ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
We're getting snapshots from a handful of important swing states this Election Day. And let's head now to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at a street called North Avenue. It's a 15-mile artery where I met a bunch of voters earlier this fall. Maayan Silver of member station WUWM was our guide on that trip, and she is back now with an update - good to talk to you again, Maayan.
MAAYAN SILVER, BYLINE: Hi, Ari - great to be here.
SHAPIRO: For people who did not spend as much time on that road as you and I did, remind people why North Avenue is such an important stretch in the Milwaukee area.
SILVER: Yeah. So it runs west from Lake Michigan all the way through the suburbs, and it cuts through areas that are politically blue, purple and red. I've had political strategists tell me that North Avenue reflects so many pockets of the electorate that as goes North Avenue, so goes Wisconsin.
SHAPIRO: You can find so many demographic groups along this street. I know you've been dipping in and out of various points along the 15-mile stretch. Who have you met?
SILVER: OK, so starting in the east, I visited a polling place in a predominantly Black neighborhood. It was pretty quiet today. I caught Ke'chonya Johnson after she voted. She's 25. She's a first-time voter. She was nudged to vote by friends and family.
KE'CHONYA JOHNSON: They were messaging me. They say, you voting? I'd be like - sometimes, I'm like, nah, I don't know. I hadn't thought, like, I wasn't going to vote or not, but I did.
SILVER: And do you mind me asking who you voted for? Did you vote for Harris?
JOHNSON: Yes, ma'am.
SILVER: And why is that?
JOHNSON: I just wanted to see a lady be in the seat. I just want something different. We always had a man in the seat. Why we can't get a lady in the seat?
SILVER: So you can hear her enthusiasm is a little bit muted, like, you know, others I spoke to, but voters like Ke'chonya were still finding a reason to show up.
SHAPIRO: OK, so that's a blue section of North Avenue. Take us out into the suburbs where you tend to find more Republican voters. What did you see there?
SILVER: Yeah, the other end of North Avenue runs into Waukesha County. It's really the heart of the Republican Party in Wisconsin. It's the county with the most Republican votes. I spoke with Ken Robinson yesterday at a Walmart parking lot in Waukesha. He voted early at the polls.
KEN ROBINSON: I don't think we have the best candidates to choose from in this election, but it's an easy choice between Harris and Trump.
SILVER: So, again, not the most enthusiastic, but he did vote for Trump. You know, but there's definitely a gender divide in the voters I spoke to. The men I spoke with were Trump supporters, but most of the women were Harris supporters. Beth Cooper voted early for Harris. She's 76. She had concerns about what a second Trump presidency would mean for reproductive rights.
BETH COOPER: We would not have any grandchildren if it wasn't for IVF. Our daughter had miscarried twins. She'd had an ectopic pregnancy. She'd had multiple failed pregnancies, and they went right to the IVF when they went to the fertility clinic. And it worked.
SILVER: So you're worried about, under Republicans, under Trump, what would happen to that access.
COOPER: I am, definitely.
SILVER: Trump has promised not to restrict IVF, but Cooper doesn't believe him. So, you know, people on both ends of North Avenue are making choices today. And based on past elections here, we know that tiny shifts in who shows up and how they vote will decide whether Trump or Harris wins the state. Four of the last six presidential races were decided by less than one percentage point here.
SHAPIRO: And, Maayan, just remind us how Wisconsin fits into the national picture as one of seven swing states that could determine the outcome of this race.
SILVER: So, yeah, you know, Wisconsin is part of the blue wall of Rust Belt states, including Michigan and Pennsylvania. They were reliably Democratic, but, you know, they all voted for Trump in 2016. So the state is super narrowly decided. It has 10 electoral votes. It's a really high turnout state. You know, it's a little older, whiter, less educated and more Catholic and Lutheran than a lot of other states. But there's that push-pull between its conservative identity and its liberal and progressive identity.
SHAPIRO: That is Maayan Silver of member station WUWM in swing state Wisconsin. Thanks for your reporting, Maayan.
SILVER: Great to reunite, Ari. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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