Groups that candidates won by six or more percentage points
Donald Trump
Joe Biden
Former vice president Joe Biden flipped Wisconsin back to the Democratic column, securing its 10 electoral college votes. Barack Obama won the state twice, and Hillary Clinton led in every single public poll of the state before losing by less than one point.
Like the rest of the Great Lakes states that decided the 2016 election, Wisconsin backed Donald Trump with less than 50 percent of the vote, and then went for every statewide Democratic candidate in the midterms. But it was close, in part because Milwaukee’s suburbs, unlike those in many other Midwest cities, remained a fortress for Republican votes.
Obama’s decisive wins had distracted Democrats from trends that made Wisconsin more competitive for Republicans. Demographically, Wisconsin barely changed at all between 2004 and 2016, two election years when it was decided by just a few thousand votes. But politically, 2016 was dramatically different, with rural, White voters dropping their historical allegiance to the Democratic Party and suburban, White voters inching away from the GOP.
The Post is publishing preliminary results from national and state exit polls that allow readers to explore demographic trends in the 2020 vote. These surveys randomly sample voters in three ways: in-person, as they exited voting places on or before Election Day, and by telephone, through a survey of more than 25,000 early voters, to help account for the huge increase of votes cast early.
Containing the coronavirus now, even if it hurts the economy52% of voters
15%
83%
Rebuilding the economy now, even if it hurts efforts to contain the coronavirus44%
87%
12%
Methodology
Preliminary national and state exit poll results from interviews of randomly selected voters as they exited voting places across the country on Nov. 3, as well as from voters exiting early voting locations. Early voters were also reached through a telephone survey. The polls were conducted by Edison Research for the National Election Pool, The Washington Post and other media organizations. Results are weighted to match vote tallies by region and to correct for differential participation by subgroup.
Donald Trump
Joe Biden