WISCONSIN — The midterm elections are over, and the results are in. Wisconsin went purple with a split ticket decision and a lower voter turnout compared to four years ago.
TMJ4's Chief Political Reporter Charles Benson talked with NBC's Chuck Todd, moderator of Meet the Press, about the turnout and Wisconsin's split ticket.
Wisconsin turnout was below the 2018 midterms. Milwaukee County was way down due to lower voter turnout in the city - a Democratic stronghold.
There was also a lower percentage of voter turnout in the Republican County of Waukesha.
"Wisconsin surprised me a little bit but there was probably not a more negative set of campaigns taking place in the country than in Wisconsin," said Todd. "There is some political science research that says when you have a campaign that is that nasty on both sides, and both the Senate race in the Gov's race really got nasty in the last three weeks, it turned some voters off."
It was a split ticket in Wisconsin with Democrat Tony Evers and Republican Ron Johnson winning.
1998 was the last time that happened when Republican Tommy Thompson won the Governor's race and Democrat Russ Feingold won reelection to the U.S Senate.
"The difference between winning and losing is with this tiny slice of voters about 10% of the electorate," said Todd. "So, you can have an Evers overperformed by half a percentage point of his former running mate, and then suddenly that creates a split ticket. So, it's, I think it's a reminder that it can't win without persuading that last 10%."
Meet the Press can be seen every Sunday morning on TMJ4.