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David Crowley made his first media appearance as Wisconsin’s governor-elect Wednesday afternoon, answering reporters’ questions at a community hub on N. Martin Luther King Drive in Milwaukee’s inner city.

The Milwaukee County executive defeated Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany by 8 percentage points in Tuesday’s election.

Crowley will take office as the state’s first Black governor in January, with fellow Democrats having taken control of both the Assembly and the Senate.

Here are four of the exchanges from the question-and-answer session, along with a list of promises Crowley is making.

On some questions, Crowley deferred to legislative leaders. 

Question: Did Wisconsin give you and Democrats a mandate?

Crowley: “At the end of the day, what I recognize from the wins … is that we have been delivering and talking about exactly what we’ve heard from Wisconsinites all across the state of Wisconsin, that they want us to tackle the affordability crisis. And nothing has changed related to what our priority is going to be. We have to lower costs. We have to make sure that people can keep more money in your pockets. Whether we’re tackling health care, public education, child care, we need to make sure that we’re doing it together, working with the Legislature in order to put something forward.”

Question: Are you looking for specific bills to tackle affordability?

Crowley: “Well, you’re asking me about the legislative process. I think it’s extremely important to talk to the legislative leaders. I look forward to working with them about what our priorities are going to be. We are less than 24 hours of knowing that we won this race.”

Question: Do you want to see right away legislation to expand Medicaid or create Badger Care for all?

Crowley: “Well, when you think about what bills are going to be on my desk, I would say you want to talk to the legislative leaders. What I’m focusing on right now is making sure that we are going to be ready on day one. That means that we have to focus on the transition team….”

Question: Were the election results mainly a vote against President Donald Trump?

Crowley: “The Republican Party is Trump’s party. The Republican Party has enabled what they’ve been doing in Washington, D.C. You can’t give excuses on why you have been carrying the water of one man versus carrying the water and the concerns of the people that you represent. What this was a mandate on is the fact that Republicans have been selling us down a particular path to where it’s not working for Wisconsin. It’s not working for the American public.”

Crowley makes several promises

In remarks before taking questions, Crowley emphasized affordability, presenting a lengthy list of promises.

“We’re going to lower costs for housing, utilities, health care and child care,” he said.

“We’re going to deliver real, meaningful property tax relief that doesn’t place the burden on our local communities.

“We’re going to expand access to quality, affordable health care.

“We’re going to strengthen our public schools, expand pathways to good-paying jobs and apprenticeship opportunities, and support small businesses and communities all across the state of Wisconsin.

“We’re going to invest in the infrastructure of tomorrow, carry on Governor (Tony) Evers’ work on fixing the damn roads and ensure our neighborhoods are safe, nurturing spaces for our kids and our grandkids to thrive.”

What David Crowley promised in his early remarks as governor-elect is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• A Neenah-based political operative tried to recruit a Wisconsin writer to post positive social media messages about the Port Washington data center.
• The process involved signing a nondisclosure agreement in order to access more information about the job.
• Vantage, the data center developer, said “any partnerships are disclosed in accordance with applicable advertising guidelines and creators maintain editorial control over their content.”

As tech companies spend billions to build hyperscale data centers and millions to promote them, an effort is underway to recruit people to write paid social media posts to boost at least one of the controversial projects in Wisconsin.

Those interested must sign a nondisclosure agreement even before applying.

To get the “creators and AI” work, individuals must agree “to keep this document, survey and all emails about this project confidential,” according to a document viewed by Wisconsin Watch.

That approach appears to conflict with data center operators’ recent pivot away from using nondisclosure agreements. 

Those NDAs, disclosed by Wisconsin Watch earlier this year, were made between data center developers and local and state government officials.

Former Republican legislative aide makes positive posts

One person soliciting the social media boosters is Scott A. Becher, a former Republican legislative aide and public relations consultant who ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Neenah in April. 

Becher previously worked as chief of staff for state Rep. Steve Wieckert, R-Appleton, who served in the state Assembly from 1997 to 2009. His most recent state-level political work, on two state legislative campaigns, paid him $6,000 in 2020 and 2023, according to state campaign finance records.

In early 2025, Becher made two positive posts about data centers on Facebook. 

Responding to a post about Microsoft pursuing a data center in Kenosha, he wrote: “High tech investment happening all across the state, why isnʼt Neenah tapping into its high tech infrastructure to secure more high tech jobs and high tech companies investing on our community.”

A week later, he wrote: “Why can’t Neenah get a multi-million dollar data center like Port Washington, Pleasant Prairie and now Beaver Dam and possibly even nearby the Village of Harrison are getting to increase their tax bases?”

Becher didn’t return messages requesting comment.

Wisconsin Watch reported on what seems to be a growing trend of paying influencers to post on political topics, often without disclosures. Many videos about how expensive it is to live in Green Bay were pure fiction.

The recruiting

Charles Rathmann, a software analyst in the Driftless Area of southwest Wisconsin, told Wisconsin Watch he has known Becher since they met as students at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh decades ago. He praised Becher’s work in public policy communications.

Rathmann said Becher contacted him in September and they spoke several times by phone and text messages.

Rathmann said Becher asked him if he would be interested in being paid to do social media posts promoting the $15 billion OpenAI/Oracle/Vantage data center now under construction in Port Washington, north of Milwaukee. 

Rathmann said Becher told him he would have to sign a nondisclosure agreement in order to be hired. He said he told Becher he would not be interested, partly because the posts would not be labeled as paid content.

Becher told Rathmann he would be paid $100 to attend a meeting if his initial application was accepted. But Becher wouldn’t answer Rathmann’s questions about how much posting would be expected or how much that work paid.

Rathmann said the effort reminded him of what media critics such as  Walter Lippmann, Noam Chomsky and Ed Herman have called “the manufacture of consent.”

“What this group is looking for is not an objective analyst, but likely consumer-level social media users looking to make a few bucks,” Rathmann told Wisconsin Watch. “That is not for me. … When industrial concerns rely on sock puppets, we cannot trust discourse the way we normally can when competing interests are speaking in their own name.”

Through a Wisconsin spokesperson, Vantage declined Wisconsin Watch’s request for an interview on the use of paid posters. 

The Denver-based company instead alluded in a statement to an advertising campaign on television, radio, online and social media it launched in September for the Port Washington data center, known as Project Lighthouse. “Any partnerships are disclosed in accordance with applicable advertising guidelines and creators maintain editorial control over their content,” the statement said.

It’s unclear whether paid posters are being used to promote the other two hyperscale data centers under construction in Wisconsin, Microsoft’s $20 billion complex in Mount Pleasant, south of Milwaukee, and Meta’s $1 billion facility in Beaver Dam.

A Microsoft spokesperson said “we don’t have anything to share on this topic at this time.” A Meta spokesperson said “no such efforts are in place.”

State legislation was introduced in February to prohibit NDAs between data center developers and local governments, but did not become law. The author, Rep. Clint Moses, R-Menomonie, said he would reintroduce his bill after the new legislative session begins in January. He said he would expand it to include the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. in response to a Wisconsin Watch report that the agency has signed at least five NDAs with data center developers.

Similar efforts to promote data centers

Recent news reports revealed similar paid-post efforts to promote artificial intelligence data centers around the country:

• Wyoming-based Xomad, which touts its work with “trusted local influencers,” offered to pay creators to promote Project Jupiter, an OpenAI and Oracle-backed data center in New Mexico, Source New Mexico reported.

• A group called North Carolina Connects ran ads on TV, radio and social media promoting data centers without disclosing that it was backed by the Data Center Coalition trade group, Inside Climate News reported.

Helen Santoro, Michael Nolan, Seraphina Feron and Anna Massoglia from MuckRock’s Sunlight Research Desk provided research for this story.

Disclosure: The OpenAI Foundation recently awarded a grant to Wisconsin Watch but has no control over its editorial decisions. We will update our funding page to reflect the grant. A list of donors and funders through 2025, as well as our donation acceptance policies, can be found here.

Manufactured consent: Paid social media posters are being recruited to promote Wisconsin data center is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Tuesday was a surprising, historic Election Day across the nation, though in Wisconsin it culminated a Democratic effort that progressed through fits and starts ever since Gov. Scott Walker smashed the power of public sector unions in 2011.

Here’s what we learned in Wisconsin:

The Walker Republican era of Wisconsin government is over.

As Brittany Carloni reports today, Democrats have waited 16 years for this moment.

A national Democratic tsunami helped Democrats flip eight Assembly seats and three Senate seats, giving them 53-46 Assembly and 18-15 Senate majorities.

A rising tide of opposition to President Donald Trump’s tumultuous second term clearly lifted all ships. Democrats flipped a legislative district between Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls that Trump won by 7 percentage points just two years ago. The Republican phalanx that retiring Assembly Speaker Robin Vos held together through the end of the Walker era and eight years of split government under Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has crumbled.

When the tea party movement swept Walker and Republicans into power in 2010, they controlled 60 Assembly seats and 19 Senate seats. They used that mandate to try to create a permanent Republican majority in the state, passing Act 10 to cripple public sector unions, enacting strict voter ID to make it harder for students and low-income people to vote and drawing some of the most gerrymandered legislative districts in the nation.

They passed conservative priorities, including a 20-week abortion ban, right-to-work, concealed carry of firearms, expansion of private school vouchers statewide, major tax cuts particularly for farmers and manufacturers and pro-business deregulatory measures. They even put the brakes on a Milwaukee-to-Madison rail line.

But Wisconsin is a purple state, and the great pendulum of purple state politics has now swung back to Democratic control. What Democrats do with that power will keep our reporters busy for years to come.

Voters want equality, but maybe not through shortcuts.

Voters more than doubled the number of elected Black governors in U.S. history, electing David Crowley in Wisconsin, Byron Donalds in Florida, Aaron Ford in Nevada and, in Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms, the first Black female governor in U.S. history.

Wisconsin now has elected its first Latino- and Hmong-American candidates statewide in Secretary of State-elect JoCasta Zamarripa and Treasurer-elect Yee Leng Xiong, who also becomes the first Hmong American elected to statewide office in U.S. history.

But voters also passed by a nearly 13-point margin a constitutional amendment that will prevent the state from giving scholarships to and designing government programs for specific minority groups and women, commonly referred to as diversity, equity and inclusion programs, or DEI. This was one of the few bright spots Tuesday for Republicans, who put three constitutional amendments on the ballot in the hopes of driving GOP turnout and circumventing Evers’ veto pen.

Opponents of the anti-DEI amendment, like the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, say the amendment was confusing. It asked voters to “prohibit governmental entities in the state from discriminating against, or granting preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public employment, public education, public contracting, or public administration?”

Who would be against prohibiting discrimination?

But Democrats have long argued that minority groups have continued to disproportionately face barriers because of the country’s dark history of institutionalized racial discrimination. Wisconsin is home to some of the biggest racial disparities in the country in terms of health, wealth and incarceration.

Like in 2008 when they voted for Barack Obama for president by large margins, Wisconsin voters affirmed they want to turn the page on racism. But, assuming voters knew what they were voting on, they may not be willing to prioritize equity in order to achieve racial equality.

The Republican redistricting argument was proven (again) to be false.

Democrats in all likelihood should have taken control of the Legislature in 2018 — if the state’s political maps had been drawn fairly in 2011.

Instead Republicans used their majority to draw maps in secret and tweaked them so that they could withstand a Democratic wave election like the one in 2018 when Evers defeated Walker and Democrats won all statewide offices. But Republicans maintained near super majorities in the Legislature at the time. Republicans then argued that they retained the Legislature because Democrats packed themselves into cities while Republican voters were spread out in rural and suburban areas.

But Democrats rallied to elect a liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which tossed out the gerrymandered maps, leading to the current maps that aren’t so wave-proof. In 2024, as Trump won statewide, Democrats flipped 14 legislative seats, setting up this year’s fait accompli.

History could repeat itself. If Democrats win the presidency in 2028 and pass unpopular legislation or give Republicans enough firepower to forge a Tea Party Movement Part II, Republicans could sweep back into power in 2030 just in time for the next round of actual decennial redistricting.

Bonus note: The midterm Republican gerrymandering exercise in states like Texas, Florida and North Carolina proved to be a giant dummymander. Bipartisan redistricting reform’s day may have finally come — unless Democrats haven’t learned a thing.

Billionaires don’t control the government. The people do.

Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany’s entire gubernatorial campaign was almost entirely fueled by three billionaires — the same ones who engineered the conservative takeover of the Wisconsin Supreme Court 20 years ago and the Republican wave of 2010 (remember the video of Diane Hendricks and Walker discussing his plan to “divide and conquer” Wisconsin with right-to-work legislation and Act 10?).

Elon Musk spent roughly a half-billion-with-a-B dollars on these midterm elections nationwide. Although, for the world’s first trillionaire, that’s like a U.S. household with the median net worth of about $200,000 spending $100 on this election. (Do the math. It’s crazy.)

But as Wisconsin showed in 2025, when the state shattered the national record for spending on a state Supreme Court election, including Musk’s legally dubious voter giveaway, money can’t buy you happiness or a guaranteed win on Election Day.

Four things we learned from Tuesday’s Democratic tsunami in Wisconsin is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Tuesday’s Democratic sweep of statewide offices included three notable firsts: Wisconsin’s first Black governor and first Latino and Hmong statewide elected officials.

Gov.-elect David Crowley, Secretary of State-elect JoCasta Zamarripa and Treasurer-elect Yee Leng Xiong, all Democrats, formed the most racially diverse party slate — alongside Lt. Gov.-elect Sarah Godlewski — in Wisconsin history. The trio occasionally acknowledged that detail on the campaign trail, but it didn’t feature front and center in their messaging this year.

Wisconsin has had some of the largest racial disparities in the nation in infant mortality, income, education outcomes and incarceration rates. More than a quarter of Black Wisconsinites lived below the poverty line in 2024 — a higher rate than in all but three states and Washington, D.C.; Latino and Asian Wisconsinites also experienced higher poverty rates than their white counterparts and the national average for Latino and Asian Americans, respectively.  

The gap between the share of Black and white Wisconsin students who graduate high school on schedule was the highest in the country between 2019 and 2024. Black children born in Wisconsin die in their infancy at roughly three times the rate of white children — a pattern public health experts say doesn’t map neatly to family income. Black Wisconsinites are roughly a third as likely as white Wisconsinites to own their homes, though gaps vary by city; and Black Wisconsinites’ incarceration rate was roughly 12 times higher than that of white Wisconsinites in 2022, a gap surpassed only in Vermont. 

In his victory speech in Milwaukee, Crowley alluded to the challenges the state’s Black residents have long faced.

“Because of you, a boy who grew up facing eviction will soon take residence in the governor’s residence,” Crowley said. “Tonight Wisconsin made history, and being your next governor is humbling in its own right. I don’t take any of this lightly. And I know exactly the shoulders that I stand on.”

Crowley became Milwaukee County’s first elected Black executive in 2020, though former Milwaukee Common Council President Marvin Pratt served in the role on an interim basis in 2011.. At  least one in five Milwaukee County residents have identified as Black since the 2000 census. That share rose to roughly one in four residents as of the 2024 American Community Survey, compared to roughly 6% of Wisconsin’s overall population.

Crowley attended Bay View High School with Cavalier Johnson, whom Milwaukee voters chose as their city’s first Black mayor in 2022.

Wisconsin’s first Black state lawmaker, Progressive Republican Lucian Palmer, likewise represented Milwaukee; he served in the Assembly for a single term from 1907 to 1909. Former Secretary of State Vel Phillips became Wisconsin’s first Black statewide elected official in 1978.

Witnessing history at the Crowley event wasn’t lost on Kenya Perry, 38, an east side Milwaukee resident.

“I think it’ll be great, not just for us minorities, but for everyone, because he not only represents us, but he’s representing everybody,” Perry said. “It doesn’t matter what color you are, what’s your background, what ethnicity or your religion or anything like that. He wants to come in and represent all people, not just one party.”

Zamarripa is also a lifelong Milwaukeean. She, too, is no stranger to firsts; Zamarripa became Wisconsin’s first Latina state lawmaker in 2010 and the first Latina member of Milwaukee’s Common Council in 2020. Roughly 20% of Milwaukee residents identified as Hispanic as of 2024, compared to about 8% of all Wisconsinites.

She told Wisconsin Watch on Monday that her race for secretary of state was also an opportunity to build out Latino voter outreach infrastructure.

“We’re the fastest-growing constituency in the great state of Wisconsin,” she said, not only in Milwaukee, but in manufacturing and agricultural hubs across the state. “Wherever there are midterm Latino voters, we mailed them a bilingual piece of mail,” she said, alongside partnerships with Spanish-language radio stations and ad buys in southeast Wisconsin and the Green Bay area. Roughly the same share of Kenosha and Racine County residents identified as Latino in 2024 — about 16% — as did 1 in 10 Brown County residents.

Zamarripa hopes Wisconsin Democrats will be able to “replicate” her campaign’s Latino voter outreach efforts, or perhaps even devote resources to recruiting Latino candidates for local and statewide offices. Among the communities on her mind: Arcadia in western Wisconsin’s Trempealeau County, the state’s only majority-Latino city as of 2024.

Voters in majority Latino precincts on Milwaukee’s South Side veered right in 2024, including 44-year-old Nextaly Rodriguez. He voted in his first-ever gubernatorial election at the Kosciusko Community Center polling site on Tuesday, choosing Crowley over Republican Tom Tiffany. “Just trying something new,” he said in Spanish. 

Jesus Mancilla made it to the community center less than a half-hour before polls closed. The 18-year-old spotted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on his block during a wave of immigration arrests in and around Milwaukee in June; his older brother convinced him to vote for his immigrant parents’ sake. He wasn’t the only first-time Latino voter at the polling site. “I saw a couple of my friends leave (just now),” he said. Mancilla hasn’t sorted out his political identity yet, but he chose Crowley in the governor’s race. 

Xiong is both Wisconsin’s and the nation’s first Hmong statewide elected officer. He hails from Marathon County, home to Wisconsin’s second-largest Hmong community. Roughly 1 in 10 Wausau residents identified as Hmong in 2024, more than in any other Wisconsin city.

Tens of thousands of Hmong refugees, including Xiong’s parents, settled in Wisconsin in the wake of the Vietnam War; last year marked the 50th anniversary of the first Hmong families’ arrival in the state. Hmong Wisconsinites now comprise sizable constituencies not only in Wausau, but also in Milwaukee, Sheboygan, Madison, Eau Claire and the Fox Valley. 

The Hmong written language is still relatively young, so Xiong leaned into person-to-person outreach, producing a series of Hmong-language get-out-the-vote videos, hosting bilingual campaign events and making phone calls to Hmong-speaking voters. 

Xiong isn’t sure his voter outreach efforts are easily replicable. “It comes with relationships,” he said, and cementing those relationships for future election cycles will require Democrats to maintain a presence in Wisconsin’s Hmong communities. 

When the dust of Tuesday’s blowout settles, he expects Hmong voters, and Asian voters more broadly, to have played pivotal roles in flipping the Wausau-based 85th Assembly District — a seat for which he ran two years ago, losing by four points — and seats in greater Green Bay and Menasha. 

As owner Sa Sor Lee opened the doors of Mortchee’s Carryout & Catering in Wausau on a windy Wednesday morning, she carried the joy and pride she had felt the night before at Yee Leng Xiong’s election party. Attendees watched Xiong’s vote total climb throughout the evening before the Associated Press called the race for him shortly after midnight.

Lee has known Xiong since he was 17 and mentored him through the H.M.O.N.G. Youth Program in Wausau, which stands for Helping Make Our Next Generation. She has watched him run for the local school board, the Marathon County Board and, ultimately, state treasurer. She also frequently contributed food to his campaigns.

Lee said Xiong’s victory means a lot to the Hmong community. “It means we can do a lot more than we think we can.”

“I’m so excited,” Lee added. “It’s not just him, but I think I felt like I am winning this election.”

Wisconsin Watch reporters Tom Kertscher and Brittany Carloni contributed to this report.

History made: Wisconsin elects first Black governor and first Latino and Hmong statewide officers is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Reporters fanned out across the state Tuesday — not only to document the results of a high-stakes election that will usher in a new balance of political power in Wisconsin, but also to capture how residents participated in the democratic process.

Sometimes, a photograph tells a story better than words.

Here is a selection of the best photography from Wisconsin Watch’s and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service’s Election Day coverage.

Wisconsin votes: Election Day in photos is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Marking the latest legislative runaround against gubernatorial veto power — quite literally — Wisconsin voters adopted two of three Republican-authored constitutional amendments in Tuesday’s election.

The amendments that passed ban government and public educational institutions from discriminating against or expressing preferential treatment for people based on race, ethnicity, nationality or sex — a measure expected to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs — and limit the governor’s use of the partial veto to raise taxes. A third amendment that would have prevented public officials from banning gatherings in places of worship during emergencies failed.

To amend the Wisconsin constitution, lawmakers must pass resolutions during two consecutive two-year legislative sessions before putting the questions to voters. GOP legislators have employed the strategy in recent years with measurable success. 

Even within a divided government split along party lines, voters nonetheless approved Republican-authored proposals that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers presumably would have vetoed or, in the case of religious gatherings, did veto.

Including Tuesday’s referendums, voters have now approved nine of 12 constitutional amendments during Evers’ eight years in office.

Conservative backers say the latest amendments “hold government accountable” while opponents say the amendments restrict efforts to improve conditions for underserved communities and limit the executive branch’s check on legislative power.

Prohibiting race- or sex-based discrimination

Chloe Braverman, a University of Wisconsin-Madison junior, expressed frustration with the amendment questions on the ballot, particularly one that bans preferential treatment in public education and in government hiring and contracting based upon race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.

Braverman said the authors framed the question “weirdly” and suggested Republicans worded it to persuade voters to greenlight the change. The amendment passed with 56.4% voting in favor and 43.6% against.

The measure targets initiatives aimed at increasing diversity and assisting marginalized groups, which the amendment’s authors have said obstruct values like fairness, equality and merit. Using categories like race and sex as a basis for righting historical wrongs, they say, is actually an attempt to rectify “past discrimination” with “more discrimination.”

“Old wounds cannot be healed by inflicting new ones,” said Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, one of the referendum’s architects.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which deemed unconstitutional the use of race in college admissions, helped motivate the Wisconsin amendment’s authors. 

After the proposed ballot measure passed along party lines earlier this year, interest groups sought voter support.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty launched a six-figure campaign to encourage voters to back the amendments. 

Opponents like the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin said they did the best they could with limited resources to explain the measures’ ramifications. League Executive Director Debra Cronmiller said the amendment could undo 60 years of civil rights progress for women and minorities.

“On its surface, it looks good,” Cronmiller said. “It’s trying to create equality, which means giving everybody the same thing. But in the United States, where we have had systemic discrimination since our inception, we need equity so we can provide people the resources that they need to have an equal opportunity for success.”

She likened the difference between equality and equity to giving all people a set of shoes. Giving everyone the same pair simply wouldn’t work. To fit all needs, people require different sizes.

“If the first time you’re reading the question is today, when you get to your polling place, you will be misled by the question,” Cronmiller said. “You will likely vote yes.”

Voters in at least six other states — Arizona, California, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Washington — enacted similar bans between 1996 and 2012. 

Wisconsin’s is essentially a “carbon copy” of the others, noted Sterling Knoche, an attorney with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s State Democracy Research Initiative.

The U.S. Supreme Court determined Michigan’s amendment was constitutional after it was challenged. That reinforces the sense that Wisconsin’s prohibition would likewise withstand judicial scrutiny.

The scope of the change depends on how lawmakers and courts interpret the words “preferential treatment” and “discrimination,” said Emily Lau, also an attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative. For instance, groups might be treated differently in a way that isn’t preferential or discriminatory, or if there is a justifiable government interest in doing so.

The playing field to resolve these issues will likely be the courtroom.

Even before voters approved Tuesday’s amendment, WILL began suing higher education institutions in Wisconsin over the existence of diversity scholarships and programs that serve underrepresented students.

“All laws must be colorblind to ensure the American Dream for all individuals; otherwise, America will devolve into a racialized society with some racial groups punishing others based on perceived historical grievances,” Dan Lennington, WILL’s vice president and deputy attorney, testified at a public hearing in support of the new amendment in 2025.

This year, WILL scored a victory before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which found an undergraduate financial aid program for minority students was unconstitutional. 

More recently, its attorneys filed a suit against the Wisconsin Higher Educational Aids Board in hopes of striking down a Wisconsin law that requires the Medical College of Wisconsin to “make every effort to ensure” minority students comprise at least 5% of the institution’s total enrollment to qualify for state funding. WILL claims this is a race-based admissions quota.

Beyond race- or sex-based hiring, promotion or admission preferences, the amendment could have a chilling effect on other forms of targeted outreach to underserved communities in ways not yet anticipated. 

But WILL has already highlighted other “racially discriminatory” programs that it believes the amendment would prohibit, including Wisconsin Department of Health Services grants to improve health outcomes among non-whites and non-Asians, equity training programs for teachers supervised by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and the city of Milwaukee’s Office of African American Affairs.

Wisconsin voters may come to find the bill’s intended outcomes fail to emerge.

Like Wisconsin voters, Californians amended their constitution in 1996 to prohibit “discrimination or preferential treatment by the state and other public entities.” 

But years of research following the change indicated that disparities in hiring, contracting and college admissions persisted, and even increased, especially among Latino Americans and women. Now the state is making its fifth legislative attempt to reduce the scope of the amendment in light of lingering educational achievement gaps. 

The California Legislature recently authorized a ballot proposition to be presented to Californians in 2028 that would exclude public education from the prohibition, with the sole exception of college admissions.

Narrowing the partial veto 

This isn’t the first time voters have chipped away at the Wisconsin governor’s partial veto, which affords the executive some of the most expansive powers to alter budgetary line items of any of the 44 states that allow the practice.

Wisconsin’s constitution enables the governor to approve a budget bill “in whole or in part,” and governors of both political parties have used it to great effect.

Following particularly contentious partial vetoes by Republican Tommy Thompson and Democrat Jim Doyle, the electorate twice amended the Wisconsin constitution to prevent similar actions. Governors can no longer create new words by striking individual letters or create a new sentence using two or more sentences.

More recently, former Republican Gov. Scott Walker used his partial veto in 2017 to bar school districts from raising taxes for energy efficiency projects from one year to 1,001 years.

Evers uncapped his partial veto pen in the 2023-25 budget to raise school revenue limits from a span of two years to 402 years. The veto authorized school districts to raise taxes, but didn’t directly do so. School boards get to decide whether to use their new authority. 

In response, Republicans advanced the question as a constitutional amendment, and voters narrowly approved it 50.7% to 49.3%. It doesn’t retroactively apply to Evers’ veto, but would prevent a similar veto from occurring again.

What distinguished Tuesday’s ballot referendum from the prior two concerning partial vetoes was not setting limits on the technical format a partial veto can take, Knoche said, but rather its underlying purpose — in this case anything that raises taxes or fees.

“This is another chapter in a long book on the governors creatively and expansively using their powers,” he said. Then their power gets “incrementally constrained by the Legislature that’s not happy with the increase.”

Democratic lawmakers who opposed the amendment observed that maintaining the governor’s authority to increase funding by partial veto enables the executive branch to intercede when the Legislature insufficiently invests in state priorities.

Banning bans on religious gatherings

On Election Day, Hannah Warren, a 36-year-old lifelong Kenoshan and school counselor, was most determined to weigh in on a constitutional amendment barring the government from banning religious gatherings or closing places of worship during states of emergency.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Wisconsin, the Evers administration’s “Safer at Home” order limited what businesses and activities could remain open in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. The order limited religious gatherings to fewer than 10 people.

Warren’s church in Bristol followed public health officials’ directives to temporarily halt in-person services. She is “a stickler for following the rules” and respected her pastor’s decision, but she watched friends drift away to other congregations “who weren’t following the government’s advice to a T.”

The Wisconsin Supreme Court later struck down the restrictions, while legislators also passed a bill that would have prevented public health agencies from preventing religious gatherings to control COVID-19. Evers vetoed the measure.

In retrospect, Warren believes the lockdown hurt her congregation. 

“I think it would be nice for the government not to have their hands in the innards of everyone’s day-to-day,” she said.

The majority of voters on Tuesday disagreed. It failed with 52% of voters opposed to 48% in favor.

The constitutional amendment would have expanded the restrictions on government authority even more than the original bill did by broadening it to cover any type of emergency.

At least 20 states have passed similar legislation, either protecting religious gatherings or places of worship during states of emergency, often defining religious services as an “essential service.”  

But State Democracy Research Initiative attorneys note that the proposed amendment didn’t include definitions for key terms like “places of worship” or what it means to “forbid gatherings” or “order the closure of.” That generates ambiguities, which set Wisconsin’s proposal apart from most other state reforms.

Tyler Hake, 29, came to the McFarland Municipal Center Tuesday evening to cast a ballot in favor of the amendment.

Hake declined to identify his partisan affiliation, but expressed concern over widespread political polarization in an era where a shared agreement over facts and truth feels elusive.

“It’s important that everyone has their opinions and is able to practice those things freely” without “forcing things upon other people,” he said. “As the country moves forward, it’d be nice if people were more on the same page.”

Two Republican constitutional amendments pass, one fails. Here’s what that means. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Wisconsin Democrats have waited 16 years for this moment. 

With David Crowley’s victory over Tom Tiffany in the governor’s race and the flip of the Senate and the Assembly from Republican to Democratic majorities, the state Capitol in Madison come January will be completely controlled by Democrats. 

“For the first time since 2010, Wisconsin voters will trust us to lead,” Crowley told the crowd gathered at his victory party Tuesday night in Milwaukee. “Close margins will mean we earn that trust every day. But we do it by governing the whole state.” 

Crowley was leading Tiffany 54-46 with nearly all the votes counted. 

Senate Democrats declared victories in all four of the key Senate races the party needed to win a majority Tuesday night: the 5th and the 21st in southeastern Wisconsin, the 17th in southwestern Wisconsin and the 31st in Eau Claire. Those numbers mean the party will have an 18-15 majority when the new session begins in January. 

Assembly Democrats secured a 53-46 majority. Democrats also won three other statewide races: attorney general, secretary of state and state treasurer, which they flipped from Republican control. 

Assembly Democratic Leader Greta Neubauer, who is likely in line to become speaker next year, in a statement called the victories “historic” and said a trifecta will “end decades of Republican obstruction.”

“We know that people will be counting on us to deliver, and we will deliver,” Neubauer said. “Alongside Governor David Crowley and our Democratic colleagues in the Senate, we will show that government can be a force for good and that things can be different with Democrats in charge.”

The Democratic victories were boosted by President Donald Trump’s plummeting approval ratings, which also helped Democrats win majorities in the U.S. House and Senate. Complete control of state government means Democrats for the next two years have an opportunity to easily pass the party’s priorities — expanding Medicaid eligibility under BadgerCare, reinstating protections for public sector unions, enshrining clear abortion rights in the state constitution, legalizing marijuana, raising the minimum wage, and using the budget surplus to boost child care, local government aid, public schools, and the higher education system.

“Democrats’ policy plans have been stymied since 2010 when they lost control of state government,” said Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center and political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “As a result, Democrats are in general agreement about a wide variety of backlogged initiatives they would like to tackle right out of the gate in 2027.”

Tuesday’s results also symbolize the end of an era of Republican politics that started in 2010, another midterm year when economic frustrations led to Republicans taking over the Legislature and the governor’s office with the election of former Gov. Scott Walker. Republicans had hoped to forge a permanent majority in 2011 with gerrymandered legislative maps that survived a Democratic wave election in 2018 that saw Democratic Gov. Tony Evers defeat Walker.

But after years of slowly turning a conservative Supreme Court majority into a liberal one, which in turn overturned the gerrymandered political maps, Democrats made significant gains in 2024, setting up Tuesday’s return to full power in the Capitol. 

Democratic victories on Election Day happened in spite of the millions of dollars from three Republican megadonors that flowed into the governor’s race through the Republican Party of Wisconsin. Those numbers allowed Tiffany to outspend Crowley by double so far this year, more than $46 million for Tiffany to $23.2 million for Crowley, according to most recent campaign finance reports.  

In the coming months, Democrats will have to prepare to govern after years of limited power. Among current Democratic lawmakers, just four senators and one representative served in the Capitol the last time Democrats held power in the Legislature.

Longtime Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who did not seek reelection, in a social media post Tuesday night congratulated new Democratic leadership but pointed to a lack of “any real private-sector experience” among Crowley, Neubauer and Senate Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton.

“Crowley built his career in campaign organizing and political staff work. Neubauer and Hesselbein have the same resume,” Vos said. “They know politics. Being good at politics will mean paying back their powerful political allies.”

In the Senate, Hesselbein said the party met regularly prior to Election Day to plan what bills members want to prioritize under a Democratic majority in her chamber. 

“We’re trying to make sure we know on day one what we’re going to be doing,” Hesselbein said in an interview ahead of Election Day. “And like I said, every day we wake up in the morning, we try to think how we can make people’s lives better, whether that’s funding for K-12 education or higher education or lowering health costs.”

Pat Raes, president of the SEIU Wisconsin union, in an interview at the Crowley watch party called on Democrats in state government to serve lower-income people.

“We have to find a way to make things livable,” she said. “We are seeing more homeless people across the state and across the country. That is not acceptable. Pure and simple.”

What happened in 2010

The Republican victories in Wisconsin in 2010 highlight the transformative potential for state government in the years ahead. Sixteen years ago, a bold print headline above a photo of Walker on the front page of the Wisconsin State Journal declared the state was “Turning Right.” 

Over the course of Walker’s two terms in office, Republican majorities in the Senate and the Assembly had a fast track to pass conservative priorities into law, such as a strict voter ID law, concealed carry of firearms, a 20-week abortion ban and Act 10, which stripped collective bargaining rights for most public sector unions. They also cut taxes for farmers and manufacturers, expanded private school vouchers and rewrote state regulations in a way that benefited private businesses and weakened state agencies. They could move those proposals from bill to law without any input from Democrats. 

Senate Democrats have said they don’t want the Legislature to operate like it has under Republican control where the minority party has little say in the legislative process. The Senate should hold more public hearings to let people share their views with lawmakers, Sen. Brad Pfaff, D-Onalaska, said in an interview in September. 

“They will have a more open process,” Pfaff said of a Democratic majority. “They will at least be able to try and hear out our colleagues from both sides of the aisle and have hearings on issues that are important to the people of this state. Now, will everything be all in harmony? Of course not. It’s politics. But the thing is I firmly do believe that it is important that we allow both sides to be heard and for a variety of issues to be considered, and that just hasn’t happened over the last few years.” 

Republican Sen. Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, in Wausau said her party will have to “wait and see” if such promises from Democrats hold true. 

“The Democrats haven’t been in control for 16 years,” Felzkowski said. “And we have a lot of the Democrats that are elected are socialists. So how far are they going to push David Crowley to the left? And I think that’s very scary. And David’s going to have to try to stand against them to keep the independents.”

Sen. Rob Stafsholt, R-New Richmond, said the results are an “eye opener” for Senate Republicans and the Republican Party.  

“It’s a good time for us to regroup and re-strategize and figure out what’s important to Wisconsinites and see if we can meet those needs,” he said.

Why the outcome swayed blue 

Many Wisconsin voters on Election Day said they were motivated to cast their ballot to bring change to the state amid turbulent national politics and rising costs. 

Richard Singapori, 70, who owns a 24-unit hotel in Kenosha, said his monthly electrical bills this winter averaged more than $3,500.

“That didn’t used to happen,” he said.

The lifelong Republican voted for Democrats at the state and local level for the first time in at least 20 years on Tuesday.

Amanda Wills, a 45-year-old Madison retail worker, had never voted before casting her ballot for Crowley. She turned out this time because of “all the chaos in the world.”

“It’s got to change,” Wills said.

Wisconsin Watch reporters Tom Kertscher, Paul Kiefer and Natalie Yahr contributed to this report.

Democrats take control of Wisconsin government with a backlog of policy priorities is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Democrats flipped both of Wisconsin’s battleground congressional districts Tuesday, winning the long-Republican-held 1st District as well as the 3rd — part of a blue wave that flipped control of the U.S. House and Senate. 

As of midnight Tuesday, Democrats were on their way to winning a solid majority in the House and control of the Senate by flipping seats in Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. Races in Alaska and Michigan were too close to call. House districts that Republicans had gerrymandered over the past year in Florida, North Carolina and Texas were proving to be “dummymanders.”

Democrats poured tens of millions of dollars into races across the country in an effort to flip Republican-held seats and regain control of both chambers of Congress. The party sought to capitalize on growing dissatisfaction with the economy and President Donald Trump, whose approval rating has fallen to a historic low.

Eleanor Powell, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor, said Democratic control of Congress will create a new dynamic for the rest of Trump’s term. 

“We’re going to see a pretty different dynamic in the rest of President Trump’s term,” Powell said. “We’re also likely to see a fair bit more congressional oversight of what the executive branch has been doing.”

Wisconsin’s 1st and 3rd congressional districts were both among the targets of national Democrats seeking to flip Republican-held seats, with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee including both races in its “Red to Blue” program. The program provides selected candidates with additional financial and campaign resources. 

Powell said the outcomes of the two races would help determine the size of the next congressional majority. She described the 1st Congressional District race as a “bellwether” for the size of a potential Democratic wave.

Democrat Mitchell Berman defeated four-term U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District, flipping a seat that has been held by Republicans for more than three decades in southeast Wisconsin. He declared victory shortly before 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, with AP reporting 93% of the votes and Berman leading by 4.6 percentage points. 

The district emerged as an unexpected battleground and received national attention from Democrats trying to gain control of the U.S. House. Berman campaigned on his more than two decades of experience in health care and positioned himself as an outsider who could relate to working-class voters. 

Steil spent nearly $6.4 million in the race compared to Berman’s more than $1.6 million, according to October Federal Election Commission filings. Outside groups spent more than $17.9 million on the race, including about $6.1 million opposing Berman and about $6 million opposing Steil. Another $4 million supported Steil and nearly $1.7 million supported Berman.

In the 3rd Congressional District, Democrat Rebecca Cooke defeated U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden by about 6.5 percentage points in a rematch. Van Orden has faced multiple controversies and remained closely aligned with Trump throughout his campaign. 

The district was represented by moderate Democrat Ron Kind for more than two decades before Van Orden was elected in 2022. Cooke previously challenged Van Orden in 2024 and lost by 3 percentage points. Van Orden conceded around 10 p.m. when AP reported Cooke with an 8-point lead and about 70% of the vote in. 

Cooke spent more than $12.2 million in this election cycle, while Van Orden spent over $8.4 million, according to October FEC filings. Outside organizations poured more than $30.1 million into this race. Of that, about $13.6 million went toward opposing Van Orden and more than $11.2 million toward opposing Cooke. Another $2.7 million supported Cooke and $2.4 million supported Van Orden.

Other Wisconsin congressional results:

Congressional District 2

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan ran unopposed in the general election. He has represented the Madison-area district since 2013 and will begin his eighth term in Congress in January. 

Congressional District 4

U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore won a 12th term in the Milwaukee-focused district, defeating independent Arthur Burks and Republican Tim Rogers. 

Congressional District 5

U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald won reelection, defeating Democrat Andrew Beck. Fitzgerald will serve his third term in Congress.

Congressional District 6

U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman won reelection to a seventh term, defeating Democrat Brad Smith, Green Party candidate Matthew Arndt and independent candidates Mike Thurow and Elizabeth Anne Fitgibbon. 

Congressional District 7

Republican Michael Alfonso won Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, defeating Democrat Fred Clark. Alfonso, son-in-law of former 7th Congressional District representative and U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, will replace U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who lost his race for governor. 

Congressional District 8

Freshman U.S. Rep. Tony Wied won reelection in the northeastern district against Democrat Rick Crosson.

Democrats flip two Wisconsin battleground congressional districts as blue tsunami wipes out Republican majorities is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, who has built a record suing the Trump administration, won a third term as Wisconsin’s top lawyer Tuesday.

Kaul defeated Republican Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney for the second time after the two squared off in 2022. Kaul became attorney general after defeating another Republican, then-incumbent Brad Schimel, in 2018.

Kaul has joined in more than 70 lawsuits to fight initiatives of President Donald Trump’s second administration, including some to restore funding for infrastructure and schools.

A ChatGPT-assisted analysis Sept. 15 found that of the 72 lawsuits Kaul has joined against the second Trump administration, 40 won a permanent or temporary favorable ruling or settlement, nine failed and 23 are pending. Successful cases include a U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding birthright citizenship; court rulings blocking a $65 million cut to federal research funding of the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and orders blocking the Trump administration from demanding states provide personal information of FoodShare recipients.

On other issues, Kaul said he would join multistate litigation to protect access to abortion medication, and he advocated for jail alternatives and guarding against voter intimidation in elections.

Kaul, 45, a former federal prosecutor and private attorney, is the son of the late Peg Lautenschlager, who served as attorney general from 2003 to 2007.

Toney, 42, a former private attorney, was first elected as Fond du Lac County’s top prosecutor in 2012. He accused Kaul of being too political and criticized Kaul’s administration for shortcomings in the operation of state crime labs.

As of Oct. 28, Kaul’s campaign had raised $2.61 million to Toney’s $1.86 million.

The Republican Attorneys General Association originally reserved more than $500,000 in paid media in the race, according to AdImpact, WisPolitics reported. But it reduced that to $285,000 over the final week of the campaign.

The attorney general heads the Wisconsin Department of Justice, which provides legal advice and representation, investigates criminal activity and provides various law enforcement services for the state.

Democrat Josh Kaul wins third term as Wisconsin attorney general is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Amani residents in Milwaukee on Tuesday took the opportunity to vote either to elect the candidate who could become Wisconsin’s first Black governor or return a Republican to the position for the first time in eight years. 

David Crowley, the Democratic candidate for governor and current Milwaukee County executive, is facing off against Republican Tom Tiffany, who represents the state’s 7th District in northern Wisconsin in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Crowley grew up near North 23rd and West Burleigh streets in the 53206 ZIP code area, the same block the COA Goldin Center is now located. 

Amani residents headed to the COA Youth & Family Centers, 2320 W. Burleigh St., early on Election Day to cast a vote in what could become a historic election. 

One of them was Amina Abdi, 19, a first-time voter who is desperate for change in the community. She said that’s why she chose to vote for Crowley.

“A lot of young people think our vote doesn’t matter, but I think ours matter the most because we’re the majority,” Abdi said. 

She studies education at Milwaukee Area Technical College and hopes the next governor will prioritize safety within Milwaukee Public Schools. 

“You see Rufus King High School on the news nearly everyday,” she said. “Somebody needs to step inside these schools and fix it.”

Abdi said she would be happy to see Crowley become the first Black governor in Wisconsin. 

“That’s what really needs to be celebrated,” Abdi said. “I’m tired of the Republicans messing everything up.” 

Priorities for voters

Patrick Jordan, director of operations at Adullam Outreach, voted for Crowley and also wants to see changes to education in his neighborhood.

He said his neighbor’s child, who has an Individualized Education Program plan, was enrolled at a private school and then turned away after that school received the state’s funding for his education. 

“I didn’t even know they could get away with that,” Jordan said. “I found something for the kid to do for like two months.”

Child care provider Carmella Brown, 40, said she’s also ready for a change, especially within the health care system.

“I have loved ones that are going through situations with health care and I recently just lost my sister,” Brown said. 

Brown said her sister passed away from respiratory system failure and had challenges with her insurance. 

“Her health insurance didn’t cover everything she needed,” Brown said. 

Ricky Welch, 62, a carpenter, said he has health insurance through Obamacare and hopes that it doesn’t go away. 

Living the past five years in Amani, Welch said he credits Crowley with recent changes that have helped reduce reckless driving in the neighborhood. 

Particularly helpful, he said, are curb bump-outs, which are part of a collaborative effort that includes Milwaukee County to improve safety through traffic-calming. 

“If he (Crowley) could keep all of those things going, then that would be good,” Welch said. 

A neighborhood connection

Kenyette Blue, clerk at House of Prayer Restoration Missionary Baptist Church, wants to see someone from her neighborhood become governor.

“It’s going to be a connection,” Blue said. “I do want to participate and see what’s the next step.”

Brother Rice Bey, a former president of the neighborhood group Amani United, said he came out to vote because it’s his civic duty.

Bey said if the state elects Crowley as its first Black governor, it would show a degree of progress. He said he hopes Crowley gets a chance to prove himself in the state’s highest position. 

“Just do your job as best as you can,” Bey said. 

Jordan said it would be fantastic if the next Wisconsin governor came from his neighborhood. He said people from the neighborhood don’t always get opportunities. 

“Even if we have businesses in this neighborhood, the city keeps us down,” Jordan said. “To get a position right in this neighborhood is hard to do, even if you do everything right.”

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Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

Milwaukee residents cast ballots on David Crowley’s childhood block is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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A Democratic tsunami swept the nation Tuesday, flipping the U.S. House and Senate and helping elect David Crowley as the first Black governor of Wisconsin. Democrats were poised to take full control of the Wisconsin Legislature for the first time since 2010.

Fueled by deep dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump, Democrats were on pace to flip Senate seats in states that Trump won two years ago by double digits, including Iowa, Kansas, Texas and South Carolina.

In Wisconsin Democrats won the governor’s office, secured a third term for Attorney General Josh Kaul and unseated long-entrenched incumbents like Sen. Howard Marklein and Rep. Todd Novak.

Republicans successfully passed an anti-DEI constitutional amendment, but otherwise were on track to lose both competitive congressional seats.

Election Day recap: Democrats take full control of Wisconsin state government, Congress is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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The messaging app Signal is popular for one reason: It’s good at keeping secrets.

The nonprofit that developed the app does not store messages or user data on a central server. Once messages are deleted, they’re gone forever, and authorities can’t inspect messages that no longer exist. The app also has an optional “disappearing messages”  function, which does the labor of permanently deleting those messages.

This makes Signal an ideal app for coordinating crimes, of course, but it does have more benign uses. Journalists use it to communicate with whistleblowers who don’t want their employers or others to know they’re talking to the media. Organizers use it to coordinate protests and similar collective actions. And, increasingly, people use it as a more secure and private means of simply communicating with friends. 

But questions have arisen over revelations that members of the Madison Common Council were using Signal to communicate with each other over the last several years. 

The Madison Common Council, like governing bodies in almost every Wisconsin city, village and town, is made up of civically minded, well-intentioned people who are not and don’t aspire to become professional politicians. Many of them travel in overlapping social circles and are friendly with each other before they take office. They serve on the same neighborhood association and nonprofit boards. They show up at the same events. They view their election to public office as simply another way to serve their community together.

So, naturally, some groups of these legislators use technology to connect, to communicate casually, to coordinate social plans. 

The problem is that public elected office isn’t the same as a board or social club. And using apps like Signal may not be appropriate for those who hold public office.

A few months ago, in my role as a Madison journalist, I became aware of a Signal group chat populated by eight of the Common Council’s 20 current members. Screen shots provided to me made it clear there were once as many as 12 council members taking part in these chats.

The council member who started the group clearly stated that the disappearing messages setting should be turned off and warned that no city business could be discussed in the group. And all the members who responded to my inquiries said no city business was discussed in the group.

Unfortunately, neither I nor any other member of the press and public have a way to verify whether someone on this chat did, in fact, enable the disappearing messages function. And over a period of 18 months, several council members altered the timer on the disappearing messages — sometimes they’d delete after a day, other times a week — which demonstrates they knew about, and knew how to use, the disappearing messages function.

The members said they only used the group chat for social planning and sharing news articles, vacation photos and recipes. I have no reason not to believe them — but also no way to confirm what they are saying.

Generally speaking, strictly personal email and text communications can be withheld from open records disclosure. But those records still exist, even if a records custodian says I’m not entitled to them. If I disagree, I can go to court, and a court could look at what messages are on the app and, if appropriate, compel their release. With Signal, though, I have no way to know whether city business was discussed beyond “trust me.”

And trust is the real issue here. Trust in institutions generally is at an all-time low, and trust in government is shaky at best. I believe local elected officials should not simply comply with the letter of the law, but take the extra caution to avoid even the appearance of secrecy. 

Make your social plans and share your recipes via text like the rest of us, and leave Signal for the people with secrets to keep.

Your Right to Know is a monthly column distributed by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council (wisfoic.org), a nonprofit, nonpartisan group dedicated to open government. Robert Chappell is executive editor of Madison365 and Blueprint365.

Your Right to Know: Use of Signal app risks eroding trust is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Today is Election Day, and the votes Wisconsinites cast are expected to shape the Badger State for years to come.

Voters will choose between Democrat David Crowley and Republican Tom Tiffany for the state’s next governor after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers opted not to seek reelection after two terms.

Voters will select who to send to Congress and represent their corners of the state during the final two years of the Trump administration.

Elections for the state Assembly and Senate will determine which party holds power in the Legislature and whether there will be split government or one-party control in the Capitol in the coming years.

Four-year terms for attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer are also on everyone’s ballot in Wisconsin, as well as three constitutional amendment questions. County sheriffs, clerks of court and in some areas school funding referendums are also on the ballot.

The key question is to what extent the national midterm wave favoring Democrats hits races across Wisconsin’s ballot. The final Marquette University Law School poll before Election Day showed President Donald Trump’s approval rating at a record low of 37% among registered voters in Wisconsin. In the governor’s race, Crowley leads Tiffany 51% to 44% among likely voters with 4% undecided ahead of Tuesday. Crowley has a 30-point lead with likely independent voters at 56% to Tiffany’s 26%. 

Wisconsinites have exceeded the number of people who voted early in 2022, when the governor’s race and the U.S. Senate race were the top contests on ballots that year. As of Friday, more than 693,000 people voted early in person or by mail, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. At the same time in 2022, more than 642,000 people cast a ballot prior to Election Day. 

Polls are open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. Learn what’s on your ballot, your polling place location and more at myvote.wi.gov. Voters must show a valid photo ID and can register at the polls on Election Day with proof of residency. 

Before then, read more about the candidates for statewide, congressional and legislative races by visiting Wisconsin Watch’s 2026 voter guide. 

Governor and lieutenant governor

It’s been 16 years since the last open race for governor in Wisconsin. 

Candidates entered the race left and right after Evers announced his retirement in 2025. It’s now down to Crowley, the Democrat, and Tiffany, the Republican. 

Both men are two very different candidates. Crowley, 40, is in his second term as Milwaukee County executive and previously was elected to two terms in the state Assembly. He narrowly won the Democratic nomination in August with Evers’ endorsement. If he is elected on Tuesday, he would become the state’s first Black governor.

Crowley’s campaign has focused on lowering costs for Wisconsinites with ideas like providing a public option for BadgerCare and capping child care costs at 7% of a household’s income for families with children under age 5. He also has promoted his ability to work across the aisle to pass bipartisan legislation, frequently highlighting the 2023 shared revenue law that allowed Milwaukee County, and the city of Milwaukee, to enact new sales taxes to offset the deficits caused by rising pension costs. Tiffany has used the sales tax increase to suggest Crowley would raise taxes as governor. 

Tiffany, 68, has represented Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since he was first elected in 2020. He also served one term in the Assembly and was elected twice to the state Senate. He cleared the Republican primary field earlier this year after receiving Trump’s endorsement. Crowley has attacked Tiffany’s connection to Trump as the president’s approval ratings plummet. 

Tiffany’s campaign has also focused on rising costs across the state, although his solutions have largely focused on lowering taxes, specifically freezing property taxes and providing a 10% income tax cut to families earning less than $150,000 a year. 

Voters will see a second name on their ballot alongside Crowley and Tiffany. In Wisconsin, candidates for lieutenant governor form a joint ticket with the gubernatorial nominee after the state’s partisan primary. 

The Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor is Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski, and the Republican nominee is David Varnam, a stay-at-home dad who previously served as mayor of Lancaster. Godlewski was unopposed in the Democratic primary, and Varnam defeated the Republican Party of Wisconsin-endorsed candidate in the party’s primary to join Tiffany’s ticket.

Voters will see the governor and lieutenant governor candidates as a joint ticket in the same section on the ballot. A vote for the Republican or Democratic candidate for governor is a vote for the same party’s candidate for lieutenant governor.

Attorney general

The 2026 race for attorney general is a rematch of the 2022 contest between two-term Democratic incumbent Josh Kaul and Republican Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney. Kaul defeated Toney four years ago by less than 2%. 

In the rematch, Kaul has said he wants to continue progress he believes the state has made in protecting Wisconsinites, including securing settlements tied to the state’s environmental laws and responding to the opioid epidemic. Toney has criticized Kaul for “broken promises” tied to backlogs at the state’s crime labs and making politics part of leading the state’s Department of Justice through lawsuits against the Trump administration. 

Congress

All eight congressional districts are up for reelection, but the 1st and 3rd districts are the key races to watch as Democrats set their sights on both. 

Republican U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil faces a challenge from Democrat Mitchell Berman, an ER nurse and political newcomer, in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District. Berman is positioning himself as an outsider, looking to appeal to working-class voters who are unhappy with Steil’s record in Congress. He was added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Red to Blue” program in September, which provides chosen candidates with campaign support. Steil, who has represented the district since 2019, has greater name recognition and financial resources. 

Polling is close in this race. A Fox News Power Ranking listed the district as a “toss-up” and the nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted its rating from “likely Republican” to “lean Republican.”

The 3rd Congressional District is one of the most targeted seats in the nation as Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden faces a challenge from Democrat Rebecca Cooke, a rematch from 2024. National Democrats have also added this district to its “Red to Blue” program, and Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a nonpartisan organization forecasting election outcomes, recently labeled this district as “leans Democratic.” 

Cooke is a waitress and former political consultant. Her top priorities include a $15-an-hour federal minimum wage, addressing teacher shortages with bonuses and raises, protecting abortion rights and expanding Medicare. Van Orden, who has held the seat since 2022, has focused much of his time in Congress on veteran-related legislation. He emphasizes working with Trump on issues such as the war in Iran.

This is the first year since 2020 — when Van Orden first ran and lost to the Democratic incumbent Ron Kind — when Republicans are not favored to win. Republicans may lose seats if this year follows a historical pattern of midterm voters punishing the president’s party. 

Assembly and Senate 

Republicans have controlled both chambers of the Legislature since they swept into power in 2010. This year, it’s a competitive landscape for the Assembly and the Senate, stemming from significant gains Democrats made in 2024 after new legislative maps were signed into law. 

The moves Assembly and Senate Democrats made two years ago occurred the same year Trump won Wisconsin on the way back to the White House. In 2026, the national political environment supports Democrats. Wisconsin’s Assembly and Senate Democrats are eyeing potential majorities in both chambers if that national mood flows down-ballot to legislative races. 

In the Senate, Democrats need to flip two of three Republican-held seats and hold onto a Democratic district in Eau Claire to win a majority in the chamber. Former Vice President Kamala Harris won in the districts for all four of those key races in 2024, according to an analysis by John Johnson, a research fellow at Marquette University Law School. 

In the Assembly, Democrats need to maintain all 45 of their existing seats and flip another five Republican districts to win a majority. Republicans hold five seats in districts that Harris won in 2024, but Democrats also have to compete against strong incumbents in several of those districts.

Secretary of state 

Three candidates are running for Wisconsin secretary of state, a role with limited responsibilities compared to officials with the title in other states across the country. 

The candidates this year include Republican Jay Schroeder, Democrat JoCasta Zamarripa and Green Party candidate Pete Karas. 

The debate in this race has focused on duties that the office does not currently have the power to control. Schroeder has campaigned on ending the Wisconsin Elections Commission and bringing the duties under the secretary of state, an action that would require approval from the governor and the Legislature. Zamarripa said she instead sees the office as a platform to protect voting rights. Karas said his campaign aims to break the state’s two-party system. 

Treasurer

Republican State Treasurer John Leiber, the lone statewide GOP elected official, faces a challenge in 2026 from Democrat Yee Leng Xiong, the executive director of Wausau’s New Beginnings for Refugees who is also a Marathon County Board member and D.C. Everest School Board member. 

Like the secretary of state, Wisconsin’s state treasurer has limited responsibilities. Republicans sought to entirely eliminate the office eight years ago, but the effort was rejected by voters. Leiber said he wants to provide continuity to the office, which hasn’t had a multiterm treasurer since Republican Jack C. Voight served from 1995 through 2007. Xiong said he sees an opportunity to grow the treasurer’s responsibilities, especially if Democrats control the Legislature and the governor’s office. 

Three constitutional amendments

Three questions on ballots across the state are asking voters to determine whether to make changes to the state constitution. 

Under the eight years of the Evers administration, Republican lawmakers have used the constitutional amendment process as a way to avoid the governor’s veto pen. 

The questions on the ballot in 2026 attempt to address what Republicans have described as various aspects of government overreach and Democrats and other civic groups have said are unnecessary changes. 

The constitutional amendments before voters include: 

• Whether the governor should have the ability to raise taxes or fees through the use of the partial veto. The question stems from Evers’ 2023 veto that raised school district revenue limits for the next 400 years, which Republicans incorrectly describe as a property tax increase. Increased revenue limits allow districts to raise property taxes, but local school boards ultimately make those decisions. Under limits, the state can also lower property taxes with increased state funding for public schools.
• Whether the state government can close a place of worship during a public health emergency, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. 
• Whether various levels of government from education to state agencies should be prohibited from “discriminating against, or granting preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin.” Groups both opposed and in support of the amendment have described it as an anti-diversity, equity and inclusion measure that could limit programs and resources for minority communities across the state. 

School district referendums 

Another 71 school districts are asking voters in their communities to approve tax increases to either help districts pay expenses to operate their schools or borrow money for construction projects. 

Fifty-four districts are seeking operational help from taxpayers while 10 districts are asking voters to sign off on capital expenses. Seven school districts are asking voters to sign off on both operating and construction referendums. They include: Brown Deer, Greenfield, Little Chute, Lodi, Princeton, Unity and Waunakee school districts. 

Earlier this year, 72 school districts turned to voters to sign off on referendums. Just over 60% were approved during the April election.

Other local races

Voters will also make decisions in local elections, such as county sheriff and clerk of circuit court. For more information about specific local races on your ballot, visit myvote.wi.gov.

Learn more about the candidates and questions on your ballot. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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The annual winter moratorium on disconnections for nonpayment starts soon. 

The moratorium runs from Nov. 1 to April 15 and prohibits utility providers from disconnecting residential heating services for nonpayment. 

To avoid disconnection, the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin advises customers who have fallen behind on payments to contact their utility to set up a payment plan. 

Customers who are currently disconnected have to make arrangements to restore service because utilities are not required to reconnect service until payment arrangements have been made. 

Though you can’t get cut off starting Nov. 1, winter weather and increased costs for energy could mean your debt can pile up high. 

Customers who are behind on their bills may be at risk of disconnection if payment arrangements are not established by April 15, 2027. 

Customers should contact their utility provider to make a payment or arrange a payment plan.

We Energies, which serves most of Milwaukee, can be reached at 800-842-4565.  

If you cannot reach an agreement with your utility, you can contact the Public Service Commission by calling 608-266-2001 or 800-225-7729, or by submitting a complaint online. 

Resources if you are worried about your utility

Focus on Energy

Focus on Energy partners with service providers to connect Wisconsin residents and businesses to affordable energy efficiency services. The program offers free energy-saving packs annually. 

All households, apartments included, are eligible for a free pack that has things like efficient LED lights, water-saving shower heads and a weatherization pack that helps you get your home ready for winter.

Wisconsin Home Energy Assistance Program

The Wisconsin Home Energy Assistance Program assists eligible households with their heating and electric bills. Eligible families must make less than 60% of the median state income, which is $39,864 for a household of one and $88,927 for a household of five. 

Weatherization Assistance Program

The program provides energy conservation services in eligible households to help reduce home energy costs and save energy. The program covers work like insulation, sealing air leaks and repairing or replacing inefficient furnaces or other appliances.

Milwaukee County Energy Assistance Program

The Energy Assistance Program provides qualified Milwaukee County residents with a one-time, annual payment toward heating and electric bills. How much assistance you receive depends on your household size, income and energy costs and goes directly to the energy supplier.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

The pause on utility cutoffs begins Nov. 1: Here’s what you need to know is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Military service can carry health risks that last long after a veteran leaves uniform. For Navy veterans, years spent aboard ships, working below deck or stationed at military bases may have brought exposure to hazardous materials with consequences decades later. That is why, following our nation’s celebration of the Navy’s birthday on Oct. 13, we should remember that honoring veterans means more than commemorating their service. It also means recognizing the health challenges they may continue to face long after their service.

One concern is lung cancer and other diseases associated with asbestos, a hazardous mineral widely used aboard naval vessels and in military facilities, including during World War II, because of its durability and insulating properties. Many service members worked with or around asbestos without knowing the risks, potentially exposing themselves to diseases that can take decades to develop. That long latency makes it important to consider exposure histories when assessing veterans’ long-term health. It also raises questions about whether current screening guidelines adequately account for veterans who may be at risk, including some of Wisconsin’s more than 280,000 veterans.

The long shadow of asbestos exposure

For much of modern medical history, smoking has been identified as a primary contributor to lung cancer, and it remains a key factor in determining who qualifies for screening. But smoking is not the only risk factor. Asbestos is an established occupational carcinogen. Inhaling asbestos fibers can scar and inflame the lungs and cause serious diseases, including lung cancer and mesothelioma.

This has important implications for Navy veterans. A study indexed by the National Institutes of Health indicated that most naval ships built before 1980 contained asbestos. Veterans who served at bases established during World War II, such as Fort McCoy in Monroe County, may also have encountered asbestos in building materials.

Asbestos-related diseases have also taken a toll beyond the military. Data covering 1999 through 2017 shows that more than 6,800 Wisconsin residents died of asbestos-related diseases. The Wisconsin figures include more than 300 deaths attributed to asbestosis, nearly 1,300 to mesothelioma and nearly 5,200 to lung cancer. Because lung cancer can take decades to develop, veterans and their doctors should consider past asbestos exposure when evaluating long-term lung health and discussing appropriate screening.

Cancer screening should consider asbestos exposure

Current U.S. lung cancer screening recommendations rely heavily on smoking history. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends annual low-dose CT scans for adults ages 50 to 80 who have a smoking history of at least 20 pack-years and who currently smoke or quit within the past 15 years. Yet the task force’s eligibility criteria do not independently qualify people for screening based on asbestos exposure alone. As a result, some Navy veterans with a history of asbestos exposure may not qualify for screening under the task force’s criteria.

Policymakers should account for military exposure histories in discussions about long-term lung health and screening. The Navy’s birthday offers an opportunity to recognize not only where service members worked and served, but also the health risks they may have carried home. For Wisconsin’s veterans and those across the country, honoring their service should include taking those risks seriously.

Cristina Johnson is a Navy veteran advocate at the Asbestos Ships Organization, a nonprofit that raises awareness about toxic exposure on Navy ships.

Guest opinion: Honoring veterans means recognizing lasting health risks of asbestos exposure is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Baseball fever in Milwaukee is at an all-time high thanks to the Brewers’ historic World Series run. 

Tawyana Duncan, president of Beckum Stapleton Little League, hopes the momentum will help sustain the sport in Milwaukee’s central city. 

“It’s going to drive the youth to pay more attention to baseball,” she said. “It can also inspire people to continue to give, continue to support the sport.”

Players from the neighborhood

Beckum Stapleton is based at 911 W. Brown St. on the city’s North Side. Duncan said the league’s players are all from the neighborhood, which she said is one of the most impoverished in the city. 

To overcome those obstacles, the league, which fields teams for boys and girls ages 4-16, charges just $125 to join baseball and $75 for softball. 

Players whose families can’t afford those fees are not turned away, Duncan said. 

“We just talk to them and ask what they can afford,” she said. “We’ve bought shoes, we’ve paid out of pocket, we do what we can.” 

The league receives donations from Milwaukee Fire Department’s Station 5, the Milwaukee Brewers and others. 

The Brewers, who purchase uniforms for the league each year, also helped the team raise funds to install batting cages and refurbish the fields at Carver Park, where the league plays softball and 13+ baseball, and James W. Beckum Park, where 4- to 12-year-old players play baseball. 

Still, Duncan acknowledges that running a league on a tight budget is not ideal. Competing with teams that have more resources and access to training and coaches is an ongoing challenge, not just for her league, but most leagues in the central city. 

“There’s always been a resource gap between our league and others,” she said. 

Regardless, she said, the benefits of playing the sport are immense. Playing baseball, Duncan said, helps teach kids valuable life skills including patience, perseverance and teamwork. 

“Baseball is the only sport where you can be successful 30% of the time and still be excellent,” she said.

Playing ball with their friends

Among the hundreds of kids who participate in Beckum Stapleton are Duncan’s three nephews, Cameron, C.J. and Caden. 

What 11-year-old Cameron Duncan enjoys most about playing in the league is spending time with teammates. 

“You learn how to be a leader and interact with other kids your age,” he said. 

That didn’t happen right away, Cameron said. He credits his aunt with helping him learn how. 

“I still get very nervous, but she has always been there through my toughest times,” he said.

Caden Duncan, 9, and C.J. Duncan, 13, both joined the league when they were 4 years old. They also spoke of the joy of meeting new people and learning new skills. 

“I like meeting new people and having the opportunity to get better,” said C.J., who also plays baseball at Golda Meir School. 

Caden, whose favorite Brewer is Christian Yelich, said it’s the relationships he creates in the league he enjoys most. 

“I like playing in the league because I make friends and we all level up together,” he said.

Legacy of its founder

Jim Brey, assistant director of the Beckum Stapleton Little League, said he can’t help but think how happy the league’s founder, the late James W. Beckum, would be for the Brewers and the city right now. 

“He loved baseball and the Brewers and was known on a first-name basis with players like Henry Aaron,” Brey said. 

Brey said that over the years Brewers players have often come to say hi to the kids in the league. Meeting with them, he said, brought the players back to their childhood.

When the league was founded in 1964, baseball was the No. 1 sport in the city, he said. Basketball and football have both taken over as the lead sports, but he says there are now kids in the league who use the batting cages year-round. 

Brey hopes the excitement of the Brewers will help bring baseball back even stronger. 

“This is wonderful for the city and wonderful for our league,” he said. 

Future of the league

It was Beckum who first involved Tawyana Duncan in the league, having her climb rickety steps to change numbers on the scoreboard.

“He hated to see kids stand around not doing something productive,” she said. “So he gave me something to do and I’m still here.” 

Duncan said Beckum, who died in 2024, played in the Negro Leagues. 

“He had to face adversity just to play,” she said. 

Duncan became president of the league after Beckum’s death. 

She said her focus right now is continuing to build relationships in the community and increase support for the league. 

“We’re working on connecting more with the business community and others to help the league grow,” she said. 

Eventually, she said, her hope is that the league’s next crop of players is inspired by the current Brewers team. 

“It’s going to inspire more youth to pay attention to the sport, more kids to love baseball,” Duncan said.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

Milwaukee Little League hopes Brewers’ success inspires a new generation of players is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Federal immigration authorities asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to hear the case of a Mexican national whom agents arrested last year in Racine. The petition is the latest escalation in a legal fight over the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy for immigrants facing deportation. 

The justices’ decision will determine whether tens of thousands of immigrants currently in federal detention can seek release on bond. 

“The question of mandatory detention thus boils down to one question: Can we lock up noncitizens without giving them a day in court first?” said Jenifer Bizzotto, the Wisconsin attorney representing Jaciel Cirrus Rojas, the man at the center of the case. “The stakes could hardly be higher.”

Arrested as ‘collateral’

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents turned up at then-24-year-old Cirrus Rojas’ apartment in June 2025 in search of a prior tenant. They instead arrested Cirrus Rojas, who entered the U.S. in 2018 without a visa, as “collateral.” Wisconsin court records show no criminal convictions under his name. 

He spent most of the next nine months in custody at the Dodge County Detention Center in Juneau, entangled in a new White House policy barring ICE detainees from posting bond — a departure from decades of precedent.

The 1996 Immigration Reform Act requires immigration authorities to detain — without bond — anyone found crossing the U.S. border without authorization. Prior administrations applied that rule narrowly, allowing many immigrants arrested in the country’s interior to seek a bond hearing in immigration court.

The Trump administration bucked that approach in July 2025, when ICE Director Todd Lyons issued a new legal interpretation requiring detention without bond regardless of where immigrants are arrested.

The Board of Immigration Appeals, a panel of judges who set the rules for the federal immigration court system, later signed off on the interpretation.

With bond off the table, tens of thousands of immigrants in ICE custody turned to a backup option: filing habeas corpus petitions in federal district courts to challenge their detention. 

Unlike immigration courts, which are part of the U.S. Department of Justice, federal district courts belong to the judicial branch and, therefore, are technically independent of the White House. When a federal district court grants a habeas petition, it generally orders an immigration court judge to hold a bond hearing.

Wisconsin’s Western and Eastern District courts have received more than 100 habeas petitions over the past year.

A federal appeals court split

The 7th Circuit ruled 2-1 in Cirrus Rojas’ favor in July, joining appellate courts based in New York, Cincinnati, Denver, Atlanta and San Francisco in rejecting the policy.“If Congress had indeed demanded — but not funded — no-bond detention for all unlawful entrants, that may well have thrown the nation’s immigration system into chaos,” Judge Joshua Kolar, whom Joe Biden appointed to the court, wrote in the court’s majority opinion. “Immigration authorities might have found themselves quickly overwhelmed by a colossal unfunded mandate to arrest and detain millions.” Judge Diane Sykes, a George W. Bush appointee, dissented alone.

“At this point, only the Supreme Court can bring uniformity and settle this question once and for all,” she wrote. “I anticipate that it will do so soon.”

Cirrus Rojas left custody earlier this year after a federal district court judge in California vacated the mandatory detention rule. The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed that decision less than a month later.

The 7th Circuit allowed his case to move forward because federal authorities plan to re-detain him. 

Supreme Court could have final say

“Nothing, absent our intervention, stops the government from making good on its promise,” Kolar wrote.The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, is now asking the Supreme Court to step in.

The court agreed to take up another mandatory detention dispute earlier this month. That case involves a Brazilian national arrested during a traffic stop in Massachusetts last September.

DHS asked the justices to hold Cirrus Rojas’ case until they decide the Massachusetts case. 

In Bizzotto’s view, both cases “offer the Supreme Court the opportunity to affirm that the Constitution means what it says.”

A ruling against the mandatory detention policy would open the door for thousands of ICE detainees — at least those within circuits that side with the Trump administration — to request bond hearings in immigration court. It would not require immigration court judges to grant their bond requests.

The Supreme Court also quietly declined this week to revive a Biden-era policy that allowed  immigration court judges to pause deportation proceedings for immigrants seeking humanitarian visas or other forms of legal status. 

Wisconsin ICE arrestee’s case heads to US Supreme Court is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.

The election is underway for Wisconsin’s first open gubernatorial race in over 15 years as voters decide between two candidates who offer strikingly different views and rhetoric on election administration.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a Republican, has supported many of President Donald Trump’s election goals, including efforts to overturn the 2020 election, while his opponent, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, has backed many Democratic election priorities and denounced Trump’s efforts to undermine elections.

Here’s how the gubernatorial candidates’ views differ and — in one instance — align.

2020 election

Six years later, the 2020 election continues to be front and center in Wisconsin’s election discourse and a recurring topic on the campaign trail. The FBI this year probed Milwaukee officials about the election as an ongoing lawsuit seeks to obtain Milwaukee County’s 2020 ballots. A criminal case against 2020 false electors is ongoing.

Tiffany in 2020 voted not to certify the 2020 election and has expressed support for the FBI probe into how the election was conducted in Milwaukee. During his campaign, Tiffany dodged questions about the legitimate winner of the 2020 election, before conceding in August that “Joe Biden won.”

David Crowley, who currently serves as Milwaukee County executive, has vehemently denounced the 2020 probe. He said the 2020 election was properly conducted, adding that “no amount of fear and intimidation from the Trump administration will change that truth.”

Voter registration and identification

Tiffany has been a consistent supporter of federal legislation that would require voter registrants to provide proof of citizenship. He also told Votebeat he would sign legislation comparing state transportation records with the voter registration database to identify ineligible voters.

In 2011, while serving in the state Assembly, Tiffany co-authored the legislation that established Wisconsin’s photo ID requirement for voting, one of the strictest in the nation.

Crowley has criticized Wisconsin’s voter ID law, which requires voters to present an acceptable form of photo identification when casting a ballot, rather than when registering. In 2020, Crowley called voter ID an “extreme barrier” in low-income communities and communities of color, likening it to “what was going on in Jim Crow days with the literacy test.”

During his time in the Wisconsin Legislature, Crowley was the lead author of a bill to establish automatic voter registration, which would allow eligible residents to be registered during interactions with state agencies. The bill never received a public hearing or floor vote.

Ballot processing

Unlike in many states, Wisconsin election officials cannot begin processing absentee ballots until Election Day. It’s a restriction that can delay the reporting of results in communities with large numbers of mail ballots, particularly Milwaukee. A bipartisan proposal would allow clerks to begin processing absentee ballots on the Monday before an election, without counting or releasing results until Election Day.

Crowley’s team told Votebeat that he supports the proposal.

Tiffany didn’t respond to a request for comment. He acknowledged the Monday processing bill at an August press conference but didn’t say whether he supports it.

Wisconsin Elections Commission

In 2015, while serving in the state Senate, Tiffany voted to create the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which replaced the Government Accountability Board as the agency overseeing the state’s elections.

But, at a recent debate, Tiffany said he was open to dismantling or making significant changes to the agency, arguing that it needs greater accountability. He said he would only eliminate the agency if lawmakers could agree on a better replacement.

Crowley’s team told Votebeat that he wants to keep the Wisconsin Elections Commission in charge of elections. At the debate, Crowley acknowledged that the agency isn’t perfect but defended its resistance to the Trump administration’s efforts to obtain unredacted Wisconsin voter information.

Both would certify 2028 presidential winner

The next governor’s ability to reshape Wisconsin election laws will depend in part on who controls the Legislature. Both legislative chambers have been controlled by Republicans for over a decade, but Democrats hope to flip at least one chamber in November.

The governor can sign or veto election legislation, giving the office significant influence over which policies become law. The governor also plays a part in certifying presidential results. At an October debate, Crowley questioned whether Tiffany could be trusted to certify the 2028 election, citing his efforts to overturn the 2020 results.

But Tiffany said, “I will certify the election in 2028, regardless of who the winner is.”

Crowley, asked whether he would certify the results, answered: “Absolutely.”

Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin’s free newsletter here.

Here’s how Wisconsin’s governor candidates differ on how the state should run elections is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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An advocacy group for older adults is demanding state health officials continue reporting who owns nursing homes, citing concerns about the takeover of county-operated facilities by private companies with a track record of lower quality care.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services maintains a directory of all licensed nursing homes in the state, including contact information and the number of beds available. 

Up until this year, the directory also included the name of the facility’s owner and the type of ownership, including for-profit corporation, nonprofit or government-owned.

But the latest version of the directory no longer has ownership information listed.

Advocacy group Small Town and Rural Seniors, or STARS, sent a letter to DHS in August demanding the agency restore the information on the directory.

The group is worried that the lack of transparency benefits private corporations looking to take over county nursing homes and hurts residents’ ability to make informed decisions about where they or their family member should receive care.

“Anybody who is looking at a nursing home for their loved one, that would be good information to have: Who owns this? What kind of company are they?” said Judy Brey, a retired teacher and STARS organizer in Reedsburg.

Brey has been one of the residents fighting against the sale of Sauk County’s nursing home. The citizen group sued the county in 2024, but has been largely unsuccessful in its legal challenge of the sale.

Before the county board voted to sell the nursing home in 2024, Brey said officials would not divulge the name of the private buyer.

“We figured it out because we went into the DHS records and found out that this Aria company, you know, already had their name on our nursing home,” Brey said.

She said the directory also allowed concerned residents to identify the other Wisconsin nursing homes owned by Aria and look up their quality of care ratings.

Wisconsin has more county-owned nursing homes than most other states, and the facilities tend to offer better care. But in recent years, a number of counties have considered privatizing or sold the facilities due to financial pressures or staffing shortages.

DHS did not provide comment on the change to public data despite repeated requests from WPR.

In an email obtained by WPR, Jessica Radtke, director of the Bureau of Nursing Home Care at DHS, told a STARS organizer that the agency had recently transitioned to a new data system that does not include ownership information, which is what led to its removal from the directory.

Radtke pointed out in the email that ownership information is publicly available through the online Cost Compare tool from Medicare.

But Brey said the response passes the buck.

“This is Wisconsin data that should be in (the state) database for people to look at,” she said. “Frankly, with what’s going on at the federal level, we don’t trust that they’re going to have that information for very long.”

This story was originally published by WPR.

Wisconsin no longer reports who owns the state’s nursing homes is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Click here to read highlights from the story

• Wait times for medical visits are common statewide as the health care labor force shrinks and the population is older than the national average. 
• However, people don’t have to settle for long wait times. Wisconsin Watch spoke to two experts about strategies to lessen wait times. 
• They advise patients to ask follow-up questions when they set up an appointment, to get on a waitlist, to check with their primary care provider if it’s OK to wait, to use their connections and to consider seeking care from another health system.

Have you ever called to schedule a medical appointment and learned the next opening is months away? 

Back in July, we asked readers how long they’ve waited to see a doctor. Responses poured in from across the state. 

One reader in Mount Pleasant told us she waited 10 months to see a dermatologist. A reader in Kenosha said when her partner tried to schedule a visit to the neurologist after several fainting episodes, he learned he’d have to wait until June 2027 — nearly a year away. A reader in Auburn said he worries his wife, who began showing signs of dementia last year, won’t live long enough to go to the neurologist appointment he scheduled 14 months out. 

Sometimes a wait is unavoidable. Health systems nationwide are struggling to fill job openings as baby boomers retire and an aging population demands more medical care. In Wisconsin, the labor force is shrinking, and the population is older than the national average, exacerbating the problem. Meanwhile, some rural hospitals have closed, making surrounding health systems even busier.

But sometimes it’s possible to get an appointment sooner than you’re offered, especially if you’re willing to be persistent or creative. Wisconsin Watch talked to two experts about what to do if you’re facing a long wait for medical care. Here’s what they said.

How long a wait is normal?

Typical wait times vary depending on where you live and the kind of care you’re seeking. 3Dhealth, a Chicago-based consulting company that helps health systems across the country determine how many doctors to recruit, has been gathering data on wait times in Wisconsin since 2012 through a “secret shopper” process. Posing as new patients seeking appointments, 3Dhealth calls doctors’ offices within its client health systems and records the outcome. 

From 2012 to 2024, the company made more than 8,000 calls to Wisconsin physician offices covering 62 specialties across eight Wisconsin health systems. About 7% of those calls went unanswered. When callers reached a staff member, they found about 15% of the practices were closed to new patients. Those that accepted new patients had an average wait of 33 days. Half of patients waited 21 days or longer, and 1 in 10 waited more than 75 days. 

Primary care doctors had shorter average waits than most specialists (33 days versus 42 days) but were more likely to be closed to new patients (roughly 24% versus 11%). 

In 2024, the company called doctors offices in just two Wisconsin health systems, one predominantly rural and the other urban. Doctors in the rural system tended to have longer waits (a median of 27 versus 22 days), and they were more likely to be closed to new patients (roughly 17% versus 11%). 

The problem seems to be growing nationwide, said 3Dhealth President and CEO Ron Flower. Wait times are getting longer, fewer practices are accepting new patients, and patients are having more trouble getting a hold of practices. 

“All of that has been getting worse in general across the country, especially over the past five years since COVID,” Flower said.

In the Madison area, patient advocate Sarah C. Schaefer agrees that wait times for primary care are getting longer. Schaefer, who worked as a nurse practitioner for about 20 years before starting Ascent Patient Advocates, now helps people navigate the health care system and coordinate their care. Her clients often have to wait two or three months for certain specialist appointments — if the practices are open at all.

“It’s a problem that I definitely deal with and work through with my clients on a regular basis,” Schaefer said. 

Explore your options

If you’d like to see a provider sooner, experts recommend asking follow-up questions. Employees who schedule appointments may not suggest alternatives on their own, Flower said, as your call might be one of thousands they receive in a day. 

“They’re trying to get you on and off that phone as quickly as possible so that they can get to the doctor or the charts, or they can get to the next person calling in,” Flower said. “If you prompt them … all of a sudden, their brain clicks in that way: ‘Oh yeah, I can help you.’”

3Dhealth found that of the practices that were closed to new patients, those in rural areas were less than half as likely as those in urban areas to suggest alternatives if the caller didn’t ask.

“Oftentimes, if you do that little bit of pushback, show a little bit of anxiety, they’re going to say, ‘Well, I’ve got an appointment tomorrow (that) we’re holding for an established patient or a walk-in. But why don’t you come on in at that time?’” Flower said. 

If you’re able to travel, consider asking if an earlier appointment is available at a different clinic within the same health system. Alternatively, consider asking if you might be able to see a nurse practitioner or physician assistant instead of a doctor. 

“This varies by insurance or potentially health system … I would say sometimes appropriate, sometimes not, but something to explore for sure,” Schaefer said. If the clinic says yes, you may still need to check with your insurer to be sure it will cover the visit.

Get on a waitlist

One of the top tips for those facing lengthy waits: Get on a waitlist. Many practices keep lists of patients hoping for earlier appointments, but they may not mention that option unless you ask.

Some practices have automated waitlists that send a text message offering an earlier appointment when one becomes available and a brief window in which the patient can respond to accept the offer. 

Even if there’s no waitlist, patients can call back to see if the options have changed. 

“That’s one thing that I do frequently,” Schaefer said. “People can cancel appointments on their patient portals … all times of the day and night, so appointment slots do open up.”

Keeping a waitlist can benefit clinics too. “It’s smart on their end,” Flower said. “We get things that come up. It’s called life. So let’s have a way of filling our practice and making our practice more productive and profitable and helpful.”

Find out if it’s OK to wait

Sometimes patients think their issues are more urgent than they are, Flower said, noting that by the time patients finally pick up the phone to request an appointment, they may have already put it off for quite a while.  

“Health care professionals oftentimes know the urgency of your situation; they have a good sense of it, right?” Flower said. “So in some ways, it’s trusting the process.”

If you’re worried, Schaefer recommends contacting the referring provider to check that the referral was coded correctly.

“Go with your gut. … Call back to your primary (care provider) and say, ‘Hey, you made it sound like this is an urgent issue. They’re telling me three months. I just want to let you know,’” Schaefer said. “Maybe they didn’t click that ‘urgent’ button, or maybe this is a scenario where the doctor needs to pick up the phone and call another provider and chat.”

Use your connections

If you have a family member who’s already seeing the kind of provider you need to see, Schaefer suggests asking if the provider will take you as a patient too. Some providers give preference to the family members of their current patients, accepting them even when they’re otherwise closed to new patients.

Consider a different health system

If all else fails, Schaefer said, consider looking outside your current health system. This can be complicated, as insurance coverage varies. Schaefer recommends contacting your health insurance provider to ask for more information. 

Alternatively, patients seeking prompter primary care can consider purchasing a membership at one of the growing number of “direct primary care” practices. At these practices, patients pay a monthly fee that covers unlimited access to certain primary care services, with no health insurance involved. While some parts of Wisconsin now have several direct primary care practices, other parts may have few or none.

Tell us about your experience

Wisconsin Watch plans to continue covering the state’s health workforce and efforts to fill gaps. If you’ve waited a long time to see a doctor, or if you’ve found a way to speed up the process, email me at nyahr@wisconsinwatch.org to tell me about it.

Natalie Yahr reports on pathways to success statewide for Wisconsin Watch, working in partnership with Open Campus. Email her at nyahr@wisconsinwatch.org.

Waiting months for a doctor’s appointment? Experts offer advice is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.