From the birthplace of the GOP to one of the most politically relevant states for much of its lifetime, Wisconsin has been and continues to be in the national spotlight.
Early History – Progressive Beginnings
Europeans first landed in Wisconsin in 1634 on an expedition of Samuel de Champlain for the purpose of trading with the Natives and the search for the Northwest Passage. By the mid-1700s, the British had taken over most of Wisconsin, including Green Bay. French Canadians, New Englanders, and freedmen were the first to settle Wisconsin. Fur trading was the bread and butter of the early economy, which prompted French and British cooperation in the developing port city of Green Bay. Originally claimed by Massachusetts, Virginia, the Northwest Territory, and the Indiana Territory, the British continued to control local fur trade and created an Indian “barrier state” to prevent American expansion.
Since the U.S. did not control Wisconsin during the War of 1812, their victory in the war would hand them control of the area, then part of the Illinois Territory. After the resolved conflicts with certain native groups, such as the Winnebago War and the Black Hawk War, Wisconsin’s settlement was hastened as lead mining in the southwestern part of the territory attracted settlers. By the 1840s, southwest Wisconsin was producing more than half of the nation’s lead. The lead miners earned the state its nickname, the “Badger State,” from their need to “live like badgers” in tunnels during the harsh winters without shelter.
Congress created the Wisconsin Territory in 1836, which consisted mostly of fur-trading, mining, logging, and farming, as the railroads ended the frontier era of the state. Wisconsin’s proposed state constitution was extremely progressive for its time, banning commercial banking, granted land ownership rights to women, and left the door open to black suffrage. While the constitution was voted down by convention delegates, it still speaks to Wisconsin’s intrinsically progressive nature that would later culminate into the founding of the Republican Party.
With a more moderate constitution approved, Wisconsin became the thirtieth state on May 29, 1848, the last state entirely east of the Mississippi River and the last to be formed from land granted in the 1783 Treaty of Paris.
Civil War & Industrialization – Birthplace of the GOP and “America’s Dairyland”
Like in neighboring Michigan, Wisconsin’s status as a mining state began to decline after the 1848 California Gold Rush. However, the state was well-connected by rail at the time, allowing other industries and cities to expand rapidly. As the state would be settled by New Englanders, New Yorkers, and Germans, the state’s abolitionist roots began to take shape. By the 1850s, the state was a notable destination on the Underground Railroad. Third parties began to take shape, including the Free Soil Party and the Liberty Party, but none attracted as much attention as the Republican Party did.
On March 20, 1854, the first county meeting of the GOP was held in Ripon, Wisconsin, in reaction to the contentious Kansas-Nebraska Act. Yankee senses of community and mission created a strong public culture that valued individualism, as well as social mobility and morality.
Wisconsin sent 91,000 soldiers to the Union army, with most serving in the Western Theater of the Civil War.
At the same time, wheat became the state’s cash crop and by the mid-1800s, Wisconsin produced about one sixth of the country’s wheat. Insects and depleted soil led to farmers moving to Minnesota for new land and crop rotation within Wisconsin, which led to new industries of cranberries and dairy farming. The state’s climate was especially conducive to raising dairy cattle, in addition to most immigrants to the state coming from New York, at the time the nation’s leading dairy producer. Wisconsin’s strong state university system also promoted dairy farming and educated farmers on better practices. By 1915, Wisconsin had become the leading producer of the nation’s dairy, earning it the nickname “America’s Dairyland.”
Today, Wisconsin is still the top-producer of cranberries in the nation, and is the second top-producer of milk, behind California. It still leads the nation in production of cheese.
By 1860, more than 200 breweries opened in Wisconsin, 40 of which were in Milwaukee. Milwaukee is home to Miller, Pabst, Valentin Blatz, and Joseph Schiltz. The Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company opened in Chippewa Falls in 1867 and still operates there to this day.
The state handily backed the GOP in the party’s first election in 1856 and would back Abraham Lincoln (R-IL) in 1860 and 1864. The state would back Republicans in every election from 1856 to 1908, except for 1892, its longest GOP voting streak to date. While Republican-leaning from 1856-1900, the state was still competitive, owing to the German Catholics who opposed Republican pro-war views. The state’s brewing industry allowed Grover Cleveland (D-NY) to become the first Democrat since before the Civil War to win Wisconsin, as the GOP attracted some Prohibition voters.
After the Democrats became unpopular nationally, they turned to the Populist movement to bolster their base, mainly through William Jennings Bryan (D-NE), whose aim of switching to the silver standard to inflate the currency to benefit debtors after the Panic of 1893 was popular in the silver-mining West, but not across Wisconsin’s urban classes and farms.
Wisconsin would back Republicans by landslide margins in each election from 1896 to 1908.
Twentieth Century Politics – The Wisconsin Idea
Robert LaFollette, “Fighting Bob,” became the state’s – and the nation’s – most outspoken Progressive politician, serving as governor of Wisconsin and a U.S. Senator. LaFollette started as a traditional Republican but broke with the party during the 1910s. At the same, the Wisconsin Idea became the new guidelines for political and civic policy in the state. Wisconsin was the first state to implement a primary election system, workplace injury compensation law, and the first state income tax.
1911 saw Victor Berger, founding member of the Socialist Party of America, become the first Socialist elected to Congress, from Wisconsin’s Fifth District. Eugene V. Debs, five-time candidate for the Socialist Party, took 6% of the vote in Wisconsin’s 1908 election.
Woodrow Wilson (D-NJ) would win the state in 1912, but it would return to the GOP fold by the 1920s with the decline of the Populist Movement. Senator La Follette mounted a third-party Progressive bid in 1924, carrying Wisconsin by a wide margin.
Wisconsin’s organized labor and progressive roots made it a good fit for FDR’s (D-NY) New Deal platform; his 1936 victory is the best Democratic showing in Wisconsin to date. The state turned away from FDR in 1944, as the “WOW” counties believed Russian Communism was more of a threat to the U.S. than Naziism. The “WOW” counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee, and Washington are suburban collar counties of Milwaukee and have been strongly Republican since 1940. Since then, the only Democrat they have collectively backed is Lyndon Johnson (D-TX) in 1964. To this day, they’re still the bane of Democrats’ statewide campaigns in Wisconsin.
The state would back Republicans in every election from 1952 to 1984, except for 1964 and 1976. Ronald Regan’s nine-point win in Wisconsin amidst his 49-state sweep in 1984 signaled a consolidated Democratic base in Wisconsin. This would be the last time the state would vote Republican, as Wisconsin would back Michael Dukakis (D-MA) in 1988 in reaction to the GOP’s handling of the 1980s farm crisis.
Current Political Leanings – A Geography Problem for Democrats
Wisconsin’s backing of Democrats from 1988 to 2012 undersold the Republican identity and history of the state. Socially moderate politics with fiscal policy that benefitted the Upper Midwest kept the state in the voting bloc of the “Blue Wall.” In 2000, Wisconsin was the third-closest state that election, a margin of just 0.22% for Al Gore (D-TN)
The dramatic shift to Obama’s populist brand of progressive politics pushed the state to him by a whopping fourteen points; he carried fifty-nine out of the state’s seventy-two counties. Mitt Romney (R-UT) would have a difficult time appealing to the working-class voters of a depressed Rust Belt against a sluggish national recovery.
Donald Trump’s 2016 Wisconsin victory shocked the political world, as it showed a true realignment of working-class voters. Senator Ron Johnson (R) also won an upset against well-known Senator Russ Feingold (D) that same night, proving Wisconsin’s geographical problem for Democrats.
The state is just one of five nationally to have a split U.S. Senate delegation. Democrats last controlled both seats in 2011, while the GOP last controlled both in 1957, when anti-Communist Joseph McCarthy (R) was in Congress.
The state is currently governed by Democrat Tony Evers (D), elected in 2018, while both chambers of the state legislature are controlled by GOP supermajorities. In 2012, Governor Scott Walker (R) made history by being the first governor to survive a recall effort over his opposition to collective bargaining rights for state employees. In 2015, Wisconsin enacted right-to-work laws, the only other Upper Midwestern state – besides Iowa – to have them.
Democratic votes are heavily concentrated in Milwaukee and Madison, while GOP votes are not as concentrated anywhere else in the state. The once solid-blue western front is now friendly to Republicans, while the traditionally GOP suburban counties are not drifting leftward as suburbs are nationally. Democrats can win statewide here, but the party’s once solid base has since collapsed.
