Mike Pence slammed Hillary Clinton for calling Donald Trump’s policy proposals “wildly unrealistic.” | AP Photo Walker, Pence tout conservative economic policies at Wisconsin rally

MILWAUKEE, Wisc. — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker joined Donald Trump running mate and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence Thursday night in making the case for conservative economic policies in their home states while tying Hillary Clinton's vision for the heartlands to the Obama administration's "failed" policies.

Pence touted Trump’s Monday economic address in Detroit as an endorsement of the conservative policies that have long been at the heart of Republican orthodoxy, from tax cuts to deregulation, saying progress in Midwestern states had come “in spite of” Obama administration policies.


Pence also slammed Clinton for calling Trump’s policy proposals “wildly unrealistic.”

“The only thing that’s ‘utterly unrealistic,’” Pence said, "is assuming you can elect the same people with the same failed ideas and have a different result. I for one want a president who believes in the wild expectations of the American people and the boundless potential of the American economy, and that man is Donald Trump.

“Nothing that Donald Trump spoke about this last Monday is theoretical or hypothetical, you’ve seen it work here in Wisconsin. We’ve seen it work here in Indiana,” he added. “You know if you just live within your means, you let people keep more of what they earn, you make the right investments in education and infrastructure and even health care, it all still works.

“Whatever success we’ve enjoyed, in this state and my home state, has been in spite of the policies of this administration, not because of it.”

Walker, who was once Trump’s opponent for the Republican nomination, heaped praise on Pence in his introduction.

“Mike Pence has done a tremendous job as governor of Indiana,” he said. “They have some of the lowest unemployment they’ve had in a decade and a half.”

Trump has looked to the midwest as a region where he can expand the map for Republicans, riding the support of working class Republicans. Trump often paints an apocalyptic picture of the economy, but that argument can be undercut when Republican governors seek to tout progress in their own states.

The argument — that some states are doing well under the Obama administration because of conservative leadership — is a difficult one to make, as both the Wisconsin and Indiana economies are performing about as well as the broader national economy, with unemployment rates ranked 17th and 21st in the two states in June.

Wisconsin has not gone red in a presidential election since it, along with 48 other states, went for Ronald Reagan over Walter Mondale in 1984. Even with Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan on the ticket in 2012, President Barack Obama carried the state by nearly 7 points.

The event, which took place below chandeliers in a Milwaukee Hilton ballroom, wrapped up a week on the trail for Pence in which he traveled to Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin.