MADISON, Wis. _ Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine on Tuesday urged a campus crowd to vote early, dubbing Wisconsin a battleground state Democrats must win.
"You guys are one of the six or seven" battleground states, Kaine told hundreds at the Gordon Dining and Event Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. "Do you feel the pressure on your shoulders? I'm trying to up the pressure."
Early voting helps strategists target people on Election Day, he said _ and also frees up voters to volunteer.
He struck a similar theme earlier Tuesday during a stop at Lawrence University in Appleton, telling a crowd there Wisconsin is key to Hillary Clinton's strategy for winning the presidency.
"If we win Wisconsin, it's very, very difficult for the other side to win this race," Kaine said.
Kaine's stops in Wisconsin came the same day Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appeared in Eau Claire and one of his top supporters, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, visited the state.
The visits came days after the campaign was roiled by the disclosure that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was reviewing recently discovered emails sent through Clinton's private server when she was secretary of State.
"Tim Kaine's running mate, Hillary Clinton, has lied to the American people, endangered our national security, and is once again under an FBI investigation _ she can't be trusted to fight for Wisconsin's best interests in the White House," said a statement from Mike Duffey, executive director of the state Republican Party.
In Madison, Kaine said it was important to have Clinton in the White House in 2020, when the country celebrates the 100th anniversary of women getting the right to vote.
"Is it too much to ask that that person be a woman rather than someone who insults women all the time?" he said.
He noted Clinton wasn't able to overhaul health care as first lady in the 1990s but went on to spearhead a successful effort to make sure low-income children have health insurance.
"Eight million low-income kids got health insurance because Hillary Clinton wouldn't back down," Kaine said. "She wouldn't go away."
He contrasted her passions with Trump's.
"His passion is Donald J. Trump," Kaine said.
He also criticized Trump for calling climate change a Chinese hoax.
"This is really controversial," Kaine said. "Hillary and I believe in science ... If somebody won't accept the science around climate, what other science won't they accept?"
Kaine was introduced at the event by U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who showed the crowd the "I voted" sticker she got earlier in the day when she visited an early-voting station in Madison.
"I early voted in part because I plan on being darn busy on Election Day," she said.
She urged others to do the same, reminding them they can vote at more than a dozen locations in Madison, including branch libraries.
"Today is Election Day, tomorrow is Election Day, the day after that is Election Day, Friday is Election Day," she said.
Early voting is available across Wisconsin, but most municipalities do not have multiple voting sites, as Madison does.
