AP VoteCast: Wisconsin voters sour on state of nation

Voters in Wisconsin made their pick for president while holding negative views about the country’s direction, according to an expansive AP survey of the American electorate.

The race between President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden concluded Tuesday as the nation remains in the throes of a global public health crisis and mired in the economic downturn it brought on. AP VoteCast found that 38% of Wisconsin voters said the U.S. is on the right track and 62% of voters said it is headed in the wrong direction.

Up for grabs in the state: Ten electoral votes, a key piece of the once solidly Democratic voting “Blue Wall” of Midwest and Great Lakes states that Trump won last election by less than 23,000 voters, or about 1%. It was the first time a Republican presidential candidate had won the state in over two decades.

Democrats are hoping to build on midterm victories two years ago when they ousted a Republican governor and held onto a Senate seat up for re-election.

Here’s a snapshot of who voted and what matters to them, based on preliminary results from AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of about 127,000 voters and nonvoters — including 3,417 voters and 569 nonvoters in Wisconsin — conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.

FACING THE PANDEMIC

The coronavirus pandemic has spread through the U.S. for roughly eight months, killing more than 230,000 Americans, and cases are surging in Wisconsin. Overall, 15% of voters said the virus in the U.S. is completely or mostly under control, and 25% said it’s somewhat under control. Fifty-nine percent of voters think the coronavirus is not at all under control in this country.

Eric Engstrom, a 31-year-old investment analyst in Madison, Wisconsin, who voted by mail for Biden, said the virus is the most immediate threat facing the nation.

“My wife and I were just on a walk talking about how we’re expecting a baby in January and to see hospitals filling up, to even think about the potential of one of us or both of us being sick when the baby is born. …The response to this has been abysmal,” he said. “If there was any chance that I was going to vote for Trump, it was eliminated because of the pandemic.”

Fears of catching the virus help explain why so many Wisconsin voters chose to return absentee ballots this year. Even before Election Day, more than 1.8 million had already voted this way, more than half of the total votes cast in the 2016 election.

ON THE ISSUES

The coronavirus pandemic was top of mind for many voters in Wisconsin. Forty-six percent said it is the most important issue facing the country today.

Voters also considered the economy a major issue, with 25% saying it ranked at the top.

Nine percent named health care, 5% named racism and 5% named law enforcement.

Trump visited Wisconsin several times in his campaign, warning supporters at an October rally that Democrats were trying to “destroy the American way of life.” He emphasized his law-and-order message in an earlier Kenosha visit, after the protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake there.

During his own Kensoha visit, Biden met with the Blake family and expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

NATIONAL ECONOMY

Voters were more negative than positive in their assessments of the nation’s economy. Overall, 43% described economic conditions in the U.S. as excellent or good, and 56% called them not so good or poor.

Wisconsin’s unemployment rate was 5.4% in September, below the national rate but 2 points higher than a year ago.

Amy Arntsen, 56, of Middleton, Wisconsin, said she voted for Biden partly because she is worried about people losing their jobs during the pandemic, and is not reassured at all by a rising stock market that the president has touted.

“The rich are getting richer but . . . the poor are getting poorer,” she said. “The way we value the stock market above people is corrupt.”