MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
As predicted, it came down to swing states last night, and among those that swung for Donald Trump, Wisconsin. To find out how, let's bring in Brian Schimming, chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin. Brian Schimming, welcome.
BRIAN SCHIMMING: Thanks for having me.
KELLY: From what you can tell, how did he do it - this come down to turning out votes in rural counties or something else? What do you think?
SCHIMMING: So interesting about that, Wisconsin, little under 6 million people, we've had 12 races in the last 24 years that have been decided by less than 30,000 votes.
KELLY: Yeah.
SCHIMMING: So we truly are that purple swing state, right? So part of it is, I'll tell you, Mary Louise, we had a lot of political tourism the last couple of months, and we certainly have had from the two major candidates. So Donald Trump was here a lot. I was with him twice last week. I was with JD Vance Monday morning teeing him up over in La Crosse. So a lot of it was just the presence of being around. But also really the polling in Wisconsin - not dissimilar as it was nationally - it was, you know, economic issues for people. It was border issues for folks. And it really got to the old Reagan question - are you better off now than you were four years ago?
KELLY: So you mentioned how Wisconsin is, like, perpetually 50-50...
SCHIMMING: Yeah.
KELLY: ...As the president-elect won your state yesterday by less than one percentage point, which prompts an interesting question. After such a divisive campaign, how do you talk across the divide? Do you feel like you need to talk across the divide?
SCHIMMING: Well, it's interesting because, you know, obviously, the bases are both fairly large, but they're pretty rigid and, you know, a little bit less independent voters. I think there's an opportunity there in the next several months to do that. I think there's interest on the president's part - President Trump's part in doing that. But this was - I think it's going to - let's be honest, no matter which one of them won, it's going to take a while here. The art of getting to where you want to go sometimes, you know, can be difficult even without these hard races.
KELLY: May I ask what - when you say you believe President Trump is interested in that, in reaching across the divide, what do you base that on?
SCHIMMING: Yeah, I think he is on economic issues. I think there's an opportunity there to get something done on some of the bigger issues, but there are also obviously some things he believes in very, very strongly. And part of Donald Trump's persona is driving hard on issues that he believes in. So I don't think anything's going to be any pushover here. But I think there are opportunities there, but we'll probably know sooner than later here what that first six months agenda looks like.
KELLY: Down ballot, incumbent Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, did beat her Republican challenger in your state. What does that tell you?
SCHIMMING: Yeah, about a 27,000-vote margin as we speak right now - what's interesting is that, you know, here's a 12-year incumbent who, six months ago, you could not buy anyone to say that she was in trouble. She still massively outspent him. But Eric Hovde came in with a very, very focused campaign. You had another close U.S. Senate race over in Michigan across the water here from Wisconsin. So very economically based, also kind of a similar issue set of things that they were talking about. Tammy Baldwin really kind of got a - you know, when you only win by 27,000 votes, that's a scare when you're a long-term incumbent. So I - what it told me is that there was a lot of tracking of the issues in that U.S. Senate race, that there were in the presidential race. I think in fairness, if you asked political types from both sides, and I have a lot of friends on the other side of the aisle, they would say that similar issues for Tammy Baldwin than there were for Kamala Harris.
KELLY: Brian Schimming, chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, thanks very much.
SCHIMMING: So good to be with you.
(SOUNDBITE OF ADRIAN YOUNGE SONG, "GOTTA LOVE AGAIN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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