[1] In the presidential election, Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan was the Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States.

In the Fall general election, the Democratic presidential candidate, incumbent president Barack Obama, won Wisconsin's ten electoral votes and secured a second four-year term.

As the incumbent president was a Democrat, the Republican presidential nominating contest was open and saw nine candidates enter the race.

By the time of Wisconsin's presidential preference primary, only four candidates remained in the race, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, former U.S. senator Rick Santorum (PA), former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich (GA), and U.S. Representative Ron Paul (TX).

Other candidates whose names appeared on the ballot included former Ambassador Jon Huntsman Jr. (UT) and U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann (MN).

[1] Barack Obama won the presidential election against Mitt Romney and was awarded Wisconsin's ten electoral votes.

Baldwin received 51% of the vote and defeated former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson in the general election.

He survived the recall election; Walker received 53% of the vote in a rematch with his 2010 opponent, Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett.

A special election was held December 2, 2012, to fill the 33rd State Senate seat vacated by Rich Zipperer, who resigned to become deputy chief of staff to Governor Scott Walker.

Republicans won 60 seats, matching their total from the 2010 election and maintaining their majority going into the 101st Wisconsin Legislature.

[1] Fifty two of the state's 249 circuit court seats were on the ballot at the Spring general election, April 3, 2012.

Two other candidates were eliminated in the February primary: video producer Jeff Baas and bar owner Nasser Museitif.

[7] A mayoral recall election was held in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, concurrent with the Spring primary, February 21, 2012.

After incumbent mayor Bob Ryan ran into a series of controversies, Sheboygan residents collected over 4,700 signatures to trigger a recall election, submitting their petitions on November 1, 2011.

[8] Six other candidates ran and were eliminated in the nonpartisan primary: city councilmember Jean Kittelson, retired executive Roberta Filicky-Peneski, businessman Randy Schwoerer, musician Erik Neave, high school student Asher Heimermann, and restaurant worker Mark Hermann.