Wisconsin's 1st district why it is more republican than WI-02?

[thebeloitmoderate]

This district contains Kenosha, Racine two mostly white cities with significant population of black and Latino residents.

[BoiseBoy]

WI-02 has Dane County.

[OBD]

Madison.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

No CD that has all of Dane is going to be remotely Republican these days.

[Pollster]

WI-01 is tricky for Democrats because Kenosha and Racine are becoming increasingly politically polarized across racial and socioeconomic lines as their white populations slowly become more educated and affluent and their Black populations experience residual steep economic decline. Very difficult to square the interests of two groups that should theoretically be receptive to you.

[Gass3268]

WI-01 is tricky for Democrats because Kenosha and Racine are becoming increasingly politically polarized across racial and socioeconomic lines as their white populations slowly become more educated and affluent and their Black populations experience residual steep economic decline. Very difficult to square the interests of two groups that should theoretically be receptive to you.

If current trends continue, Racine County will become more constantly more Democratic than Kenosha County.The suburban villages around the city of Racine appear to be moving leftward, similar to what's going on in the Milwaukee Metro. In many ways Racine County is a condensed version of the Milwaukee Metro area. Kenosha County on the other hand is moving the other way. One could possibly blame the riots and I think they played apart, but the county is also starting to see a bit of a New Hampshire effect of Chicagoland folks moving in to avoid higher taxes in the Chicagoland.

[walleye26]

WI-01 is tricky for Democrats because Kenosha and Racine are becoming increasingly politically polarized across racial and socioeconomic lines as their white populations slowly become more educated and affluent and their Black populations experience residual steep economic decline. Very difficult to square the interests of two groups that should theoretically be receptive to you.

If current trends continue, Racine County will become more constantly more Democratic than Kenosha County.The suburban villages around the city of Racine appear to be moving leftward, similar to what's going on in the Milwaukee Metro. In many ways Racine County is a condensed version of the Milwaukee Metro area. Kenosha County on the other hand is moving the other way. One could possibly blame the riots and I think they played apart, but the county is also starting to see a bit of a New Hampshire effect of Chicagoland folks moving in to avoid higher taxes in the Chicagoland.

I had a coworker from Kenosha who said basically this very thing. Uline and a bunch of other companies are building large businesses a stone’s throw from the Illinois border for taxes. The people moving to Kenosha from Chicago are more D-leaning, but a lot of the growth west of town is blood red.

[Smash255]

The racial breakdown in both districts are fairly similar.   The 2nd is considerably more educated.  About 30% of those 25 and over in the 1st have a Bachelor's Degree, it is about 45% in the 2nd.  Also as mentioned, the 2nd has Madison and the rest Dane County, the 1st does not.   In 2020 roughly 73% of the votes cast in the 2nd were in Dane County.

[thebeloitmoderate]

The liberals in WI-02 especially in Kenosha, Racine, Walworth are Chicago folks moving to those areas to escape the high Il Taxes

[It’s so Joever]

Because some wise guy decided to build a city on an isthmus or something like that.

[pikachu]

The liberals in WI-02 especially in Kenosha, Racine, Walworth are Chicago folks moving to those areas to escape the high Il Taxes

Genuine question, but how many liberals move from places for tax reasons vs other cost-of-living concerns like housing?

[thebeloitmoderate]

I was watching Nick Johnson on youtube lmao but true that Chicago folks are moving to that area to escape not just high taxes, but also crime, and more better public education.

[Sol]

WI-01, to start off with, is smack dab in the middle of a highly genepool GOP region--Eastern Wisconsin, thanks to a combination of old school Yankees and Germans, is Republican with deep roots.

Substantial portions of the district are also exurbs or suburbs of Milwaukee or Chicago. There's a hefty chunk of Waukesha County in WI-01 (which honestly is enough to answer the question on its own) but places like Walworth County or the western portions of Racine and Kenosha also have an exurban character to some extent. It also has Southern Milwaukee County, which pushes the district very slightly to the left--but the area isn't that Democratic.

Both Racine and Kenosha are small industrial cities, where Democrats do fairly well. But they aren't big enough to override other forces in the district, and they aren't left-leaning enough to either. Not too different from Kankakee or LaSalle-Peru, except they benefit somewhat from their close connections to the major cities nearby.

There was also pretty clearly some nasty racial backlash in 2020 specifically after the protests in response to the attempted police murder in Kenosha.

Janesville is the remainder of the district, and it's probably one of the most D areas of the seat on the presidential level as a small industrial city with some Madison influence. But it's a place where Dems consistently underperform on the local level--Paul Ryan was something of hometown hero.

WI-02 isn't too hard to understand, since Madison is a decently-sized city dominated by UW and state government. The University of Wisconsin is a bit to the left of most public universities even, with a very strong radical movement back in the 60s, which is why the city votes like Berkeley and not Columbus.

[Mr. Illini]

I was watching Nick Johnson on youtube lmao but true that Chicago folks are moving to that area to escape not just high taxes, but also crime, and more better public education.

The public schools on the other side of the Illinois border in Chicago’s northern burbs are some of the best in the country. It’s solely about taxes, and I think most of the folks hopping the border are Republican, similar to the Mass residents that move to NH.

In fact, many of the people moving over the border have already benefited from the high tax rates by putting their kids through the Lake County public schools, but now don’t find it to be worth paying the higher tax rates as their kids have graduated and moved out.

[GregTheGreat657]

Education trends, the University of Wisconsin being in WI-02, a large number of state employees in WI-02. Sure, the racial demographics are similar, but the white voters in WI-02 are more liberal socially, culturally, and economically.