Battleground Wisconsin: Are Polish American voters a key election indicator?

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - Polish American voters appear to have a knack for picking the president. For the last 20 years, Polish voters have overall picked the winner of every single presidential election, according to survey data from the Piast Institute, a national research center focused on Polish Americans.

"We remember stories of our parents, grandparents talking about how they came to this country," Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski, who is Polish, said. "It was to flee the Soviet Regime because the Soviets took everything and they believed in democracy."

Wisconsin is home to one of the largest Polish American populations in the country.

"Polish Americans don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican, they're just hard-working folks who want someone who is gonna get things done," Godlewski said.

More than 30% of Polish voters identify as Independents, according to the Piast Institute.

"I tend to vote my conscience in each election and that can go either way, you know it's which candidate is the best fit," said Elaine Ritzka, a Polish voter from the Milwaukee area.

This time, Ritzka, a retired worker at the now-closed National Hardware in Milwaukee is voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.

"She came from a working-class family and a single mother," Ritzka said.

At Kochanski's Concerta Beer Hall in Milwaukee, these Polish voters make it clear that they are no monolith.

"I will not give up my constitutional rights, freedom of speech, second amendment, first amendment," Jim Galaszewski, a Polish patron at the bar, said.

Meanwhile for John Krukowski, who said he's 100% Polish, the biggest issue this election is Ukraine's sovereignty.

"I want it to stay Ukraine so Poland can stay Poland," Krukowski said.

Krukowski pointed to Bob Woodward's new book, "War," where Woodward reported Former President Donald Trump had as many as seven private phone calls with Russia's President Vladimir Putin, after leaving office.

"As a private citizen, he's got no business calling Putin, unless they're buds," Krukowski said.

The former president has denied Woodward's reporting, telling ABC News Woodward is a bad storyteller and has "lost his marbles."

Both the Harris and Trump campaigns are making appeals to Polish voters. During the presidential debate, Harris told Polish voters Trump would give up Ukraine to Putin. Although it was ultimately cancelled, last month, Trump scheduled a visit with the President of Poland in Pennsylvania at a Polish-American Catholic Shrine, and previously met with him at the Trump Tower in April.