Waukesha Voters Abandoned Walker When He Needed Them Most: Report

WAUKESHA COUNTY, WI -- Fueled by a resurgent Democratic base, Tony Evers defeated Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday, denying the Republican incumbent a third term in office.

Unofficial election night results showed Evers won by the slimmest of margins - barely one percent of the vote. That translated to roughly 30,000 votes statewide.

Waukesha County usually comes out big for its Republican candidates during election time -and it did again in 2018, yet a new report published by Wisconsin Public Radio says that Waukesha County Republicans stayed home when Gov. Walker needed them the most.

"I think it will take some time for us to understand whether what happened (Tuesday) was some disintegration of the Trump coalition or some falling apart of the Walker coalition or some combination of the two," University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Barry Burden said in the WPR report.

Waukesha voters still voted for Walker over Evers at a nearly two-to-one margin, however 2018's margin of victory fell short of all previous Walker gubernatorial advantages in Waukesha County.

What election results show are two things: Walker got slightly less votes in 2018 than he did in 2014 and 2012 (and 12,000 more when compared with 2010). At the same time, his Democratic challenger received nearly 20,000 more votes in 2018 than they did in 2014, 2012 and 2010.

Waukesha County Results - 2018

Scott Walker/ Rebecca Kleefisch 146,686 - 66.1%
Tony Evers/ Mandela Barnes 72,114 - 32.5%
Source Waukesha County

The elephant in the room for Wisconsin voters may have been President Trump, who defeated Hillary Clinton in the state by a razor-thin 22,700 vote margin in 2016, the first time the state went for a Republican candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

"Analysts say that voters long ago made up their mind about Walker, with voters evenly divided about him throughout the recall effort and failed presidential bid through the present day, " Burden said in a Washington Post article.

Walker's Toughest Race Yet

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's political path has seemingly never been easy.

He survived mass protests that consumed the state capitol building after proposing and passing Act 10, which limited the ability of public workers of the ability to collectively bargain drew mass protests and demonstrations.

The next year, Walker survived his own recall election by defeating Democratic Opponent Tom Barrett in a rematch of the 2010 election.

Walker put forward a proposal to bring Voter ID to Wisconsin in January 2011. After five years, Voter ID survived many legal challenges before becoming law.

In January 2015, Walker set up a presidential campaign called "Our American Revival." Facing eroding political support and dwindling expenses, Walker suspended his campaign by September, and threw his support behind presumptive nominee Donald Trump.

He survived two John Doe investigations, both of which went on for years as prosecutors investigated Walker's recall campaign financing and at-work campaign activity by Walker staff members when he was Milwaukee County Executive.

Tuesday's election proved to be his toughest challenge yet - and the one he wouldn't win.

Article Images by Scott Anderson/Patch.com