[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.

The Great Depression, apart from providing a revitalized Socialist Party and small Democratic gains – did not affect the state's politics, which continued to be dominated by the La Follette family, substantially.

Nonetheless, given that that family had never endorsed incumbent GOP President Herbert Hoover, the national Republican Party was pleased when a conservative, Walter J. Kohler Sr., won the gubernatorial nomination.

[9] The Progressive leader Robert M. La Follette, Jr. announced his support for Roosevelt and the state Democratic ticket,[10] and said Hoover was a "reactionary" and "wrong on every issue".

[11] Later polls in October only served to increase Roosevelt's advantage,[12] and in the end he carried Wisconsin by more than two-to-one despite a strong vote for Socialist Party candidate Norman Thomas, who won over twelve percent in Milwaukee County.