29 Jefferson
Jefferson County (pop. 86,000) is located in between Dane and Milwaukee counties, but it lies outside of either Madison or Milwaukee’s metropolitan statistical areas. Along many demographic measures, it is quite similar to the state average. Politically, it has long voted reliably Republican, with no signs of that changing during the Trump era.
29.1 Demographics
29.2 County Election Results
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29.3 Municipality Election Results
Jefferson County includes portions of two cities which partially lie in other counties, Watertown and Whitewater. The largest city wholly within the county is Fort Atkinson. The communities in Jefferson County are politically disparate. Some, like the Village of Palmyra, the county’s portion of Watertown City, and many of the rural towns are reliably Republican. Others, like the Village of Cambridge, the cities of Whitewater, Fort Atkinson, and Lake Mills frequently vote for Democrats.
This map shows the location of each municipality in the county, as it existed in 2022.
These dot plots show the most recent election results in each municipality.
To more clearly illustrate recent changes in municipality voting trends, these scatterplots compare the most recent vote for president and senator with the shift from that office’s previous election.
These maps show show every election result since 2000 in each municipality.
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29.4 Supreme Court Election Results
Wisconsin’s Supreme Court has 7 justices, each of whom are elected to 10 year terms in statewide elections held in April. State law prohibits more than one Supreme Court election from being held in a single year. If a seat becomes vacant, the governor appoints a replacement who serves until the next year in which no court election is already scheduled. If more than two candidates achieve ballot access, a nonpartisan, top-two primary is held in February.
Court elections are formally nonpartisan, but candidates are usually supported by either liberals or conservatives. In recent years, it has become common for the Democratic and Republican parties to endorse and actively campaign on behalf of favored judicial candidates. The liberal and conservative labels indicated in the following graphs and tables are based on widely recognized tendencies, not any formal affiliation.
29.4.1 County Election Results
This graphic compares how presidential, gubernatorial, and court elections have trended over the past quarter century. Click the “Table” tab to see detailed results for the Supreme Court races.
29.4.2 Municipality Election Results
The following table shows the results of each Supreme Court election by municipality. The graphic visualizes the shifts over the past three court elections.
