Trump wins county, Biden wins country
Democrats who were hoping Trempealeau County would turn blue again were disappointed on election night as President Donald Trump won the county, but the incumbent president lost both the state and the country — both popular vote and electoral college — to challenger Joe Biden.
Trump won the county by even more than he did in 2016. The president picked up 57.5 percent of the vote on Tuesday to top Biden in the county, he received 54 percent of the county vote in 2016. Trump received 8,828 Trempealeau County votes, compared to 7,364 in 2016. Biden received 6,283 votes, Hillary Clinton received 5,636 in 2016.
The only municipality Biden was able to win was the village of Pigeon Falls, which he took 107-94. A big difference came in the town of Arcadia where Trump received 340 more votes than Biden.
The county’s vote followed the national trend as Trump seemed to dominate rural areas, but Biden controlled the larger cities. Biden was declared the winner by most media outlets on Saturday. The results were delayed due to a large number of mail-in and absentee votes, which heavily favored Biden as Trump urged his supporters to instead vote at the polls.
In some states, in-person votes were tallied first, giving the impression that Trump had large leads before the absentee votes were counted, allowing Biden to pull ahead in several states and win the election. In Trempealeau County, 4,990 absentee ballots were received and clerk Paul Syverson reported that the election turnout was 81.8 percent.
As of press time, Trump had not yet conceded, insisting there was foul play by the Democrats and that he would challenge the results legally.
The 2020 election seemed to turn the county even more red than it had been in 2016 when it broke a 34-year-stretch as a blue county.
County voters heavily favored Republican Treig Pronschinske for the 92nd Assembly seat. Pronschinske received 8,187 votes in Trempealeau County, compared to 5,494 for Amanda White Eagle. Overall, Pronschinske managed nearly 59 percent of the vote to win a third term.
It was a clean sweep for Republicans in the county as Derrick Van Orden received 8,084 votes to Ron Kind’s 7,154 for the third congressional district. Kind had easily won the county the last two elections, running unopposed in 2016 and defeating Mel Pittman with nearly 60 percent of the vote in 2018.
Unlike Pronschinske, Van Orden did not receive enough support outside of the county as Kind won his seat with 51.5 percent of the vote, totaling 199,216 votes to Van Orden’s 187,966.
Kind issued the following statement:
“It’s been the honor of my life to represent the area where I was born and raised and where Tawni and I have raised our family. To that end, I want to thank the people of this district for sending me back to Washington. I know firsthand the challenges working families in Wisconsin face, and I am committed to fighting for the farmers, veterans, families, businesses, and workers who move our state forward. I’m truly humbled by the opportunity to continue working for the people of Wisconsin’s Third Congressional District, standing up to powerful special interests, bridging the partisan divide, and bringing our Wisconsin way of life to the halls of Congress.”
County district attorney John Sacia, clerk Paul Syverson, treasurer Laurie Halama and register of deeds Rose Ottum all won uncontested races as Democrats.
Blair-Taylor School District voters approved a referendum allowing the district to borrow up to $4,145,000 for an expansion to the district’s building, including the addition of a daycare center and a baseball field. There were 769 votes in favor of the referendum, compared to 561 against in Trempealeau County, while Jackson County voters also favored the project 334-270.
City of Arcadia voters were staunchly against the recycling referendum, 501-291 (see story on Page 2).
Town of Caledonia voters approved a $500,000 referendum for the purpose of building a joint town hall and town shop building.
Full election results can be found here.
