MILWAUKEE—The capital cities of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Montana are all more than 1,000 miles from the southern border. That didn't stop those states' GOP Senate nominees from homing in on America's border crisis when they spoke at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.
Under President Joe Biden, "innocent young women like our daughters are being raped and murdered by illegal immigrants," Pennsylvania's Dave McCormick said. "They are rolling out the red carpet for violent gangs, fentanyl, Chinese spies, individuals on the terror watch list," added Michigan's Mike Rogers. And when Montanans call for common sense, Tim Sheehy said, "they want a secure border."
Similar rhetoric rang out from Arizona's Kari Lake, Wisconsin's Eric Hovde, Ohio's Bernie Moreno, and Virginia's Hung Cao, all of whom sought to tie their Democratic opponents to the Biden administration's border policies. Cao in particular fired up the crowd, contrasting his own immigration story—his parents fled communist Vietnam and he went on to serve as a Navy captain—with "millions of illegal aliens" who "fly Hamas flags on our campuses" and "shout death to America."
"As an immigrant to this great country," Cao said, "let me be very clear to everyone who comes here: don't ask for the American dream if you're not willing to follow American laws and embrace the American culture." The line received a standing ovation and chants of "USA."
The southern border focus from the GOP's top Senate hopefuls—regardless of where they hail from—reflects the importance of the issue going into November.
Illegal immigration is a weak spot for Biden, who has overseen the highest average level of annual illegal border crossings in American history. It's also surged to the number one issue for voters—in April, Americans named immigration as their top problem for the third month in a row, according to a Gallup poll. Before then, immigration had topped the poll only four times since 2000.
The issue's salience was clear Tuesday night in Milwaukee.
"Who's ready to retire Joe Biden and border czar Kamala Harris and send her back to California?" McCormick said to open his speech. "They have encouraged millions of illegals to invade America," Moreno said of Biden, Harris, and his opponent, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio). "Gallego and the Democrats have handed over my state, Arizona's border, to the cartels," added Lake, referencing her own opponent, Democratic congressman Ruben Gallego.
Rogers, meanwhile, used his status as a former Army officer to say he's "seen how dangerous the world can be."
"But in all my time working to protect America, I have never seen anything like the Biden-Harris open border policy," he said. "It is long past time that we restore law and order."
As the speeches went on, the Biden campaign labeled former president Donald Trump a "convicted felon," said he will provide "tax handouts for billionaires and large corporations," and accused him of leaving Americans "jobless" during COVID.
The campaign did not, however, push back on the border rhetoric from the GOP Senate hopefuls, suggesting it does not see a way to counter Republicans on the issue. That vulnerability would almost certainly extend to Harris should she supplant Biden as the nominee.
Biden tapped Harris to serve as his border czar in June 2021, and the vice president traveled to Guatemala to "advance a comprehensive strategy to tackle the causes of migration" two months later. While there, she told NBC's Lester Holt she had visited the southern border as vice president. She had not.
"At some point, you know, we are going to the border," she said. "We've been to the border. So this whole, this whole, this whole thing about the border. We've been to the border."
"You haven't been to the border," Holt responded. "I, and I haven't been to Europe," Harris said before laughing. "And I mean, I don't—I don't understand the point you're making."