There’s a nice piece in the Washington Examiner by Salena Zito on how Wisconsin went from a Democratic to a Republican state:
Eight years ago, Wisconsin Democrats were in the catbird seat; they held the Governor’s office, the majority in both chambers of the state legislature, two U.S. Senate seats, five of the state’s eight congressional seats and handed Barack Obama a rousing victory in the presidential election.
So it’s no wonder that Wisconsin’s winning election night results for Republican president-elect Trump and U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson were a bit of a jolt to most pundits’ sensibilities; for years they have believed that Wisconsin was a deeply blue state, powered by the public sector unions, that traditionally supports Democrat candidates in a big way.
It isn’t.
For the past seven years, beginning with Reince Priebus taking over Wisconsin’s Republican Party in 2009, the state has been anything but trending blue.
A quick tally shows Republican Gov. Scott Walker has won his seat three times (there was a recall election in between his two outright wins) and Republicans have twice taken the state attorney general’s office, won control of both state legislative chambers (and retained them twice) and won a bruising state Supreme Court race.
Snip.
While some experts have chalked up Trump’s win as part of the populist movement that has swept across the country in this cycle, that is only partly true. There is also a deep grassroots conservative movement located in this state. One with a solid infrastructure that has been slowly winning over blue-collar Democrats and independent voters who are at odds with the rigid, radicalized progressives who run the Democratic Party in Wisconsin.
If you were following this blog back when I was covering the Wisconsin recall, you may recall how I noted that the Wisconsin left’s infantile tantrum tactics were turning off more voters than they attracted, and 2016 saw working class voters defecting to Republicans in droves across the entire Midwest.
Read the whole thing.
(Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Tags: 2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Republicans, Salena Zito, Scott Walker, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Recall
Salena Zito is awesome. Don Surber, no slouch himself, has suggested that she be nominated for a Pulitzer for her commentary this election cycle; she is one of the few members of the MSM who went into the Flyover States to find out why Trump won. She works out of Pittsburgh, not the Beltway, which is surely a big help.