2012 Wisconsin elections

The 2012 Wisconsin Fall General Election was held in the U.S. state of Wisconsin on November 6, 2012. One of Wisconsin's U.S. Senate seats and all of Wisconsin's eight seats in the United States House of Representatives were up for election, as well as sixteen seats in the Wisconsin State Senate and all 99 seats in the Wisconsin State Assembly. Voters also chose ten electors to represent them in the Electoral College, which then participated in selecting the president of the United States. The 2012 Fall Partisan Primary was held on August 14, 2012.^[1] In the presidential election, Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan was the Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States.

2012 also saw the culmination of the recall effort in Wisconsin which had been incited by Governor Scott Walker's 2011 Wisconsin Act 10, which stripped public employee unions of collective bargaining rights. During 2012, Walker faced a recall election along with four Republican state senators. These recall elections were all held on June 5, 2012, with a special primary on May 8. Walker survived the gubernatorial recall, but Democrats gained control of the state Senate.

In the Fall general election, the Democratic presidential candidate, incumbent president Barack Obama, won Wisconsin's ten electoral votes and secured a second four-year term. U.S. Senator Herb Kohl retired and was succeeded by fellow Democrat Tammy Baldwin; there was no change to the partisan makeup of Wisconsin's congressional delegation, remaining at five Republicans and three Democrats. This was also the first legislative election after a dramatic Republican gerrymander was implemented in 2011; Republicans gained two seats in the Wisconsin Senate, regaining the majority, and maintained their majority in the Wisconsin State Assembly.

The 2012 Wisconsin Spring Election was held April 3, 2012. This election featured a not-yet-settled Republican party presidential nominating contest, and various judicial and local elections, including county executive and mayoral elections in Wisconsin's largest city and county, Milwaukee. The 2012 Wisconsin Spring Primary was held February 21, 2012.

^ Lemanski, Lynn; Pohlman, Julie, eds. (2013). "Elections" (PDF). State of Wisconsin 2013–2014 Blue Book (Report). Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. ISBN 978-0-9752820-6-9. Retrieved April 8, 2024.

[2013bb-elex-1] Lemanski, Lynn; Pohlman, Julie, eds. (2013). "Elections" (PDF). State of Wisconsin 2013–2014 Blue Book (Report). Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. ISBN 978-0-9752820-6-9. Retrieved April 8, 2024.

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