In the 2020 presidential election, President Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump in Wisconsin by an extremely narrow margin: 49.6% to 48.9%. Using data from PRRI’s 2023 American Values Atlas, this Spotlight Analysis presents a demographic and religious profile of Wisconsinites and the issues that are important to them as they consider their choices in the 2024 presidential election.
- The median age of adults in Wisconsin is 48, the same as all Americans (48).
- Less than four in ten Wisconsinites (38%) have a high school education or less, while 29% have some college experience, 21% hold a four-year college degree, and 12% hold a postgraduate degree.
- The vast majority of Wisconsinites are white (83%), while 6% are Hispanic, 4% are AAPI, 4% are Black, and 1% are multiracial.
- Similar percentages of Wisconsinites identify as Republicans (29%), Democrats (31%), and independents(29%).
- Wisconsinites are somewhat more likely to identify as political conservatives (36%) than liberals (30%), while 33% consider themselves moderates.
- According to PRRI’s Christian Nationalism scale, just under one in ten Wisconsinites are Christian nationalism Adherents (8%), while 17% are Christian nationalism Sympathizers; 40% of Wisconsinites are Christian nationalism Skeptics and 33% are Christian nationalism Rejecters.
Wisconsin’s Religious Landscape
Most Wisconsinites identify as white Christians, including 25% as white mainline/non-evangelical Protestants, 22% as white Catholics, and 11% as white evangelical Protestants. Wisconsinites are much more likely to be white Catholics or white mainline Protestants than Americans nationally. Less than one in ten Wisconsinites identify as Christians of color (7% as Protestants of color and 5% as Catholics of color). Two percent identify with another Christian denomination and 4% identify as members of non-Christian religions. Roughly one-quarter of Wisconsinites identify as religiously unaffiliated (26%), similar to the share among the overall American population (27%).
Wisconsinites’ Litmus Test Issues by Party Affiliation
Wisconsin residents are most likely to say that they would only support a candidate who shares their views on abortion legality (38%) or access to guns (35%). Secondarily, 28% of Wisconsinites say a candidate must share their views on immigration, 28% say the same about climate change, and 26% say the same about LGBTQ rights.
About half of Democrats in Wisconsin say that a candidate must share their views on both climate change (51%) and abortion (48%), while 42% of Democrats say the same about LGBTQ rights. Smaller shares of Democrats say that access to guns (35%) or immigration (20%) are litmus test issues for them.
Wisconsin Republicans are most likely to say that they would only vote for a candidate who shares their views on access to guns (41%), immigration (37%), or abortion (30%). The state’s Republicans are less likely to say that LGBTQ rights (21%) or climate change (13%) are litmus test issues for them.
Attitudes Toward LGBTQ Rights in Wisconsin
Wisconsinites are broadly supportive of pro-LGBTQ rights policies: broad majorities favor laws that protect LGBT people from discrimination (79%), support same-sex marriage (73%), and oppose allowing small business owners to refuse products or services to LGBTQ people if doing so contradicts with their religious beliefs (65%).
With the exception of opposing religiously based services refusals, majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and independents support these policies. Just under half of Republicans (46%) oppose allowing religiously based service refusals. A majority of Wisconsin Republicans (54%) favor the legality of same-sex marriage and nearly two-thirds (65%) support LGBTQ non-discrimination protections. Nearly nine in ten Wisconsin Democrats oppose allowing religiously based service refusals (86%) and support same-sex marriage (86%), while nearly all Democrats in Wisconsin favor LGBTQ non-discrimination protections (96%). Independents’ views on these policies mirror those of Wisconsinites as a whole.
Attitudes Toward Abortion in Wisconsin
With a ban on abortion after 22 weeks with exceptions for the pregnant person’s life or physical health, Wisconsin has less restrictive limits in place than other states, particularly compared with other states with Republican-controlled state legislatures.
Two-thirds of Wisconsinites (66%) say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. One-third of Wisconsinites say that abortion should be illegal in most or all cases (32%), including just 8% who say abortion should be illegal in all cases.
About four in ten Republicans in Wisconsin say abortion should be legal in all or most cases (42%), compared with more than nine in ten Democrats (92%) and nearly seven in ten independents (68%). A majority of Democrats say that abortion should be legal in all cases (54%). In comparison, just 10% of Republicans say that abortion should be illegal in all cases.
There are minimal differences in Wisconsinites’ views on abortion by gender or education; no more than one in ten members of any key demographic group in the state say that abortion should be illegal in all cases.
Explore the 2024 battleground states in additional PRRI Spotlight Analyses: