Dispatches from Wisconsin
People HATE Trump. They're Furious About the BBB. They Still Don't Like Democrats Though.
This July 4th Weekend, I traveled back home to Wisconsin. Met up with friends and family in several places across the state. Drove around central and eastern Wisconsin. Heard a lot of thoughts from a lot of people. All the Green Bay Packer paraphernalia is out, all the TVs have the Brewers games on, and everyone at the bar are drinking Old Fashioneds and Spotted Cow beers.
For the most part, Central Wisconsin is Trump Country. Typically over the last few years, one would see lots of Trump signs on the rural roads.1 Trump’s margins here were exceptionally high. That blue island in the middle of the state is the Wausau/Stevens Point area, home to a few colleges and some die hard labor groups associated with the paper industry, enough to draw that county relatively close every election. Everywhere else in the middle of Wisconsin is as ruby red as it gets.
But one could feel a change in the wind here. There were a lot fewer Trump signs (yes, I know there is no election right now, but people would leave them out for the previous years without issue). A lot less overt pride in being Republican. The boat parade at the lake for July 4th, of which there would invariably be the occassional Trump or Republican boat decked out with signs and flags and bunting were conspicuously absent this time. The usual signs that go along with the typical representation of this ongoing Trump meme were missing.
Talking with locals, most expressed disappointment in Trump and especially Republicans who went along with the BBB. They REALLY didn’t like the “Big Beautiful Bill” at all. Most couldn’t name a thing in it they liked, if they could name anything specific at all. The general sentiment of the bill was negative, particularly about the cuts to Medicaid and giving billionaires tax cuts. They also feel like they rammed it through without enough discussion or input. How they talk about Trump, where there used to be pride and reverence there is more vocal disgust and disappointment. They talked as if they had been betrayed; they thought he was different but he’s just another one of THEM, politicians.
But that does not in any way translate for greater support for Democrats. In fact, there was probably as much disappointment towards them as well. Not that they had anything to do with the BBB, but that they were utterly inept, disorganized and pathetic that they couldn’t generate any kind of support to kill the bill. Hakeem Jeffries’ big speech where he talked for 10 hours— seen by everyone as a futile stunt.2 With so much ugliness in a major bill, the people of Wisconsin genuinely believed they could’ve convinced some Republicans to kill the bill. That they couldn’t only showed how genuinely pathetic they are.
And this gets into how the left’s abandoment of rural America has cost them. To rural voters, the people they see now as Democrats are ONLY cosmopolitan urbanites. They care about cities with city issues. They don’t care about rural America. The best counterargument to the BBB was to show to the public everything wrong with the BBB, and how the weight of the worst parts of it will come down on rural towns. But nobody is around to make those arguments for Democrats, rural voters don’t hear those arguments, and that is how rural Wisconsin counties turn out 90% in favor for Trump. Cobble enough of those together, they win Wisconsin and the White House.
In more eastern Wisconsin, where there are more mid-size cities and towns, they were much more animated. In college towns of Oshkosh and Appleton, you heard a lot more about how bad the BBB was. These areas are more industrial and despite being college towns still tend to skew older. That’s one of the reasons they went for Trump in 2024. Nonetheless, people were outright pissed about the bill passing. I arrived there the night the bill passed, and there were already a protest group forming on Main Street banging drums and shouting slogans. Oshkosh is 20 minutes from the birthplace of the Republican Party, and Republican Ron Johnson is from there. It’s never been a bastion of liberalism. Yet the feeling and the sentiment of the place definitely seemed like a change was in the air. On a few occassions I heard outright outrage.
The feeling there towards Democrats though was mixed. They expressed the same frustrations with Democrats as their central Wisconsin neighbors. But when you asked them what they felt about Democrats they were perplexed why they didn’t do more. They screamed about the lack of leadership. They seemed genuinely pissed at them, that Dem leaders didn’t scream louder or stronger, and were otherwise utterly impotent to stop this from happening. The NY Mayor race didn't help; one older person described it as “Democrats were distracted by focusing ONLY on a NY election where they elected a socialist, while Republicans were pushing through the worst bill Congress ever passed.” If you asked them about Democratic Leadership and the feeling was virtually unanimous— Democrats need to clean house starting with the top of the Congressional leadership. Too old. Too out of touch. Too coastal. Too inept. I’d say the overall intensity towards Congress was about a 7 or 8, but it was unqualified disgust at everyone, not just Republicans.
As we were leaving back to Minnesota, the news had broken that Elon Musk was starting his third party, which seemed to be aimed at disaffected Republicans. Democrats certainly don’t trust him nor like him, and Republicans are entirely MAGA now. The only people it would seem Elon is trying to appeal to are Republicans who want a MAGA alternative; but there aren’t really any. In Wisconsin Rapids (Central Wisconsin) on my way, while gassing up my car the guy at the next pump was trying to scrape off the remainder of his Trump/Vance bumper sticker. I asked him if he was thinking of Elon’s Party now and he simply replied, “I think they all suck now.”
And that about sums up the general sentiment towards everyone in politics in 2025. At least in Wisconsin.
PurpleAmerica’s Obscure Fact of the Day
There is a point within Wisconsin which is exactly halfway between the Prime Meridian and International Date Line, and also halfway between the Equator and North Pole. (45 Degrees N, 90 Degrees W)
PurpleAmerica’s Final Word on the Subject
If Democrats can’t win Wisconsin, they can’t win at all. Either they have to get off their asses and start doing the work to reach out to these people, or they won’t do nearly as well in 2026 or 2028 as they could.
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Footnotes and Fun Stuff
Rural Wisconsin is the kind of place where people leave yard signs up for years between elections. It was not uncommon to see Trump signs stay up from 2015 straight through to 2024, only being swapped out with the “Vance” signs subbing out the “Pence” signs.
Which it was.
Wisconsin is *the* purple state. I'm very proud of that. There are folks on either side and a lot in the middle who are willing to switch based on the election. Hopefully people are able to carry their emotions all the way to the midterms.
My one point of contention is that it wasn't just the Democrats abandoning rural voters, but rural voters also abandoning the Democrats, sometimes not even considering voting blue as an option. I think the Democrats would be wise to present a moderate message to persuadable voters, but I think their prime target is suburban voters and medium sized towns.
I live in Madison and the liberals here would likely call me conservative, but I consider myself center left. I’m currently considering dropping my blue affiliation and hanging out as an independent. I believe you have articulated the problem Dems have: showing up and knowing your audience. Although I voted for Mandela Barnes in what I felt was a winnable race (RoJo has no integrity or ethics remaining imo), his candidacy was shoved down our throats by the DNC. That we didn’t even get to vote in a primary was a turning point for most centrists in the state. I think that’s part of what freed folks up to vote for Captain Tang in 2024, as it felt that they were doing the same thing when Joe tanked in the debate.
Politicians need to learn how to talk to regular people. Most Wisconsinites are progressive (Forward!), but they sure don’t like to be talked down to and told what to think. I suspect similar problems with the current DNC, even though there’s so much to beat the GOP with.
Hopefully an energetic, inspiring and skilled communicator who has actual life experiences steps up to lead Dems out of the quicksand.
Kamala could have won here if they had let her be herself.