09:14

Some background from the Guardian’s Dominic Rushe on the significance of Scott Walker’s defeat in Wisconsin:

Few governors have been as influential as Scott Walker in the past decade. Walker brought the state to a standstill and himself to national attention in 2011 after passing Act 10, a bill that gutted collective bargaining rights for public sector unions and slashed their benefits. Thousands took to the street’s in protest and opponents attempted to have Walker kicked out of office. The governor not only beat off the recall move, the first governor in the US to survive such an effort, but won re-election in 2012.

Kevin Robillard (@Robillard) .@AFLCIO president @RichardTrumka has a very blunt statement on the #WIGov results: “Scott Walker was a national disgrace.” pic.twitter.com/vXRRxFJt8g

Act 10 has led to a dramatic slump in union membership in Wisconsin and made Walker a star among the anti-labour, big business set, as the Guardian showed in 2016. The Koch brothers and others have poured millions into his campaigns and anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist has argued Walker has been more influential in defeating the progressive agenda than Trump. If his policies are “enacted in a dozen more states, the modern Democratic party will cease to be a competitive power in American politics. It’s that big a deal,” he wrote last year.

Walker then launched a short-lived bid for the Republican presidential nomination but was firmly beaten back by Trump. Not that it cooled his ardor for the party. Since his re-election Walker has worked tirelessly to ensure Republican dominance in the state. In 2011, Republicans redrew Wisconsin’s electoral boundaries, effectively eliminating swing districts and creating safe Republican seats.

In the first election after the redistricting, Republicans won 60 out of 99 seats in the state assembly with just 48.6% of the statewide vote. In the 2014 election, Republicans won 63 of the 99 seats with just 52% of the vote. Local Democrats sued and a lower court ruled the redistricting was unconstitutional.