Former President Donald J. Trump flipped Wisconsin for the second time, according to The Associated Press, winning a battleground state that he took in 2016 when he smashed the Democratic “blue wall,” but narrowly lost in 2020 to Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Both candidates saw Wisconsin as critical on their path to the presidency, not just for its 10 electoral votes but also for its symbolism as a swing state in the heart of the Midwest. Both campaigns lavished attention, money and resources on Wisconsin, holding large rallies in suburbs and college towns, and inundating voters with political ads.
For Vice President Kamala Harris, the strategy in Wisconsin required holding onto the voters in cities and suburbs that Mr. Biden successfully wooed in 2020. She needed a strong showing with Black residents of Milwaukee, the biggest city in Wisconsin, but in the run-up to Election Day, her campaign worried that they would not turn out in large numbers.
Ms. Harris campaigned heavily in growing Dane County, which is home to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the densely populated but conservative-leaning suburbs of Milwaukee, trying to appeal to college-educated women on issues of reproductive rights and the protection of democracy.
Mr. Trump pushed in Wisconsin to retain the rural, blue-collar voters who backed him strongly in 2016 and, to a slightly lesser degree, in 2020. When Mr. Trump swung Wisconsin back to the Republican Party in 2016, he became the first Republican presidential candidate to win the state since 1984.
In statewide elections, candidates from both parties have won the state over the years, but in some ways, the demographics of Wisconsin tend to favor Mr. Trump: Black and Latino voters make up only a small slice of the electorate in the state, and Wisconsin has one of the highest proportions of white voters without college degrees in the country.
But from 2016 to 2020, Mr. Trump saw his support slip slightly in places that he could not afford to lose, such as Brown County, a purple county that includes Green Bay. During his 2024 campaign, Mr. Trump appealed to those voters by promising to improve the economy and crack down on immigration.
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