Peggy Hedberg, a Madison resident, recently switched her support in the Democratic primary for governor from state Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley — a decision she said she has made because “pragmatically” she wants to vote for someone to win. Roys has been polling in the single digits.

Hedberg said it was Crowley’s energy that won her over.

“I felt like he had the strength to carry us,” she said, noting that it was hard for her to switch. She said she cares about electing women, especially as abortion access is one of the most important issues to her, but she also cares about having a candidate who can work with the Legislature to get things done. “I had to make a decision, and that was hard, but I felt that with Evers’ backing and other factors that this would be a better way for us to move forward.” 

Hedberg was at a meet and greet with Crowley on Wednesday afternoon in downtown Madison. Crowley is looking to win over voters like Hedberg with just five days until Election Day. 

Crowley told reporters that he is focusing on consolidating votes from people who are undecided. According to the last Marquette Law School poll, 34% of likely Democratic primary voters had not yet made up their minds. 

Crowley’s campaign ended in July, then restarted at the end of the month following the implosion of Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez’s campaign. In his second launch, Crowley entered with the endorsement of Gov. Tony Evers, triggering accusations that he is the candidate of the Democratic “establishment.” He said Wednesday that “when people try to call me the establishment, I look at that as a slur, particularly as an African American candidate.” Describing his background as a child of parents who struggled with addiction, mental illness and serial evictions, he said he has always represented the people, not the powerful.

When Crowley entered his campaign’s new office on East Washington Avenue in Madison at mid-day on Wednesday, he made a circuit of the room, greeting attendees individually with a huge grin and firm handshakes. Crowley told reporters that six days is “absolutely” enough time to get voters acquainted with him. 

The stop is one of several Crowley is making this week as he crisscrosses the state in an attempt to introduce himself to voters and win enough support to overcome state Rep. Francesca Hong’s substantial lead in recent polls. Election Day is Tuesday.

Crowley told one group of attendees that “there are Democrats everywhere,” describing his campaign stops in Wausau, Rhinelander, Hudson, Superior and Green Bay. At a recent stop in Baraboo he took pictures at the Clown Museum.

Crowley said he was trying “to see if we could find Tom Tiffany.”

This week, Crowley campaigned in Appleton with Gov. Evers and won the endorsement of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, the Congressional Black Caucus PAC and state legislators including Legislative Black Caucus Chair Sen. Dora Drake and Rep. Lisa Subeck, who spoke at the Madison event.

“There is something magnetic about him. I think about some of the things that I have loved about Gov. Tony Evers — he is a good guy, he is a good person who leads with his head and with his heart — and I think David holds many of those same qualities,” Subeck told the crowd.

Crowley and Subeck served in the Legislature while Democrats were in the minority. Subeck said Crowley had a “particular talent for not only standing up for our core values, but for also working across the aisle without compromising our values” when he served in the Legislature.

Crowley told attendees that the biggest problem facing Democrats is that “all we’ve been doing is responding and reacting to Donald Trump and Republicans.”

“As long as we do that, guess who’s defining us for us? They are,” Crowley said. “So, it’s time for us to get off the sidelines and stop playing defense and get on the offense. This is the time where we not only need a Democratic governor, but we need to make sure that we’re flipping the state Senate, flipping the state Assembly, because none of these policies that I’m about to rattle off becomes a reality unless we’re in charge.” 

Crowley spoke about capping the cost of childcare at 7%, fixing the school funding formula and boosting the state’s share of special education costs to 90% as well as supporting unions by repealing the union-busting law Act 10.

At one point, Crowley took issue with a proposed moratorium on AI data centers, which Hong has made a key point in her campaign. He said that he is frustrated that the Republican-led Legislature finished its work this year without establishing any regulation on the constructions of them. 

“People may talk about a moratorium, but what is that moratorium going to do about the data centers that are currently being built or are operating right now? It’s short-term thinking but it doesn’t address the long-term concerns we all have in this state,” Crowley said, adding that data centers need to “pay their own way.”

Crowley said that implementing a ban on non-disclosure agreements between local governments and big tech companies building data centers, requiring union labor and having companies pay for their own clean energy is essential. 

Crowley also challenged predictions based on polling ahead of Election Day, especially after the results of Michigan’s U.S. Senate race. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive, defeated U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens by about 1 point, after polls showed him leading the race by more than 10 points. 

Hong has been polling 20 points or more ahead of Crowley. 

The Crowley campaign released a memo on Wednesday that said “results in Michigan Tuesday night showed polling that failed to appropriately capture and reflect the primary electorate and well overstated the position of the race frontrunner. Democrats are in the driver’s seat in Wisconsin to choose David Crowley and have the best fighting chance against Tom Tiffany in November.”

The memo found that in the four-person primary for governor, Hong led Crowley 42% to 24% while Roys and former Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan were still polling in the single digits. 

Asked about whether he thinks the other candidates could cut into his margins and propel Hong to the nomination, Crowley told reporters that his job is to “convince as many voters as possible why we’re the winning candidate.” 

“With it being almost a clear race between two particular candidates, those voters and those candidates, they’re going to have to make their own decisions,” Crowley said. He also said that he would never tell a candidate to drop out.

The Crowley campaign’s internal poll found Hong up 53% to 33% against Crowley in a head-to-head race. Once those being polled were informed of both candidates’ positions, Hong led Crowley 47% to 38%

Young people make up a large share of Hong’s base, but Evan Natzke, an 18-year-old who recently graduated from Milton High School south of Madison, enthusiastically greeted Crowley at the event. He told the Examiner that he met Crowley before and he appreciated that he seems like a “super genuine person.”

“I just love his energy. I feel like he’s just so charismatic,” Natzke said. 

Natzke said Hong has good ideas, but he is concerned about how she’ll do in the general election, saying that Republicans “are going to be able to paint this picture of her being this super crazy radical person.”

“I just don’t think that a normal voter is going to really like that image that is painted of her,” Natzke said. “And along with that, I’m also unsure if her policies will be able to work at the state level.”

With a week remaining before Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley is gaining late momentum with a series of endorsements and a fundraising advantage as state Rep. Francesca Hong faces renewed scrutiny about years-old, controversial social media posts. 

Crowley, who reentered the race about two weeks ago after dropping out, is campaigning across the state this week, including with Gov. Tony Evers. The popular two-term governor had stayed out of the race until after a series of upheavals in the primary that helped Hong to grow her lead over other candidates. Evers recently told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Hong could “probably not” win the general election against U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the likely Republican nominee for governor. 

Crowley only has six days to build momentum before Election Day. Last week, the latest Marquette Law School Poll, which was taken before former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes dropped out of the race, found Crowley polling at 7% — more than 30 points behind Hong, with about 34% of voters still undecided. Asked on Tuesday if Evers’ endorsement came too late on Tuesday, Crowley said it could “be critical.”

“I would’ve loved to have Gov. Evers’ endorsement earlier, but this is where we are today,” Crowley said. 

Chair of the Legislative Black Caucus and the Vice Chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus Sen. Dora Drake (D-Milwaukee) told the Wisconsin Examiner in an interview that she is endorsing Crowley and doesn’t think it is too late for him to win. 

“I believe that with the right support, he can get it done,” Drake said. “It’s clear that [Hong] is leading in the polls, and everyone’s talking about it, but I will say what I have seen is you have a lot of folks that reached out to Crowley to get back in the race because they trust his leadership that much, and so for that reason, I do believe that there is a possibility that he could still pull this off.”

Drake is the latest to come out in support of Crowley in recent days. He has also gained endorsements from the Congressional Black Caucus PAC and U.S. Congresswoman Gwen Moore in recent days.

Crowley has a slight fundraising advantage over Hong, according to pre-primary reports filed on Monday. 

Crowley reported $775,813.32 raised between July 1 and July 27. He spent $627,921 and ended the period before the primary with $463,070. Meanwhile, Hong reported raising $338,757. She spent $343,204 and had $406,117 in the bank. 

Tiffany is also continuing to build his financial strength, reporting $4.6 million raised between July 1 and July 27. That brings his total raised this year to $13.3 million. He has spent a little over $10 million, including $2.6 million during the period, leaving him with $4.97 million in the bank.

Drake, who previously served in the state Assembly with both Hong and Crowley, has stayed neutral in the race up to now, especially as she said that she hasn’t appreciated conversation that downplays either candidate’s accomplishments. She said that she understands the momentum for Hong.

However, Drake said the debate was a turning point for her. 

“For me, knowing the need to introduce legislation, move it through the building, and get it to a place where it gets signed by a governor, you need someone that’s going to understand the legislative process and the governing process — and David Crowley has both,” Drake said. 

Democrats are also competing to flip the state Senate and Assembly. Drake said she’s confident they’ll be able to flip the Senate and doesn’t see the party’s gubernatorial nominee affecting those chances, but as Drake and her caucus are seeking to make progress on their caucus’ policy goals next session, she says the governor’s office is vital.

Drake said Crowley’s positions on education also informed her decision. She said Crowley is the “only candidate aware of the nuances facing Black and brown families and their children; especially on education disparities.”

“I want someone as governor who will focus on getting things done rather than political platitudes that dictate where Black and brown parents should send their kids to school,” Drake said. 

Hong has called for the “responsible” end to the private school voucher program, including in Milwaukee. Nearly half of school-aged children in the city attend charter, private voucher and other non-traditional schools. Crowley has said he doesn’t want to expand or cut the programs, but wants to focus on the question of funding public schools. 

Hong responds to renewed scrutiny over old posts

Hong held an energetic rally with U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar and controversial leftist streamer Hasan Piker over the weekend in Milwaukee. Asked whether it was risky to associate herself with Piker, she told reporters that “it would be a risk not to try to build the broadest coalition possible.” She also launched a nearly two-minute video ad that tied data center construction to FoxConn. 

Hong spent the first part of this week navigating controversy over her past posts on social media. Republicans, including presumptive GOP gubernatorial nominee Tom Tiffany, have resurfaced and amplified posts about canceling Thanksgiving in 2020, about abolishing police because they “exist to uphold white supremacy” and about wanting to leave a Culver’s in Black Rivers Falls with her young son because she “was on the verge of a anxiety attack” because of “too many old white people who didn’t think we spoke english.”

In an interview with CNN journalist Kaitlin Collins, Hong was asked whether she still wants to cancel Thanksgiving.

“I’m a chef, and one of the first meals that I made for the community when I was 16 was a Thanksgiving meal. But Thanksgiving is also a time that’s incredibly painful for many people in our communities,” Hong said. “And so I think there, I wanted to make sure that people understood that there are multiple views, but views can evolve.”

Tiffany issued a statement saying that he wouldn’t cancel Thanksgiving as governor. 

David Axelrod, former advisor to President Barack Obama, said in a post that it is “answers like these that cause many to think if this chef wins the gubernatorial primary in WI, Ds may be cooked.” 

Drake said she thinks Democrats need a nominee “who is ready for prime time,” noting how Republicans attacked Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes during his 2022 run for the U.S. Senate. 

“Given some of the stuff that’s being done now by the GOP about [Hong’s tweets], they’re nothing more than a distraction, and it’s intentional,” Drake said. “You have folks that are concerned about housing, that really don’t know where their next meal is going to come from, and our food pantries are already struggling to keep their food in stock with grocery stores and just affording gas. An everyday voter is not going to be concerned about somebody’s tweets. They’re going to be concerned about issues of how am I going to take care of my kids? How am I going to provide for my family? How am I going to have a job that pays me enough that’s well? And so, for me, it’s nothing more than — it’s a distraction, where we’re not talking about the actual issues that voters care about.”

Evers also voiced his strong doubts and concerns about Hong’s general election chances while on the road with Crowley in Appleton, which was recently hit by tornadoes. 

“She spends a lot of time from what I understand talking on Twitter and all these other extraneous issues. We’re working together on issues and getting it done. People of Wisconsin expect this,” Evers said, noting that there were “people in this room who have seen tornados destroy their city and we’re going to spend time on that bullshit that others are talking about on Twitter. You can ask me a hundred times, I’m going to give you the same damn answer. This issue is around getting things done. This guy has done it.”

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, who hasn’t endorsed a candidate, weighed in on the race on Tuesday. 

“Candidates give bad interviews sometimes. They better grow from it. The [governor] has a right to endorse & campaign for people. Get over it. People have a right to run even if they get single digits. I may not get it, but it’s their right,” Pocan wrote on X. “Did I piss off a little bit of everyone?”

Former Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan and State Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) are also continuing their campaigns across the state.

Hong’s campaign said in a statement that Evers’ characterization “does not reflect the race we have run.” The campaign said Hong is not bringing up the posts, but that others are bringing them up to distract “from the strong support her policy platform has earned across Wisconsin” and that they are staying focused on the issues including leading the call for a moratorium on data center construction and lowering costs of housing and groceries. 

Hong, in her CNN interview, said Tiffany is “having to go back to a lot of my old tweets, because his actions and his resume, what he’s done is defunded healthcare, ripped food away from our children, supported a national abortion ban.” 

“And last time I checked, he still hasn’t said who won the 2020 election,” Hong added. “Being an election denier is an automatic disqualifier.”

While Wisconsin’s governor’s race is drawing national attention, control of the state Legislature could determine whether the next governor can enact their agenda. Legislative primaries will shape the handful of Assembly and Senate races that could decide control next year.

Republicans are seeking to defend their majorities, which they’ve held since 2011. Democrats are seeking to flip two Senate seats and five Assembly seats while maintaining all the seats they hold currently to win majorities in both chambers. The outcome will determine how much of the next governor’s agenda — from Medicaid expansion to tax cuts and investing in education — can become law.

There is sparse polling on state legislative races, although a survey in July from Marquette Law School found that 46% of Wisconsin voters said they would vote for Democrats in legislative races, while 42% said they’d vote for Republicans. The poll could not deliver detailed information on specific districts at play.

Republicans are gearing up financially to defend their majorities, with the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee reporting $6.5 million raised in the first half of the year and a total of $11.5 million cash-on-hand. The Committee to Elect a Republican Senate raised nearly $5 million and had $5.3 million on-hand. 

The bulk of that fundraising came from billionaires Diane Hendricks, who gave $2.5 million to RACC and $2 million to the Senate GOP committee, as well as Elizabeth Uihlein, who gave $3 million to the Assembly committee and $2 million to the Senate committee. The contributions have given  the Republicans organizations deeper pockets than their Democratic counterparts.

According to recent campaign finance reports, the State Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, the fundraising arm of the Senate Democratic caucus, raised about $2.8 million over the first six months of the year, while the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee raised $3 million and ended with nearly $2.4 million cash-on-hand. 

The primary is scheduled for Aug. 11. Here are seven primary elections the Wisconsin Examiner is keeping an eye on in the lead-up to Election Day. The general election is Nov. 3.

Race to replace Jacque in northeastern Senate district 

A four-way Republican primary is taking place in the race to replace Sen. André Jacque in Senate District 1, which represents Door and Kewaunee counties. 

Nic Cravillion is an Army combat veteran and small business owner from New Franken who is campaigning on lowering taxes and promoting “responsible spending” as well as expanding workforce and affordable housing opportunities. For the last five years, Cravillion has also worked as the district director for Jacque. He reported raising $75,911 and having $62,264 on hand — more than any of the other candidates — at the end of the period. He also reported taking out $62,100 in personal loans. 

Barbara Bittner serves as the chair of the Calumet County Republican Party. She is running to reduce property taxes, protect “parental rights,” get “tough on crime” and uphold the “sanctity of life and traditional values.” Bittner reported raising $17,180.00 and having about $16,945 on hand at the end of the period. 

Katie Baney, a De Pere mother, currently works as the managing director of government affairs at Delta Defense, where she advocates for gun owners, and promises not to support any legislation that restricts the Second Amendment, according to her campaign website. Baney reported in July raising $46,772 and having $43,662 on-hand.

Jacob VandenPlas, a veteran and farmer who founded DC Farm for Vets, a rehabilitation farm that provides education and services to veterans entering agriculture. 

No Democrat is running for the seat in the red-leaning district, though the winner of the Republican primary will face Mark Becker, a small business owner who was formerly the chair of the Brown County Republican Party and is now running as an independent. 

Becker left the party after Trump’s election in 2016 due to disagreements over the direction of the GOP. He reported raising $20,233 and having $15,078 cash-on-hand. He has received contributions from Adam Kinzinger, the former Republican Congressman from Illinois who left the party due to his opposition to Trump, and the campaign account of state Sen. Kristin Dassler-Alfheim (D-Appleton).

Three seek to take on Marklein in key district

Three Democrats are competing to win a spot on the ballot to take on Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) in November. Marklein was first elected to the Senate in 2014, and has been the co-chair of the powerful Joint Finance Committee since 2021. 

The district includes Crawford, Grant, Green, Iowa and LaFayette counties as well as the southwestern corner of Dane County. 

Marklein won the district with 60% of the vote in 2022, but Senate District 17 changed considerably under the new maps.

The district leaned Democratic by 1 percentage point in the 2024 presidential election and by over 4 percentage points in the 2024 U.S. Senate race, according to an analysis by John Johnson, a fellow at Marquette Law School. 

Marklein’s incumbency status gives him an advantage in the district, and he is also raising more than the other Democratic candidates combined. 

In his most recent campaign finance reports, Marklein reported raising $300,195 and ending the reporting period with $1.01 million in the bank. He received $100,000 — or about a third of his total contributions — from the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate. 

Rep. Jenna Jacobson (D-Oregon), who has served in the state Assembly since 2023, launched her campaign for the Senate seat in July 2025 with the backing of the State Senate Democratic Campaign Committee. 

The endorsement has provided her some advantages over her opponents, as she has campaigned with current Senators, including Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein, and received financial assistance from the SSDC. According to her latest campaign finance reports, Jacobson has raised about $109,277 and has about $201,177 in the bank. About $45,450 of her total contributions this year came from in-kind contributions from the SSDC in the form of campaign staff. 

Corrine Hendrickson, a child care advocate, launched her campaign in September. She reported raising $30,360 over the first half of the year and spending about $21,071. She ended with just $12,348 in the bank. 

Lisa White, a Democrat who runs an interior painting business, raised $7,641, spent $9,573 and ended the reporting period with $831 cash-on-hand.

Open Senate seat up north after new maps

Senate District 25, which represents Superior and Ashland, Bayfield, Burnett, Douglas, Iron, Polk, Sawyer and Washburn counties, is an open seat that will help determine control of the state Senate.

The district is currently represented by Sen. Romaine Quinn, but he is running for Senate District 23 this cycle after new maps were adopted in 2024 and his home was included in that district. While currently represented by a Republican, the district was represented by former Senate Minority Leader Janet Bewley, a Democrat, from 2015 through 2022. She opted not to run for another term after the maps had been redrawn to favor Republicans more heavily in 2022.

New maps have again placed the area in play with Democrats listing it as one of its target districts.

In the Republican primary, Angie Sapik, a former state Assembly member who lost her seat in 2024 under the new maps, is running against Erik Severson, a physician and former state Assembly member.

According to July campaign finance reports, Severson reported raising $39,478, spending $29,886 and ending the period with $111,506 in the bank. He reported $63,000 in personal loans. Sapik raised $117,399 ahead of the primary, spent $44,437 and had $89,700 in the bank. Her fundraising includes $100,000 in personal loans. 

In November the winner of the Republican primary will face Charly Ray, a forester and bookstore owner who has the backing of the State Senate Democratic Campaign Committee.

Race to compete for open Oak Creek seat

Assembly District 21, which represents Oak Creek and a portion of the city of Milwaukee around the Mitchell International Airport, is among the districts that will help determine control of the state Assembly. 

The seat is open following the retirement of Rep. Jessie Rodriguez (R-Oak Creek), who was first elected to the Assembly in 2013.

Two Democrats are competing for a spot on the November ballot. 

Daniel Bukiewicz is the mayor of Oak Creek and also the president of the Milwaukee Building & Construction Trades Council, a role he has held since 2014. He has endorsements from U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, state Sen. Dora Drake and SEIU-Wisconsin. 

David Liners has endorsements from some of the most progressive members of the Democratic caucus including state Rep. Francesca Hong, who is running for governor, Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee), who helped restart the Democratic Socialist caucus in the state Legislature, and Sen. Chris Larson. 

Bukiewicz is outraising Liners. Bukiewicz has raised $79,251 and spent $16,601. He had $62,650 cash-on-hand at the end of the reporting period. He has a handful of contributions from notable Democrats including Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) and Rep. Lisa Subeck (D-Madison).

According to July campaign finance reports, Liners has raised $25,806 over the course of his campaign and spent $13,646. He has $12,160 on hand. 

The winner will face Dylan Pfaffenbach, a Republican and student at Carroll University, in November. 

Democrats compete to challenge Donovan in MKE county

Assembly District 61, which represents Greendale and Hales Corner in Milwaukee County, is another key district that will determine control of the state Legislature. Incumbent Rep. Bob Donovan (R-Greenfield), who was first elected in 2022, is running for a third term. 

In the last two election cycles, Democrat LuAnn Bird, a former school board member and executive director of Wisconsin’s League of Women Voters, ran but failed to beat Donovan. He won 51.5% to 48.3% in 2024 with the new legislative maps in place, a slightly larger margin than in 2022, when he won his first term.

This year, three candidates are competing for the Democratic nomination to take on Donovan. 

Lawanda Chambers, a counselor and yoga instructor, is running to “provide leadership that speaks to the real challenges people face every day, not slogans, not politics, and not half-measures.” She has the endorsements of Rep. Darrin Madison (D-Milwaukee), Rep. Supreme Moore Omokunde (D-Milwaukee) and Rep. Margaret Arney (D-Wauwatosa). According to her July campaign finance reports, she raised $22,085.57 and ended with $15,564 cash-on-hand. 

Ben Brist, an army veteran, said he is running because he believes government “can and should work better for normal people.” He is endorsed by the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC).

According to his July finance report, Brist raised $23,844 and ended the period with $19,458 cash-on-hand. 

Brian Bock, a pharmacist, is running with a top priority of expanding access to affordable healthcare and wants to work to expand Medicaid, increase price transparency and reduce the cost of prescription drugs, according to his campaign website. According to July campaign finance reports, he has about $2,690 in the bank.

Five-way primary to replace Hong 

The Democratic primary for Assembly District 76, which represents Madison’s east side, north side and parts of downtown, is one of the most crowded across the state and will likely determine who succeeds state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), the democratic socialist who is running for governor. The winner will face Republican Nina Chat in November, though the district is one of the most progressive in the state. Hong won her first election in 2020 with 88% of the vote.

Five candidates total are competing for the seat, and the candidates’ differences appear in their experience and priorities, though they have a lot of overlap in their platforms.

Juliana Bennett is a former City Council member and UW-Madison alumni who has been working as the chief of staff to state Rep. Angelito Tenorio (D-Wauwatosa). She has the endorsement of the Madison Area Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) as well as the national organization. 

Isaia Ben-Ami is a public policy professional who has worked as a staffer in the state Assembly, including for Assistant Assembly Minority Leader Kalan Haywood (D-Milwaukee), who has endorsed him. 

Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford, a member of the Madison Common Council, is a small business owner and food service worker.  She is endorsed by Sen. Melissa Ratcliff (D-Cottage Grove), Rep. Andrew Hysell (D-Sun Prairie) and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway as well as Madison Common Council President Sabrina Madison. If elected, she would be the first openly transgender person to serve in the state Legislature.

Zoe Sullivan, a journalist and organizer, and Tony Castañeda, a community activist, artist, radio host and musician, are both outliers in the race given that they have not served in government.  

Martinez-Rutherford is outraising the other candidates, according to July reports. She recorded raising $56,365, spending $50,339 and having $44,835 cash-on-hand in July. 

Bennett reported raising $34,723, spending $27,198 and having $17,624 on-hand in July.

Ben-Ami reported raising $32,164, spending $25,586 and ending the reporting period with $6,627 cash-on-hand. 

Castañeda reported raising $6,606, spending $6,477 and having $7,677 cash-on-hand. Sullivan reported raising $13,181, spending $6,447 and having $7,502 cash-on-hand at the end of the period.

Republicans compete to challenge Sheehan in Sheboygan 

Three Republicans are running in Assembly District 26, which represents Sheboygan. The winner will seek to oust Rep. Joe Sheehan (D-Sheboygan), a former school superintendent who won his seat in 2024. 

John Belanger, a former Sheboygan alderman, is campaigning to address affordability issues for families, workers and small businesses. He is running for the state Assembly after having lost his reelection bid to the Sheboygan city council. He reported raising $1,250, spending a little over $1,000 and ending with $241 in the bank in July. 

Tyler Schneekloth, a 25-year-old Town of Wilson resident, says he is running to address affordability of housing and to stop data center construction. He reported raising $756 and spending that amount in July. 

James Brotz, a Republican from Sheboygan, reported no contributions in July.

UPDATE: This story has been updated with additional details.

Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes announced he is suspending his campaign for governor Thursday in a video posted to social media, narrowing the field to four as state Rep. Francesca Hong has expanded her lead in polls. 

“We’re incredibly proud of all the things that we’ve accomplished and all the resources that we have raised to spread our message, but it’s become very clear who our nominee is going to be,” Barnes said in the video without naming a candidate. 

Mainstream Democrats in recent weeks have been seeking a candidate to consolidate behind to stop Hong, a democratic socialist many fear cannot win the general election against Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, but her lead has only grown in the last week. 

Barnes had faced doubts since he launched his campaign last Dec., in part due to his failed U.S. campaign against U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson in 2022, but he has largely been considered to be among the  frontrunners in the race. The latest Marquette University Law School poll showed him with 16% support among likely primary voters, second to Hong’s 38%, but way ahead of the rest of the field, with Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley placing third at 7%. In recent weeks, Barnes has been competing most directly with Crowley, who exited the race a few weeks ago, but restarted his campaign with the endorsement of Gov. Tony Evers after Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez dropped her bid.

According to a Politico report, Barnes’ announcement comes as damaging media reports about him were expected to hit in coming hours. His exit leaves it a four-way race between Hong, Crowley, former Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan and state Sen. Kelda Roys. 

The winner of the Aug. 11 Democratic primary will likely face U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the presumptive GOP candidate in November. 

“Now, we have to do everything we possibly can to defeat Tom Tiffany, and that’s exactly what I’m committed to do for the next 96 days,” Barnes said.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Barnes’ decision also comes amid reporting by the outlet on allegations that Barnes took advantage of his role in the party to have sexual encounters with young adult women. He has not been accused of any crimes. According to the Journal Sentinel report, in 2025, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin hired a law firm to look into similar claims but the allegations they received were anonymous and unspecific and nothing actionable was found.

Reactions from Evers, candidates

Evers told reporters, in reaction to the news, that he was surprised by Barnes’ dropping out. Barnes served as lieutenant governor during Evers’ first term in office and was the first Black person to hold the position in the state’s history.

“But he needs to do what he needs to do,” Evers said. “I don’t know why he’s getting out. I have to believe it’s something relatively important.”

Evers also reiterated his support for Crowley.

“He’s the best candidate running even if Mandela was in,” Evers said.

Other candidates in the race sought to encourage Barnes supporters to join their campaign.

“The Barnes campaign helped grow the progressive movement,” Hong said in a statement. “To everyone who supported Mandela because you believe working people deserve a government that fights for them, I welcome you to our movement.”

“To everyone who backed Mandela: there’s a place for you in what we’re building,” Crowley said in a social media post. “It’s going to take all of us to beat Tom Tiffany.”

Brennan said it is “unfortunate for voters that this primary has gotten more attention for chaos than the stakes of this election.” He said that he is “going to continue to focus on reaching voters to talk about what I’ll do to win and lead our state to a stronger future.”

In a statement, the Roys campaign also focused on moving forward with sharing her message across the state.

“She has the most endorsements, the most cash on hand, the most experience, and the most likelihood of beating Tom Tiffany in November,” Jalen Knuteson, spokesperson for the Roys campaign, said in a statement. “No drama, no baggage, just a lifetime of fighting bullies and billionaires and turning progressive ideas into law.”

 

Thank you, Wisconsin. pic.twitter.com/FKDjCaPdJZ

— Mandela Barnes (@TheOtherMandela) July 30, 2026

A Dane County judge on Wednesday rejected a request from Democratic voters to allow people to “spoil” and re-cast their absentee ballots for any reason. 

Under state law, voters can spoil ballots that are damaged or if they believe they made a mistake in filling out the ballot. Earlier this month, the Wisconsin Elections Commission voted 4-2 to publish guidance stating that the process wasn’t available to people who simply wished to change their vote. 

The Democratic voters argued the guidance should be thrown out to accommodate people who may have already cast a vote in this year’s August primaries before their preferred candidate dropped out. The ballot for the Democratic primary for governor includes two candidates, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez and former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes, whose names appear even though both have suspended their campaigns. 

In a ruling Thursday, Judge David Conway rejected the injunction request from the voters, finding that “the unambiguous language of the statute does not allow a voter to spoil an absentee ballot after it is returned.”

Democratic candidates for governor largely avoided direct attacks on one another during their only televised primary debate Tuesday night, with two weeks remaining before the Aug. 11 primary, instead laying out differences on issues including school vouchers and data centers.

This year’s election is the first open race for governor in Wisconsin since 2010, and the five candidates left in a field that used to include seven are former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Joel Brennan, former state Department of Administration chief, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, state Rep. Francesca Hong and state Sen. Kelda Roys.

More than 40% of Wisconsin voters have not made up their minds about which candidate to support. 

Recent polls show Hong leading the race. 

The debate was hosted by WISN 12 on the Marquette University campus and moderated by Gerron Jordan and Matt Smith, WISN 12 journalists and hosts of “Upfront,” on the first day of in-person early voting. The candidates were told at the beginning that they were allowed to speak to one another at the start of the debate, but direct back and forth and criticism was minimal throughout the hour-long debate. 

The winner of the primary will likely face U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the presumptive Republican nominee in November.

Addressing criticisms 

The debate started with each candidate addressing a critique of their candidacy. 

Crowley, who recently reentered the race for governor with the endorsement of Gov. Tony Evers, was asked about his decision to drop out and then restart his campaign and whether he is a “prop” of the Democratic establishment.

“I was never born into the establishment. I was actually born into struggle… I’m not here to protect the establishment. I’m here to deliver real results for Wisconsinites all over our state,” Crowley said, adding that the “stakes are too high and that’s why I got back into this race.”

Barnes, who served as lieutenant governor in Evers’ first term, was asked about entering the race after losing his 2022 U.S. Senate race against Sen. Ron Johnson, his failure to garner Evers’ endorsement, and why voters should trust him to win in November when he previously lost. 

Barnes said that his narrow loss to Johnson taught him about the influence of money on elections as well as “how low Republicans can go.” He said that he thinks his campaign will have the resources and support to win, and he appeared to take a poke at Crowley.

“I have zero interest in upholding the status quo. I have zero interest in being the establishment candidate,” Barnes said. “That is the difference right here on the stage because I am pushing the envelope to make sure that we are as bold as we can possibly be in the Donald Trump era, because that’s what people have been calling for Democrats to be all along.” 

Hong, who identifies as a democratic socialist, was asked whether she supports the full platform of the Democratic Socialists of America, which includes abolishing the U.S. Senate. Tiffany has been criticizing her for a tweet from 2021, in which she said “Abolish the Senate.” She said no. 

“I do not support the full platform of the national DSA and I am not endorsed by DSA National,” Hong said. She then focused on defining democratic socialism, saying it is a “form of government that puts working class people first.” 

Brennan and Roys, who are both polling in the single digits, were asked about whether voters were “wasting” their vote by voting for them.

“The challenge that I have had from day one is not that anybody thinks I’m unqualified for the office,” Brennan said, noting his experience as a cabinet member under Evers. “The challenge I have had is that people don’t know me as well as they know some other candidates around the state.” 

Brennan said the recent upheaval in the race  — as well as the perception of insiders “putting their thumb on the scale” — has gotten people more engaged and that will help his candidacy. 

Roys responded to the same question by saying, “If you want the best public schools in the nation for your children, if you want to open up the state’s healthcare plan so that everyone can buy in and we can lower costs for all Wisconsinites, if you want a candidate who is going to stand up and fight Donald Trump and bring an end to this authoritarian regime, then you should vote for me.” 

Public safety funding

Each candidate said he or she would not sign a budget that cut funding to law enforcement and all said that they would sign a bill requiring police across the state of Wisconsin to wear body cameras. 

Candidates were asked about the killing of Corey Ruiz, a Black man, by Madison police. Hong was asked about her public speech on the site of the killing in which she called it an example of state-sanctioned violence and an “execution.” Hong said during the debate that she would not have made the comments before an investigation as governor, since the office has “the largest microphone in the state” and there is “deep responsibility” with that.

“It was clearly the type of violence where no one’s life should have been taken,” Hong said. 

Asked about previous comments she made supporting defunding the police, Hong said she would not cut funding for public safety, but wants to invest in local governments and communities to help reduce crime including by investing in schools, addressing the opioid epidemic and ensuring people coming out of incarceration have proper resources.

“The governor cannot defund police, and I am not here to govern by slogan,” Hong said. “I am here to make sure I am the governor that’s most serious about public safety.”

Barnes faced criticism during his 2022 Senate campaign over comments supporting reducing police funding. He said during the debate he would not sign a budget that decreased police  funding in part because he said police departments must be able to afford body cameras, which Madison police do not have. 

Roys said that she wouldn’t cut police funding and added that the state also needs to invest in local governments, so they can invest in evidence-based programs that reduce and prevent crime. 

“We have to invest in proven strategies that actually do that, unlike what Republicans like Tom Tiffany have done, which is cut funding to local governments and take away local control,” Roys said. 

“We cannot defund the police. We should be investing in public safety,” Crowley said, adding that that includes investing in wraparound services.

Brennan said there needs to be robust funding for local governments, and that the state should look to Minnesota as a model for how to reduce crime, spend less and reduce the prison population while investing in early childhood and K-12 education.

Voucher program

When it comes to the state’s school voucher system, candidates took different positions. 

Barnes said he would reduce the voucher programs in the state, including in Milwaukee where nearly half of students in the city use publicly funded private school vouchers. 

Roys laid out her three-step plan to sunset the voucher programs including implementing transparency and accountability measures to close schools that don’t adhere to higher standards, end the statewide program in the first state budget and wind down the programs while allowing current participating students and their siblings to continue attending private schools with vouchers.

Hong said she would not put a “firm” number on when the voucher programs would need to end, but she supports strengthening public schools and would wind down the voucher program through a “responsible program and process where we work directly with the families and the different schools.” 

Crowley said he would not sign a bill reducing the programs, though he added that he doesn’t want to see them expand either. 

“I don’t think the question is whether or not we should have vouchers,” Crowley said. “The question should be, how do we continue to invest in our public schools to make sure that they’re the school of choice.”

Brennan offered the strongest argument for not signing a bill to reduce or close the programs. He said he wants to cap enrollment and disclose costs of private voucher schools on taxpayers’ property tax bills, but he said reducing the program is not politically feasible. 

“There is not going to be a bill passed in the Legislature that is put on the governor’s desk right now to end vouchers in Milwaukee. There are representatives in Milwaukee… for whom more than half the people who live there are sending their kids to private schools. We have to live in the real world. This is dividing Democrats,” Brennan said. “I wouldn’t put legislators in a position where they’re going to have to tell parents that they can’t send their kids to their schools of their choice.” 

Brennan added that he wants to make Wisconsin’s public schools better than any private school.

Data centers 

Data center construction has become a key issue in the race for governor with polling suggesting that 76% of Wisconsinites say they believe the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits. Candidates provided different solutions for regulating data centers. 

Hong touted the fact that she is the only candidate to call for a moratorium on data centers and said she would call a special session on the issue to have lawmakers take action on a bill that would impose regulations on data center construction in the state. 

“This moratorium is necessary so that we can responsibly put in enforcement mechanisms to protect communities,” Hong said, noting that some local governments have already imposed  moratoriums. “We also want to make sure that there are the guard rails, the legal resources, and that if data centers are going to come here in our state that they pay their own way and actually pay up front.” 

Crowley said that he did not think a moratorium would address the long-term concerns, and said he would rather focus on ensuring that data centers have to pay for their energy use, grid upgrades and use clean energy.

Brennan said he has not called for a moratorium, but would put a 100-day pause on construction. He said he would also ensure that Wisconsinites are not paying for the construction, ensure there are regulations with “teeth” and that companies are using renewable energy, ensure that union workers are employed on the projects and ban non-disclosure agreements between companies and local governments.

“If we can do that in the first 100 days, it’s not going to make everybody happy, but it’s going to set the bar and take away that uncertainty and take away another reason why people distrust government and why they’re so angry,” Brennan said. 

Barnes said that he wanted no new data center construction without guardrails being put in place to ensure the state’s natural resources and air quality are protected and that residents’ energy bills are not climbing. 

“If a community rejects a data center proposal, then there should be no new data center constructed,” Barnes said. 

Roys said she doubted a moratorium bill could pass, but a bill focused on strong regulations could be successful. 

“I will not stop there,” Roys said. “I will also establish a public negotiating team so that any community that decides it would like to engage with a data center has the opportunity to have expert negotiators. I will increase shared revenue so that communities don’t feel desperate … I will also end the subsidies for data centers because they should be paying us and not the other way around.”

In 30-second closing statements, as each candidate made a pitch for voters’ support, Barnes made some of the most pointed remarks of the night taking shots at Crowley and Hong.

“I want you to know that the establishment is trying to rig this election. They want you to choose between their preferred candidate and also Republican billionaires are lining up to the tune of three and a half million dollars to choose a democratic nominee in this race,” Barnes said, referring to the money the Republican party has invested in ads widely seen as aimed at boosting Hong. “I’m here to say, that’s BS. I’ve been a progressive fighter who’s taken on the tough fights.”

Brennan suggested he is the only one who could win the general election, Roys and Crowley each emphasized their experience and Hong said she was already beating Tiffany by garnering statewide support and would be a fighter for working class voters.

The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit Thursday against Wisconsin Elections Commission guidance that bars people who request an absentee ballot from casting an in-person ballot if the mail ballot will not arrive by the time polls close on Election Day. 

The lawsuit was filed as officials in Wisconsin, and the commission itself, have warned voters about potential delays in the mail system ahead of this year’s August and November elections. 

But commission guidance states that once voters mail their absentee ballots back to the clerk, they cannot be issued new ballots at the polls on Election Day. This means that if voters realize their ballots will not arrive in time after early in-person voting closes the Sunday before an election, they will not be able to vote. 

“Once a voter has placed their ballot in the mail, it is considered mailed,” the WEC guidance states. “They cannot be issued a new ballot at the polling place on Election Day, even if their absentee ballot will not be returned to the clerk’s office in time to be counted.”

The lawsuit seeks to allow voters who believe their ballots will not arrive to the clerk in time to go in person to cast a provisional ballot that would be set aside and only be counted if the initial ballot does not arrive by the deadline. 

Hundreds of voters did not have their votes counted during the state’s April elections because their ballots did not arrive in time. A WEC survey of clerks following the April election reported that hundreds of the state’s election officials believed delays in the mail had caused problems in the spring election. 

“Every voter in Wisconsin that puts an accurately requested absentee ballot in the mail on time expects their vote will be counted. Delays in mail delivery prevent that. It is time to have a remedy for these eligible voters,” Debra Cronmiller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, said. 

The League is represented in the lawsuit by Law Forward and the Fair Elections Center. The lawsuit argues that the commission understands the problem but is not taking advantage of an obvious solution to the potential mail delays. 

“The right to vote protects Wisconsinites from baseless disenfranchisement on Election Day. But WEC wants to turn these voters away. That’s just wrong,” Law Forward attorney Scott Thompson said. “We shouldn’t punish Wisconsin voters just because the mail is late. They must have the opportunity to vote on Election Day.”

Emily Berge, the former president of the Eau Claire city council and a candidate in the Democratic primary for Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, was working the window of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau milkshake stand at the Trempealeau County fair on July 18 when a woman asked her if she knew the Farm Bureau was for Republicans. 

To Berge, who had been at an event with the left-leaning Wisconsin Farmers Union the day before, the critique didn’t make sense. 

She’s running an underdog campaign against Rebecca Cooke — a former political fundraiser, business owner and waitress who nearly won the seat in 2024 and entered the race with massive advantages in fundraising, name recognition and support from high-profile national Democrats. Left, right or center, she is looking to pick up every vote she can get.

Wisconsin’s 3rd CD is currently represented by U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden and leans Republican at its baseline, according to the Cook Political Report. 

Whoever wins the Democratic primary is going to have to pick off some people who have voted for Van Orden, President Donald Trump or both while not losing the support of organic farmers in Viroqua or tattoo artists in La Crosse.

For Berge, that means slinging milkshakes in Galesville, riding the tilt-a-whirl with Democratic state legislators in West Salem, grinding coffee beans with baristas in La Crosse and attending every county fair, dairy breakfast, cranberry festival and parade between Platteville and Eau Claire. 

After announcing her candidacy in April last year over the objections of the national Democratic party, Berge and her husband Mike realized by November that their old Subaru Outback wasn’t up for the rigors of a congressional campaign and bought a used Hyundai. In the subsequent eight months, they’ve driven 18,000 miles criss-crossing the district. 

Cooke, who previously worked for the centrist group Third Way, has burnished her moderate bonafides by forcefully denouncing left-wing policy proposals such as defunding the police and abolishing ICE while touting endorsements from the centrist congressional Blue Dog Caucus, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Michigan U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, a member of the fiscally moderate New Democrat Coalition running as a centrist for the U.S. Senate. She’s also been endorsed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. 

The National Republican Congressional Committee still calls her “Commie Cooke.” 

At the end of the most recent reporting period, Cooke had raised $8.3 million since the start of 2025 — outraising Van Orden — and still has $2.4 million in cash on hand. Back in 2022, Cooke fought her way to  a surprise second-place finish in the Democratic primary for the seat. The winner of the primary, state Sen. Brad Pfaff, lost to Van Orden by 3.7 points. In 2024, Cooke won the primary and then lost to Van Orden by 2.7 points, although she outperformed Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin in the district on the same Democratic ticket. 

This year her name recognition and support from national Democrats, including an early endorsement from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, vaulted her to the front of the 2026 race. 

This spring, her campaign touted internal polling that put her more than 40 points ahead of Berge. 

But with three weeks before the Aug. 11 primary, political observers, voters and the Berge campaign feel like the gap is closing. 

Grassroots candidate vs. ‘the Establishment’

An oversimplification of the race would be to describe it as a contest between Berge the progressive and Cooke the moderate. That characterization is somewhat true: On healthcare for example, Berge supports Medicare for All while Cooke has called for more incremental policy changes. 

One of the biggest spats of the primary campaign has centered around LGBTQ issues, with Cooke repeatedly fumbling and recanting when asked in several forums if she would vote for a federal ban on conversion therapy. 

Cooke’s back and forth drew criticism from Van Orden for “flip-flopping”

During a May forum in La Crosse, Cooke said the question of conversion therapy should be left to local decision makers. At a June forum in Platteville she said she wouldn’t vote for a conversion therapy ban only to release a statement soon after saying she misunderstood the question and she would vote for a ban. At the final forum of the campaign last week in Eau Claire, Cooke said she does “not support conversion therapy whatsoever” but did not say how she’d vote on a ban. 

Berge, a trained mental health counselor, has been unequivocal in her support of a federal ban on conversion therapy at each forum and noted that she led Eau Claire’s efforts to pass a local ban on the practice. 

More than any particular policy difference, in an election cycle in which the brand of the Democratic party establishment has become toxic, the race has become a swing-seat contest between a candidate who appears determined to shake every hand in western and central Wisconsin against a consultant-backed candidate with poll-tested talking points.

Recently filed campaign finance reports show that Cooke’s campaign has spent almost $500,000 on political consultant fees since January of this year. Across her entire campaign, Berge has spent $578,000.

“It’s kind of that classic tension between the national party and local activists,” Anthony Chergosky, a political science professor at UW-La Crosse, said. “I think that we have seen some ideological differences between the two, but also I think maybe like a bit of a broader conversation here about the value of a competitive primary and the extent to which national political figures should be intervening in these nomination contests.”

Berge, drawing on her experience serving as the president of the Eau Claire common council, is convinced that voters in this cycle are less focused on the exact policy particulars and more interested in someone who comes across as authentic and promises to act with the best interests of the people at heart. 

“It’s not necessarily what, but it’s how. It’s how you show up,” Berge told the Wisconsin Examiner. “That’s what I learned on council. That’s why I ran for council. You know, it’s how you show up, how you lead. It’s about being a bridge between your constituents, city hall or D.C. I think that’s what people want.” 

Without the cash to pay for its own polling, the Berge campaign is instead looking for other clues that she has the late momentum. On rural roads and residential streets in the district, Berge’s red, white and blue signs far outnumber Cooke’s green ones. The campaign chose to go without an office to save the rent money, but it does have 600 volunteers making calls, writing postcards and helping manage the campaign Reddit account. 

“We just always get different new people joining us,” Berge said. “I mean, I kind of have my core group of volunteers who have been with me since day one, but we’re like a snowball going down the mountain, you know, and we’re just collecting more and more people, and so we can just keep going and growing and growing.” 

The Berge campaign also believes that over multiple campaign cycles, voters’ views on Cooke have solidified — and not necessarily in a positive way. Near constant Republican messaging accusing her of being far left-wing, support from the DCCC in a cycle when voters are incensed with national Democrats, questions swirling around her background of political work — made worse by her recent request to delay the filing of her personal financial disclosures until after the primary — and bad blood from previous campaigns have soured people on Cooke, Berge campaign staff say. 

Additionally, Berge’s supporters say, Cooke’s reputation with the 19 county parties within the district has been harmed by the perception of a coronation by people outside the district and the fact that she hasn’t shown up much. 

“Certainly, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin is aware of how unhappy most of the county parties in the third district were with that early DCCC endorsement,” Jill McMullen, chair of the Monroe County party said. 

McMullen added that Berge has been far more visible in her area.

“I certainly think having more time on the ground in the county has made a difference for the Berge campaign in terms of name recognition and seeing her as an individual with a real response and plan for various policies,” she said. “Let’s put it this way: all of the candidates for a 3rd CD race have been invited to attend many events, and Emily has been the most engaged thus far. As far as I’m aware, more people within the party have actually been at events with Emily Berge than with the Cooke events, because there was only one Cooke event since the campaign started last summer.”

The same pattern holds in Portage County, the far eastern wing of the district and the home of former state Rep. Katrina Shankland, whom Cooke beat in the contentious 2024 primary.

Gary Hawley, co-chair of the Portage County party, said hurt feelings about Shankland and the Cooke campaign’s failure to show up until recently have left the county “heavy Berge.” 

Campaign finance reports show that Cooke recently placed a $3 million television ad buy and has spent nearly $500,000 on direct mail to voters. 

In a statement, Cooke touted the support she’s received from local elected officials and unions. 

“Our campaign is meeting with Wisconsinites in every corner of our district and building the coalition to flip this seat,” she said. “I’m proud to have earned support from over 50 local leaders who know I’ll fight for their communities, 15 Wisconsin labor unions because I’ll fight for working people, and trusted leaders like Senators Tammy Baldwin and Bernie Sanders who know I’ll be their ally in taking on the career politicians and elites squeezing the rest of us. I will keep working to earn every single vote to win, because Wisconsin deserves a representative who will take on Trump and fight to lower prices, go after the corruption, and actually put us first.” 

Chergosky said that Cooke’s initial financial advantage and name recognition might be too much for the Berge campaign to overcome — though a close-fought Cooke win could portend something about her support heading into November.

“I do think as we get towards the primary, the candidates will start setting expectations in terms of what would be a good night for them, in terms of what would be a good night, a night that feeds momentum into the general election,” he said. “I think it is widely expected that Cooke will win the primary. So perhaps the more interesting question is the margin of victory …  because that could tell us something about the enthusiasm for her within the Democratic Party base.” 

Still, the Berge campaign sees a path. 

Both candidates are from Eau Claire, but Berge’s recent local government service there could be enough to sway a big win in the district’s second largest county. Shankland won 84% of the vote in Portage County in 2024.

If Berge performs well there while squeaking out a lead in the hub of La Crosse County and chipping away at Cooke’s 2024 margins in the more rural counties, it could be enough to pull off the upset. 

“On our worst night we give her a heart attack,” Nicholas Padesky, Berge’s campaign manager, said of Cooke. 

At each stop Berge made during a packed Saturday of campaigning, Berge’s staff had to drag her away from conversations with voters. She said that she might have disagreements with lots of voters on the issues, but she’ll work to make sure they all know she cares about them. 

“I may not have agreed with Emily on that, but I know she cares deeply about our community,” Berge said, describing voters’ experience with her in local government, which she hopes to translate to her campaign. 

And she believes she can get that message across without selling out the progressive voters and marginalized communities at the core of the Democratic primary electorate — saying she can see opportunities for compromise on lots of issues, including guns, data centers and zoning issues, but not on civil rights. 

“If it’s about civil rights or human rights or constitutional rights, if it’s about humanity, I’m not gonna compromise,” she said.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has requested that the Wisconsin Elections Commission retract guidance that bars voters from changing their vote prior to the Aug. 11 primary if their preferred candidate drops out. 

The request comes amid the flurry of dramatic action in the Democratic primary for governor over the past few weeks. Despite Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez and former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes suspending their campaigns, and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley dropping out and then re-entering the race, more than 80,000 people have already returned their absentee ballots. 

“The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has an interest in ensuring that its voters have a valid voice in the primary elections,” Diane Welsh, the party’s attorney, wrote in a Tuesday letter to WEC Chair Don Millis. “The ability of voters to spoil their ballots after they have been submitted to their clerks will advance this interest. And, the ability to obtain new ballots protects the voters’ right to meaningfully participate in the democratic process.”

The letter states that the new guidance contradicts state law and the commission’s previous statements and rulings about ballot spoiling. It also states that by issuing the guidance so late, the commission was violating U.S. Supreme Court precedent against changing the rules of an election in the middle of an election cycle. 

The elections commission voted 4-2 during its July 9 meeting to issue guidance limiting “ballot spoiling” — the process through which voters are allowed to cancel a submitted ballot and receive a new one. The new guidance, which two Democratic members of the commission voted against, states that a voter’s preferred candidate dropping out isn’t a good enough reason to get a new ballot. 

“If you’re sitting at your kitchen table and you realize that you voted for two candidates in the same election, you can go back and say, I need a different ballot. I made a mistake. Or if your significant other spilled coffee on your ballot, you say, I need another ballot. That’s fine. Once you’ve turned your ballot in, that’s it,” Millis said at the July 9 meeting.

Under previous state law, voters were allowed to spoil their ballot for any reason and receive a new one up to three times. In 2022, former Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel ruled that the practice was illegal. Schimel’s ruling was overturned by a Court of Appeals. 

In a statement, Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Devin Remiker said that after consulting with the gubernatorial campaigns, the party would fight to make sure all primary voters get a chance to vote for their preferred candidate. 

“Allowing voters to spoil and recast their ballots was standard practice in Wisconsin prior to attempts by Republicans to file frivolous lawsuits to muddy the waters,” Remiker said. “The Wisconsin Elections Commission recently issued guidance that advises clerks not to allow voters to request a new ballot. We believe that guidance was issued improperly, and after consulting with each of our Democratic candidate campaigns for governor, WisDems will be submitting a letter to formally ask the WEC to retract this guidance. If the WEC does not act immediately and retract this guidance, some voters will not be able to truly participate in our Democratic primary process.”

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley announced he was reentering the Democratic primary for governor Saturday, reversing his recent decision to drop out of the race. “Wisconsin, we cannot afford four years of Tom Tiffany,” Crowley told dozens of excited supporters gathered to hear his announcement Saturday morning in downtown Milwaukee.

Crowley suspended his campaign just 10 days ago and endorsed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez. But a crippling campaign finance mismanagement scandal forced Rodriguez to drop out of the race Friday. This left a four-person Democratic field consisting of Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), Rep. Kelda Roys (D-Madison), former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, and former secretary of the state Department of Administration Joel Brennan. Barnes has raised the most money among the Democratic contenders, while  Hong and Roys have the most cash on hand. 

Crowley started his campaign with the most money raised, but reports filed this week showed he had not kept up with his opponents still in the race. He started the year with $602,181 in the bank, raised $250,047 over six months and spent $537,050. He ended the last reporting period with $315,178 in cash on hand. 

Crowley had endorsed Rodriguez after suspending his own campaign last Wednesday — the same day Rodriguez said she learned about the financial troubles that ultimately sank her campaign. “I believed that I was supporting the strongest candidate at the moment,” he told the Examiner Saturday.

The crowd that came out to hear Crowley jump back in the race included a who’s who in Milwaukee politics and organizing. Among those in attendance were activist Vaun Mayes, former state legislator David Bowen who is now executive director of Wisconsin Voices, a statewide coalition of progressive advocacy groups, state Sen. Melissa Ratcliff and Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson as well as the mayors of Sheboygan, Waukesha and Wauwatosa, members of the Milwaukee County Board and Common Council and union leaders.

Crowley was also joined by his wife Ericka, introduced by the mayor  as “the next first lady.” She told the crowd that she wasn’t thrilled when “people were encouraging him to get back into this race.” The couple had closed that chapter, she said, and they were beginning to focus on spending more time with their family. “But the phone calls didn’t stop,” Ericka Crowley said. “Friends called, community leaders called, people from every corner of Wisconsin called, and they were like, ‘David, please reconsider,’ and still, the answer was no!” 

Ericka said the family relied on their Christian faith and prayed for a sign. She saw a cardinal, she said, a significant religious symbol to them. Then Rodriguez,  dropped out. “And in that moment, everything that we prayed about just felt different,” she said . “It was like the atmosphere shifted.” Crowley told reporters that both dropping out of the race and then reentering it were “very hard” decisions to make.

Evers’ endorsement and the ‘Democratic establishment’ 

Crowley returns to the primary race with departing Democratic Governor Tony Evers’ endorsement, a benefit none of the other candidates, including Rodriguez, Evers’ lieutenant governor, received. 

“I have indicated I did not plan to endorse anyone in the race for governor because I know each of the candidates and I wanted them to have the opportunity to make their case to Wisconsinistes first, just like I did,” Evers said in his statement endorsing Crowley Saturday. “I also believe that, in a race this close, Wisconsinites deserve to have the perspective of someone who’s done the job, who understands what it takes, and who’s had the benefit of spending years quietly watching how others in politics conduct themselves and treat people when they thought no one was paying attention.”

“David is not only the best candidate to beat Tom Tiffany,” Evers continued, “he’s the right candidate for the people of Wisconsin. He’s created thousands of new jobs, cut the county’s local carbon emissions in half, and passed a balanced budget, all while delivering the largest property tax cut in the county’s history, and I know he’ll continue to deliver results statewide.”

“It’s just an honor to receive his endorsement,” Crowley told the Examiner. He recounted Evers’ victory over former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, his leadership  guiding Wisconsin through the COVID-19 pandemic, and his tenure as “the best damn goalie that Democrats could have from stopping the Republican-controlled Legislature from having its way.” 

In addition to Evers’ endorsement, he said, he has received  “a groundswell of support from volunteers, from other elected leaders, as well as labor unions.” 

Responding to criticism that his re-entry into the race represents an effort by the Democratic party establishment to push forward someone to defeat Democratic Socialist candidate Francesca Hong, who had repeatedly finished at the top of public polls, Crowley said, “This isn’t about any of the other primary candidates.” Rather, he said, “this is about making sure that we have the best candidate that can defeat Tom Tiffany and his extreme MAGA agenda,” a goal he said he shares with all of the other Democratic candidates. 

Yet when he addressed the crowd of supporters in Milwaukee Saturday, Crowley took more direct aim at his opponents. He pointed to the Republican Governors Association’s recent $2 million ad blitz featuring Hong. The ads portray Hong, a self-described Democratic Socialist, as “too liberal for Wisconsin” and denounce her for wanting to return the state to its “progressive roots.” Barnes has called the ads “counterintuitive,” saying they appear to feature political attacks but are actually designed to increase Hong’s popularity among Democratic voters instead of hurting her chances. Many Democrats have concluded that the ads are designed to boost Hong, the Republicans’ preferred target in November, and that the Republicans are holding back stronger criticism they plan to deploy against her in the general election. 

Crowley seemed to endorse that theory at his campaign relaunch event, saying that the ads are meant “not to attack the Democratic party, but to boost one up.” He told  the crowd that Republicans are “deciding the Democratic nominee that they want to beat in November. They’re making an investment right now, and this should all be a five-alarm warning sign to all of us. We cannot allow the GOP to choose the Democratic nominee for governor of the great state of Wisconsin. Period.” 

Crowley told the Examiner  that people should be alarmed that Republican money is being used in a Democratic primary. “At the end of the day, there’s clearly an agenda there if they’re spending money in our primary,” he said. 

Democratic candidates respond

The Barnes campaign immediately blasted   Crowley’s reentry into the race in statements issued Friday and Saturday, claiming that Crowley’s campaign has ties to big corporations, that he’s trying to emerge as the “leading establishment Democrat” despite under-performing in multiple polls, and highlighting a county health insurance scandal earlier this year. 

A March Marquette Law School poll showed support for Crowley among voters at 3%, compared with 14% for Hong, 11% for Barnes and 3% for Rodriguez, with most respondents still undecided. 

Crowley discounted claims that he’s being hand-picked by the Democratic establishment, saying that “a 40-year-old Black man” isn’t what people think about when thinking about the “Democratic establishment.” He told the Examiner, “I know where my roots come from,” including  growing up in the impoverished 53206 zip code, “being the son of loving parents who struggled with mental health and drug addiction, who did everything that they could to make sure that their children were successful.” He added, “I look at my story as Wisconsin’s story.” He called the attacks by the  Barnes campaign “unfortunate,”  particularly because they are, by extension, also attacks on “a governor that he actually served alongside with during his first term.”

Hong took a less combative tone, welcoming  Crowley back into the race. “I look forward to the perspective he’ll bring as we each make our case to Wisconsinites over the next three weeks,” Hong said. “Competition is good for democracy, and voters deserve a substantive debate about the future of our state. Our campaign will remain focused on building the working-class coalition it will take to defeat Tom Tiffany and deliver permanent affordability for Wisconsin families.”

Brennan’s campaign released a statement saying, “Joel Brennan is in this race to win it. Wisconsin needs a candidate who can beat Tom Tiffany in November and get to work for Wisconsin families from day one. That was true yesterday, and it’s still true today — no matter who else is in or out.”

A spokesperson for the Roys campaign said, “We need to move forward and unite behind the strongest candidate to beat Tom Tiffany and deliver a Democratic legislature, which is Kelda Roys. We have been on TV statewide for over a month and still have more cash on hand than most of the field, the most endorsements by far, and the most momentum. We are laser-focused on winning August 11 and delivering a trifecta on November 3.”

The Republican Governor’s Association issued a statement mocking both the demise of the Rodriguez campaign and  Crowley’s decision to reenter the race: “Watching Wisconsin Democrats is like watching a clown car crash into a parked semi-truck,” RGA  communications director Kollin Crimpton said. “From financial scandals to re-launching failed campaigns, these Democrats shouldn’t be in charge of a lemonade stand let alone the state of Wisconsin…Tom Tiffany is fighting to lower property taxes, protect Wisconsin land, and require health care price transparency. The choice is clear for Wisconsinites: commonsense versus crazy.”

Beating Tiffany will require a focus on “policies that people care about,” Crowley told the Examiner Saturday, highlighting his campaign’s Badger Basics Plan to increase affordability, care and opportunity. “People care about making sure that we fully invest in our public schools,” he said, “that we increase the reimbursement rates for special education; that childcare and 4-K is affordable and accessible; that we expand Badger Care across every community across Wisconsin.” 

Repealing Act 10 and “enshrining workers’ rights directly into our Constitution” are also priorities, he said. “We have to speak directly to what people care about. And we can’t get caught up, you know, in the misinformation, in the disinformation, in the distractions quite frankly that Tom Tiffany, the Republican Party, as well as the Trump administration continue to throw our way.”

 Addressing voters across Wisconsin from the podium as he relaunched his campaign, Crowley declared, “Let’s ride, not just on Aug. 11 but in November.” He added,  “My goal is to get as many people to the table as possible,” so “if you see me out there, please don’t be afraid to come speak and spark up a conversation.”

A Milwaukee alder who had proclaimed that  he would bring major fundraising power to the Democratic primary field in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District this week dropped his bid.

Peter Burgelis signaled in a statement Wednesday he would back emergency room nurse Mitchell Berman, whose fundraising report showed he had raised more than 10 times as much money.

The 1st CD has been in Republican hands since 1994 and the current incumbent, U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, has been judged likely having a safe reelection in the current midterms; Cook Political Report currently rates it as “Likely Republican.” Nevertheless, this year’s Democratic primary for the seat drew an unusually large field of potential challengers, with seven different residents of the district declaring their intention to run at one point or another.

Berman, a Racine County resident, entered the Democratic primary for the 1st CD in August and has been garnering support since then, including a United Auto Workers union endorsement.

Burgelis, although he lives outside the district, became the eighth person to enter the race when he declared his intention to run in April. (By then, at least three of the Democratic hopefuls had dropped out or abandoned the race.)

Burgelis told the Wisconsin Examiner at the time that he got into the race because it needed a candidate who could “raise money on a national level and attract national attention,” and that he believed none of the other contestants, including Berman, would be able to take on Steil, who has more than $5.5 million to draw on.

Four candidates — Berman, Burgelis, Lorenzo Santos and Miguel Aranda — filed enough signatures with the Wisconsin Elections Commission to gain ballot access in the 1st CD primary.

Berman raised $653,922 from July 1, 2025 through June 30 of this year, according to Federal Election Commission data updated Wednesday.

Burgelis, starting in April 2026, raised $54,562 through June 30, FEC data show.

On Wednesday, Burgelis announced he was suspending his campaign and was doing so “with the understanding that defeating Bryan Steil must be the Democratic Party’s top priority.”

In a press release he said that he has reached out to Berman to offer assistance as the campaign moves forward.

After disclosing a  crisis in her campaign for governor this week, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez remains committed to staying in the contest for the Democratic nomination, a spokesperson for her campaign said Wednesday.

The Rodriguez campaign has lined up a public relations and crisis communications firm, Pod3Strategies, whose CEO, Christina Freundlich, has been fielding calls from reporters this week and spoke briefly with the Wisconsin Examiner Wednesday.

Rodriguez met with residents of the Madison YWCA on Tuesday, outlining her campaign’s policy positions and answering questions. The campaign was working to file its next round of campaign finance reports by the Wednesday midnight deadline, Freundlich said.

Meanwhile, Citizen Action of Wisconsin announced its endorsement of state Rep. Francesca Hong Wednesday in the governor’s race. The grassroots advocacy organization cited Hong’s positions on data centers, healthcare and hospital costs, utility costs and a minimum wage increase.

“In our intensive grassroots endorsement process Citizen Action leaders concluded that Francesca Hong is the best candidate to meet the moment by restoring a vibrant popular democracy that acts in the interest of average Wisconsinites, not the corporate monopolies that dominate state government,” said Robert Kraig, the organization’s executive director.

Wednesday was also the deadline for campaign finance reports for state offices. Reports covering fundraising and spending from January through June were due by 12 midnight.

A massive shortfall in the Rodriguez campaign along with inaccuracies in the reports that the campaign filed in January rocked the Democratic primary contest this week days before the Wednesday deadline. Rodriguez fired her campaign manager, Kara Spencer, on Sunday and at a press conference Monday said she would continue her campaign while working to rectify the errors that had been committed.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Wednesday that Spencer had a history of financial problems prior to being named to her campaign job.

Rodriguez said Monday that the campaign’s financial problems surfaced for her when a statewide ad did not start to run on TV a week ago Tuesday. The campaign had put out a press release announcing it was making a $1 million ad buy. 

A review of the campaign’s last finance report filed in January showed numerous duplicate transactions. Rodriguez said Monday that her report this week would show about $200,000 in cash on hand and that she has raised nearly $1 million over the course of the campaign.

On Wednesday, another rival of Rodriguez for the Democratic nomination, former Wisconsin Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan, held a news conference about his campaign finance report and flagged the document’s top line — $665,000 raised from Jan. 1 to June 30. Brennan said he’s raised $1.22 million since entering the race in December.  

Brennan spoke outside the office building in downtown Madison that houses the Wisconsin Ethics Commission, which collects the finance reports.

Brennan described his campaign’s infrastructure, with a fundraising team and with reports compiled with the assistance of a compliance firm, a lawyer, the campaign manager and the campaign treasurer.

“It goes through all of those layers before it gets submitted here to the state of Wisconsin. That’s what responsible management is like in a campaign,” Brennan said. “That’s what we do in government.”

In an account published Wednesday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that an unnamed Rodriguez campaign official was asked whether the campaign treasurer had signed off on the January finance report or had raised questions about the $1 million ad buy.

According to the newspaper, the official said the treasurer “is a figurehead and volunteer role and was not involved in day to day finance operations.”

Brennan mentioned that description and, drawing a contrast, introduced his own campaign treasurer, Janet Piraino. He described her as a trusted individual whom he had known for decades. But he also emphasized that it was up to the campaign to establish “the infrastructure around [its financial reports] to ensure that what they are doing is going to be accurate, is going to be right, is going to reflect the will of the donors and the will of the people of Wisconsin.”

He said that the first money raised in his campaign was spent to establish that infrastructure and ensure the professionals responsible for fundraising and reporting were paid.

Asked directly whether Rodriguez should drop out of the race, Brennan demurred.

“That’s for Sara to decide. That’s for her and her family and the people around her,” he said.

But he argued the missteps in the Rodriguez campaign would be used against her in the general election if she is nominated as the Democratic candidate, and would interfere with campaign messaging around issues including healthcare costs, public education and other topics.

“If you can’t demonstrate competence when it comes to running your campaign, that shouldn’t give people a lot of confidence in your ability to manage the hugely complex areas around state government,” Brennan said.

Another candidate for the Democratic nomination, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes declined Tuesday to say Rodriguez should quit the race.

Barnes spoke to reporters after a campaign event critiquing the role of money in politics. He was asked if the Rodriguez campaign’s financial errors were “disqualifying” and how voters should assess them in evaluating her candidacy.

“I think that is up to her campaign to figure out,” Barnes said. “It’s up to voters to decide if that campaign will ultimately be the strongest or not, if they’re able to communicate that or not. But that’s a decision that should be left up to them.”

Also running in the Democratic primary is state Sen. Kelda Roys, who held an event focused on healthcare in Milwaukee Wednesday.

Joel Brennan was taking a break from his shift at a Sheboygan County Dairy Breakfast on a sunny Saturday morning in June. Outside the sprawling barn where he’d  been handing out sausages to hungry customers, he met up with Rosemary Verheyen.

A Wisconsin native who moved back to the state after spending most of her career in California, Verheyen, 66, had looked up Brennan’s campaign for governor on Facebook — part of a personal project to meet all the candidates before casting her ballot.

She sent Brennan a direct message asking for a chance to meet him in person. She got a reply the same day and learned about his upcoming dairy breakfast gig.

Verheyen and Brennan talked for 10 or 15 minutes. Brennan asked her about the younger generation in her extended family and what concerns were on her mind. The talk turned to housing, and Verheyen explained she owns a mobile home but has to rent the lot where she keeps it.

“My rent goes up by more than my Social Security does every year,” she said. In California, she explained, state law caps how much rental mobile home lots can increase their rental costs annually — but not in Wisconsin.

At the end of their conversation, she took a selfie with Brennan.

“You should keep after me when I get elected,” he told her with a smile. “I will!” Verheyen replied cheerfully.

Recalling their conversation a few weeks later, Verheyen told the Examiner that Brennan had impressed her right away. “He looked me right in the eye when he said ‘hello,’” she said. “So that right there made me feel like, oh, my gosh, he actually can see me. Because if I can’t be seen, how can I be helped, right?”

An outlier in the race

Joel Brennan is counting on moments — and impressions — like that one as he pursues the Democratic Party nomination in the 2026 election for governor. Among the five remaining hopefuls in the field, he’s something of an outlier — the only one who is not either a current or former elected official.

Brennan, 56, served as Department of Administration secretary for the first three years of Gov. Tony Evers’ eight-year tenure, then left to become executive director of the Greater Milwaukee Committee. He’s currently taking an unpaid leave from the civic group made up of business and nonprofit leaders.

As an Evers cabinet member Brennan was very much in the background. That’s a political disadvantage when it comes to name recognition, a baseline asset for anyone running for office.

“That’s my biggest challenge, simply that I am not well known enough,” Brennan says. To overcome that, he adds, “It’s shoe leather and trying to organize around the state.”

Although he entered the race in early December, months after most of the other Democratic hopefuls, a campaign finance report filed in mid-January showed that he had already raised more than $500,000. He decided to spend money on early advertising to introduce himself to the public.

“I got in the race late, but I was able to get general parity with the rest of the field, who had three months to raise money, and I had just a couple weeks,” Brennan says. “That is a demonstration, I think, of some of the support that I had, and the network that I’ve got around the state, and I’m leaning into that.”

When he tells people he meets at campaign events and meet-and-greet sessions why he’s running and “the path that I want to lay forward for Wisconsin,” Brennan says, he gets a positive reception. “I think that truly undecided minds — I win more of them than I don’t.”

Policy laundry list

Brennan’s  policy positions  overlap those of most of his rivals. His campaign website issues section has at least as many provisions and goes into at least as much detail as any of the others. It includes break-out sections on healthcare, housing and  democracy, as well as proposals addressing property taxes, education, the environment and other topics.

The website includes general assurances about “How we pay for it,” pointing out that some of his proposals will save taxpayers money, advocating for closing tax loopholes, requiring community benefit agreements for data centers and assessing the sources of pollution for the cost of cleanup.  

Although they may differ on some details, he and the four other Democrats in the race have all called for restoring public employees’ collective bargaining rights, repealing other laws passed during former Gov. Scott Walker’s two terms that weakened labor unions, and passing budgets that increase funding for public schools and reduce school districts’ dependence on property taxes.

Brennan endorses a paid medical and family leave program funded through employer and employee contributions, a free school lunch program, and measures reducing childcare costs for families while bolstering childcare providers’ resources.

He has publicly criticized the Trump administration on tariffs, healthcare cuts, other federal program cuts and abuses by federal immigration officers. Yet Brennan’s approach is less pugilistic than that of some of the other Democrats. “Joel doesn’t wake up looking for a fight,” his website states. “There’s a difference between fighting and getting something done. Joel intends to do both.”

Emphasizing experience, competence

For all his policy specifics, Brennan rests the case for his candidacy on a three-decade-plus history of executive jobs in government and nonprofits — both for the experience he has gained and the connections he has forged.

“I grew up in a large family, and relationships were absolutely central to that, and they’ve been central to every part of my career,” Brennan says.

Brennan was born in the Milwaukee suburbs, the second youngest of 11 children. He grew up there and in the city and graduated from Marquette University, where he majored in English literature and political science. Brennan interned for a Massachusetts member of Congress one summer, and served on the staff of U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett before working in public affairs at Miller Brewing Co. and then at the Greater Milwaukee Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Brennan has also been a behind-the-scenes political insider. He managed two Barrett campaigns — for governor in 2002 (Barrett lost the primary) and mayor in 2004. After Barrett won that race, Brennan worked in the Milwaukee redevelopment authority during Barrett’s first three years as mayor.

Before joining the Evers administration, Brennan was CEO at Discovery World, a Milwaukee museum and education center for science and technology.

In his campaign trips around Wisconsin, Brennan has earned “some credibility because of the company I keep,” he says. “Those people who have been supportive and been part of my career — I’ve got to demonstrate to them that I can do the job, and they want to kick the tires on me, but those are opportunities that I’ve gotten because of some of the relationships that I’ve developed and I’ve cultivated over the course of my career, in the course of my life.”

When Barrett ran for governor in 2010 against Scott Walker, then the Milwaukee County executive, Brennan was drafted to play Walker in debate rehearsals. He repeated that role with Barrett in the 2012 recall election and again for Mary Burke, the Democratic candidate who challenged Walker for reelection in 2014.

The Democrats nominated Evers to run against Walker, seeking a third term, in 2018, and Brennan was asked if he’d do a repeat performance as the Republican governor.

“I said, ‘Great, I’ll be happy to do it again, but we’ve lost the last three times I’ve done this,’” he recalls. Despite his demurrals, “they wanted me to do it again,” he says. “My job was to toughen him up for the debate prep with Scott.” When Evers won the election, he says, “I was thrilled.”

Brennan says he didn’t actively seek a job in the new administration, but he had several connections with the Evers transition team and was soon tapped to lead DOA.

“Really the job is to help the governor run the executive branch,” Brennan says. The Department of Administration helps the governor’s office put together the state budget proposal, serves as the human resources department for the state’s 35,000 employees and manages Wisconsin’s real estate — the Capitol, the executive residence in Maple Bluff and the state’s office buildings. It’s also the face of state government in its interactions with local municipalities and negotiates compacts with the tribes located in Wisconsin.

Making appeals to the undecided

After the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, the department was responsible for managing more than $4 billion in federal relief funds, first in the 2020 CARES Act in the last year of the Trump administration and then in the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act that President Joe Biden signed about two months after taking office.

Brennan has been emphasizing those experiences when he meets voters.

“I can tell you that most every room that I go into, if there are undecided people in them, or if there are people who don’t know who I am, they walk away thinking, One, ‘Here’s somebody who’s got a history of accomplishment, and who, over the course of two decades, has almost exclusively executive experience, more executive experience than anybody else in the race,’” Brennan says.

“‘Two, he’s demonstrated that he can do the job, he knows state government, he knows the context around Madison, he’s got passion,’” he continues. “I think everybody who sees me walks away with that, and you know, more often than not, I believe I’m walking away with more of those people for me than for somebody else.”

Translating those small-group connections into a message that will reach a lot of voters is a challenge, he acknowledges. “I can’t do that in groups of 25 and 50 forever,” Brennan says. “I’ve got to find a way to speak to a larger audience.”

Brennan has looked for other ways to garner attention.

An early campaign ad featuring his teenage children pokes fun at him for telling “Dad jokes.” 

Brennan was one of a handful of politicians who volunteered to serve at the Sheboygan County Dairy Breakfast. (The presumptive Republican nominee, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, did as well — handing out slices of ham at a table right behind Brennan.)

Recently, as his Democratic  rivals began issuing  negative statements about each other, Brennan’s campaign released a 99-page opposition research report on himself. Perhaps its harshest bullet points were public statements that criticized his opposition as Greater Milwaukee Committee CEO to a Milwaukee Public School referendum that narrowly passed in 2024.

“My life has pretty much been an open book — and here are 99 pages of data that demonstrate it,” Brennan said in a written statement accompanying the oppo research report. “I might even be the only gubernatorial candidate in the country willing to take this step — but more should. And voters would be better off if we did.”

The report didn’t refer to an April Urban Milwaukee column by Editor Bruce Murphy, which cited an anonymous source who said Brennan’s campaign had been pitched to donors as a safe “white centrist.” Brennan flatly denies the characterization.

“I am somebody who has demonstrated throughout my career that I’m about trying to give opportunity to everybody, and there’s nothing I have to do to respond to that, except to say I never said that,” Brennan says. “I don’t control what somebody says outside about me, and it’s offensive to me that anybody else would do that, and if they had the guts, they’d identify who they are.”

When Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley dropped out of the Democratic primary and joined former candidate Missy Hughes in endorsing Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Brennan expressed his admiration for Crowley but reaffirmed his commitment to stay in the race.

“David Crowley made the campaign for Governor – and the eventual Democratic nominee – stronger and better through his work. I am honored to still be able to call myself a constituent and friend,” Brennan wrote on Facebook.

In answer to a question from the Examiner, his campaign manager replied, “We respect David Crowley and wish him well. Joel is focused on making his case to Wisconsin voters between now and August 11.”

A new environment?

Brennan says he admires his old boss, Evers, for integrity, “his commitment to kids” — and for the role the governor played in drawing new legislative maps.

When Evers took office, “he didn’t have many conversations with legislative leaders in the first two years,” Brennan says.

He doesn’t blame the governor for that. The art of maintaining personal relationships among lawmakers, including across party lines, “has been lost in Wisconsin,” Brennan says, “and I lay that at the feet, to be honest, of Scott Walker and the Republicans in 2010, where they took over, they gerrymandered things so that they could protect their majority, and they legislated in a way that was about vengeance.”

Referring to the new, more politically balanced voting maps Evers signed into law, Brennan told Verheyen during their chat at the dairy breakfast, “This is a very different environment. That’s Tony Evers’ great gift to us.”

Unlike some of his rivals who seem to be counting on a Democratic sweep in legislative races this year in order to accomplish their goals, Brennan emphasizes his ability to work across the aisle.

He says he believes that  Democrats could win both houses of the state Legislature this year. “But even without that — or even with that — there will be only a one- or two-seat majority,” he says. “So it’s going to require a level of cooperation and conversation that just didn’t exist in the early years of the Evers administration.”

He argues that he can best navigate the change in temperature that he believes will be essential in the next term, whether Democrats achieve trifecta control  or the November election produces divided government.

“All I can tell you is, on my phone right now there are probably 10 Republican legislators whose cell phone numbers I have,” he says. Meanwhile, the current crop of Democratic lawmakers includes many first-term members who took office after he left state government. That can make it possible to shed some old baggage, he suggests.

“I’m going to be accessible to the Republicans, but also, absolutely, to those Democrats,” Brennan says. “In the course of the way we’re going to have to govern over the next eight years, I want to make sure that people have a personal relationship with me. And I think that also enables us to not make this the kind of blood sport that we oftentimes see.”

Brennan contends he can “stand up passionately around the issues that I care about and the progressive Wisconsin values that are absolutely ingrained in me” yet still be able to work cooperatively with Republicans.

“But if this election is just about how do we get back at the other side, how do we rub somebody’s nose in it? How are we just about vengeance? How are we just about grievance? Then I don’t think that’s worthy of who we are as Wisconsinites, and that’s not who I’ve been over the course of my career,” Brennan says.

“I am absolutely going to defend democracy, I’m going to defend people’s rights, I’m going to make sure we’re promoting our Wisconsin values, but at the end of the day, I think people need to know … they want to see that we’re in a position to get something done,” he says. “We’re poised to be able to do that in Wisconsin, and I think I’ve got the personality, the temperament, the background and the vision to do that.”

Editor’s note: The Examiner is running periodic profiles of the contenders in the Aug. 11, 2026 gubernatorial primary as well as the candidates in the general election Nov. 3. 

This story has been updated.

The Maine Democratic Party and several prominent state and national lawmakers are calling on U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner to drop out of the pivotal race to defeat Sen. Susan Collins after a Politico report of allegations of sexual assault against him.

That includes members of Congress who previously endorsed him, including U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna of California and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts who both rallied with Platner ahead of the primary.

“I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line,” Khanna wrote on social media platform X. “These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement.”

Senate Majority PAC, also announced it was directing resources away from the Maine Senate race in light of the latest allegations. Majority Forward, the nonprofit arm of the super PAC had spent nearly $6 million in anti-Collins ads to help Platner as of June 9, the New York Times reported. Planned Parenthood Action Fund also withdrew its support, with President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson saying while the organization “remains committed to protecting access to care for Mainers and all Americans, we also unequivocally believe women.”

On Monday, Jenny Racicot, 41, who dated Platner on and off for two years, told Politico that he entered her home in 2021 uninvited while intoxicated and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. Platner denied the allegations, calling them categorically untrue. But he also said in a video on social media that he and his campaign are “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward.” 

He postponed several campaign events scheduled for Sunday and Monday.

The oysterman and military veteran has faced a series of controversies during his campaign including alleged unsettling behavior toward previous romantic partners, but the accusations in the Politico story published on Monday amount to the most serious. 

The Maine Democratic Party referenced those allegations in its statement asking Platner to step down.

“The Maine Democratic Party leadership stands with women and survivors, and that principle does not bend based on party affiliation,” said Chair Charlie Dingman, Vice Chair Imke Schessler and Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson in a statement. “We respect the women who made the hard decision to come forward. Speaking up is often costly.”

Maine House of Representatives Speaker Ryan Fecteau also echoed those calls in a separate statement.

“Today’s revelations, on top of months of allegations and controversies, make it clear that Graham’s campaign cannot be successful,” he said. “The movement that Graham’s candidacy has inspired and helped build is one that has been needed for a long time. In order to carry the movement forward, to give power back to the people, and to defeat Susan Collins in November, I am calling upon Graham to drop out.”

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Hannah Pingree along with her former competitors also rescinded their support. Pingree along with former Senate President Troy Jackson and Secretary of State Hannah Pingree touted Platner’s endorsement in the ranked-choice primary. On Monday night, all of them released statements urging him to withdraw. 

“Graham Platner tapped into something real — voters hungry for change showed up with real passion and energy,” Pingree said. “That energy doesn’t have to go away. It needs a new candidate to carry it forward.”

The latest accusation against Platner comes a week out from Maine’s ballot deadline, which his campaign said in a statement “is not a coincidence,” also pointing out that the earlier accusations of troubling behavior came out a week before the primary election. 

According to Maine law, a candidate can withdraw on or before the second Monday of July in an election year. A political action committee may make a replacement nomination for the general election, no later than 5 p.m. of the fourth Monday in July. 

If Platner does not withdraw 70 days before the election — which is Aug. 25 — his name will still appear on the ballot.