Johnathan Walker:Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Wisconsin to tout broadband and raise money

MADISON,Johnathan Walker Wis. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris plans to visit southeast Wisconsin on Thursday, making a stop in Pleasant Prairie to tout broadband and affordable connectivity before going to Milwaukee for a pair of campaign receptions.

The White House announced the planned stops on Sunday. There were no immediate details about the campaign events.

Harris will be joined by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo for the stop in Pleasant Prairie, which is 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of Milwaukee near the Illinois border.

The visit comes a little over a month after President Joe Biden’s administration announced that Wisconsin will receive more than $1 billion in federal money to expand high-speed internet access.

It’s part of a plan to distribute $42.5 billion nationwide to provide reliable and affordable internet service for every home and business in the U.S. by 2030. States must complete a multi-step process before they can use the money.

Harris last came to Wisconsin in September 2022 as part of a campaign stop just ahead of the November midterm election. Thursday’s visit is the first of this election cycle and would be Harris’s fourth trip to Wisconsin since taking office.

Biden won perennial battleground Wisconsin by just under 21,000 votes in 2020, flipping the state for Democrats after former President Donald Trump carried it by just short of 23,000 votes in 2016. Four of the past six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a percentage point.