WOW counties, BOW counties areas to watch on Election Day in Wisconsin

(The Center Square) – Just six counties could determine who wins the state of Wisconsin.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos on Friday said he is watching the WOW counties and the BOW counties.

The WOW counties, Waukesha , Osaukee, and Washington, are traditional Republican strongholds in Wisconsin. A strong showing for the president in those counties could signal a strong night overall.

The BOW counties, Brown, Outagamie, and Winnebago, are population centers in and around Green Bay, including Appleton and Oshkosh. All three have strong Democratic pockets. A strong night for Joe Biden in those counties could signal a strong night for him in Wisconsin.

Vos said it will come down to ground game and voter turnout.

“We [Republicans] need to make sure that President Trump maintains his margins compared to four years ago,” Vos told News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber. “We need to make sure that in rural Wisconsin the numbers are a little bit bigger. Because I do believe that in Milwaukee and Dane Counties [the Democrats] will be where they were. I don’t think they’re going to see significant improvement in their margins.”

In 2016, Hillary Clinton won Dane County with 71% of the vote, and won Milwaukee County with 66% of the vote. But Clinton won just 13 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. She did not win any of the WOW or BOW counties.

Vos said the battleground will mostly be in the WOW counties this year, particularly Waukesha County.

“The Democrats’ strategy is different than ours. They are trying to convince people who might not have voted at all to vote for Joe Biden,” Vos explained. “We are working on converting people who realize if we had Hillary Clinton as president, imagine the hurt we’d be in. And Joe Biden is a different version of the exact same philosophy.”

President Trump won the WOW counties in 2016 with pretty strong margins. He won Waukesha County with 61% of the vote; he won Ozaukee County with 57% of the vote; and he won Washington County with 67% of the vote.

President Trump won the BOW counties in 2016 as well, but his margins were a little thinner. The president won Brown County with 52% of the vote, he won Outagamie County with 54% of the vote, and he won Winnebago County with just over 50% of the vote.