[1] The Democratic Party became entirely uncompetitive outside certain German Catholic counties adjoining Lake Michigan as the upper classes, along with the majority of workers who followed them, completely fled from William Jennings Bryan’s agrarian and free silver sympathies.
[2] As Democratic strength weakened severely after 1894 – although the state did develop a strong Socialist Party to provide opposition to the GOP – Wisconsin developed the direct Republican primary in 1903 and this ultimately created competition between the “League” under Robert M. La Follette, and the conservative “Regular” faction.
[3] At the turn of the decade, the Democratic Party underwent a brief revival, as it made significant gains upon its small share of state legislative seats and many people in the state saw in New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson the possibility of the party returning to the progressive ideals it was felt to have deserted with Bryan fifteen years beforehand.
[4] Wilson campaigned in the state as early as 1911 – long before he was the official Democratic nominee – and was soon able to get many Republicans who had supported La Follette onto his bandwagon, and retained them despite former President Theodore Roosevelt running his own “Bull Moose” campaign as a result of the ongoing national split in the Republican Party.
[4] Once regular nominee and incumbent Present William Howard Taft ceased campaigning in August, La Follette’s ability to hold Progressive GOP support for Wilson – outside the Scandinavian Lake Superior Lowland where Roosevelt controlled this group – meant that Democratic Party candidate Woodrow Wilson won Wisconsin's thirteen electoral votes with 41.07 percent of the popular vote.