On my way to Milwaukee this week, to cover a protest event in front of Fiserv Forum against Donald Trump (who was campaigning there on Friday evening), I took a bit of a detour, as I sometimes do on my longer drives. I don’t like take the same way to places when I don’t have to, and, having a couple of hours to kill before that event took place, I drove through Waukesha County.

The county is famous — or perhaps, infamous — for being one of the bellwethers of the country. Not in terms of how close the vote can be there, because the county is notoriously conservative and Republican, but rather in terms of what level the vote ends up being.

If Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington Counties (known as the WOW Counties in Wisconsin) have a huge amount of support for Republicans, it’s generally seen as a good sign for the GOP to win statewide races, as those three counties can cancel out the votes in liberal strongholds of Dane and Milwaukee Counties. 

As I drove through Waukesha County — through the rural parts and cities on Highway 18 — I saw a number of signs that were indeed in support of Donald Trump and other Republican candidates. But I was surprised to see many signs, too, in support of Kamala Harris and Tammy Baldwin. 

Not only in the cities within the county, mind you — I saw farms with pro-Harris and Baldwin signage.

This is nothing short of remarkable for the area. Sure, some of these residents have probably voted for Democrats before, and an old adage I can recall from my political canvassing days still rings true: signs don’t vote.

But to see this much signage in this area of the state suggests to me a very important point. Rather than being coy with their political beliefs, these voters are now more outspoken with them. And that trickles out, in a way, to the overall attitude and general belief of the county as a whole. If those residents felt shy about exposing their beliefs before, they sure don’t feel that way anymore, either because they’re becoming braver about doing so, or because it’s becoming more ACCEPTABLE to express those views.

I believe it’s a combination of those two factors. Which means that deep red Waukesha County is trending less red these days.

We actually know this to be the case — in the 2014 gubernatorial election, Waukesha County voted for Republican candidate Scott Walker over Democratic nominee Mary Burke by a spread of 45.7 points. In the latest gubernatorial race, however, Democrat Tony Evers, who won the race overall, still lost Waukesha County to Republican Tim Michels, but the spread was much small — Evers only lost in that county by 20.3 points.

That’s a HUGE reduction, and an indicator that the county is trending closer to a purpler hue or red nowadays.

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When I arrived at Fiserv in Milwaukee, it was nothing short of a sea of red hats and other pro-Trump memorabilia being worn by thousands of attendees for his speech. At one bar close by to the arena, it was clear that the servers there weren’t too thrilled about it — it’s been my personal experience, having frequented a number of bars in Milwaukee, that the servers in the city are generally progressive-minded individuals. (Still, these particularly servers poured the beers with a smile and a “have a good day” after every interaction.)

There’s no doubt that this group of Trump supporters primarily came from the suburban areas, including the WOW Counties. And there should also be no doubt that the counties will vote for Trump over Harris in Tuesday’s presidential election.

But while observing the crowd — with a beer in my hand, of course — I noticed what can only be described as a small bit of panic. Sure, there was plenty of camaraderie and self-congratulatory fanfare among the people waiting in line to enter Fiserv, but there was also anger, swearing, misogynistic statements against Harris, and more indications that showcased a crack in the optimism these Trump-backers would ordinarily have a few days away from Election Day. The people entering the arena weren’t expressing a positive mood, and that can perhaps be due to the weather (it was in the low 40s), but I think there was something else at play here.

Wisconsin is up for grabs. And these Trump voters aren’t just seeing how people in Milwaukee are voting, aren’t just recognizing the fact that Wisconsin is a toss-up going into the weekend before the election. They’re also witnessing their own neighbors putting up signs that contradict their own views, and I think that’s weighing on them somewhat.

This anger became more apparent when I started covering the protest event I was sent to Milwaukee to report on — Trump supporters berated the demonstrators, shouting curse words and booing them loudly. Some even went out of their way to get directly in the faces of speakers, invading their personal space in order to express…what, exactly? That they’re there, I suppose, and they’re going to stand in their way every chance they get.

So be it, I suppose. But that’s not the action a person would take if they weren’t at least a little bit concerned that their guy wasn’t going to win.