Wisconsin’s WOW counties, the suburban counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee, and Washington outside of Milwaukee, have been the Republican epicenters of the state for decades. Trends, however, suggest they may be moving more to the left than they historically have been.
Waukesha is the state’s third most populous with nearly 400,000 residents, behind the two most populous counties Milwaukee and Dane, which are the Democratic strongholds of the state. With Wisconsin’s national political relevance being so grand in recent elections, Waukesha’s status as a Republican stronghold is important if Republicans want to keep winning statewide elections in Wisconsin.
“It’s kind of a political joke amongst pundits that it all comes down to Waukesha County, Wisconsin. There is some truth to that —the turnout is really important for Republicans there. It’s really a place that they need,” Mike Wagner, a professor who focuses on political communication and public opinion at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, told the Washington Examiner.
Historically, the WOW counties have been the most Republican areas of the state. During the 2008 presidential race, former President Barack Obama carried the state of Wisconsin by 14 points, but performed poorly in these counties. Obama won 59 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties, but in Waukesha, Ozaukee, and Washington counties, he received less than 40% of the vote, which were some of the lowest numbers of all the counties he lost.
In 2012, presidential candidate Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) received 64.63% of the support in Ozaukee country. The county had previously been considered to be the most Republican of the three and even the state, but now looks to be the least of the WOW counties.
“Ozaukee County was the most Republican county in all of Wisconsin in the 1990s but that same time the ‘O’ in WOW has gone from being the most Republican county to, like the 40 or 44th,” Wagner said. “It’s really decreased in its power.”
“When Scott Walker was running for governor in 2014, Ozaukee County gave Republicans a more than 40 point margin. While the Republican candidate for governor won Ozaukee County in 2022, it was by 10 or 11 points,” Wagner said.
From 1996 through 2020, no Democratic candidate won even a single municipality, town, or city in these three counties. President Joe Biden narrowly flipped the city of Cederburg in Ozaukee County in 2020, highlighting somewhat of a shift in this region.
“It used to be that the WOW counties really were lockstep together, and now the O in WOW is disappearing. Washington and Waukesha counties are still strongly Republican, Ozaukee County has been shifting more to the Democrats,” Wagner said. “WOW is losing its wow factor in a way.”
Washington County is becoming the most Republican of the three counties. Trump won Washington County by almost 40 points in 2020, but only won Ozaukee County by 12, far down from Romney’s nearly 30-point win there in 2012.
As former President Donald Trump leans into right-wing populism, his message is becoming more popular in rural areas of the state than it is with the the more traditional areas the Republican Party has been strong in. Former speaker Paul Ryan’s district used to encompass parts of Waukesha County and he was vastly popular with these counties.
Now, as Ryan and other conservatives like Romney step away from the party, these counties seemingly are, too.
“When Trump first ran for president in 2016 in the Wisconsin primary, Ted Cruz won the Wisconsin primary, not Trump,” Wagner said. “After it was pretty clear Trump was going to be the nominee, and so lots of Republicans just were not wild about him, but once he became the party’s nominee, they got blind and voted for him.”
“But after seeing him as president, some of those voters could not pull the lever for him again and voted for Biden,” Wagner continued.
Reproductive rights and abortion has also been a driving factor for suburban women in recent elections, not just in the Milwaukee suburbs, but nationwide. Wagner credited some of the political shift to abortion.
“It’s been a huge issue, and it’s really been highlighted in voting in the state Supreme Court,” Wagner said. He pointed to the fact that Wisconsin voters actually vote for Wisconsin Supreme Court justices instead of justices being appointed.
In the last two Supreme Court races in the state, campaigns have focused on abortion because after the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion was briefly outlawed in Wisconsin entirely.
In the state’s 2023 supreme court race, liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz won and her campaign invested heavily not only in Dane and Milwaukee counties, but also the WOW counties. Once again, Ozaukee county shifted slightly as her opponent, conservative Daniel Kelly, won the county by just five percentage points, as compared to Mitt Romney‘s 30-point win in 2012.
Voting habits in the 2024 primaries in the WOW counties also indicate a leftward shift. This month, Wisconsin voters rejected two GOP-backed ballot questions aimed at decreasing the spending power of the governor. Democrats waged a campaign urging Wisconsinites to vote “no,” which ultimately paid off as they did not pass.
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In the WOW counties, the “yes” vote for these questions got only 50% of the vote in Ozaukee County and 57% of the vote in Waukesha County. Ten years earlier, Walker was reelected with more than 70% of the vote in Waukesha and Ozaukee counties in 2014.
It wasn’t a primary fluke either as the primary also had record turnout, with 26% of those voting aged or higher in the state voting, the highest in 60 years for a presidential year partisan primary.
Storms Friday night but a dry weekend ahead in SE Wisconsin
More storms are likely Friday night before our weather quiets down for Easter weekend in SE Wisconsin
RIGHT AFTER WORLD NEWS WITH DAVID MUIR AT 530. THANK YOU DIANA. SHOWERS AND STORMS ARE MOVING IN, BUT IT WILL NOT BE A REPEAT OF LAST NIGHT. THAT’S GOOD NEWS, MARK. THE CHANCE OF SEVERE WEATHER IS VERY LOW. IT IS VERY GOOD BECAUSE NO, I WOULDN’T WANT TO HAVE A REPEAT OF LAST NIGHT. THANKFULLY, WE’RE NOT GOING TO DO THAT. WE DO HAVE SOME SHOWERS ROLLING IN. IT’S A ROUND OF EVENING SHOWERS, BUT A LOT OF THIS IS FALLING APART. I THINK IT’S MAINLY GOING TO BE A COUPLE OF SPRINKLES BY THE TIME IT GETS TO MILWAUKEE. RAIN AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE LIKELY OVERNIGHT. A COUPLE OF STRONG STORMS POSSIBLE. YES. RAIN MOVES OUT BY EARLY SATURDAY. MOST OF SATURDAY IS DRY. IT GETS BREEZY. TEMPERATURES. NOT BAD THOUGH. WE’LL MAKE IT INTO THE MID 50S. ALL RIGHT. FOR THE REST OF TONIGHT YOUR SEVERE THREAT LEVEL ONE AGAIN. LAST NIGHT WE ARE LEVEL THREE ON THE SEVERE THREAT INDEX. WE’RE NOT THERE. ANY KIND OF THREAT WOULD BE HAIL. THAT’S THAT’S OUR ONLY WORRY. I’M NOT WORRIED ABOUT TORNADOES. ANYTHING LIKE THAT. SO A LOW CHANCE OF SOME HAIL. ANY OF THE THREATS ARE VERY LOW. VERY LOW THREAT OF DAMAGING WINDS THAT SHOULD STAY WAY SOUTH. VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY LOW THREAT OF TORNADOES. I’M ALWAYS SCARED TO PUT ZERO THREAT OF TORNADOES, BUT IT’S CLOSE TO ZERO FLOODING. WELL, YOU KNOW WHAT? WE ARE WATERLOGGED. AND SO IT’S NOT GOING TO TAKE THAT MUCH RAIN. WE COULD GET UP TO AN INCH OF RAIN AND THAT WOULD CAUSE SOME ISSUES. NOTICE HOW THIS CONTINUES TO FALL APART. IT’S A STEADY RAIN THOUGH IN WESTERN WAUKESHA COUNTY. IT’S STARTING TO MOVE INTO THE CITY OF WAUKESHA AND INTO PEWAUKEE AS WELL. THUNDERSTORMS BACK OUT TO THE WEST OF US. THE SEVERE THREAT REALLY, I THINK IS WELL, SOUTH. THAT’S WHERE THE WARMER AIR IS LOCATED. IT’S NOT HERE. SO AS WE HEAD THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT, THAT MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, WE BRING IN SHOWERS AND SOME THUNDERSTORMS, MAYBE A LITTLE SMALL HAIL IN THERE AS WELL. THE COLDER AIR STARTS WRAPPING BACK IN AS WE HEAD INTO SATURDAY NIGHT. MAYBE EVEN ENOUGH TO GET A PASSING FLURRY JUST IN TIME FOR EASTER MORNING. BUT THAT’S NOT GOING TO LAST LONG. EASTER IS OKAY. I WOULDN’T SAY IT’S GREAT, BUT IT’S ALL RIGHT. IT’S 49 DEGREES, A FEW SPRINKLES EARLY, EARLY, EARLY ON SATURDAY. IT’S GONE BY 8:00 AT THE LATEST. THE REST OF THE DAY IS FINE. HOW ABOUT EASTER? WELL, WE START OUT PRETTY CHILLY, 33 AT 7 A.M. IF YOU’RE GOING TO DO EASTER EGG HUNTS. ONE. IF IT’S OUTSIDE, YOU BETTER DRESS FOR IT AND ALSO BE READY FOR THE MUDDY BECAUSE IT IS GOING TO BE WET. WE’RE WET ALL OVER, BUT WE’RE GREENING THINGS UP PRETTY QUICKLY HERE, THANKS TO THE FACT THAT WE’VE HAD ALL THAT RAIN YESTERDAY. 1.8IN OF RAIN IN MILWAUKEE 39 RIGHT NOW IN ELKHART LAKE, 46 DEGREES IN DELAVAN, WHERE YOU’VE HAD A PASSING SHOWER, BUT THAT HAS MOVED ON. NOT EXACTLY SEEING ANYTHING WARM UNLESS YOU GO HERE 81 DEGREES DOWN IN SAINT LOUIS. YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE WHERE THE FRONT IS LOCATED. ALL RIGHT, EARLY SPRINKLES. A BREEZY DAY FOR TOMORROW. MOST OF THE DAY IS DRY, AND I DO THINK WE’LL SEE SOME SUNSHINE OFF. AND ON EASTER SUNDAY DRY, WHICH IS NICE. 49 IT’S KIND OF NICE BECAUSE MOST OF THE STRETCH AFTER WE GET THROUGH TONIGHT IS QUIET. MONDAY AND TUESDAY ARE QUIET. TUESDAY, OF COURSE, IS ELECTION DAY HIGH OF ONLY 38. SO DRESS WARMLY HEADING TO THE POLLS AND THEN WE WARM RIGHT BACK UP IN THE 50S. CHANCES FOR SHOWERS AS WE HEAD INTO THURSDAY AND FRIDAY. IT’S OKAY.
Storms Friday night but a dry weekend ahead in SE Wisconsin
More storms are likely Friday night before our weather quiets down for Easter weekend in SE Wisconsin
Updated: 6:30 PM CDT Apr 3, 2026
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More storms are likely Friday night before our weather quiets down for Easter weekend in SE Wisconsin
More storms are likely Friday night before our weather quiets down for Easter weekend in SE Wisconsin
We found no evidence that liberal Wisconsin Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor has supported allowing noncitizens to vote.
Taylor and conservative state Appeals Court Judge Maria Lazar are running in the April 7 Wisconsin Supreme Court election.
A Lazar ad claimed Taylor is “pushing for noncitizen voting.”
Lazar’s campaign cited:
Taylor’s opposition, while a Democratic state lawmaker, to the Republican-backed 2011 state law requiring identification to vote.
Her introduction of a 2017 bill, which did not become law. It would have provided driver’s licenses to unauthorized residents, but the licenses would have been labeled: “Not valid for voting purposes.”
Taylor’s opinion, in a 2024 appeals court ruling, which said absentee ballots count even if voters’ witnesses fail to give election clerks their full address. Citizenship is required to vote in Wisconsin, but Wisconsin election officials generally do not verify citizenship when a person registers.
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The president of Wisconsin’s largest mosque was detained by federal immigration agents, drawing accusations from local officials and religious leaders that the arrest was motivated by his statements against Israel.
Salah Sarsour, a Palestinian-born legal permanent resident of the United States, was taken into custody by nearly a dozen US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Monday in Milwaukee after he left his home, according to the Islamic Society of Milwaukee.
Supporters called for his immediate release on Thursday and his attorneys said he was detained on the grounds that he is a foreign policy threat. His attorneys say the claims have no merit.
Instead, they believe Sarsour, 53, was targeted for speaking out against Israel and for a conviction as a minor by Israeli military courts, which have faced scrutiny over allegations of limited due process and high conviction rates of Palestinians. Israel rejects those claims. The offenses included allegedly throwing rocks at Israeli officers, according to attorney Munjed Ahmad.
“Our government should not be doing the bidding of a foreign government,” Ahmad said of Israel. “There’s no question in my mind is that this is to stifle the discourse on the Palestinian narrative.”
Attorneys said Sarsour, born in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has no criminal record in the US.
Sarsour’s attorneys have likened the case to that of Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University activist who faces deportation because the federal government said he was a foreign policy threat.
An email message left on Thursday for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security was not immediately returned.
Sarsour has been the president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, the largest Islamic organization in the state, for five years. His attorneys say he’s held a green card for years and lived in the Milwaukee area. His wife and four adult children are US citizens.
His arrest prompted outcry from top elected officials, including Milwaukee’s mayor, Cavalier Johnson, who called it “an outrage”.
“He is a legal permanent resident. There is no substantive evidence he has done anything wrong,” Johnson said in a post on X. “This is another example of overreach and harm from the U.S. Immigration authorities.”
Sarsour is being held at county jail outside Indianapolis. His attorneys have filed a petition seeking his release.
“He is ready to fight tooth and nail to make sure that he’s not drug through the mud,” Ahmad said. “He wants to stay in this country.”
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