Wisconsin is closely divided again but voters united in their desire for campaign’s end

Blended among the orange and yellow leaves falling from trees in late October in northern Wisconsin are red, white and blue signs bearing the name of Republican nominee Donald Trump and blue-and-white signs promoting Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. 

The mix of placards populating country roadsides drive home how this state is as politically purple as they come. And the barrage of ads in mailboxes and on television do, too.

Unlike Minnesota, Wisconsin is one of roughly seven swing states that will decide the presidential election — and it’s getting the outsized attention to show for it. 

The state has become something of a revolving door in 2024: Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz was in Manitowoc and Waukesha on Monday while Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance was in Wausau and Racine. Harris and Trump are headed back to the state for competing rallies on Wednesday. 

In addition to the competitive presidential race, there’s a pivotal Senate race in Wisconsin between incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin and businessman Eric Hovde. Wisconsin also has new legislative maps following years of court cases over boundaries seen as tilted towards Republicans, creating more-competitive races in pockets of the state. 

Wisconsinites can’t escape the constant barrage of political commercials and flyers. 

“I end up watching a lot of Netflix, you know, because then there’s no ads,” said Pat Edwardsen, the chair of the Barron County Democratic Party. 

Edwardsen recently hosted a Wisconsin U.S. Senate debate watch party for the Baldwin-Hovde race. She served a tater tot hotdish from a recipe of Walz.

Edwardsen said Walz being tapped as Harris’ running mate has helped drum up support for the Democratic ticket in this county that votes reliably for Republicans. She said some Minnesotans have been volunteering time on this side of the border.

Edwardsen moved back to Rice Lake following several decades away, noting how the state’s political complexion had changed from partial to Democrats to much more of a tossup. 

“It’s kind of true,” Edwardsen said. “The fate of the nation is on us.” 

Wisconsin was one of the last states to be called in the 2016 presidential election and its 10 electoral votes helped put Trump over the top. He won by less than one percentage point — about 23,000 votes out of nearly 3 million cast.

Democrats took the state back, reclaiming the governor’s office in 2018 and winning the 2020 presidential race when President Joe Biden defeated Trump. The results four years ago were also tight — with Biden winning by fewer than 20,000 out of 3.2 million ballots cast.

Neither party is taking anything for granted and the campaigning is intense, even in rural places like Barron County. 

Randy Cook, chair of the county’s Republican Party, has been involved with politics locally for a long time. He laments how politics focuses too much on candidate personalities and flaws rather than the issues they’re running on. 

“Now, it's ‘I don’t like her,’ ‘I don’t like him’ and that’s more of a driver,” said Cook, who was asked to run for county chair this year after some local party turmoil that saw its charter revoked. 

“That does bother me because you’re not educating yourself, and it’s really the issue,” he said. “No matter who gets in that office, whatever policies they bring in are going to be lasting for a while.”

Adam Kunz, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, said Wisconsin’s urban communities are different than those in other traditional “blue wall” states like Minnesota and Michigan. Wisconsin’s big cities don’t have as much ethnic diversity as those other states, Kunz said.

“What you have is you have communities that are historically white, blue-collar communities that are still very urban, but which have not seen the influx that we would see in, say, parts of Detroit or other parts of Michigan, or places like St. Paul or Minneapolis,” Kunz said.

Both campaigns are tapping into that rural and blue-collar resentment that became so prominent when Trump ran in 2016 and is rising to the fore again.

“Are you better off than you were four years ago because if the answer is no — and I think for most Wisconsinites the answer is no — then let’s get Donald Trump back in the White House,” Vance said during a stop in Waukesha last week. 

Walz is playing to that same sentiment, working to a draw common bond with voters feeling economically strained. During a recent stop in Madison alongside former President Barack Obama, Walz noted how his own economic standing is distinct in the race. 

“Both of us grew up in middle-class families,” Walz said about he and Harris. “We didn’t start out with $400 million.”

He added, “For Christ’s sake, they said that I might be the poorest person that’s ever run for vice president.” 

Many Wisconsin voters say they’re sick of all the attention or declined a reporter’s invitation to talk politics. A table full of late afternoon beer drinkers at the Leinenkugel’s Lounge in Chippewa Falls showed no interest, although they mentioned they’ll be happy when all the attention is gone. 

Rachel Zidon doesn’t mind talking about how she voted. The school teacher went to the Obama-Walz rally in Madison. She said the Electoral College needs to go.  

“I personally feel like my state shouldn’t have this much influence, and I think one person should be one vote,” Zidon said. “But as long as we do have this influence, we’re going to try and use it to do positive things.”

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