Former President Bill Clinton makes a pitch for his wife, Hillary Clinton, to an audience of about 400 people Monday at the Turner Hall Ballroom in downtown Milwaukee. Credit: Mark Hoffman

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Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton may have moved on to her next contest in New York, but her husband remained in Milwaukee on Monday urging supporters to carry her to the White House as the only candidate with a realistic vision for helping all Americans "rise together."

"She'd be the best president. She's always been a change-maker. And she's always been a leader," former President Bill Clinton told a crowd of about 400 people at the Turner Hall Ballroom in downtown Milwaukee on Monday.

"This is not about new vs. old or establishment vs. reform," he said, ticking off a long list of individuals and organizations that have supported the former New York senator and secretary of state. "They're in the change business, and they know she's always been there."

The Clinton campaign was making a final push in hopes of tilting the scales in advance of Wisconsin's Tuesday primary. Though Clinton holds a strong lead in the race for delegates and the Democratic nomination, polls show her lagging Bernie Sanders in Wisconsin.

Bill Clinton hammered again and again the theme that all Americans should rise together, and he touted his wife's agenda as one that can make that happen.

Clinton highlighted four key strategies: modernizing the nation's infrastructure, both physical and digital; positioning the country as the world's clean-energy superpower; creating incentives that would lure back manufacturing jobs from overseas and help address income inequality ; and forcing banks to comply with lending requirements in ways that would benefit small businesses.

"If we did these four things, we will all rise together. You've got to do the stuff that works," Clinton said, alluding to the Sanders campaign, which some in the Clinton camp have dismissed as impractical and unrealistic.

In contrast to Sanders' call for free college tuition, Clinton's plan to address the college debt crisis, he said, would fund tuition for those who need it, expand Pell grants and work study programs, allow students to refinance their loans and limit payments to a portion of their income.

He deflected critics' assertions that Hillary Clinton is beholden to Wall Street interests, saying there are 50,000 to 75,000 fewer jobs on Wall Street than there were before the economic crash.

"Wall Street cannot wreck Main Street again, because of the Dodd-Frank bill, which Hillary Clinton has supported" he said.

Three of the candidates — Sanders, an independent, and Republicans Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz — continued to crisscross the state on the eve of the Wisconsin primary. All are expected to wrap up Monday evening with events in Milwaukee and Waukesha.

Recent polls show Sanders and Cruz in the lead in Wisconsin.

A Sunday survey by CBS News and YouGov showed Cruz with 43%, Trump with 37% and Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 18%. And it gave Sanders a 49% to 47% lead over Clinton. The poll, which followed a week of other surveys showing similar leads for Cruz and Sanders, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

An Emerson College Polling Society poll on Monday had Sanders ahead 51% to Clinton's 43%.

As of Tuesday, Clinton had 1,243 pledged delegates to Sanders' 980, a margin of 263, according to The Associated Press. Clinton's lead more than doubles — 1,712 to Sanders' 1,011 — when factoring in the superdelegates, party officials and others who can support whom they wish. In all, 2,382 delegates are needed to secure the nomination.

Wisconsin, with its 86 Democratic elected delegates and 10 superdelegates up for grabs, is considered crucial as the candidates head to Clinton's home state of New York and elsewhere on the East Coast.