DANE COUNTY, WI — For the last three election cycles, Republicans have struggled in Wisconsin’s statewide races. This year, they’re hoping a new focus on a Democratic stronghold can help them turn it around.
Wisconsin’s second-largest county, Dane, is home to the state capital of Madison, the flagship University of Wisconsin campus and hundreds of thousands of blue votes that have driven recent Democratic statewide successes. It has the fastest-growing population in Wisconsin, with turnout that also continues to increase. And it’s served as the source for so many Democratic votes that a strategist last year told Politico, “What Democrats are doing in Dane County is truly making it impossible for Republicans to win a statewide race.”
Republicans don’t expect to flip Dane. Far from it. But there’s a concerted effort to try to “lose better,” as one strategist put it. After all, it was that exact “lose better” strategy for Democrats that made them so much harder to beat.