Poor Goldwater 
Losing Waukesha County...
Milwaukee underwent its suburbanization process relatively late compared to other rust belt cities. The city's population actually peaked in 1960 with 741,324 people, making it the 11th largest city in the country. It really wasn't until the late 50's/early 60's that Waukesha County started to take off and it wasn't until the late 60's when the City of Milwaukee started to decline. This was about the time where Waukesha and the Milwaukee suburbs really started to move hard to the right.
Also it should be noted that while Waukesha County was traditionally Republican before and during this time period, it wasn't radically more Republican than the rest of the state like it is today because Wisconsin historically was a very Republican state. Wisconsin was almost as Republican between the Civil War and the Great Depression as the South was Republican. Interesting enough, Waukesha County was one of the few places that local Democrats would win if they had a decent election, as the Democratic Party of Wisconsin was very conservative during that time. Especially, more conservative than the Progressive Republicans who frequently had almost total control of the state.
