the general election ahead of us.
politics is described as a battleground, a tipping point, a
swing state. But how did Wisconsin get to be so key
nationally "Here& Now"? Reporter Steven Potter explores the
history of Wisconsin politics to understand how we got to this
point and what kind of attention we can expect as we narrow in on
the November election. >> And I promise we will make
Wisconsin great again. We're going to make it so the path to
the white House goes through Wisconsin.
significance when it comes to national politics, and
president. >> Wisconsin is incredibly
important, as it has been for the last few election cycles. It
is a swing state in the sense that it could go either
Republican or it could go Democrat. And our electorate is
about evenly divided. >> Jonathan Kasparek is a
professor of history at UW Milwaukee's Waukesha campus,
where he's been a political expert for 20 years. He says one
thing keeping Wisconsin in the national spotlight is that it's
a microcosm and a mirror of American voting trends.
>> And like the national picture, Wisconsin is pretty
evenly divided. A lot of the rural areas are red. So if you
look at a map broken down by counties, there's a lot of red,
but not a lot of voters, whereas there's a little bit about of
blue and a lot of voters, but it sort of equals out.
>> But this evenly matched electorate of Democrats and
Republicans also means that Wisconsin has bounced back and
forth between the two parties in statewide races over the years.
In 2008, Wisconsin voted for Democratic presidential
candidate Barack Obama. But then in 2010, the state elected
Republican Scott Walker as governor and Republican Ron
Johnson as U.S. Senator. In 2012, Wisconsin went for Obama
again, while also electing Democratic U.S. Senator Tammy
Baldwin. In 2014, Scott Walker won again as governor, then in
2016, Wisconsin chose Republican Donald Trump as president, only
to turn around and elect Democratic Governor Tony Evers
in 2018. And in 2020, Wisconsin helped Democrat Joe Biden win
the white House. But then in 2022, the state split the
ticket, electing both Democratic Governor Tony Evers and
Republican Senator Ron Johnson again in the same statewide
election. All of this has led Wisconsin to be known not only
as unpredictable, but also very, very purple.
>> It is confusing. We have the oddest pair of senators, I
think, in the country. Our behavior as absolutely baffling
to national pundits. They're never quite sure what to make of
us because of things like electing Tammy Baldwin and Ron
Johnson. forth means that voters here
prioritize issues more than political parties.
>> Wisconsin voters. It's often very basic bread and butter
issues, and they are concerned about the economy. They are
concerned about education. They are concerned about health care.
So there are things that I don't think either party really has a
lock on. up to the campaigns to prove
their candidates are worth the trip to the polls on Election
Day. is, is we have to turn out more
of our voters than they do of theirs. I think it's going to
continue to be close. We've been close since 2000. I think we're
going to remain close. It really is going to I think, continue to
come down to attractive candidates who can generate a
lot of enthusiasm and really get voters excited to vote. I think
we're going to see an awful lot we're going to see an awful lot