs from Minneapolis to Chicago, the host of this year’s Democratic National Convention.
"Because I’m here in my federal capacity, I can’t comment on campaigns and elections," Buttigieg said. "I can say how proud I am to serve with President Biden and Vice President Harris."
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This was an official taxpayer-funded trip and there is the Hatch Act, which restricts what he can say.
Republicans called the Wisconsin trip a VP audition.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Gov. Tony Evers
"You’ve got posturing Pete Buttigieg, a failed mayor, as a failed presidential candidate, as a failed DOT secretary and now posturing for his next job," Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Brian Schimming said.
Buttigieg started his day at Port Milwaukee. He highlighted some federal funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law, a $9.3 million grant announced last year.
The money is helping the DeLong Company expand its export facility, building more storage and equipment to handle more grain.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
"That means the chance to expand the capacity by more than 1.3 million bushels a year, so more American farmers can sell their excellent product to the world through this port," Buttigieg said. "The ship we have right next to us is loading distillers dry grains with solubles, a byproduct of ethanol from farmers in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa on its way to be sold in northern Europe. Now at last, we are bringing the support that these communities have long deserved."
U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Janesville) said investments into the state’s infrastructure are positive things, but there is concern for the Biden-Harris administration’s spending.
"[...] Infrastructure investments that help our economy, as in the ports, that’s positive; but what we’re noting is Secretary Buttigieg is not going to talk about the $78 million the federal government has given the state of Wisconsin for electric vehicle charging stations that hasn’t even had one ribbon cutting in our state," Steil said. "It’s not that everything in a trillion dollar spending bill is bad, it’s that this administration refuses to put forward priorities and spends on everything. And so the vast amount of spending this administration has wrought on our economy is what has caused the inflation."