Remember two weeks ago this morning, when Wisconsin was the talk of the nation? Wisconsin voters had “all but assured the Republican Party of a brokered convention by handing Donald Trump a crushing defeat”–and giving Ted Cruz “all of the momentum heading into the spring primaries”. On the Democratic side Bernie Sanders was “going to continue an improbable comeback”–“winning six states in a row”–while Hillary Clinton’s campaign was “dead in the water”–“unable to appeal to any young voters”.
Let’s take a look at those campaigns again this morning–after the far more diverse voters of New York state went to the polls. Suddenly, Donald Trump has a “path to the nomination” again–and Ted Cruz has no momentum as the primaries shift to less evangelical states. And Hillary Clinton adds to her elected delegates lead–while Sanders is left to wonder why he can’t win states where people of color actually vote.
Because Wisconsin was a stand-alone primary–with a two-week gap between it and the previous election–we got an undeserved amount of attention–and an undeserved amount of “impact on the race”. Our demographics are skewed compared to the most-delegate-rich states. In the grand scheme of things, the Cruz and Sanders wins here will be as inconsequential as their victories in Iowa now appear to be–four months later.
We didn’t have a chance to “stop Trump”. There are too many bigger states with celebrity-obsessed voters who want the reality show presidency that he would deliver. And not every state has a Dane County–where liberals with their love for theoretical economics and large groups of white, college kids who want free stuff–can carry Bernie Sanders to “surprising” victories.
Hopefully Wisconsin voters enjoyed the short-lived “power” over the Presidential races that we enjoyed for a couple of weeks. If the polls show the possibility of a close race in the general election, someone might talk about us again come October.
