Wisconsin is a key swing state this year – and has a history of being unpredictable

President Joe Biden meets with campaign volunteers and their families at a community center in Racine, Wis. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images by Jonathan J. Kasparek, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Voters in Wisconsin – now considered a critical swing state ahead of the 2024 presidential election – may be among the most unpredictable in the nation. Although former President Barack Obama carried the state in the 2008 election and again in 2012, Wisconsin voters stunned pollsters by voting for Donald Trump in 2016, marking the first time since 1984 that the state’s electoral votes went to a Republican. Then, in the 2020 election, the state’s voters chose a Democrat again – Joe Biden. Wisconsin voters have also vacillated in their support for governors – selecting Republican Scott Walker in 2010 and 2014 with sizable margins, then voting for Democrat Tony Evers in 2018 and 2022. Nonpartisan state Supreme Court elections have produced similar results, with a mix of conservative victories in 2017 and 2019, and liberal victories in 2018, 2020 and 2023. Recent polling shows that the race between Trump and Biden is very close in Wisconsin. A win in Wisconsin could be a big step to winning the election for...