Imagine Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) standing on a stage in Milwaukee, Wisc. next summer explaining how we need to eliminate cow farts and that farmers need to change their practices in order to save the planet from destruction. The decision by the Democratic National Committee to have Milwaukee as their host city could easily make this happen.

Democrats may think that the location will help them win the state of Wisconsin, but it is likely to have the opposite effect. It will mobilize the conservatives and turn independents against the Democratic nominee.

{mosads}The convention will highlight the socialist platform that Democrats are running on and the working-class Wisconsin voters will reject the coastal-elites pandering to them. Having the DNC Convention in Milwaukee will backfire for Democrats.

The Democrats are right to target to Wisconsin. It will be ground zero for the 2020 election. Three of the last five presidential elections (2000, 2004 and 2016) in Wisconsin have been decided by less than 40,000 votes combined.

Trump won the 2016 race over Hillary Clinton by over 80,000 votes. Wisconsin was included as part of the supposed Democrat’s firewall in 2016, yet Clinton famously failed to campaign in the state.

The DNC was too busy focusing on turning out the vote in places like Chicago (reliably blue) and New Orleans (reliably red) to make sure that Hillary won the popular vote.

As I pointed out in December, Wisconsin is central to Trump’s Rust Belt re-election strategy. Trump looks even more formidable in the upper Midwest now that the the Russia Collusion narrative has fallen apart.

So what makes the voters of Wisconsin tick? Will Democratic socialism motivate them to vote for the Democratic nominee? Trump won the state in 2016 by making a populist appeal to the voters and making inroads with independents and Democrats.

He received 75,000 more votes than Mitt Romney had in 2012 in western and northern Wisconsin (Trump Country). Wisconsin voters loved that he was willing to fight for them against special interest and the “deep state.”

The problem for Democrats is that a populist message focusing on working class voters in Wisconsin and other rust belt states depends on the messenger. When a formidable candidate, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) opts not to run, it is a bad sign for Democrats in winning a state like Wisconsin.

It does depend who will win the Democratic nomination, but so far it looks like the Democratic candidates for presidents are in a race to see who can be the most socialist. That does not bode well for their chances of winning Wisconsin next fall.

Look no further than the Green New Deal. When Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and company released the details of their plan to save the planet, it included several provisions that directly attacks the dairy industry.

Dairy Herd Management noted how the specific mention of “farting cows” drew concerns from groups representing agriculture and farmers on social media and in press releases, including farmers saying things like “if you’re involved in #agriculture you’d better view it as a threat to your entire way of life” and “so basically the gov’t will retrain us how they think we should farm & ranch. No thanks!”

Yet, nearly all Democratic presidential candidates have endorsed the Green New Deal. Targeting the dairy industry in the dairy state is going to backfire.

Rural Wisconsin is key to winning the state in 2020. If Trump can increase his margins in rural areas — while improving his margins in the suburbs (where many traditional Republican voters didn’t vote for him in 2012 — he will easily win Wisconsin. This is also the formula for winning states like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and even Minnesota. Having the most radical elements of the left coming into Wisconsin and attacking farmers is very bad strategy for the Democrats.

However, it is not just AOC that is a problem for Democrats in Wisconsin. The Democratic Party platform will be adopted at the convention. Based upon early parts of the Democratic primary for president, the party platform will be radical socialist policies that they want to force on Americans.

Will Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and other people be involved in crafting their party platform? Democratic infighting over how socialist they want to be will turn off Wisconsin voters.

Bringing the radical policies and socialists to speak on stage in Milwaukee will reveal to rural voters that the Democrat Party is not for them and even wants to eliminate their jobs. President Trump must be smiling thinking about Reps. AOC and Ilhan Omar on a stage in Milwaukee helping pave the path to his re-election.

Matt Batzel is the Wisconsin based national executive director of American Majority Action, Inc., which trains conservative political candidates and activists.