Wisconsin. its fall primary election this
week, and there were some pretty surprising results, including
two constitutional amendment rejected 57 to 42%. Those
questions would have required legislative approval before a
governor could spend federal money coming into the state, and
would have barred future legislatures from giving that
power away. “Here& Now” reporter Nathan Denzin checked in with UW
lacrosse, political science professor Anthony Chergosky for
his take on the primary results, and started by asking him who
stood out as winners. >> Governor Evers and the
Democratic Party. Because the vote against the constitutional
amendments was the decisive winner in that election. So when
we look at that election, the ballot measures were worded in a
very odd, confusing, lawyerly way. And so voters, when they
looked at the text on the ballot for the amendments, they didn't
have much to work with. That meant that Evers and the
Democrats could make a big influence on voters through
their campaign messaging. And Evers and the Democrats did
indeed make a strong push against those amendments. They
were able to engage and mobilize their base, and that led to the
amendments getting defeated. So those amendments were defeated
by a pretty large margin. Was that surprising at all to you?
It was in the sense that a low turnout election is always hard
to predict. We don't know how voters are going to go because
we don't know who's going to show up at the polls. But
turnout was quite high by the standards of August primaries.
And that speaks to the ability of Evers and the Democrats to
mobilize their base in the eighth. Tony Wied, the MAGA
candidate, the Trump supported candidate, won,
>> what does that say about the influence of MAGA when you had
two other candidates, Roger Roth and André Jacque, who were
endorsed by more traditional conservative Republican voices?
>> It shows that the Trump endorsement can matter in
competitive Republican two years ago with Tim Michels
defeating Rebecca Kleefisch in the Republican campaign for the
gubernatorial nomination. Trump endorsed Michels and that, I
think, put him over the top against Kleefisch. And this time
around in the eighth Congressional District. I think
it's fair to say that Donald Trump's endorsement of Tony Wied
helped put him over the top. On top of that, Donald Trump spoke
out against Roger Roth, the former state senator who came in
second in the race for the nomination against Wied. Roger
Roth was called a Rino or Republican in name only by
Donald Trump. So the campaign and Trump's factor, Trump's
influence in the campaign, I think, made a big effect on the
outcome. Democratic primary contested
between three people. Rebecca Cook came out on top. It was a
pretty contentious last few weeks of the campaign, what kind
of takeaways can you take from from that race, and how is cook
going to face up against Derrick Van Orden in the general
election? strong fundraiser, and the
Democrats are going to need plenty of financial resources if
they hope to unseat Derrick Van Orden, because although this
district here in western Wisconsin is competitive, it
does lean a little bit in the Republican Party's favor. So
Rebecca Cook will have a bit of an uphill battle ahead of her.
That means that she'll need plenty of financial resources to
launch a negative campaign against Derrick Van Orden, and
to develop her own political brand. Core to her political
brand is the idea that she's an outsider, which, interestingly,
Derrick Van Orden developed when he first ran for Congress. So
it's interesting to see those parallels between the
candidates, though the parallels basically start and end right
there in some state elections. >> Tim Ramthun and Janelle
Brandtjen both lost their primary elections. Is that
surprising at all? Does that show that kind of this trend of
election deniers winning office is kind of dying out?
>> I think it shows that the influence of candidates denying
the 2020 election result and the Trump endorsement factor is a
little all over the place. It's hard to draw any consistent
conclusions about how much it matters for a candidate to be
skeptical or to deny the outcome of the previous presidential
election, and how much it matters for Trump to endorse
them. But clearly, with Tim Michaels last cycle and with
Tony Wied this cycle, we see that the Trump endorsement still
matters quite a bit in certain circumstances. In Republican
vice presidential presidential candidates, there are going to
be in Wisconsin a lot. >> They've already been in
Wisconsin a lot, how do Harris and Walls play here, especially
in western Wisconsin, and how do Trump and JD Vance play here?
>> Well, the western Wisconsin region has been tilting a little
more Republican in recent election cycles, but I don't see
it as being overwhelmingly Republican by any stretch of the
imagination. There are certain regions that Democrats can bank
on for a lot of votes. There are certain regions that Republicans
can bank on for a lot of votes. But western Wisconsin is hard
for either party to bank on. And that means that there will be a
highly competitive campaign ahead of us here. Do you think
that Tim Walz has any additional sway here because of the
proximity to Minnesota? He might. And it could be because
people in this area are familiar with his record. People here
might have developed somewhat positive or negative impressions
of how he has performed as governor of Minnesota. And his
political style may resonate with voters in this area because
he has that folksy Midwestern way about him. Too early to tell
in general, running mates don't have much of an effect at all on
presidential election outcomes, watching to see how western
Wisconsin voters respond to the Walls running mate candidacy.
>> Are there any big winners or losers from these state level
primaries? Dane County turnout. I mean,
Dane County's turnout was astronomical compared to the
state as a whole. And that is yet another example of how Dane
County is a powerhouse in the Democratic Party coalition. I
think Democrats are looking at the near 50% turnout in the
Madison area and licking their chops as they think ahead to
what that might, what that might what that might, what that might