Way to go, Wisconsin
Way to go, Wisconsin: More than 2 million people voted in our state on Tuesday — nearly half of those eligible to do so. That’s a massive turnout for a primary election, the best here since 1972 and second best nationwide this year. You did your duty, even if it meant standing in long lines. A voter waiting in line to cast her ballot at Cass Street Elementary School Tuesday evening told us she was behind 100 others, most of them like her under the age of 30 who had come to exercise the franchise.
Way to go, Wisconsin: Younger voters, many of them Democratic supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, flocked to the polls on the state’s college campuses and elsewhere. Voters ages 18 to 29 made up 19% of the Democratic electorate, and Sanders got 82% of those votes.
Way to go, Wisconsin: You told former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sanders’ rival for the nomination, that she has to work harder to win your support. Sanders won with 57% of the vote compared with 43% for Clinton. He won with liberals, men and the young and fought her to a draw with women voters. A third of Democratic voters said honesty was the most important quality in a candidate, and Sanders was supported by 83% of those who felt that way. Clinton’s disturbing record on open government, which we laid out in an editorial last week, is no doubt part of the problem.
Way to go, Wisconsin: You sent the P.T. Barnum of American politics packing for New York. Businessman Donald Trump was so badly beaten in Wisconsin that he didn’t bother to make an appearance on Tuesday night. His campaign issued a statement: “Lyin’ Ted Cruz . . . is a Trojan horse, being used by the party bosses attempting to steal the nomination from Mr. Trump.”
Which is nonsense and sells Wisconsin voters short. Cruz thrashed Trump on Tuesday — from the bright red Milwaukee suburbs to the Fox Valley and beyond. He won with men and women, young and old, blue collar and white collar and with those disgusted by Trump’s campaign. By a large margin, Republican voters said Trump “ran the most unfair campaign,” according to exit polls. Trump remains the least qualified candidate of our lifetimes, a man who has barely thought about the most important issues facing the nation let alone learned how to articulate a coherent position on them. Unfortunately, his horror show of a candidacy will go on.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, whom we recommended, finished a distant third, and the calls for him to quit the race will grow in advance of the New York primary on April 19. Hang in there, governor. With a contested convention more likely, there is no reason to quit. Kasich remains the best qualified and most independent of the three remaining GOP candidates.
Through our editorials leading up to the election, our goal was to focus attention on ensuring honest, open, clean and effective government in Wisconsin and the nation. Citizens have a right to that, and, by voting in such numbers on Tuesday, citizens of our state made their voices heard nationwide.
Way to go, Wisconsin!