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America Votes: How President-elect Trump won Wisconsin

TMJ4's Chief Political Reporter Charles Benson on Trump how overcame his 2020 lost.
Donald Trump
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Trump's margin of victory over Vice President Kamala Harris was 33,000 votes—another razor-thin margin in the all-important blue wall state, which has leaned red in two of the last three presidential elections.

Trump outperformed in nearly every Wisconsin county he carried compared to 2020.

He secured 70% of the vote in rural, red-leaning counties like Florence and Oconto in northeast Wisconsin—smaller vote totals that paid big dividends hours later.

Trump even gained more votes in blue counties like Dane and Milwaukee compared to four years ago.

The former president becomes the first Republican since Ronald Reagan to win Wisconsin twice. Reagan was re-elected nearly 40 years ago to the day.

Watch: America Votes: How President-elect Trump won Wisconsin

America Votes: How President-elect Trump won Wisconsin

Trump ran up the score in red counties, building a lead of more than 100,000 votes over Harris—enough to withstand the "Milwaukee swing."

The swing came when 108,000 early absentee votes from Milwaukee were finally counted and added at 4:30 a.m. to the statewide numbers from Central Count.

In 2020, Milwaukee absentee votes, which take longer to count, helped swing the election to Joe Biden with a 20,000-vote margin of victory.

This year, Milwaukee’s results also helped swing the U.S. Senate race to Tammy Baldwin’s favor early Wednesday morning.

Baldwin eventually overcame a 50,000-vote lead by Republican challenger Eric Hovde to win by fewer than 26,000 votes.

Wisconsin set a record for total votes: 3,414,027. Harris won more votes than President Joe Biden, but her percentage was slightly lower in nearly every county she carried, except Door County.

Was there a Liz Cheney effect for Harris? The former Republican congresswoman held two campaign events in Wisconsin with the Democratic presidential nominee, hoping to win over "disgruntled" Republicans.

Harris did slightly better than Biden in the red-leaning W.O.W. counties of Washington, Waukesha, and Ozaukee, but the margin wasn’t enough to give her an advantage statewide.


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