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<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Party Chairman Wikler's analysis reminds me of the adage "The operation was successful, but the patient died". For a portent of things that may come, read Sinclair Lewis' 1935 novel "It Can't Happen Here". </div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Gerry F.</div><div><br></div>
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On Friday, November 8, 2024 at 07:35:36 PM CST, Phil Smith via Lekooks <lekooks@lekook.org> wrote:
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<div><div id="ydpba2e6d32yiv3712745189"><div>I found the email below from the Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman to be really helpful in understanding the Wisconsin and national election results. I know many of us helped get out the environmental vote through our post carding campaign- I think we did help make a difference. Thanks again for all your efforts to help protect our earth!<div>Phil<br id="ydpba2e6d32yiv3712745189lineBreakAtBeginningOfSignature"><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone <div>Phil Smith<div>262-719 1542.</div></div></div><div dir="ltr"><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><b>From:</b> "Ben Wikler (via WisDems)" <info@e.wisdems.org><br><b>Date:</b> November 8, 2024 at 6:32:04 PM CST<br><b>To:</b> psmithw318@gmail.com<br><b>Subject:</b> <b>What happened in Wisconsin—and a note of gratitude</b><br><b>Reply-To:</b> info@e.wisdems.org<br><br></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">
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<div style="display: none; font-size: 0px; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 0px; max-width: 0px; min-height: 0px;">͏͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ </div>
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<td align="center" style="text-align:center;width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;padding-bottom:10px;"><a href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/u001.iIBo0N5fSFzEFL40Tn-vtbMETCUYClkOrOh9-SNJfqvYR5YX7u_kPQNhvWbEwrbN8O3W5OkPR9RwC0FDDBoRASCXVW414osmHABz1cKdf3MgcGZJ74ZRPUvP477tPvkHhjvR43ickIMktMVnEoHRETKWJo822ACq3Z7AM87aHfDrBT3AnHuDr2IWbXsMs0WdSrhnOhTBW9f2fekSXPzClI9Pr8vI_xCj4XmE0YBB9e0MAeqAh_p3fuF6cbqoGvXKUOPaTdN4k2-QTwUxc9_WUydSKsrbCJbZUOBHaqpA5i7QtGm1k5ijlodI_uJWO7zYXIjHjLppjBkntriYzLz3yID3FjgQWvRxd_oswaZWwt3KsSgN2Wqp_OCPpkUlQVhs8ga4ZmATD8N2tZQ0NoZLxFb5_POjRO_e9GLDw2BWFBk/4bb/Fv8VD-6zTXuy5Kd7FrQEdA/h0/h001.0iC9IeDrXqsqRgxp7ncF9Z7c7FeF346_77Fg90WGYB0" style="color:#377DBD;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img alt="WisDems Logo" src="https://actionnetwork.org/s3_files/uploads/data/000/949/150/original/WisDems_logo_outlined_3x.png" style="line-height: 100%; outline: none; text-decoration: none; display: block; margin: 0px auto; border: 0px; max-width: 700px; width: 350px; border-radius: 5px;" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true"></a></td>
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">Dear fellow Wisconsin Democrats,
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">On Election Day, I thought we were winning the presidential race.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">We came up short.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">Losing was a gut punch. Enormous peril lies ahead.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">As we prepare for what’s next, we also have to find space for curiosity about what just happened.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">We’re beginning to see the outlines: a red wave. A nationwide shift toward Trump of 6%. But in Wisconsin, we nearly defeated that wave.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">The shift here was just one quarter the size: a 1.5% swing from 2020. Not because Trump was weaker here than elsewhere, but because we were stronger. Thanks to tens of thousands of heroes—our candidates, the campaign, party infrastructure, allies, and volunteers—we persuaded and turned out even more voters for Harris than we did for Biden in 2020. We lost Wisconsin by just 0.9%—the smallest margin of any state in America.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">2024 was a high turnout year, second only to 2020 nationwide. But in most states, turnout went down slightly. In Wisconsin, overall turnout went <em>up—</em>by 1.3%, the most in the country.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">All of your work had a critical impact. You helped Tammy Baldwin win re-election. You flipped four state Senate and ten state Assembly seats on our new fair maps, setting the stage for majorities in 2026.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">That reality doesn’t lessen the blow of knowing what Trump is poised to inflict on the country. But it fills me with profound gratitude for your work. To everyone involved in this fight, thank you.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">Here’s my first-pass analysis of what just happened, and a note of appreciation.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">* * *
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">In 2024, voters nationwide—across, from what we can tell, geography, gender, generation, race, and ethnicity—shifted towards Trump. This wasn’t any particular group’s “fault.” Don’t fall for that trap.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">We’re just at the beginning of figuring out what happened. Be wary of anyone who tells you that X, Y, or Z thing would have changed the outcome.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">But two things are very clear from the big picture.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">The first key thing is that the post-COVID inflation era has marked a <a href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/u001.SEgofQhSb9pGg8bz5XQG3RmG6GwL1HSahtIeuLarDFUnlB5Kbi1Xh4799KabUPK5ytVla5E_WDE6E0zlD6Ul3QtlMC5TmiRquaktvcfgBjBKqieEnYCEEeRwebG7Lph5juSujPAoegzD7Ts7NgeEaTqkei0SAFlHhkDkE3tCGxRr8ywAkyTmhzDInUMEGOhg7iDHL3sAv3YBNYReH1f6706ES80LzhubxnrAWnu960wK-9T9DJoPBz-Sbayvv1MR_s3LRRQzkCg66gFRjxgg4VSCwwfIhmbMiqPHQN7JMTNry6Z_lYGzcwfb5pJXal8S0v26NgizsF8pRytIMOZtcg/4bb/Fv8VD-6zTXuy5Kd7FrQEdA/h1/h001.67mvRCXO7jzFFSrzgXKZzW4eTCgtxhBclKgKcaRHn5k" style="color:#377DBD;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">global wave against incumbent parties</a>. In 2024, for the first year on record (with 120 years of data), <a href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/u001.XaF8mXqsA6b2dSPmhsleMe75VbSSNEt74OMLWw3ozOaipt2uW6IrdA_bq8z2Oalve5te7nlDdQSmE9IVems7SUIxr_PGpf8wvhWEY33nPICPaGU_pSvasBSeG27yXe7mh92q4omqgH0q-G2IPca3bcbia6w5iX-3PqkMKOGqn19L2ctE6pk3e9U1VTER1UXG5WawOa3hlwC0MWXlc6uTjE6Z7kxsaX1h9H-qGpZf2qG1SYvr0J9RV5K6NhtkaJXdrah74yjUco1aUthBkciGV7CPFF2qWm4H5bpyXHBcg-9CdrrHPgK7mwh0HtIQJH2g6HipxBot_duszKKVibxVbA/4bb/Fv8VD-6zTXuy5Kd7FrQEdA/h2/h001.9U2NGX1C0mVdnPOfLQ7hXdaD2-hZKeVCk1Mitg-NCHY" style="color:#377DBD;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">every wealthy-country ruling party has lost ground</a>, regardless of whether it was left or right of center. Across Belgium, France, Japan, Austria, Portugal, the US, and the UK, the average swing was 20 points.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;"><a href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/u001.iIBo0N5fSFzEFL40Tn-vtbMETCUYClkOrOh9-SNJfqvYR5YX7u_kPQNhvWbEwrbNgX5GnQ1mniCigUvi_GSWLPDZ6Xl9BgMXCbEIkaefrwRjc5wicpDHzwXelu5ej4kwt1y38-XwbW50KswpCnYTfvF50OxL8Jyi3RYAeULlVdwByx_vZMlcGBGVKjvpfUttfH8vEuflaQzoZzqMq2LycRpVZ6_MQko47rHOOxZVIF5Se1wMHEIbBhoCoCGsDCtWZYcioLYI3F48LjjMxWyrdd37lvlG8a9RrRINJZnC6XF29-fLzO2AugqR24Y6WiJ-oxBbJeiiu8q1c6bJrLuxlFW7O1ghI4OkHvoPwC0x0QhZCvSOvDU1y56jRT-UNNDA/4bb/Fv8VD-6zTXuy5Kd7FrQEdA/h3/h001.E0wDvaj-bw42a2yo2gIrJ7PkQI944-afc1lH8Y0TYqU" style="color:#377DBD;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfjFzjvKSbNU5BI46gRfNEVDuK6YMza4OTuMNgDXCI66-xnsxgAFJWKe9g2c-IBXFUGXm3V_ZeOw720oDjV-d3OVQl0Nqs2xWddXGva2pTTuRSXEic5N36r3-PoBEO0jpy-cdd9?key=1EZq3uDChFDdFTj8Vd7K1a73" alt="" title="" align="center" style="border: 0px; line-height: 100%; outline: none; text-decoration: none; width: 600px; max-width: 800px; display: block; margin: auto;" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true"></a>
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;"><br>
Worldwide, <a href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/u001.IrwCNRMzSkXvFsTjBP9k2JGLGc7GEcxTxTRZLymxrERPDiu25vttLLCNARGb10DZVvkTT9xiuWxboHfNlPUJ25Lx6py8YhhP81SK-FMVZGfinX5EShgo7DKNf5bvZjKkaMnok6vIIAZ2CRmmNCS4hXfGLJtRj5xwiaIFcVA5a0mTnELXVIZp4DGNolpWwGBFZzOA4BJPITXwzybjajwKvdR8mxvUzNKF2qn5XJA7IxPQVxg9vf-Nc09HJ-eLv99BLwal8IaYnWRtS9VhGXdJMLzQmVb3JfEj5MSyIVEv7JjQdyDkmQDI2QHwtwRs-PlZs_-m80xfsaGWaZ0wAAMz7w/4bb/Fv8VD-6zTXuy5Kd7FrQEdA/h4/h001.N6XW1iywDnlEv9CXU45A-6KPMNZxavfS5BslK1Gonwg" style="color:#377DBD;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">political scientists are arguing</a>, this is a reaction to high prices. Inflation leads voters to punish whoever’s in power, even if they didn’t have control over it. The fact that US voters swung <em>less</em> hard against Democrats may be due to the greater success in the US, relative to other countries, in bringing inflation down.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">This tracks with what we’ve heard consistently for the last two years—in polls, <a href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/u001.IrwCNRMzSkXvFsTjBP9k2CQuxsluo2ylm8NyKaYiaWvRyE52342iLY5lZJ-nDBaNk94LVJflC3f7Ov2K6uoxUHsEeQ9wx0Lk_03cBg6aBslRd1vPAGUu7Ahx4MInFqW0Mb1XtlTtMdrhI_YY29yx9uUTx8LRUsNaHITR1ZhMB_CAg2bauxa0bkgI7UWL1s6W3otwLS62lUGwoPL8z_zLLO1-VCGsOCS1prRfykkzcW7kzgqP7QCO8hBLxOLENU55xFspS6V-pyY4qUYCrmDZTyuSJJeUFZ20kuwY_QFBmPCfHaVhUcO_spSc2bN_MegAfBxVZMDgEMkayUMK6z_LNrJoW0g9JpN7Fp9rg6kuLSHc8P7thw59CmywVTXD26oj/4bb/Fv8VD-6zTXuy5Kd7FrQEdA/h5/h001.1x8J8fDK-MluUC0jZ0wTCGvavioehu80U-TDW6_-rvY" style="color:#377DBD;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">in exit polls</a>, and on doors. Many voters have been furious about high prices. The question was whether we could win the presidential race despite that headwind, given everything else (and yes, there was <em>so much else)</em>. Like other parties worldwide, we didn’t.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;"><a href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/u001.iIBo0N5fSFzEFL40Tn-vtbMETCUYClkOrOh9-SNJfqvYR5YX7u_kPQNhvWbEwrbNgX5GnQ1mniCigUvi_GSWLPDZ6Xl9BgMXCbEIkaefrwRjc5wicpDHzwXelu5ej4kwt1y38-XwbW50KswpCnYTfjkKVnXom1HOlCtfvhC1dz4_t0f7167szkM_cLXeEkavybBgBeLubGkDsShvx9fm6wgm0vyBKGHmoChNE1ngpsoJkT8i4wOBZt6l2FZLj_vNV6tWzyOya7Qb2rE6fynAgEW80Nv0tkHzo_yrI9aPPpaemUcqVks-5PIXsaxaq7w9IUm8evkQwpnPwojIfc8_O17tWhNM5weBGokUUNpPHHLEf0vHzpWzwf5XpGD3m9LP/4bb/Fv8VD-6zTXuy5Kd7FrQEdA/h6/h001.XGPJG5KqZm_MMSVXb0zcnX_gABbLf0bArZFmj2JUKps" style="color:#377DBD;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfSphucpuWBOW-PV1vFN32J_8UhR6Jca0Zl7NRjBbWr5oKBP9XM89eZCf8YhE5wQX2_dONY0V9B2xXJSdfjMquIzJnsAPRKAjcPdhoSr5a_rJlGPt5DKkKkX5Ajjxc_b3H5uyle?key=1EZq3uDChFDdFTj8Vd7K1a73" alt="" title="" align="center" style="border: 0px; line-height: 100%; outline: none; text-decoration: none; width: 600px; max-width: 800px; display: block; margin: auto;" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true"></a>
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">The second thing that jumps out is that, in the states where Harris and Trump campaigned the hardest, Harris overperformed. And she overperformed in Wisconsin most of all.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">Trump and his allies poured hundreds of millions of dollars into vicious attack ads in the seven battleground states. They did all they could to drive up their vote share, knowing that these states would determine the Electoral College.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">Harris and her allies—including all of us—poured our hearts and souls into the battle here as well.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">If Trump’s campaign had been more effective than Harris’s, he would have swung the vote in the battleground states by <em>more</em> than the nationwide shift.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">Instead, it was the exact opposite. Harris’s campaign had a bigger effect than Trump’s.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">As Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report, one of the nation’s most clear-eyed analysts, puts it:
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">Latest numbers: across the seven battleground states, the '20-'24 swing towards Trump was ~3.1 pts. Across the other 43 states (+DC), it was ~6.7 pts.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">Bottom line: the Harris campaign swam impressively against some very strong underlying currents.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">You can see the same thing in turnout numbers.
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<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">Nationally, <a href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/u001.HV-T5b9C6Y6Pisqo-P4Pm0bAPyA9mUIoPZTwYaBHvLAJ8yQBVtGF2t6JZJyjiRisLq-dQ4P93llrKJ1sfVE_RaWBlltwyux3SNCiWB10TcMxeEvw37ryZW4aggpMDlpQCFWVDip9xq3kR8jLdS88oMvW8yv4q0HHXEK3aJ5xkrS8-3Nn1SbbgvS-ndq6dKgQSSMswYbx97U6IPVYrTR3fRqwra7iYuZqJmYkp-_pbzamDTgAx9lQ6axd87vti5F_XIULu6ohzE7sr_qzAcx0YfP_aLUnvv2wqbWm_RWYZtuvFQggeSBYUBWNIDsPFOrXOYE1K3OS010MhYWC5Dm5vg/4bb/Fv8VD-6zTXuy5Kd7FrQEdA/h7/h001.W6wGEnlNoADW6V8TVnYac35s_Kf6BbucTTvv2rpsVI8" style="color:#377DBD;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">based on the numbers tallied so far by the University of Florida Election Lab</a>, turnout in 2024 is roughly 62.3% of eligible voters. That’s <a href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/u001.HV-T5b9C6Y6Pisqo-P4Pm0bAPyA9mUIoPZTwYaBHvLDc89Qz2VACSihY-D_Ln9TNyZX2ZLlxdmXrSp6J5DUf5zhGyXHI6dhL5Iw0Zq8VdBLfmLV1FKjszlztpvhR8Zuu7NUY9aTQ6NMkFZGB5Asv_OQypw8Ttr6K98phnIGa0Ghv82HzI4lJxJRG5ACFJZvVMu7E5xOKpTG85E6rn4OGkNIQKOagcM41mRIF6iIwTV4m1NG86FwtufRlUxjYnYEk_R38zFWu95fK5p34ehcfpQceEM6RX5nGGlIrXim_ZGr1LZofhicxWuI4nHP4UomD/4bb/Fv8VD-6zTXuy5Kd7FrQEdA/h8/h001.wYShvYUtHAXe02VFDRvmKiJ3nUpDq1hAtiQoA-uJNbY" style="color:#377DBD;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">higher than any election in the last half-century</a>—with the exception of 2020, when it hit 66.4%.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">But, as with the swing in margins, this is a tale of two elections—because while turnout dropped slightly in non-battleground states, it actually <a href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/u001.yjJN_MEbNx94PLaWzZ6hW4n9Nv7_ma5wq4DylhVsr5uPE_XvLIfnhSz5kCXtoVD_46qCDXwLx7bI9EwHyjWMdSf5ERc-kVgTlTYiFQ4xCtcGevlS1wB7oFpSeHRh1laWd5rkaPVdDoCaOCkWMP9F21qW3VrqEXjaTdeVB1CzwdozO5sd-r-lBHgr0M64Y68fUSYaO946Jjg-6ReYJJSCarbPLOt2oCKrJcDiif9DnYDHy0V9f9q3_PtFaRc6RrvnwvnBzcsvHce-6pMjH6uYFzpO133XW1M129B0fPoU1wmN6i6WojrYtKiTdqEXUW7pmrJ5CNG6CZLcQnVGwsEfbUK8ye8RDIpSMEQ_BlVEPO6rxMGNfeMLWOrD2LPVyvFQP8Y6NtflCwd5Zfc_IIUNBwWlnakfWX2oBLQ2KNiMoLc/4bb/Fv8VD-6zTXuy5Kd7FrQEdA/h9/h001.U1zzyNTTxVi6gfqsA0LEPLoTfAgUU9MkBDY0WFNFl8o" style="color:#377DBD;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">went <em>up</em></a>, very slightly, in the seven battlegrounds.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">And it rose most of all in Wisconsin: turnout here rose 1.3%, the highest in the nation.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">In other words, that feeling so many of us had—that energy on the ground was explosive, that the campaign was soaring, that we were finding new Harris voters all over the state—that was real.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">Harris earned more than 30,000 more raw votes than Biden. She earned more votes than Obama in 2012, and almost as many as Obama in 2008—when he won a 14-point landslide victory. She added votes in 46 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties—rural, urban, suburban, and small-town alike.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">It’s just that there was an even larger group of voters, a quieter group, that turned out and voted for Trump.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">The Washington Post <a href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/u001.XaF8mXqsA6b2dSPmhsleMbLiaHJ-U5TfDcFwGLuhaTXuJxQ7AguFVmNzBH6nrspVKj_GRXWZyaJ1ZEPSZCbfBjIjTHQhjqTR28y2HQgAJ5E7KONFYrv8ifJbarlOmFZcOz8Uu2AvBkOn0cGn4eL0sKrJkCXKcv84FSB4yLmm116LA1_ZrBfeNx1us0hAVqGGZbGn9Ic1MelxtpqyVSojSTJc-Q0NSkhIUjcVzXxnxOzCh2KdjfInVaAahsKA2hCwB8Btn0aYFfEh7TBintSl-ZtnD8shuQ4Ov2RKUWwDKCUWzFi8Eqku7z9784J1kCOqLE2eIOwlSFU1vfHzZZYlJnFbv9z47dfz9ehWdXgAlRk7Eq6rJu1GLsE7pj-B3H9EYxg7bghNor39YRS4rAlqog/4bb/Fv8VD-6zTXuy5Kd7FrQEdA/h10/h001.Zhks97F02_VsK6_5FeIaLJVQzw8IPvtB3PJrE9uI8Vk" style="color:#377DBD;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">analyzed county by county results</a> to look at what happened in different types of geographies nationally and in the swing states. This year, unlike past years, was not a situation where the blue got bluer and the red got redder.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">Everywhere got redder, and once-blue cities and suburbs swung more towards Trump than rural areas:
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;"><a href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/u001.iIBo0N5fSFzEFL40Tn-vtbMETCUYClkOrOh9-SNJfqvYR5YX7u_kPQNhvWbEwrbNgX5GnQ1mniCigUvi_GSWLPDZ6Xl9BgMXCbEIkaefrwRjc5wicpDHzwXelu5ej4kwt1y38-XwbW50KswpCnYTfpJ3mxF-c37qawMtrF3hFaX2V437_KswCJw_mS-JdcoYHYMuAaWupm3Vtq2VN_iOFBXPy2KxNaBMGHEPK8RBPFFNORcBeieXpdYOUmT5wEPwjCFQRyEfnYqPpCPWGpTX_G5jXEyu9ExWSwkCr9-W5QHpmVgzw61UV459kpOeHyb_B1fdmLZ16avT_WqAmHRM2T5JV851QW03VFuPRdy0C8ASM2ulO_tRGEGmU74Xn50t/4bb/Fv8VD-6zTXuy5Kd7FrQEdA/h11/h001.8NJhqp9_JAJOQskRkfBiR2PGMxjnqDISuJVH_4O6XHk" style="color:#377DBD;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcHgzCARhX6UHrgBi8c9JwSCdX4Y3JVbFsoQ-XvRpZUF1qw7EFqJPUqH0Kxw0bPzdALBRaC6u_wiTMEpIeQpmqMY7eJrIGn8wOAOFZ0cccZWT9AVHWRMrvIxN4-R4ezJklB241PDw?key=1EZq3uDChFDdFTj8Vd7K1a73" alt="" title="" align="center" style="border: 0px; line-height: 100%; outline: none; text-decoration: none; width: 600px; max-width: 800px; display: block; margin: auto;" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true"></a>
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">But in Wisconsin, the shift was far smaller than the national picture—across types of geographies:
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;"><a href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/u001.iIBo0N5fSFzEFL40Tn-vtbMETCUYClkOrOh9-SNJfqvYR5YX7u_kPQNhvWbEwrbNgX5GnQ1mniCigUvi_GSWLPDZ6Xl9BgMXCbEIkaefrwRjc5wicpDHzwXelu5ej4kwt1y38-XwbW50KswpCnYTfhQZxDlz9q3nMgOOR-CJQnTu1nsAkxeepkEcYH7hJHNBxINL6PrE1gmm2Fz1m85fBuvrxSbwE141aC5m01ecdnq6Nv-XuvYnVSwSPUtvF2YcVj514Zd7diCd2mVBYOlh_UOCt-vdiKb1WBGQbi_VOS4ylnLBoX4NXK7P_jyYHOG4XHwPyvw1FunxeYpJEZLdbgV3vznscpbdplGqYBfHuhbYhJQwDbou-1P4Ig8o7B-q/4bb/Fv8VD-6zTXuy5Kd7FrQEdA/h12/h001.JeN0MezhUj2Kn0u14t8BgOeA3G_h-oKeHQbjCFC4y74" style="color:#377DBD;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXegj9LswzQXtF20GS-eS0xVLZFqTE4wBH-4mnpwhOgzD_DyKImXY5Qyg3fXhkFmsEknWnbMxehJFLQGbOY8gVYKtwR8BPBqcH-T9K9GQbM-9IlIZTG6nhIfn_NGUB2aCmqoY6_r?key=1EZq3uDChFDdFTj8Vd7K1a73" alt="" title="" align="center" style="border: 0px; line-height: 100%; outline: none; text-decoration: none; width: 600px; max-width: 800px; display: block; margin: auto;" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true"></a>
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">“Urban core” counties moved 8% towards Trump nationally—but Milwaukee only moved 1%.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">Milwaukee County actually delivered more <em>net</em> votes (Dem votes minus Republican votes) for Harris than it did for Obama in 2008 or 2012.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">“Major suburbs” moved 5.7% towards Trump nationally—but in Wisconsin, they moved 0.1% to <em>Harris</em>. Her margin grew, slightly, in each of the WOW counties.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">“Medium metros”—counties with mid-sized cities—moved 4.9% towards Trump nationally, but in Wisconsin, just shifted 1% towards Trump. Dane County, the fastest-growing in the state, for the first time delivered the most net votes for Harris of any Wisconsin county.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">And “Rural counties and small cities” nationally moved towards Trump by 4%. In Wisconsin, these 57 counties accounted for 36% of the overall vote, and 29% of the vote for Harris. But the Trumpward shift in rural Wisconsin counties—2%—was only half the national shift. And Harris racked up more raw votes than Biden in 35 of those counties, even though Trump added more.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">This is why we organize in every corner and every community in Wisconsin, year-round.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">Does this mean that there was no way we could have done better? Of course not.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">There will be an enormous amount to learn, and the debates have, rightfully, already begun.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">If about 125,000 Trump voters had instead chosen Harris across Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, then Harris would have won the Electoral College while losing the popular vote. Same outcome if 250,000 more people had voted for Harris instead of voting third party or not voting at all.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">We can, should, and must do all we can to think through, what, in small ways and big, we could have done better. And there is much to learn, perhaps painful lessons, about what led to this outcome.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">But we can be rightly proud of what we achieved in Wisconsin.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">It all mattered.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">It mattered because Tammy Baldwin won her Senate race. This was another classic Wisconsin photo finish: a 0.9%, 28,958-vote margin, overcoming an absolutely horrendous $100 million flood of attack ads. Baldwin ran a dynamite campaign. And all of our work to lift up Democrats up and down the ballot played a critical role in her race. You helped make that happen.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">It mattered because, in the state legislature, Democrats flipped all four of our targeted state Senate seats, shattering the GOP’s supermajority and putting Democrats on track for a majority in 2026. Two seats to go.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">Meanwhile, Dems picked up 10 Assembly districts—ending the massive Republican margin created by gerrymandered maps. If we flip five more seats, we’ll win an Assembly majority in 2026 as well.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;">And it mattered because of the <em>way</em> we won—by staying true to our values, by organizing, by building community and working together and taking nobody for granted and counting nobody out.
</p>
<p style="font-size:19px;color:black;font-family:'rucksack', Helvetica, sans-serif, sans-serif !important;line-height:140% !important;"></p></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" style="padding:15px;"></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top" style="border-collapse:collapse;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-color:#FFFFFF;border-top:2px solid #909090;border-collapse:collapse;"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" style="border-collapse:collapse;"><table border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse;"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" valign="middle" style="border-collapse:collapse;background-color:#FFFFFF;border-top:0;"><div style="color:#707070;font-family:Arial;font-size:11px;line-height:125%;text-align:left;">Sent via <a href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/u001.vJH41MPG4bgUd6h6NGKFpj-Lrvy5aFcFyt94Rovp4kU/4bb/Fv8VD-6zTXuy5Kd7FrQEdA/h35/h001.CiJ8UigNaSd5Iajl3-zHCDFSQNI09SnDCRbPVpg0B6I" style="color:#0096DB;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ActionNetwork.org</a>.
To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from WisDems, please <a href="https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/u001.qUXRBnqZ7T8nxbpAcIVwoUsWLkUMWlo_0JmZttSlm3-gP0Xd1LL-Lub7Gk22PHy9vnHkHOjjnMnadzz1Hc7c_nPzvLx88J_PlqkbZE6HpKnCpveigQk-FZ-NQUtWPY7XWBILTfyFVc9GTu9snBKqBaKe2oArZrsdBJW8KyhaexgbyC97vfbpRlJeEX6_2HGm9KbzLNfxFiikSpe3yShUq3bdwuutpjJvMh05QrBU9X79tgaIqSOjXPKmy5BUxSKP/4bb/Fv8VD-6zTXuy5Kd7FrQEdA/h36/h001.nn5GngJM7lrayXE89gUO347XLuHeMFzYEcHt0NnM8v8" style="color:#0096DB;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">click here</a>.
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