Who Won In Wisconsin
Wisconsin has long been a pivotal battleground in American politics, with razor-thin electoral margins and fierce partisan clashes over voting rights, redistricting, and governance.
The question of who won in Wisconsin is not just about a single election but encompasses broader struggles over power, representation, and democracy itself.
From the 2011 protests over Act 10 (which crippled public-sector unions) to the state’s decisive role in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, Wisconsin’s political landscape reflects deep ideological divides.
While electoral outcomes in Wisconsin are often narrowly decided, the true winners are those who have successfully shaped the state’s political and legal infrastructure through gerrymandering, voter suppression laws, and judicial interventions often at the expense of democratic fairness.
Despite near-even partisan voter splits, Wisconsin’s state legislature has been dominated by Republicans since 2011 due to extreme gerrymandering.
In (2017), a federal court ruled the maps unconstitutional, yet the Supreme Court later sidestepped the issue, allowing the GOP to maintain a stranglehold.
Scholars like Nicholas Stephanopoulos have shown Wisconsin’s maps are among the most skewed in the nation, with Republicans winning 60% of seats with just 48% of the statewide vote (Stephanopoulos & McGhee, 2015).
Wisconsin’s strict voter ID law, enacted in 2016, disproportionately disenfranchised minority and low-income voters.
A 2017 study by Priorities USA found that Milwaukee’s voter turnout dropped by 13% in 2016, heavily impacting Democratic strongholds.
Meanwhile, conservative groups like the Bradley Foundation have funded election integrity initiatives that critics argue target Democratic-leaning voters.
The 2020 election saw Wisconsin’s Supreme Court split 4-3 along ideological lines, with conservative justices rejecting Trump’s baseless fraud claims but later upholding restrictive voting rules.
The court’s ideological balance shaped by years of well-funded judicial elections has cemented a rightward tilt, influencing rulings on abortion, unions, and redistricting.
- Republicans argue that voter ID laws prevent fraud and that gerrymandering reflects legitimate political strategy.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) defends these measures as constitutional.
- Advocates like the ACLU of Wisconsin contend that these policies undermine democracy, citing research showing Wisconsin is now among the hardest states for Black voters to cast ballots (UCLA Voting Rights Project, 2021).
Wisconsin’s struggles mirror national tensions over democracy’s future.
The state’s GOP has leveraged institutional power to lock in minority rule, while Democrats rely on shifting urban and suburban coalitions.
The 2024 election and pending lawsuits over Wisconsin’s maps could further entrench or disrupt this imbalance.
The question of who won in Wisconsin reveals less about voters’ will and more about how power is engineered.
While Democrats eke out statewide victories (like Biden’s 2020 win), Republicans dominate the legislature and judiciary through structural advantages.
Without federal voting rights protections or court reforms, Wisconsin risks becoming a case study in democratic erosion a warning for the nation.
- Stephanopoulos, N., & McGhee, E.
(2015).
Partisan Gerrymandering and the Efficiency Gap.
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- UCLA Voting Rights Project (2021).
Disparate Impact of Voter ID Laws in Wisconsin.
- Priorities USA (2017).
The Impact of Voter ID Laws in Wisconsin.
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