Voters in November will choose the next president of the United States, with the end result expected to be either a second term for President Joe Biden or a return to the White House for former President Donald Trump. Every vote matters, but the electoral results in a handful of key swing states will play major roles in determining the ultimate outcome.
What exactly is a swing state? There’s a literal, by-the-book – or dictionary – definition: “A U.S. state in which Republican and Democratic candidates have similar levels of support and which is considered to play a key role in the outcome of presidential elections.”
Yet there are still nuances at play, and though the group of swing states each presidential cycle is often similar, variations can occur due to factors like changing demographics, voter turnout and other circumstances. Georgia, for example, is now a swing state on the heels of Biden surprisingly carrying it in 2020, in large part due to the support of Black voters. He was the first Democratic presidential candidate to win there in almost three decades.
Wisconsin, meanwhile, was once considered a dependably blue Rust Belt state. But it became a big-time battleground after Trump eked out a victory there in 2016. Biden flipped the script with his own narrow victory there over Trump in 2020.
Wisconsin’s importance in the 2024 race is underscored by Biden including it on his post-State of the Union barnstorming slate in early March and by Republicans choosing Milwaukee as the site of their nominating convention in July. Trump on April 2 traveled to the state for the first time since 2022 – a visit coinciding with its presidential primaries – and Biden went back to the Badger State a week later.
Wisconsin, which was No. 17 in the most recent Best States rankings from U.S. News, counts for 10 electoral votes – placing it roughly in the middle of the pack among all U.S. states but belying the crucial role it could play in the race for the White House.
Here’s everything you need to know about Wisconsin as a 2024 battleground.
U.S. News in January handicapped Wisconsin as a “toss-up” in the 2024 presidential election, a fitting description for a state where four of the past six White House contests were decided by less than a point. The winner in the........