Cedarburg, Wisconsin
CNN
—
Lisa Reisman had to stop watching.
“He didn’t look as strong as he used to,” she said of President Joe Biden’s performance at last month’s CNN debate. “It was really hard for me to watch it, because he looked a little out of sorts.”
Her husband, Troy Reisman, who also voted for Biden, hung around until the end of the debate, reaching for his phone during former President Donald Trump’s closing statements.
“Yeah, it was definitely scary,” Troy Reisman said of Biden’s performance. “The first people I called were my parents, who are very elderly, and I said, ‘What did you guys think?’ Because I still don’t know where I’m going to vote, where I’m going to cast my vote, but my parents don’t, and they were just as scared.”
The Reismans run the Shinery, a moonshine bar in Cedarburg, a pretty little town about 30 minutes north of Milwaukee. Once a textile mill, it’s now a bar, restaurant, inn and art gallery, where locals tell stories of living like they’re in a Hallmark movie or a Norman Rockwell painting.
Polite, personable and politically conscious, the Reismans had a message for the candidate they both supported in 2020.
“Think about the future. Think about our children and grandchildren,” Troy Reisman said. “Maybe we should step back just because the future doesn’t look very bright with the other side in power. I could be wrong, and I hope I am, but it’s scary.”
Lisa Reisman agreed: “I think it’s time. We need fresh leadership, new leadership. … I like Joe Biden as a person. I think he stands for good things. But I’m not sure he can lead the country anymore.”
The Reismans and Cedarberg are currently part of a CNN project aimed at tracking the 2024 race through the eyes and experiences of voters who live in key battlegrounds and are part of key voting blocs.
Cedarburg, population 12,000, wasn’t on that list until recently. It used to be heavily Republican: Mitt Romney won 63% of the vote in 2012, just 12 years ago. Trump won in 2016, but his share of the vote dropped to 55%. Then Biden narrowly won Cedarburg by 19 votes in 2020. Locals say that’s the result of a combination of population shifts and Trump’s struggles with moderate Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in the suburbs.
Gina Cilento falls into the latter group, though perhaps not entirely.
When asked which candidate he would choose in the 2024 presidential election, Silento replied: “I can’t say right now. I haven’t decided.”
At least in Cedarburg, Biden’s debate gaffes did not automatically translate into increased support for Trump.
Cilento tends to vote Republican and has never voted Democrat for president, but she is disgusted by current politics and describes herself as “leaning more independent, or even downright liberal.”
“My political career right now is at a very… fed up point,” Silento said during an interview at a pickleball studio in fast-growing Cedarburg. “Every time I go to the polls I ask myself, is this the best that our country can do?… We are one of the greatest countries in the world and this is our… this is our accomplishment? It’s very frustrating…. I just feel sad overall. The biggest issue for me is that a house divided cannot survive. That’s true and instead of thriving, I see our country declining.”
Cedarburg, Wisconsin celebrates Independence Day
Everywhere you go, you find dismay and disgust at the presidential choice. Concerns about political polarization — a “house divided,” as Silento puts it — are common among Americans who have traditionally voted Republican but are less likely to vote for Trump because of what they perceive as an aggressive, antagonistic tone.
As a result, Cilento said she would “consider” voting for a third party. She said she couldn’t imagine voting for Biden and was saddened by his performance in the debates. She said that if Biden steps down, she would at least consider a new Democrat.
“I’m in a place where I want to feel connected,” she said.
Mr. Silento, a former professional tennis player and now a tour pickleball player, welcomes voters from all walks of life to his venues, but political conversations there tend to be brief and polite.
“It really is a place where people can forget about what’s going on in the real world and just focus on having fun and getting along,” she said.
Silento served as grand marshal for this year’s Cedarburg Fourth of July parade, an event that has become a source of great local pride and was once featured in a Toby Keith music video.
During the roughly two-hour parade, sidewalks fill with families as marching bands, antique tractors and floats sponsored by locally-owned businesses pass by stone and shingle buildings rich in history.
“The town itself was really fueled by the textile mills,” says Melissa Rahlstad, who runs the Wisconsin Quilt and Fiber Art Museum, located on a Cedarburg farm once owned by German immigrants.
“From the mid-20th century through the 1970s, the mills closed, so Cedarburg had to redevelop and come up with other ideas,” Lahlstad said in an interview. “A lot of other towns fell apart, but Cedarburg was able to reinvent itself as an arts town, a tourist town.”
In 2020, LaAlstad noticed another change in Cedarburg: For the first time, lawn signs were split almost evenly between Democratic and Republican candidates. Her favorite was when a couple next door split their lawn half for Trump and half for Biden.
Everyone said there were fewer signs this year. Maybe it’s just early, or maybe it reflects something Lahlstad often hears from museum visitors and friends after the forum.
“The majority of people were not happy with either,” she said.
What’s your review of Biden’s debate?
“People across the country have the same concerns about age,” said Lahlstad, who said he was independent and could not offer a personal opinion because of his role at the museum.
The lack of enthusiasm for both major party candidates was also evident at a large picnic held in a local park after the parade. There were a few Trump hats and shirts, but Biden branding, though few in number. Conversations with the half-dozen Democrats were dominated by concern about Biden’s debate performance and the view that it hurt his chances to win Wisconsin again. (The president narrowly won the state in 2020, but Trump won it four years earlier.)
Allen Napalala traces the political changes in the area to the dwindling number of dismayed reactions and complaints he’s receiving about the slogan “Sexy Wine, Taste the Juice” at Chiseled Grape Winery on Cedarburg’s Main Street.
When he opened the shop five years ago, he said he had “trouble with people.”
People have said things like, ‘What is that?’ and ‘That’s gross,’ Napalala said. “Now there’s an even balance between conservatives and liberals.”
Napalala moved here to care for his elderly mother. His wines are made and bottled in California and sold in a cozy cafe where locals and tourists mingle. It’s an election year, so politics are a frequent topic of conversation.
“I create a safe environment,” Napalala said. “Everyone has a right to speak. Everyone has a right to say how they feel.”
He describes himself as a fiscal conservative and social liberal who believes Washington should spend less but ban assault rifles.
“I’m going through a terribly difficult time,” Napalala said. “There’s constant fighting and bickering. … It’s the middle class that’s not being represented anymore. Real workers. Small business owners.”
While he said he remains undecided about the 2024 presidential election, he said he cannot vote for Trump and does not see a viable third-party option.
Napalala also watched the debate.
“It was awful. It was really awful,” Napalala said. “Watching Biden try and get his words through was just awful. Really awful. Everybody has their bad days, I get it. But this was your time to shine, you know?”
Did Biden seem capable of serving another four and a half years in office?
“I don’t think so. I think,” Napalala, who is rarely at a loss for words, said, stammering for a moment as he tried to squeeze out an answer. “Let’s put it this way: I’m voting for that party right now.”
Napalala’s sentiment came up multiple times during our conversation in Cedarburg: “Before the debate, I still thought Biden could win.”
Now Napalala and many other likely or certain Biden voters are questioning whether the president can win Wisconsin and be re-elected — and they fear Trump could return to the White House.
“It’s probably going to be tough for a while,” Napalala said.
But he’s not convinced changing candidates is the solution.
Asked if he thought Vice President Kamala Harris was qualified to be president, Trump replied, “I don’t think so.” Trump spends a lot of time in California, and said Gov. Gavin Newsom should not be a candidate either.
Napalala understands why some are calling for Biden to step down, but he’s skeptical.
“Who’s going to do it?” he said. “The election process is so slow that it’s almost certain that Trump will win anyway. … I think it’s too late now.”
Napalala wasn’t the only voter we spoke to in Cedarburg who issued a challenge to the Biden campaign and Democratic Party officials: “If you really care about your party, do something before this, you know what I mean?”
