Politics in Wisconsin since the Populist movement had been dominated by the Republican Party,[1] as the upper classes, along with the majority of workers who followed them, fled from William Jennings Bryan's agrarian and free silversympathies.[2] Competition between the "League" under Robert M. La Follette, and the conservative "Regular" faction[3]would develop into the Wisconsin Progressive Party in the late 1930s, which was opposed to the conservative German Democrats and to the national Republican Party, and allied with Franklin D. Roosevelt at the federal level. During the two wartime elections, the formerly Democratic German counties in the east of the state – which had been powerfully opposed to the Civil War because they saw it as a "Yankee" war and opposed the military draft instituted during it[4] – viewed Communism as a much greater threat to America than Nazism and consequently opposed President Roosevelt's war effort.[5] Consequently, these historically Democratic counties became virtually the most Republican in the entire state, and became a major support base for populist conservative Senator Joe McCarthy, who became notorious for his investigations into Communists inside the American government. The state's populace's opposition to Communism and the Korean War turned Wisconsin strongly to Republican nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 and 1956 presidential elections.
The 1958 midterm elections, however, saw a major change in Wisconsin politics, as Gaylord A. Nelson became only the state's second Democratic Governor since 1895, and the state also elected Democrats to the position of treasurer and Senator, besides that party gaining a majority in the State Assembly for only the second time since the middle 1890s. They maintained a close balance in the early 1960s, signaling the state's transition to a swing state. During the Republican primaries, Wisconsin supported favorite sonJohn W. Byrnes but no other state joined him. Ultimate Republican nominee Barry Goldwater considered Wisconsin a useful state to combine with his Southern and Western strategy for winning the presidency and directing the GOP away from the declining YankeeNortheast.[6] The Republican would campaign in Wisconsin late in September, but met with severe hostility at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.[7] Signs saying "Bring the Bomb—Back Barry" were common in Madison.
^Burnham, Walter Dean; 'The System of 1896: An Analysis'; in The Evolution of American Electoral Systems, pp. 178-179 ISBN0313213798
^Sundquist, James; Politics and Policy: The Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson Years, p. 526 ISBN0815719094
^Hansen, John Mark; Shigeo Hirano, and Snyder, James M. Jr.; 'Parties within Parties: Parties, Factions, and Coordinated Politics, 1900-1980'; in Gerber, Alan S. and Schickler, Eric; Governing in a Polarized Age: Elections, Parties, and Political Representation in America, pp. 165-168 ISBN978-1-107-09509-0
^Yerxa, Fendall W.; 'Goldwater Takes Campaign North: Senator Meets Opposition on Leaving the South'; Special to The New York Times, September 25, 1964, p. 61
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