Today I'm excited to post my first maps. I'm going to be looking at the only Republican gubernatorial defeat in Wisconsin between 1857 and 1888: the 1873 elections!
Here's the 1871 map for reference. Washburn will be the incumbent going into 1873
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This map shows a significant improvement. The opposition really cut into Republican margins in rural areas *and* consolidated the votes in the lakeshore counties.
2/16

And here we can see where the greatest gains were. This kind of shift was only possible because a lot of factors came together at the right time. It's the story of a new party motivated by rural discontent, old democratic machines, and drinking rights
3/16

Up until this point, the Democratic Party is in bad shape. Most of its votes come from the lakeshore counties and their democratic machines, run by the Bourbon faction. And the bourbons are fine with this. 4/16

They're the business and legal elite, and they prefer to remain in the minority and maintain their dignity, rather than build coalitions with "scoundrels". They maintain control until the party is wrested from them by 2 political newcomers: Alexander Mitchell and George Paul.5/16

Mitchell was a Scottish immigrant who made a fortune in banking and railroads. Paul was a progressive-minded democrat who ran and owned a newspaper. Together they sidelined the Bourbons and formed a political alliance with Liberal Republicans under a new banner: The Reform Party.

Free from the toxic brand of the Democratic party, there was finally a viable challenger who could unite voters tired of Republican dominance. Now they needed their coalition. One of their top priorities would be consolidating support among german-americans. 7/16

The Republicans had actually been making gains with protestant Germans up to this point, but in 1872 they messed up. They messed with their beer. They enacted the Graham Law, which included provisions for saloon licensing and made saloons liable for their drunk patrons
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Germans believed this was unconstitutional, and an attack on their heritage. The germans were then further alienated during a fight over the 1873 treasury nominee, when the party selected a norwegian over a german candidate.
9/16

This gave the Reform party an opportunity to really run up the score in places like Milwaukee, but they still needed to build up rural support. This was essential to winning statewide, and would establish the new parties independence from the conservative bourbons. 10/16

As it so happens, a number of trends were coming to a head putting real pressure on Wisconsin wheat farmers. Westward settlement increased wheat production, driving prices down, while the panic of 1873 drove down demand from the east. Farmers needed a target for their ire
11/16

That ended up being the railroads. As this was all going on, railroads were monopolizing transportation, gouging inland farmers who needed to get goods to market, using discriminatory rates, and giving "free passes" on the rails to government officials.
12/16

The Reform party seized this opportunity and emphasized railroad regulation in their platform, attracting many of these farmers. Republicans saw the dangers of this coalition and tried to win back these voters by renominating Washburn for governor.
13/16

Washburn was a railroad regulation advocate, but many were suspicious of lieutenant governor RH Bakers business ties. Ultimately the ticket wasn't enough to stem the losses, and proved radical enough to alienate the railroads that usually supported Republicans.
14/16

Under these circumstances Reformers saw a massive victory. William Taylor was elected governor, Reform Party candidates won every other statewide office, and they secured a majority in the state assembly.
15/16

The only drawback was that they were 1 seat short of a state senate majority. The Reform party now had to govern while attempting to maintain a sprawling coalition at odds with itself. I'm looking forward to talking more about that when I publish an 1875 map.
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