Wth happened in Wisconsin?!?!

[emcee0]

How the **** did Johnson end up winning despite Feingold leading in every poll and seemed poised to easily win his seat back? What went wrong? Out of all the senate races I was most looking forward to this one and I am so upset...

[Pandaguineapig]

Even though he is to the right of the state, Johnson is a great campaigner and was able to attract a lot of suburban/crossover support. Feingold is also no longer that unique as a progressive "maverick" in a party that is moving further to the left by the day, meaning he didn't receive the grassroots support and funding that he did in his earlier campaigns

[Figueira]

It was a bad year for Democrats in Wisconsin.

On the bright side, Tammy Baldwin will probably get re-elected.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

WI, MI, and PA were the blue wall states without a lot of Latinos. In an election like this, Dems needed every last Latino votes. And the Black and young vote werent there in WI. Eventhough Duckworth prevailed in IL.

[Shadows]

Hillary Clinton lost Wisconsin & dragged down Feingold.

The DSCC cancelled ad buys allowing super pacs to run a gigantic advantage in negative ads for an idiot unwinnable guy like Murphy.

And Hillary never campaigned for Murphy - Not 1 bit!

[Young Conservative]

Hillary Clinton lost Wisconsin & dragged down Feingold.

The DSCC cancelled ad buys allowing super pacs to run a gigantic advantage in negative ads for an idiot unwinnable guy like Murphy.

And Hillary never campaigned for Murphy - Not 1 bit!

Nice theory, but Johnson ran ahead of trump by 70,000 votes.
Russ Feingold lost because it was an election against the insider, which is what Feingold is. Also, Feingold isn't as likable as Ron johnson. In addition to that, Johnson was surging and I predicted this would be a sleeper. Johnson, to those who closely followed his strategists and campaign like me because he's one of my favorite senators, ran an excellent campaign, probably one of the best other than the incredible Portman machine.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

NRA turned out their voters and Club for Growth candidates like Johnson and Toomey won.  WI, OH and PA have a lot of deer hunters.

[mypalfish]

How the **** did Johnson end up winning despite Feingold leading in every poll and seemed poised to easily win his seat back? What went wrong? Out of all the senate races I was most looking forward to this one and I am so upset...

I helped with Johnson's campaign and it was pretty common knowledge that the Feingold people sent out an SOS to the Clinton people with a few weeks to go saying they needed help and barely got a return phone call.

When I worked on WI Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley's race, she would speak at some of the same events that Johnson was at and he looked like a beaten man.  Never seen a guy look so depressed.  But he kept going and cut some ads that started to move the needle and outworked Feingold on the campaign trail.  His demeanor changed and he became a really, really good candidate.

And, of course, it was crucial that Hillary Clinton inspired absolutely nobody in WI.

[MasterJedi]

It's really what happened nationwide. Millennials and the AA vote didn't come out as strong and a lot that did went to third parties. If you look Republican numbers were slightly up number wise, Dems were down around 300,000.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Im sure it didnt help that feingold lost his credibility by taking outside money.

[MasterJedi]

Im sure it didnt help that feingold lost his credibility by taking outside money.

Which he had done since his 2004 race but he would have been stupid to not do that. Considering Johnson earned even more money and had more out of state money spent on him than Feingold he's a hypocrite for criticizing him for that.

[Ljube]

Trump coattails.

[MasterJedi]

Trump coattails.

He ran ahead of Trump.

[Xing]

Democrats took the state for granted, assuming that winning Milwaukee and Madison by a lot would be enough.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Trump coattails.

He ran ahead of Trump.

A few Bush Republicans voted Hillary and Johnson. Praising Bush Republicans didn't exactly help down ticket.

[Maxwell]

Johnson is a good campaigner - Feingold is not.

[Coolface Sock #42069]

Democrats didn't take Ron Johnson seriously. They saw the large, early leads and penciled in the seat as a safe pickup. You never do that against an incumbent - anywhere. You never do that in a swing state no matter what. You certainly never do that when your opponent starts closing the polling gap.

With the conventional wisdom being that Johnson would run behind Trump and Trump would lose the state badly, the DNC and DSCC ignored the state while Johnson campaigned, slowly whittling away at the gap.

Then the polls tightened, and the moneyed interests in the GOP reacted and started sending Johnson money, which he used to campaign and further narrow the gap.

Meanwhile, the DSCC was having a teenage girl fight over whether to write off a fake CPA in Florida and invest that money in Missouri, Indiana, and North Carolina, totally ignoring their growing problems in the Wisconsin race, and at the same time, Trump rose in the polls, decreasing the drag on Johnson from the top of the ticket (and Trump would also prevail in Wisconsin).

Make no mistake about it; Feingold had the political talent to win in this state. You can't tell me he didn't have it in him to run one point ahead of Hillary against an extremely conservative Republican who seems to be a fairly poor public speaker. It was the lack of attention from the DSCC while they pursued other, less winnable races that cost them this one. He's a big loss for the Democratic Senate caucus.

[AZDem]

Democrats took the state for granted, assuming that winning Milwaukee and Madison by a lot would be enough.

Yes! I was pissed on election night when I found out they didn't even visit the state since April! Jesus what were they thinking?

I know Obama visited Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in '12. Were they honestly that freaking tone deaf?

I knew WI was gone when MN didn't get called early as it normally does. That was a bad sign.

[Nhoj]

Trump coattails.

He ran ahead of Trump.

Not to mention there is literally trump-feingold voters in SW rural counties.

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

How the **** did Johnson end up winning despite Feingold leading in every poll and seemed poised to easily win his seat back? What went wrong? Out of all the senate races I was most looking forward to this one and I am so upset...

I helped with Johnson's campaign and it was pretty common knowledge that the Feingold people sent out an SOS to the Clinton people with a few weeks to go saying they needed help and barely got a return phone call.

When I worked on WI Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley's race, she would speak at some of the same events that Johnson was at and he looked like a beaten man.  Never seen a guy look so depressed.  But he kept going and cut some ads that started to move the needle and outworked Feingold on the campaign trail.  His demeanor changed and he became a really, really good candidate.

And, of course, it was crucial that Hillary Clinton inspired absolutely nobody in WI.

I love when mypalfish just casually walks into a thread in 2016 and nobody notices.

[Gustaf]

How the **** did Johnson end up winning despite Feingold leading in every poll and seemed poised to easily win his seat back? What went wrong? Out of all the senate races I was most looking forward to this one and I am so upset...

I helped with Johnson's campaign and it was pretty common knowledge that the Feingold people sent out an SOS to the Clinton people with a few weeks to go saying they needed help and barely got a return phone call.

When I worked on WI Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley's race, she would speak at some of the same events that Johnson was at and he looked like a beaten man.  Never seen a guy look so depressed.  But he kept going and cut some ads that started to move the needle and outworked Feingold on the campaign trail.  His demeanor changed and he became a really, really good candidate.

And, of course, it was crucial that Hillary Clinton inspired absolutely nobody in WI.

I love when mypalfish just casually walks into a thread in 2016 and nobody notices.

Haha, was gonna comment on that too! Only 2004 Atlas kids will remember.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Midwest changed in 2016, its not reliable Dem. Johnson like Rick Scott arent partisans, they are mainstream conservatives, and WI voted for Walker 3x's

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

How the **** did Johnson end up winning despite Feingold leading in every poll and seemed poised to easily win his seat back? What went wrong? Out of all the senate races I was most looking forward to this one and I am so upset...

I helped with Johnson's campaign and it was pretty common knowledge that the Feingold people sent out an SOS to the Clinton people with a few weeks to go saying they needed help and barely got a return phone call.

When I worked on WI Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley's race, she would speak at some of the same events that Johnson was at and he looked like a beaten man.  Never seen a guy look so depressed.  But he kept going and cut some ads that started to move the needle and outworked Feingold on the campaign trail.  His demeanor changed and he became a really, really good candidate.

And, of course, it was crucial that Hillary Clinton inspired absolutely nobody in WI.

I love when mypalfish just casually walks into a thread in 2016 and nobody notices.

Haha, was gonna comment on that too! Only 2004 Atlas kids will remember.

15-year-old in-jokes are tight.

I'm an entire day older than you on Atlas, n00b

[Devout Centrist]

How the **** did Johnson end up winning despite Feingold leading in every poll and seemed poised to easily win his seat back? What went wrong? Out of all the senate races I was most looking forward to this one and I am so upset...

I helped with Johnson's campaign and it was pretty common knowledge that the Feingold people sent out an SOS to the Clinton people with a few weeks to go saying they needed help and barely got a return phone call.

When I worked on WI Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley's race, she would speak at some of the same events that Johnson was at and he looked like a beaten man.  Never seen a guy look so depressed.  But he kept going and cut some ads that started to move the needle and outworked Feingold on the campaign trail.  His demeanor changed and he became a really, really good candidate.

And, of course, it was crucial that Hillary Clinton inspired absolutely nobody in WI.

I love when mypalfish just casually walks into a thread in 2016 and nobody notices.

Haha, was gonna comment on that too! Only 2004 Atlas kids will remember.

He tried to tell you what was going on. He really tried.

[jamestroll]

This is an example of how important it is we bring more Latinos into our country and make sure they distributed more evenly.

But one thing is that rematches often falter. Of course there are exceptions but most of the time the previous loser ends up looking like a sore loser and was already rejected by the electorate the first time so unless the original winner had a scandal it is nearly impossible to make a case to the electorate to disqualify the incumbent and choose you as the solution.

Also, pundits and political geeks have talked for many years of the sun belt eventually trending to the Democrats and the upper Midwest trending to the GOP. It finally happened/started and everyone was caught off guard for some reason.