A Dane County judge denied Wisconsin Senate Democrats’ request Thursday that Michele Magadance Skinner, a Republican state Senate candidate and Eau Claire County Board member, be tossed off the November ballot.

Skinner, who currently serves as an Eau Claire County Board member, is running against Sen. Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick) for Senate District 31, a key seat that will help determine control of the Senate next year. 

The lawsuit was filed against Skinner this week by the Wisconsin State Senate Democratic Committee (SSDC), the campaign arm of the Senate Democratic caucus, based on questions about her residency. The Wisconsin Elections Commission, which had previously dismissed a complaint about Skinner, was also a defendant in the suit. 

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Jacob Frost said at the close of the hearing he would deny the temporary injunction as the plaintiffs had not provided sufficient evidence that Skinner is not a Wisconsin resident.

“This does appear likely to be her primary residence,” Frost said, “which would mean that… she is eligible to vote here and therefore eligible to run.” 

David Hollander, the attorney for the SSDC, and Matthew Fernholz, Skinner’s attorney, questioned the state Senate candidate on a number of issues, including tax records, homes in Georgia and Florida, and voting records.

Skinner defended her status as a Wisconsin resident, detailing her history in the state from birth through school and throughout her career. She said that she moved around while working as a TV reporter in Georgia and Minnesota before becoming a founder of a recruitment firm after moving back to Wisconsin. 

Skinner said she has lived primarily in Altoona since 2000 with one exception. She described her current residency across the year as “seven months in Wisconsin, in Altoona, and five months elsewhere.” The five months, she said, is split between Florida and Georgia. 

“It goes back and forth and is really dictated by events, weddings, family events, birthdays, holidays,” she said. 

The exception Skinner referred to was when she registered to vote on Nov. 18, 2021 in Georgia and voted on Jan. 5, 2021 in the Georgia U.S. Senate runoff elections. She said that the election was “in the news.”

“I’m a former journalist. People were talking about it,” she said. 

Skinner said she was considering changing her residency due to COVID-19 pandemic: “The home there is bigger, has a larger yard. It’s more rural and Dawson County afforded more ability to be outside and Wisconsin at that time had some pretty stringent COVID restrictions, so we went down to Georgia.”

Skinner said that she didn’t ultimately switch her residence from Wisconsin to Georgia because COVID restrictions were eased in 2022, and she said that she has voted in Wisconsin elections consistently since 2022. She was elected to the Eau Claire County Board in April 2024. She also ran a failed campaign in 2024 challenging state Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire) for her seat in the Wisconsin Assembly.

“Georgia was my COVID home. Wisconsin has always been and will be my other home,” Skinner said.

Skinner also denied that she is the owner of a home in Dawsonville, Georgia or in Florida. She said both are owned by her husband. 

“My name is not on the deed. His name is on the deed only,” Skinner said. “I’m his wife… I have access to it and I keep some of my stuff there. It’s my husband’s home and I do have a key.” 

Skinner was also questioned on tax credit claims. She claimed a Wisconsin lottery and gaming tax credit in 2020, right before registering to vote in Georgia. Her husband claimed a homestead property in Georgia in 2025, which Hollander argued could only be claimed if Georgia was the principal residence for both him and Skinner.

Hollander argued after the close of questioning that Skinner had not shown her Wisconsin residency. 

“There’s nothing before you, your honor, other than ‘I say I’m a Wisconsin resident, and so therefore, I’m a Wisconsin resident. It’s just her word,” Hollander said, adding that if he were defending his own residency he would provide a lease, mortgage, utility bills, public library card or other documents. “We live in this digital world where it’s really easy to find things that have your address on it.” 

Fernholz, Skinner’s attorney, noted that the lawsuit was aimed to “disenfranchise one of the two major political parties after the primary.” He noted that after the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s deadline to finalize the ballots has passed there is no opportunity for Republicans to put another candidate on the ballot. 

The Wisconsin Elections Commission is required to certify the list of candidates to appear on the general election ballot “no later than the 4th Tuesday in August,” which would be Aug. 25. In the lawsuit, the SSDC argued the Court could order Skinner be removed from the ballot as late as Sep. 2. 

Frost cut Fernholz off before he finished his arguments to say he’d be denying the request. 

“Skinner, not unlike many Wisconsin residents in their retirement years, is a multi-state person, meaning that she spends winters outside of the cold and the snow of Wisconsin,” Frost said. 

Frost said the evidence seems to show that “Skinner consistently has elected and has the intent that Wisconsin is her residence. That her husband has consistently said Georgia is his residence doesn’t change that,” Frost said.

“It might make her likely to have questions asked about her property taxes or her husband to have questions asked about his,” he said, adding that that was not the issue at hand. 

When it came to her voting records, Frost said he did “think it’s a little suspicious.”

“Perhaps she faked being a Georgia resident for purposes of voting in a unique election after having just voted in Wisconsin,” Frost said. “But there’s no evidence to contradict what she said, which is it was that period of COVID.”

Andrew Whitley, the executive director of the SSDC, said in a statement that the group disagreed with Frost’s decision and has questions about whether the couple completed their taxes properly,  but he said the decision whether Skinner should serve in the state Senate is now up to voters. 

“Now it’s up to the voters to decide – someone who carelessly maneuvers around the law or a lifelong public servant who has fought his entire career to lower costs, fight corruption, and prioritize working families. The choice is easy,” Whitley said.

Michele Magadance Skinner issued a statement after the ruling: “Today’s ruling in Dane County court was a testament to the important role the justice system plays in our democratic republic. I am thankful that the judge saw through the political games and blatantly false smear campaign conducted by Jeff Smith and his liberal allies. Tactics by Mr. Smith and SSDC have proven this adage to be true: ‘never wrestle with pigs – they have fun and you get dirty.’”

Michele Magadance Skinner, a Republican candidate for state Senate and an Eau Claire County board member, is being sued by the state Senate Democratic Campaign Committee which seeks to remove her from the ballot ahead of the November election arguing that she is not a legal resident of Wisconsin.

Skinner is challenging Sen. Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick) to represent the Wisconsin State Senate District 31, a competitive seat that is key to deciding control of the body next year. She launched her campaign for the seat in June after Sen. Jesse James (R-Thorp), who had planned to run for reelection, ended his campaign following the revelation that his daughter was charged with stealing campaign funds. 

In recent weeks, Skinner has come under scrutiny for claiming residence in two states, Wisconsin and Georgia, and for voting in both. The lawsuit was filed by the Wisconsin State Senate Democratic Committee, the campaign arm of the Senate Democratic caucus, in Dane County Circuit Court. It was filed against Skinner and the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which had dismissed a complaint against Skinner.

The lawsuit alleges that Georgia is Skinner’s primary residence and therefore she should be disqualified from running for office in Wisconsin.

David Hollander, the attorney representing the SSDC, stated in the lawsuit that “because Skinner is not a Wisconsin resident and is therefore constitutionally ineligible for office, Plaintiffs seek an order directing WEC not to certify Skinner as a candidate for placement on the November 2026 general election ballot.” 

“Likewise, because she is not a Wisconsin resident, the Court should remove Skinner from seat on the Eau Claire County Board.” 

In order to be eligible to run for the state Legislature, the Wisconsin State Constitution requires candidates to have lived in Wisconsin for one year and to be qualified electors in the district where they are running.

The lawsuit alleges that while Skinner has a home in Altoona, she uses a home in Dawsonville, Georgia as her primary residence. 

The lawsuit notes that Skinner voted in Georgia in 2021 during a runoff election when both of the state’s U.S. Senate seats were closely contested, and notes that Wisconsin state statute says if a person moves to another state and exercises the right to vote then the person loses Wisconsin residency. It also states that Skinner received a Wisconsin Lottery tax credit in 2025 —the same year her husband claimed a Georgia homestead property exemption. 

“Robert Skinner could only do so if the Georgia Home was the principal residence for both him and his spouse — Skinner,” the lawsuit states. 

The lawsuit also points out that her nomination papers include her Georgia address and that Skinner has written on social media in the past about splitting her time between the states.

Skinner’s campaign told the Wisconsin Examiner that it is not able to provide any comment on the litigation and referred back to comments made by Skinner last week. 

Last week, Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) called on Skinner to drop her bid for the seat given the concerns about her residency.

“I am a Wisconsin resident. Wisconsin is my home. I was born and raised in Eau Claire and spent much of my career in western Wisconsin. I currently serve as an Eau Claire County Board Supervisor and chair the Lake Altoona Rehabilitation and Protection District,” Skinner said. 

Skinner, a former TV reporter and founder of a recruitment firm, was elected to the Eau Claire County Board in April 2024. She also ran a failed campaign in 2024 challenging state Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire) for her seat in the Wisconsin Assembly. 

Skinner said in a statement that “my husband is a Georgia resident, and a 100% VA disabled veteran — that may be a source of confusion, but is not evidence of any wrongdoing.”

The lawsuit references the statement and cites Wisconsin state statute that says that “when a married person’s family resides at one place and that person’s business is conducted at another place, the former place establishes the residence.”

“Skinner has publicly admitted that her husband is a Georgia resident,” the lawsuit states. “Therefore, the family’s Georgia Home, where her family resides, establishes Skinner’s residence… regardless of any political business Skinner conducts in Wisconsin.”

Skinner said in the same statement that she and her husband asked an independent certified public accountant to review their tax records.

“He found nothing illegal,” Skinner said on Aug. 8. “The accusation that we improperly claimed tax benefits in more than one state is simply false. “The accusation that I ‘cheated taxpayers out of thousands of dollars’ is nothing more than a lie designed to distract voters.”

The lawsuit also argues that her signatures that she gathered for her nomination papers are invalid if she is not a Wisconsin resident. She gathered 470 of the 563 signatures, according to the lawsuit. Wisconsin state law was changed in 2025 to require that signatures be gathered by residents of the state, though that statute is being challenged in court.

The WEC is required to certify the list of candidates to appear on the general election ballot “no later than the 4th Tuesday in August,” which would be Aug. 25. In the lawsuit, the SSDC argues the Court could order Skinner be removed from the ballot as late as Sep. 2.