NEENAH, Wis (NBC 26) -- What undecided voters in our area think of the vice-presidential candidate debate could be highly important. Northeast Wisconsin has a few "pivot counties," places president Obama won in 2012 and president Trump won in 2016. Tonight, we discuss what voters in one of those counties hope to see and hear as Pence and Harris go toe to toe on the stage.
With the vice-presidential debate coming up on Wednesday evening many voters are anxiously waiting to see what both party's leaders not only have to say but how they say it.
"He's (Pence) calmer than Trump. Trump has a mouth that sometimes gets him in trouble. But then again it's not a personality contest," says Shirley Saringer of Neenah.
"I think the vice president did a good job last time and she's (Harris) real competent. I think it's going to be a better debate than the presidential one," adds Don Brill of Neenah
Listening to what the candidates say and how they say it, may actually be swaying voters in Winnebago county a bit more than larger communities. That's because in the last two elections the county as a whole tended to switch up their support from democrats to republicans.
"I think there is America at stake it brings me to tears when I think about it," says Saringer.
"That's why you have independence," adds Brill.
In the 2012 election, the Winnebago county clerk's office reported that voters choose democratic candidate Obama over republican Romney. But then in 2016 Trump took the vote in Winnebago county over Clinton, once again by less than a ten percent margin. This could in part show that the county doesn't follow the trends that bigger counties and communities tend too when it comes to voting across party lines.
"Einstein said if you keep doing the same thing over and over again your insane," says Brill.
"Our whole life we haven't voted party lines, we vote who we believe can do the job and I think that's probably the way it is. Why it's in Winnebago county, I don't know," adds Saringer.
Political analysts say lower voter turnout in Wisconsin's big cities in 2016 likely hurt the democratic party and Trump's focus on more rural parts of Wisconsin may have given him the leg up in the election. But today, with less than a month to go till the election some voters say it's not about touting your party's line but the message behind the candidate.
"It's the message and what they can do, we've always voted that way. We vote democrat we vote republican, whoever is there and is going to do the job the best is the person we would want to win," says Saringer.
