Wisconsin Sen. Sheila Harsdorf, R-River Falls, was re-elected earlier this month to represent the 10th Senate District, beating Democratic opponent Diane Odeen. On her campaign website, Harsdorf claimed that “Wisconsin’s unemployment rate has been cut by more than half and is consistently lower than the national average.” The Observatory checked whether Wisconsin’s unemployment rate has been cut by more than 50 percent, and whether the Wisconsin unemployment rate has been consistently lower than the national average. In order to check the first part of the claim, we asked Harsdorf’s campaign staff how they arrived at the the estimated reduction in the unemployment rate. They pointed to the difference in unemployment between January 2010 and today. According to Harsdorf’s team, Wisconsin’s unemployment rate was 9.2 percent in January 2010, compared to the current unemployment rate of 4.2 percent. 
Harsdorf claims Wisconsin’s unemployment rate has dropped by half. Has it?
['Wisconsin', 'Democratic_Party_(United_States)', 'Sheila_Harsdorf', 'Oregon_State_Senate']