MADISON, WIS. -- Mitt Romney made a serious play here – not surprising, given his running mate was a native son and the state recently re-affirmed its support of its Republican governor in a recall election. 

But despite the Paul Ryan appearances and the millions spent in third-party ads, the state still proved elusive – one reason, perhaps, that became apparent just hours after polls closed in that contentious June recall.

Related: Romney never overcame bailout opposition

Of the 53 percent of voters who supported Gov. Scott Walker over Tom Barrett, who opposed the governor’s curbs on collective bargaining, 18 percent said they’d still vote for President Barack Obama over Romney.

And that was among the 2.5 million people that voted in the recall – half a million less than voted Tuesday for president. 

“Even if the electorate didn’t grow at all, Republicans needed to worry,” University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said, “because that’s enough of a flip to make the state go for Obama.” 

In a state where voters take pride in voting for the person, not the party, Burden said that some voters felt similarly about Obama and Walker. 

“They’re both incumbents, they’re both presiding over a kind of mediocre economy... But in both cases, voters are willing to give the incumbent credit and give them time to finish the job,” Burden said. 

Plus, the fact that the Obama campaign turned out the voters they needed to put them over the edge, even if the resulting 53-46 percent result was far less than Obama’s 14-point margin in 2008. 

In the important blue counties of Racine and Milwaukee, Obama got 51.4 percent and 67 percent of the vote respectively. As with elsewhere in the country, demographics were a key part of his victories there: Milwaukee County’s population is 27 percent African American, versus 6.5 percent of people statewide; Racine's is 11.5 percent. 

Steven Senne / AP

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney greets people during a campaign stop at a Cousins Subs fast food restaurant, in Waukesha, Wis., Tuesday, April 3, 2012.

But while Obama won decisively here, Republicans said they are far from ready to cede this perennial purple state to the Democrats. 

“I think we have a fantastic ground game and we’ll continue to grow,” said Wisconsin Republican party spokesman Nathan Conrad. 

Republicans did win the super-swingy Brown County, which voted Obama in 2008, Walker for governor in 2010 and 2012, and gave Romney a narrow 50.4- 48.5 percent win Tuesday night. Green Bay, located in Brown County’s Fox Valley, is a particularly important bellwether, given its high concentration of white male working-class voters who frequently swing between parties. 

But the margins there were meaningful – smaller than they had to be in order for Walker to win, some Republicans conceded. 

Another bright spot for Republicans in Wisconsin was in the statehouse - Wednesday morning Scott Walker was quick to note that his party eked out a new 17-15 majority in the state Senate, the body’s third party switch in two years after it went to the Democrats during the recall. 

“What that tells me is that voters in this state are independent. They listen race by race to what the candidates have to offer,” Walker said to reporters Wednesday in Milwaukee.

And that is one of the reasons this state will continue to be a key battleground in future presidential races, Burden, the University of Wisconsin professor, said. 

“It’s just volatile enough and has just enough electoral votes that neither party really wants to walk away from it,” he said. 

JANESVILLE, Wisc. -- With just a few hours to go before polls close and the 2012 election draws to a close, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan is optimistic Mitt Romney will become the next president of the United States.

Eric Thayer / Reuters

Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan and his wife Janna vote during the U.S. Presidential election accompanied by their children Charlie, Sam and Liza in Janesville, Wisconsin November 6, 2012.

Asked if the GOP ticket would win Tuesday, Ryan told reporters after casting his ballot: "I think we are, I feel good about it."
The Wisconsin congressman and his wife, Janna, voted at the Hedberg Library in their hometown of Janesville. Ryan’s three children -- Liza, Charlie, and Sam -- joined their parents as well.

Who did Ryan vote for?

"It'll be suspenseful," the congressman, wearing a suit, joked with reporters as he walked into the library.

"It felt good waking up in my hometown,” Ryan said after submitting his ballot. “It felt good coming to this neighborhood I grew up in. I went to junior high about 60 yards that way. So it’s great to be here in my hometown. It’s great to vote and we’re really excited."

Ryan will head to the battleground states of Ohio and Virginia before heading to the election night party in Boston this evening.

RENO, Nev. – Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan kicked off what he called a "barnburner" of a final day on the campaign trail, courting voters out west in Nevada.

“Are you gonna help us win this thing Nevada? We're doing a barnburner today. We are crisscrossing the country Mitt and I are because we are asking you to work with us, to stand with us to get our country back on the right track,” Ryan told the crowd inside a hangar at the Reno Tahoe International Airport.

Ryan is holding five campaign rallies in four time zones Monday while Romney is holding five events along the East Coast.

Monday’s stop in Reno marks the GOP VP nominee’s sixth event in the Silver State and, with national polls tight between Romney and President Barack Obama, Ryan said Tuesday’s election could come down to Nevada.

"Look, a handful of states are gonna figure this out. So many Americans are looking to you, right here in Reno, right here in Nevada, and a handful of states like my own. And they're looking to you to make sure that you cast your vote for actual real change. That you cast your vote to get us off this dangerous path that we are on and back on the right track," he said to the roughly 1,000 people in attendance.

Ryan was joined by his wife and three children in addition to Romney’s son, Craig, at this first stop of the day less than 24 hours before polls open.

“Nevada we are counting on you. We know you can do this. We are in this together and let's just run through the tape, let's leave it all on the field,” Ryan asked supporters before heading off to Colorado for his next event.

CASTLE ROCK, Colo. -- Less than 48 hours before polls open on Election Day, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan gave a firm warning to a group of evangelical Christians Sunday night: President Barack Obama’s policies jeopardize Judeo-Christian values. 

“And in these critical battleground states, it’s going to make the big difference as to whether or not people are worried about where America’s headed, worried about whether we’re going to reassert our Constitution, or whether or not we’re going to go down the path the president has put us on,” Ryan said speaking on a Faith and Freedom Coalition tele-townhall with thousands of voters across the country.  

He continued, “It’s a dangerous path, it’s a path that grows government, restricts freedom and liberty, and compromises those values, those Judeo-Christian, western-civilization values that made us such a great and exceptional nation in the first place.”

A Ryan campaign spokesman told NBC News about Ryan’s comments: "He was talking about issues like religious liberty and ObamaCare - topics he has mentioned frequently during the campaign." 

Mitt Romney has also shared similar comments about Judeo-Christian values, such as during his commencement address at Liberty University in May 2012.

The Faith and Freedom Coalition is an influential evangelical grassroots organization headed by Ralph Reed. The tele-townhall tonight was only advised by the group and never by the Romney campaign. It was a call that had been re-scheduled at least once due to scheduling conflicts. Ryan fielded questions from several callers in between campaign rallies in Minnesota and Colorado. 

Asked by a caller from Florida about how his faith has helped him as Romney’s running mate, Ryan said it “sustains” and “humbles” him. 

“We [Ryan’s family] pray throughout the day. I keep a rosary in my pocket, whatever jacket I've got, and I'm given so many prayers from people,” the Wisconsin congressman said. “I'm one of those people who don't think you can separate your faith from your public life as an official from your private life. It informs you, it guides you, it makes you who you are, and it gives you great peace.  First prayer I say every morning is the Serenity prayer.” 

Ryan also noted he received an email from his pastor in Janesville, Wis. tonight with the words: “have no fear.” “And that's how the Lord sustains me. No fear,” Ryan added.

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Sundays in the fall mean football. And, on this final Sunday before Election Day, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan went tailgating in the battleground state of Wisconsin.

Ryan, in the shadow of Lambeau Field, chatted with friends, family, and voters just a couple hours before his beloved Green Bay Packers kicked off against their division rivals, the Arizona Cardinals.

Sporting a Packers jacket and tie, the seven-term Wisconsin congressman, joined by two of Mitt Romney’s sons, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Sen. Ron Johnson, even played a quick game of cornhole with his kids and a few Romney grandkids.

"You have to have your cheese on your head,” Ryan said to the kids while playing cornhole.

This is not Ryan’s first tailgate on the campaign trail. He has attended at least two others throughout the country.

"The only problem is that I don't have tickets for the game," Ryan, who owns a share of Packers stock, joked to a fan.

Sunday’s outing marked Ryan’s second time in the Lambeau Field vicinity since being tapped as Romney’s running mate on Aug. 11. He was last at the popular venue in early September when he taped a handful of television interviews.

The GOP ticket is still behind in the Badger State. The NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll from Oct. 18 shows President Obama ahead of Romney, 51 percent to 45 percent. The six-point lead is, however, in the poll's margin of error. Wisconsin will award 10 electoral votes.

The Fox Valley area, which Green Bay is part of, is the quintessential battleground region of Wisconsin, which could explain why Ryan visited the area again just two days before Election Day.

Ryan will head back to Wisconsin Monday night when he holds his final campaign rally before the Nov. 6 election in Milwaukee.

MIDDLETOWN, Penn. — Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan spearheaded a last-minute effort by Republicans to put Pennsylvania in play on Tuesday with a trip to the Keystone State on Saturday. 

As Election Day draws near, Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney's campaign has tried to expand its path to 270 electoral votes by campaigning and spending money in Pennsylvania, a state which last went for a GOP candidate in a presidential election in 1988.

“If we win Pennsylvania, we save America in three days,” Ryan told a group of supporters standing outside his rally at the Harrisburg International Airport.

President Barack Obama carried Pennsylvania during the 2008 election by more than 10 points, but in recent days, nearly $10 million in ad buys by the Romney campaign, the Republican National Committee and GOP super PACs have infiltrated the state.

“Can I just tell you how red Pennsylvania’s gonna be on Tuesday? Because I know how red it’s gonna, it’s gonna be this red, okay,” Sen. Pat Toomey, Ryan’s former roommate on Capitol Hill, said pointing to his bright red jacket.

Related: Polls: Obama stays ahead in Ohio, deadlocked with Romney in Fla.

Republican Gov. Tom Corbett also joined Ryan Saturday, just three days before the election and believes his state could determine a very tight race between Obama and Romney on Tuesday.

“The one thing I know about Pennsylvania, and I hope you remember: We are the Keystone State. Right? No offense to my friend in Virginia, or to the rest of the country. But we are the Keystone State to this nation and we are the Keystone State to this election,” Corbett said.

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

The GOP VP nominee has held three other campaign events in Pennsylvania over the last three months, but holding a rally in the state on the last weekend before the election is typically reserved for key battleground states — further indicating the GOPs desire to win the state.

“I say in 3 days, we win, Obama loses, how does that sound?” Ryan said to a very enthusiastic 2,000-person crowd before heading to the battleground states of Virginia and Florida to wrap up the last Saturday of the campaign.

MARIETTA, Ohio — Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan echoed Mitt Romney’s call to vote for “love of country” not out of “revenge,” seizing upon a line of President Barack Obama's

“Mitt Romney and I are asking you to vote out of love of country,” Ryan told a crowd at Marietta College. “That's what we do in this country. We don't believe in revenge. We believe in change and hope.”

Ryan was referencing remarks President Obama made Friday, also in the battleground state of Ohio, that voting against the GOP nominee is “the best revenge.”

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

Romney’s running mate added Saturday morning, in the heart of coal country: “Look, in 2008 President Obama made all these lofty promises, it sounded so good. He said that we would have bi-partisanship, that he’d bridge the gap. He said he’d cut the deficit in half, that he’d get people working again, and he’d create jobs. You see all those jobs here in Marietta? Look, it sounded good and when he got elected people naturally expected him to deliver those results but it didn’t happen and look what we got.”

The Obama re-election campaign, in an email statement, claimed the GOP ticket is “willing to say anything to win, but their rhetoric just doesn’t match reality.”

With just three days to go before Election Day, it’s the final push for both campaigns and the state of Ohio is center stage.

Recommended: Ryan travels to Pennsylvania, trying to put state in play

According to the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released early Saturday morning, Obama holds a six-point advantage over Romney among likely voters, 51 percent to 45 percent, in the Buckeye State.

Related: Polls: Obama stays ahead in Ohio, deadlocked with Romney in Fla.

Romney and Ryan held their final campaign rally together before the Nov. 6 election in Ohio Friday night. They will both make several more appearances separately to the state over the next 72 hours in hopes of securing Ohio’s 18 electoral votes.

WEST CHESTER, OH -- Launching a final pre-election sprint, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney capped a pivotal day for his campaign with one of his largest rallies ever here in Ohio flanked by the party's top leaders.

Romney and vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan told tens of thousands of Ohioans that they were joining a movement to bring change to Washington, an argument set to play out in a state Ryan called the "battleground of battlegrounds."

"I've watched over the last few months as our campaign has gathered, well the strength of a movement," Romney said. "Not only the size of crowds likes this, its the depth of our shared convictions. Our readiness for new possibilities. The sense that our work is soon to begin. its made me strive more to be worthy of your support. To campaign as I would govern. To speak for the aspiration of all Americans."

The event gathered dozens of elected Republicans who will fan out across Ohio and a variety of other swing states this weekend in hopes of pulling those states into the Republican column on Tuesday. The area where Romney held his rally is a more Republican enclave outside of Cincinnati, where the margin between him and Obama could make the difference on Tuesday.

The army of Republican heavyweights included former presidential candidates like Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Arizona Sen. John McCain. They will disperse across the country, though no state may be more pivotal to the Republican ticket's fortunes than Ohio.

"Your state is the one I’m counting on by the way. This is the one we have to win," Romney said.

"Ohio you know it -- you are the lynch pin," Ryan said. "You are the battleground of battlegrounds!"

The speech mostly mirrored the "closing argument" Romney first delivered this morning in Wisconsin, promising "real change" to voters who are disappointed with Obama.

Romney attacked President Barack Obama for today's small uptick in the unemployment rate (to 7.9 percent, even as job creation beat expectations with 171,000 new jobs created in October) and chastised the president for telling an Ohio audience "voting is the best revenge" earlier this afternoon.

"Did you see what President Obama said today? He asked his supporters to vote for revenge," Romney said. "For revenge. Instead I ask the American people to vote for love of country."

Before the top of the ticket took the stage, other speakers looked to keep the chilly crowd fired up, following a concert from Romney supporter Kid Rock.

"We are freezin' for a reason, aren't we," joked Sen. Rob Portman, who chairs Romney's campaign in the state, and urged supporters to take advantage of early voting again on Saturday.

"Can we afford four more years like [those under President Obama]?" asked Speaker of the House John Boehner, in whose district the rally was staged. "Hell no we can't!"

As Romney stuck mostly to script, some of the many surrogates who preceded him riffed on a broader scope of issues. Several Republicans, including 2008 nominee and Arizona Sen. John McCain, sharply criticized Obama's handling of a deadly September assault on a diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya. Romney had also been a fierce critic of the president's handling of the incident, but has all but dropped that element from his campaign.

Democrats pounced on the rally as evidence that Romney would not govern in the bipartisan manner he regularly promises on the stump.

"Speaker after speaker offered angry, hyper partisan, and widely-debunked attacks that—at times—veered into conspiracy theory territory," said Obama campaign spokesperson Lis Smith in a statement. "It’s a fitting end to Mitt Romney’s campaign, since he has kowtowed to the far-right wing of the Republican Party throughout the six years he’s been running for President, leaving little doubt that he’d rubberstamp the Tea Party agenda in the White House."

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan is feeling optimistic about a win in the Hawkeye State on Tuesday.

“So I just got a question: Iowa, you gonna help us win this thing?” Ryan asked the crowd at the University of Northern Iowa. “Darn straight. Absolutely. It feels good. We can do it. Right here in the heartland. Right here in the Midwest."

Ryan, a seven-term Wisconsin congressman, told the nearly 1,000-person crowd it could come down to two states.

“Our two states right here – Wisconsin and Iowa – we can tip it over. We can make the difference right here in Iowa,” he said. “Look, in 2008 President Obama won our states. A lot of our fellow Iowans and Wisconsinites looked at the message. They looked at hope and change and it sounded great and so a lot of people voted for that. The president made a lot of grand promises. He said he would heal the partisan wounds and bring people together. This is the most partisan time I have seen in Washington.”

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who made his closing argument speech Friday in Wisconsin, has been speaking a great deal about the need for bipartisanship. Ryan picked up on this theme in Iowa, as well.

“President Obama has not met with the party leaders of the Republican party in the House or the Senate since July. That doesn’t get things done. That’s partisanship. That’s acrimony. Mitt Romney and I have proven that we know how to work with people on the other side of the aisle. We have proven that we know how to get things done,” he said.

With four days to go before Election Day, Ryan and Romney are barnstorming the country – especially the battleground states – to try and defeat the incumbent president.

“A handful of states will determine this. A handful of states. And Iowa, you know this, you’re used to it with the caucuses. You’ve had everybody running for president in your kitchen,” Ryan said as Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, Gov. Terry Branstad, and Lt Gov. Kim Reynolds sat nearby.

According to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Wednesday, Obama is ahead of Romney by six points among likely voters, 50 percent to 44 percent, which is down from his eight-point lead earlier this month.

Both Romney and Ryan will hold another event in Iowa -- which will award six electoral votes -- before Nov. 6, and President Obama will travel to Iowa for his final rally Monday night before polls open.