Wisconsin

David Crowley, a Democrat and the Milwaukee County executive, won the governor’s office by 8.0 points over Republican Tom Tiffany, in a state Donald Trump carried by 0.9 in 2024. He succeeds a Democrat, Tony Evers, and will be the state’s first Black governor.^{1, 2, 3, 4} Democrats won the three other statewide offices on the ballot. Josh Kaul won the attorney general’s office and JoCasta Zamarripa the secretary of state’s, both already in Democratic hands. The treasurer’s office changed party: Yee Xiong won it by 3.6 points, the narrowest of the party’s statewide wins, and will be the first Hmong statewide elected officer in the country, Wisconsin Watch reported.⁴ Democrats also took Republican-held U.S. House seats. Mitchell Berman beat Bryan Steil by 3.9 points and Rebecca Cooke beat Derrick Van Orden by 6.6 in a rematch of 2024. Berman will be the first Democrat to represent the First District in more than 30 years, WPR reported.⁵ The delegation, which had six Republicans and two Democrats, is now split four to four.

Compared with the 2024 presidential vote, the governor’s race moved 8.9 points toward the Democrats. It drew 78% as many votes as the presidential race and 100% of the 2022 total. Crowley drew 86 votes for every 100 Kamala Harris won here. Tiffany drew 72 for every 100 of Trump’s.

The Madison metro area moved furthest, 9.7 points, from D+43.1 to D+52.8. The Milwaukee metro area, which casts 26% of the vote, went from D+9.4 to D+18.1. The smaller metro areas, which cast 30%, changed sides, from R+8.0 to D+0.8. The small towns and rural counties, with 25% of the vote, moved least, 6.4 points, and voted Republican by 15.8.

Of the seven counties that voted for Trump in 2024 and for Crowley this year, Brown County, in the Green Bay area, is the largest. It went from R+7.5 to D+2.2 on 114,357 votes. Kenosha County went from R+6.2 to D+5.7. The widest swing among large counties was in Milwaukee County, where Crowley is county executive, at 13.5 points.³ Waukesha County, in the same metro area, moved 4.6 and stayed Republican by 15.2. Menominee County was the only county that moved toward the Republicans.

Democrats last held the governorship and both chambers from 2009 to 2011, Spectrum News 1 reported.⁶ On unofficial results compiled by the AP they won the Senate 18 to 15, the reverse of the Republican majority before the election, and our count has the Assembly at 53 Democrats to 46 Republicans, where Republicans had held 54 seats. Sen. Howard Marklein, the Republican co-chair of the Legislature’s budget committee, lost his seat to Rep. Jenna Jacobson, a Democrat.¹ On November 10 Democrats chose Sen. Dianne Hesselbein as Senate majority leader and Rep. Greta Neubauer as Assembly speaker. Neubauer will be the first woman to serve as speaker, WPR reported. Republicans chose Sen. Julian Bradley and Rep. Tyler August as minority leaders.⁷

One party now holds both the Legislature and the governor’s office. The constitution has the Legislature redraw legislative districts at its first session after each census, and every bill the Legislature passes is presented to the governor, by Ballotpedia’s reproduction of the text. Ballotpedia reports that the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered the state to draw new maps in a 4-3 decision in December 2023.^{8, 9, 10} The administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission is Meagan Wolfe, WPR reported.¹¹ Democrats’ top priorities in election law include more election funding and letting clerks process absentee ballots on the Monday before an election, Votebeat reported.¹²

Crowley takes the oath of office on January 4, 2027.¹³ He told WPR two days after the election: “First and foremost, we have to tackle the affordability crisis.” He tied that to school funding, property taxes and healthcare, and named repealing the minimum markup law on gasoline.³ Hesselbein listed fully funding public schools, reining in property taxes and standing with organized labor among the Senate majority’s priorities.⁶ WPR reported that both new leaders were evasive when asked about the details of upcoming bills.⁷

The same voters approved two of three constitutional amendments written by Republican legislators. An amendment reaches the ballot after lawmakers pass it in two consecutive two-year sessions, Wisconsin Watch reported. Question 1 bars the governor from using the partial veto to create or increase a tax or fee. It passed narrowly, with 50.7% in favor in our count, and it does not apply to vetoes already made. Question 3, which bars government and public educational institutions from discriminating against or giving preferential treatment to people based on race, ethnicity, nationality or sex, passed with 56.5%. Question 2, which would have barred public officials from banning gatherings in places of worship during a state of emergency, failed with 48.1% in favor.²

School funding was on local ballots across the state. Voters approved 44 of the 79 school referendums put to them, WPR reported, a result that gives some districts a financial lifeline and leaves others facing cuts.¹⁴

Republicans kept four of the six U.S. House seats they held. The closest was the Eighth District, which Tony Wied won by 7.8 points, followed by the Sixth, where Glenn Grothman won by 9.4. Tiffany carried 52 of the state’s 72 counties. He ran ahead of the party’s 2022 nominee for governor in western and central counties, Wisconsin Watch’s data report found: in Lafayette County he won 56.4% of the vote, 5.4 points better than 2022.¹⁵ The partial veto amendment that passed was a Republican measure, and it will bind a Democratic governor.²

Ron Johnson’s U.S. Senate seat will be on the ballot in 2028, in a state that voted R+0.9 for president in 2024 and D+8.0 for governor this year. Before then comes a statewide election in April 2027 for an open ten-year seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where conservative Justice Annette Ziegler is not seeking a third term and liberals hold a 5-2 majority. Crowley’s first two-year budget is due by the last Tuesday in January unless the Legislature grants more time. A special election on December 15 fills the office of Waukesha County executive, and the only two candidates are Republican legislators, so the winner will leave the Legislature.¹³