Jim Neumeyer is the owner of Beans & Barley, a staple cafe and shop in a Milwaukee neighborhood, talks to customers at his shop. Beans & Barley is a progressive space in the community.
Keren Carrión/NPR
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Keren Carrión/NPR
Jim Neumeyer is the owner of Beans & Barley, a staple cafe and shop in a Milwaukee neighborhood, talks to customers at his shop. Beans & Barley is a progressive space in the community.
Keren Carrión/NPR
On a recent fall morning, Consider This host Ari Shapiro started his day on the edge of Lake Michigan in the city of Milwaukee before the sun had risen.
His agenda for the day included traveling the 15 mile stretch of North Avenue with reporter Maayan Silver of WUWM, the local member station in Milwaukee.
North Avenue runs through a large swathe of Milwaukee. It covers different demographics and neighborhoods, urban, suburban, rich, poor, segregated and integrated. Shapiro and Silver made the trek to get a better understanding of what voters in Wisconsin are looking for and feeling ahead of the election in November.
In a state of 6 million people, where the presidential vote can be decided by a margin of twenty thousand votes, It’s not just one demographic group or bloc that can make the difference in 2024.
It’s all of them.
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Speaking with some runners.
As the two begin strolling, Silver shares a saying she’s heard often in Wisconsin “As goes North Avenue, so goes Wisconsin.”
On this rainy, murky fall morning, a dedicated group of runners agree to chat with our hosts about the upcoming election, though politics are typically a subject that they don’t tend to discuss with each other.
One of the organizers of The OMG running group is 64-year-old Patrick Beiser.
“I would say our particular group here, the Milwaukee running group, has a more liberal leaning, so we agree with each other mostly, so there’s not a lot to discuss.”
Hans Goldenberg, a 34-year-old who lives in ddowntown Milwaukee runs up to join the group. His political views are different from the rest of them.
“I don’t know. I may or may not vote,” he told Shapiro. “I don’t like either candidate to be completely honest.”
Goldenberg wants lower taxes and less crime, and thinks Republicans would do a better job addressing that. But he’s also more socially liberal.
“I’ve gone both ways in the past. I voted for Obama. You know, I feel like sometimes my vote doesn’t matter.”
32-year-old Jackie Breen jumps in.
“I understand that, because I have felt for many many elections, for a very long time, like who am I voting for? I don’t want either.”
She says her top issue is the environment, and she’s a committed Harris voter.
But she gets why Goldenberg is frustrated.
“Where’s my third option, where’s my fourth option, where’s someone who is actually closer to my age, who understands that my generation is going to have debt for the rest of their lives?”
One business owner’s concerns.
Further down North Avenue, Beans and Barley first opened its doors 50 years ago.
Two-story windows let daylight stream into the building. It’s a gift shop, deli counter, and restaurant. There is a sign on the glass that says “Black Lives Matter.” On the reverse, it says “Racism is an insidious cultural disease.”
Milwaukee is only 40% white, and it’s also one of the most segregated cities in the U.S. Jim Neumeyer started as a teenage dishwasher here. Now he’s one of the owners.
As a small business owner, one of the biggest challenges Neumeyer faces right now is the price of ingredients. Some of his costs have gone up 20%.
“We’re not like a super duper fancy restaurant. We’re like an everyday restaurant. And in order to be a place that people in the community for instance can gather daily, we have to keep it really reasonable,” he told Shapiro.
So what does that mean for Neumeyer politically?
“I think what it means is we have to have someone who’s very interested in obviously the smaller business, not necessarily tax breaks for only the largest of businesses. We also need to see some relief from the prices and hopefully see some of them be able to come down.”
Who does he think is capable of handling that job?
Not Trump, says Neumeyer.
This episode was produced by Karen Zamora and Mia Venkat. It was edited by Ashley Brown. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.