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Google Trends: Here are the candidates and issues Wisconsin voters are searching

Posted at 5:41 PM, Sep 25, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-25 18:45:41-04

Polls can tell us what voters are thinking about the candidates but Google trends is showing us what issues Wisconsin voters are searching for on the internet.

The Google search map of Wisconsin shows trends in the past week for Democrat Tony Evers and Republican Gov. Scott Walker in all 72 counties.

Red is for Walker and Blue is for Evers - the darker colors reflect a higher search interest.

Compare that to the map of the counties Walker won in 2014 - there's a lot of red for Walker.

But on Google's map,  Evers has popped in more counties in the middle part of the state.

What we don't know from the Google search is why Walker or Evers are spiking in specific counties.

In the US Senate race between Democrat Tammy Baldwin and Republican Leah Vukmir - again the map on the right is Google search and you can see the county's where Baldwin and Vukmir are trending.

Compare that to the map on the left - these are the counties Donald Trump won in 2016. You can see search trends for Baldwin in areas where Trump won.

So what are the top search issues for Wisconsin voters?

Here's a map that shows health care remains the number one search issue this past week. It's the most searched issues in Wisconsin since January 2017.

Grey is the search line for immigration but look at two spikes in the red line.

Red is for immigration and it spiked at the end of January of 2017 and in at the end of June of this year.

Why?

In 2017 President Trump signed the travel band executive order. In June of this year - controversy over the U-S border separation policy.