At the Door: How Kittler Consulting Went to Work in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court Race

.In just six weeks, our team and partners knocked 60,000+ doors across Black, Brown, and rural communities in SE, western, and northern Wisconsin. We surveyed roughly 25% of those contacts—15,000 voter conversations—to identify supporters, persuade undecideds, and harden turnout for constitutional conservative Judge Brad Schimel.

Where the Numbers Point to Impact

Elections are won and lost on margins. In several high-priority counties where we concentrated door-to-door outreach, the final results landed inside the zone where an aggressive field program can matter.

• Racine County: Final margin 1.2 points (Crawford 50.57% – Schimel 49.34%). That’s true swing-county territory where voter contact and turnout lift can decide outcomes.

• Kenosha County: Another razor’s edge county in recent statewide races with a diverse electorate and large pool of persuadables/low-propensity voters—exactly the voters we prioritized at the door. (County maintains detailed precinct reporting underscoring the city/suburb split that makes door work decisive.)

• Brown County (Green Bay): Finished 51.57% – 48.38%. That’s within a few thousand votes out of over 100k cast—precisely the scale where 15k targeted conversations help identify, chase, and bank votes. Notably, Brown was a state-watch county that both parties focused on.

  
  

Why highlight these? Because they match three conditions where field typically moves the needle:

1. Tight final margins (under ~4–5 points).

2. High heterogeneity (mix of urban/inner-ring suburb/rural).

3. Significant low-propensity and persuadable universes (including Black and Latino neighborhoods in Racine/Kenosha/Green Bay).

   
   

Public reporting on the 2025 contest noted that Judge Susan Crawford over-performed typical Democratic baselines across all 72 counties and that Judge Schimel under-performed Trump’s recent statewide showing. In that environment, keeping Schimel competitive in the “hinge” counties above is itself a field accomplishment—and is where a concentrated door program is most likely to have shaved and/or added critical votes.

For historical context, Brown County also sat near parity in the 2023 Supreme Court race (Protasiewicz 51.65% – Kelly 48.12%), underscoring just how persistently “moveable” that county is cycle to cycle. Programs that put humans at doors—listening first, persuading second—are uniquely positioned to influence outcomes there.

What We Did Differently

• Speed-to-Scale: Built and deployed a six-week field architecture capable of 60k doors and 15k structured surveys—fast enough to matter, large enough to be felt at the margins.

• Targeting That Respects Communities: We prioritized Black and Brown neighborhoods in Racine, Kenosha, Milwaukee’s collar communities, and Green Bay, and we covered rural turf in the western and northern regions where conservative votes are plentiful but often under-contacted.

• Data That Drives the Next Knock: Nightly ingestion of survey responses (ID, persuasion, turnout barriers) meant the next day’s lists were smarter: undecideds got a second touch; soft supporters got turnout support; hard supporters got ballot-ready info.

  
  

Why Doors Still Win Wisconsin

Analysts noted record-style intensity on both sides in recent high-salience statewide races (2023 and 2025). In a state where millions of dollars of TV/online spend cancel each other out, field is the differentiator. It’s measurable, it compounds, and it’s disproportionately effective with exactly the voters who decide Wisconsin: infrequent voters in diverse midsize metros and cross-pressured residents of rural townships.