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Two maps of Wisconsin, produced by the MacIver Institute, reveal two very different political realities in the state.
The first map shows how each county voted in the 2024 presidential election, and the other map shows what party each county has drifted towards since 2016. Republicans might feel like high fiving when they see the first map, but they’ll find the second one far more sobering.
In 2024, Donald Trump won the majority of votes in 59 out of 72 counties. And so, in the first map, there are 59 counties that appear in red and 13 in blue.
However, if you compare Trump’s margin of victory in each county in 2016 with his margin of victory in 2024, you can see where each side is gaining ground. Trump’s margin of victory slipped in 47 counties since 2016, where Kamala Harris improved on Hillary Clinton’s results. Those counties appear in blue in the second map. There are only 25 counties where Trump either won by the same margin or improved his numbers. Those counties appear in red.
Trump lost the most support in Ozaukee and Waukesha Counties, part of the so-called “WOW” counties that have long been considered Republican strongholds.
In Ozaukee County, Democrats improved 6.9 points in 2024 compared to 2016. In 2016, Clinton got 37% of the vote there, and in 2024, Harris got 43.9%.
In Waukesha County, Harris got 6 points closer than Clinton to Trump. In 2016, Clinton got 33.3% of the vote there, and in 2024, Harris got 39.3%.
Republicans picked up their biggest gains in Lafayette County, where Trump’s margin of victory improved by 3.6 points. That doesn’t count for much, however, given that Lafayette County has one of the smallest populations in the state. Trempealeau County came in second with a 2.5-point improvement.
The data for these maps came from the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The MacIver Institute put the two maps on display at the Republican Party of Wisconsin’s state convention in May.
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