Despite their best efforts, the Democrats in Wisconsin have failed in nearly every attempt to remove all aspiring presidential candidates from the ballot except for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. (They would remove Trump in a heartbeat if they thought they could get away with it.) They ran into yet another brick wall yesterday when the state Elections Commission voted to allow both Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West to remain on the ballot, along with Jill Stein of the Green Party. The Commission previously approved the nominees from the Constitution Party, the Libertarian Party, and the Socialism and Liberation Party. All tolled, Wisconsin voters will have eight names to pick from this year, in addition to the option of writing in another candidate of their choosing. This was hardly the result that the Harris team was hoping for. (Associated Press)

The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted Tuesday to keep Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the presidential ballot, despite his request to be removed, and also rejected a Democratic attempt to oust independent candidate Cornel West.

A move by Democratic elections commissioners to keep Green Party candidate Jill Stein off the ballot also failed. The vote to approve her came the day after the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit by Democrats to remove Stein from the ballot.

Ultimately, the commission approved eight presidential candidates for the ballot in Wisconsin: Democrat Kamala Harris; Republican Donald Trump; Randall Terry of the Constitution Party; Chase Oliver of the Libertarian Party; Claudia De la Cruz of the Socialism and Liberation Party; and Kennedy, West and Stein.

While it's still far too soon to say for sure, this could turn out to be a critical development in November's elections. The polling in Wisconsin remains incredibly close, with minor shifts taking place almost weekly. Joe Biden only carried the state by the narrowest of margins in 2020 and Kamala Harris desperately wants to keep it in her pocket, along with the state's ten electoral votes. Wisconsin was seen as a reliably blue(ish) state until quite recently, but the political landscape has been shifting a bit.

Even the blue vote in Wisconsin seems to have splintered a bit, particularly in the small but critical Arab and Muslim sectors. They may not be fans of Donald Trump for the most part, but many of them are still showing up at rallies to rail against "Genocide Joe" and "Killer Kamala" about the lack of a ceasefire in Gaza. This represents a threat to Harris and a potential window of opportunity for Trump. It doesn't matter whether those disgruntled voters vote for Trump, a third-party candidate, or simply stay home. Each one that Harris loses represents another vote she will have to make up elsewhere.

Kennedy likely won't have too big of an impact now that he has withdrawn from the race and thrown his lot in with Trump. Anyone who was looking at him as a Trump alternative has probably lost most of their incentive to flip that switch. But Cornel West is another matter. He could be seen as a legitimate alternative to Harris based on most of his policy preferences, but he has also been significantly more critical of Israel than Harris. Only weeks after the October 7 terror attacks, West was going on television and saying that "both sides" were equally culpable and that, “Ending the occupation is a requirement. For me, that is non-negotiable in the Middle East." That's the sort of stance that will come as music to the ears of the Arab and Muslim voters in Michigan who have not been letting up the pressure on "Killer Kamala."

As of the latest polling, Harris has pulled ahead of Donald Trump narrowly in Wisconsin during her honeymoon period as the new candidate, but Kennedy was drawing nearly five percent to Cornel West's one or two percent. With Kennedy out of the race and on Trump's team, it's not impossible that a significant amount of his support could migrate to West. If Cornel West could manage to pull even 5% in November, coming almost entirely from Kamala's voter pool, that could make all the difference and put the state virtually out of her reach. Stay tuned. The Cheeseheads may still deliver some significant surprises in this race.