Elections in Wisconsin are held to fill various local, state, and federal seats. Special elections may be held to fill vacancies at other points in time.
In a 2020 study, Wisconsin was ranked as the 25th easiest state for citizens to vote in.[2]
History
Pre-1960s
Apart from its first two presidential elections as a state, Wisconsin was heavily Republican throughout the entirety of the late 1800s and into the early 1900s - voting Democratic in presidential elections only 1892, 1912, 1948, and for Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1856 to 1960.
1960-1999
Wisconsin still held somewhat of a red tilt leading into the 1960 presidential election - but the election's result was still somewhat close, Richard Nixon (Republican) only winning over John F. Kennedy (Democrat) by 3.72 percent. The 1960s, however showed a major change is Wisconsin politics - the state turned heavily towards Democrats during the decade. Democrats won large victories in the 1962 elections, particularly in ousting an incumbent Republican senator and keeping its Democratic governor. In 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrat) won a large victory over Republican Barry Goldwater - winning 62% of the vote and 69 out of 72 of Wisconsin's counties. Wisconsin did flip back to Republicans in the 1968 and the 1972 Republican landslide presidential election, but much closer margins than Republicans had historically achieved. In 1976, Carter (Democrat) carried the state by a small margin, and Reagan (Republican) in 1980 similarly flipped it back by a small margin. In 1984, Reagan 49-state re-election landslide, Wisconsin voted for him. In 1988 - it turned Democrat for Michael Dukakis, marking the beginning of a 24-year streak of voting for Democrats in presidential elections.
21st Century
Wisconsin's presidential election in 2020 by country. Colors range on a spectrum from Democratic blue to Republican red.
After turning towards the Democrats in the 1980s and 1990s, Wisconsin's elections drastically narrowed in 2000 and 2004 - though it stayed with the Democratic candidates, in neither election did the Democratic candidate win by more than one percent of the vote. Democrats did perform better in Wisconsin with Obama - he received 56.2 and 52.8 percent of the vote in 2008 and 2012 respectively. That said, Republicans made large gains in Wisconsin throughout the early 2010s. Ron Johnson, a Republican, was elected as a senator and remains in office to this day - and the United States members House of Representatives from Wisconsin have been majority Republican since then as well. In addition, Wisconsin elected Governor Scott Walker in 2010 - a Republican. In the 2016 presidential election, Wisconsin flipped Republican and voted for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton by a close margin - meaning that Wisconsin was still a swing state on the presidential level. Democrats had positive elections there in 2018, re-electing a Democratic Senator, and electing Tony Evers, a Democrat, to the governorship - but Republicans still held on to the House of Representatives from Wisconsin and the state legislature. In 2020, the state held one of the closest presidential elections in the country - it flipped Democratic for Biden by less than a percent. In 2022, Republican Senator Johnson and Democratic Governor Evers were simultaneously re-elected, again showing the state's close political status. Wisconsin as of today is one of the nation's most contested swing states.
