Wisconsin candidates now have a path to get off the ballot besides dying, thanks to a proposal Gov. Tony Evers signed into law on Friday.
The proposal was triggered by 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s failed attempt to withdraw from the ballot in a bid to boost President Donald Trump’s candidacy. The case made its way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which rejected Kennedy’s argument after a lower court ruled that death was the only way for nominees to drop off the ballot.
Under the measure that Evers, a Democrat, signed into law, candidates can now get off the ballot as long as they file to withdraw at least seven business days before the Wisconsin Elections Commission certifies candidates ahead of the August and November elections and pay processing fees to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The measure doesn’t apply to the February and April elections.
Many county clerks had opposed an earlier version of the legislation because the originally proposed deadline to drop out would have disrupted tight timelines to prepare, print and send off ballots on time. That deadline would have allowed candidates to get off the ballot any time before the election commission certified candidates’ names.
To address those concerns, Rep. David Steffen, the Republican author of the measure, amended the proposal to require candidates to let the commission know at least seven business days ahead of time. The law also would charge anybody impersonating a candidate to get off the ballot with a felony.
The measure passed the Assembly with a voice vote. It passed the Senate 19-14, with just two Democratic votes in favor.
Steffen called the new law a win for Wisconsin voters, adding in a statement that it will “reduce unnecessary voter confusion.”
The new law won’t change operations much, said Wood County Clerk Trent Miner, a Republican in a county of about 74,000. Miner’s office programs and prepares the county’s ballots, which he said would make readjusting the ballots easier.
La Crosse County Clerk Ginny Dankmeyer, a Democrat, said a candidate dropping out at the last minute would still lead to extra hours of work since ballots are generally ready to be printed by then. But Dankmeyer added that it’s still doable and won’t stress her out. She said the new deadline is far better than the originally proposed one.
The Wisconsin law prohibiting withdrawal in cases besides death stood out nationwide as unusually strict. The state used to allow nominees to drop off the ballot if they declined to run, but it changed the policy in 1977 to the one that was active until Evers signed the new law last week.
Many other states allow nominees to drop off the ballot between 60 and 85 days before an election. Some states require polling places to have notices clarifying candidates’ withdrawal if they drop out after ballots are already printed.
Kennedy’s attempt to get off the ballot last year shocked clerks, who had already printed their ballots when his case was moving through the courts.
His lawyers requested that clerks cover up his name on the ballot with stickers, a proposal that clerks said could lead to tabulator jams and disenfranchised voters. Kennedy still received 17,740 votes, or about 0.5% of the vote. Trump won the state by a little less than a percentage point.
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.
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
Wisconsin candidates have path off the ballot besides death under new law 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.
All too often, secrecy and confidentiality carry the day in proceedings of state and local government.
In one recent case, the name “Microsoft” on a state Public Service Commission filing was redacted – blocked from public view – along with pages and pages of other information. The redactions served no purpose, as the company’s role in the former Racine County site formerly known as Foxconn had been announced publicly in 2024 by then-President Joe Biden and widely reported.
PSC statutes indicate that utilities can keep only certain items from the public and for very discrete reasons – for instance, to protect competitive information or trade secrets. But in practice, secrecy is extended to a wide range of records.
This is something I encountered in my reporting on utilities for the Green Bay Press-Gazette and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from the late 1990s to 2017. And the number of confidential filings continued to be a concern in my current role at the Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin, the consumer advocate watchdog for utility customers.
The problem is more urgent now, in an era of rapidly rising costs for utility customers and proposals for the building of huge, energy-gulping data centers now being proposed throughout the state. The stakes are getting higher.
Wisconsin’s utility system is undergoing a rapid-fire and massive transformation, arguably the biggest since the advent of widespread use of air conditioning 75 years ago, or even since Thomas Edison and Nicola Tesla were lighting cities for the first time using electricity.
Two such data center projects in eastern Wisconsin – Microsoft in Racine and OpenAI Oracle Vantage in Port Washington – would use as much power by themselves as all of We Energies customers used last year. You read that right: Two such data center projects in eastern Wisconsin – Microsoft in Racine and OpenAI Oracle Vantage in Port Washington – would use as much power by themselves as all of We Energies customers used last year. You read that right: These two centers combined would require as much electricity as all 1.1 million industrial, commercial and residential customers used last year, including the entire cities of Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, Port Washington, Waukesha and Appleton.
So it’s no wonder there’s more attention being placed, here and across the country, on the decisions being made by the three PSC commissioners in Madison and their counterparts across the country. This is especially true given that a new Marquette Law School poll found that a majority of state residents, Democrats and Republicans alike, believe that the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits.
In the case of the Port Washington data center, city leaders signed a development agreement that contains a very broad definition of “confidential information” and then binds the city to assist the data center developer in defending any lawsuit seeking to release anything it considers confidential.
Recently, the nonprofit law center Midwest Environmental Advocates had to sue the city of Racine to get water records for the Microsoft development. Peg Scheaffer, the group’s spokesperson, said “it’s more important than ever that technology companies like Microsoft be transparent about the environmental impacts these huge data centers will have.”
Fortunately, Wisconsin’s PSC is paying heed to these concerns. At a training session for the energy legal community in Madison earlier this year, the PSC put utilities and their law firms on notice that the agency will be taking a closer look at confidential filings and scrutinizing more closely the requests filed by utilities to keep information from public view.
That transparency initiative is overdue, and welcome.
Local and state government leaders enticed by the lure of economic development should take heed. Going forward, let us err on the side of more transparency, not less.
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. Tom Content is executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin and vice president of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates.
Your Right to Know: Data center secrecy is unacceptable 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.
The planet continues to warm due to human activity; bouts of cold weather don’t change this.
Satellites around the world measure temperatures at different places throughout the year. These are averaged to calculate annual global temperatures.
The past ten years (2015-2024) have been the ten hottest since modern record-keeping began in 1850, and 2024 was the all-time hottest. The last time Earth had a colder-than-average year was 1976.
Weather refers to meteorological conditions — heat, humidity, precipitation, etc. — in a given moment, while climate represents patterns of weather over time.
Cold snaps still occur, but they’re becoming less common as Earth warms from human emissions of heat-trapping gases.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Does cold weather disprove human-caused climate change? 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.
Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.
Nine states, including Wisconsin, have no law specifying whether minors can obtain contraceptives without parental consent.
However, Wisconsin residents under age 18 can get birth control independently.
Clinics receiving federal Title X family planning funds cannot require parental consent.
One state of Wisconsin program offers free contraceptives to low-income minors without notifying parents.
And Wisconsin law requires that foster children receive confidential family planning services.
The lack of a law means some providers “may require parental consent out of an abundance of caution,” said Marquette University law professor Lisa Mazzie.
Parents might be notified by their health insurers if their children get contraception using insurance.
In the latest national survey by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2023, 32% of high school students reported ever having sex, down from 47% in 2013; 52% used a condom during their last sexual intercourse; 33% used hormonal birth control.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Does Wisconsin have a law on minors getting birth control without parental consent? 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.
Jack Daly, who was convicted and sent to prison last year after pleading guilty to defrauding thousands of conservative political donors out of money — including a scheme claiming to draft former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke to run for the U.S. Senate — has emerged from federal custody to quietly re-establish himself as a top Republican Party campaign fundraiser.
A NOTUS investigation found that dozens of federal-level Republican political committees — including the Republican National Committee, numerous congressional committees and campaign operations tied to President Donald Trump — have together spent nearly $18 million on digital fundraising, donor lists and other services from Daly’s latest political consulting firm, Better Mousetrap Digital, according to Virgin Islands corporate filings and Federal Election Commission records.
Daly established Better Mousetrap Digital in September 2023, around the time he surrendered his North Carolina law license, accepted notice of disbarment and pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and lying to the Federal Election Commission.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Daly “targeted vulnerable victims, including a woman with Alzheimer’s and elderly veterans.” A judge in December 2023 sentenced Daly to four months in prison, a $20,000 fine and nearly $70,000 in restitution payments.
Federal Bureau of Prisons records indicate Daly exited federal custody in June 2024. He is scheduled to remain under supervised release until mid-2026 and is currently petitioning a federal court to vacate his conviction.
Daly, through his attorney, Brandon Sample, declined to answer a series of questions from NOTUS about his legal history, experiences in prison and Better Mousetrap Digital’s operations and business model. Daly likewise declined to comment about whether Better Mousetrap Digital clients are aware of his legal situation and whether he’s ever lost business because of it.
But when asked by NOTUS about their contracts with Daly’s Better Mousetrap Digital for fundraising and data services, several Republican political committees said they will stop, or have stopped, working with the firm.
Among them: the Republican National Committee, which has paid Better Mousetrap Digital more than $1 million since September 2023. This includes payments as recently as last month, on Sept. 17 and Sept. 30, totaling nearly $15,000 for a “list acquisition,” according to FEC records.
“Services from this vendor originated more than two years ago under a previous leadership team, and currently the RNC does not have an ongoing business relationship with them,” RNC Communications Director Zach Parkinson told NOTUS. “The RNC runs one of the largest digital fundraising operations in the conservative ecosystem, which regularly works with a wide range of outside vendors for services. All RNC activities are conducted in full compliance with the law.”
The Mullin Victory Fund — a joint fundraising committee composed of Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s Oklahoma campaign committee, the senator’s Boots Political Action Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee — has spent about $66,000 with Better Mousetrap Digital since September 2023, FEC records indicate.
The Mullin committee’s most recent payment to Daly’s firm came last month, on Sept. 30 — $4,969 for “list rental fees,” per FEC records.
“We were not aware of this, and will not use them moving forward,” Mullin’s campaign committee said in a statement to NOTUS when asked if it was aware of Daly’s legal history.
Meanwhile, the reelection campaign of Rep. Harriet Hageman, a Republican of Wyoming, has spent about $122,000 on “fundraising fees” with Better Mousetrap Digital since 2023, including more than 30 transactions this summer and autumn, according to FEC records through September.
When asked why it works with Daly’s company, Hageman’s campaign told NOTUS that “we have advised all vendors to cease any sub-vendor relationships with the referenced company.”
The 1776 Project PAC has paid Better Mousetrap Digital about $151,000 since September 2023, with its most recent payment coming on June 30, for “fundraising consulting agency fees” totaling about $111,000, according to the most recently available FEC records.
“The 1776 PAC has never spoken to Jack Daly,” PAC spokesperson Mitchell P. Jackson said. “He was a digital vendor that worked for a vendor, who we no longer work with. In other words, Daly was a vendor of a vendor that we no longer use.”
NOTUS attempted to contact more than three dozen other Republican political committees about their payments to Better Mousetrap Digital, which range from the low four figures to well into seven figures.
The federal-level committees of the Republican Party of Florida and West Virginia Republican Party acknowledged NOTUS’ inquiries but provided no answers to requests. The Republican state party committees in Arizona, California, Iowa, Minnesota and Texas, which also do business with Better Mousetrap Digital, did not respond to repeated messages.
Nor did several of Better Mousetrap Digital’s most lucrative federal clients, including the NRSC (more than $5.2 million in spending since September 2023), Trump National Committee JFC (nearly $3.6 million in spending) and the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee (nearly $1 million).
Congressional reelection committees that have recently used Better Mousetrap Digital and that did not respond to requests for comment include those of Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. The campaigns of Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, Cory Mills, Byron Donalds, Jimmy Patronis and Kat Cammack of Florida also did not respond, nor did those of Reps. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and Ronny Jackson of Texas.
Better Mousetrap Digital also does some state-level political business. In New Jersey, for example, state campaign finance records indicate Republican political committee Elect Common Sense has spent more than $155,000 with Better Mousetrap Digital, mostly on “fundraising fees.” Kitchen Table Conservatives, a New Jersey super PAC in part led by former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway that’s supporting Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli ahead of next week’s election, has spent more than $7,000.
On his LinkedIn page, Daly describes himself as a “prominent and prolific digital fundraiser for more than one thousand clients (GOP candidates/committees and conservative/MAGA causes)” and a “leading digital fundraiser for President Trump & Congressional Republicans.”
Better Mousetrap Digital describes itself as the “premier digital fundraising consulting firm for Republicans. With decades of experience spanning from state house campaigns to the White House, we bring unparalleled expertise and dedication to our clients.”
On its website, the firm advertises Donald Trump for President, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the RNC as clients, alongside the committees’ logos.
Daly, who previously led digital fundraising firm Reach Right Digital Marketing LLC, per Virgin Islands corporate records, can trace his legal troubles back to 2017, the same year the Daily Caller published an article about Daly headlined, “How a shady super PAC convinced 20,000 conservatives to hand over their money.”
Prosecutors accused Daly and fellow attorney Nathanael Pendley of raising more than $1.6 million for a political committee, known as Draft PAC, that promised to convince Clarke, the former Milwaukee County sheriff, to run for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin ahead of the 2018 midterm election.
Clarke, who did not respond to requests for comment for this article, never ran for the Senate and maintained he never had intentions to do so, telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Daly was operating a “scam PAC.” Federal prosecutors said Daly and Pendley kept fundraising anyway, in part for their personal benefit, and lied about their activities to federal officials.
In a letter to NOTUS, Sample — Daly’s attorney, who leads the Washington, D.C.-based Criminal Center LLC law firm — wrote that “a guilty plea is an admission only to the essential elements of the charged offense, and nothing more.”
While Daly “respects the freedom of the press,” Daly “will not tolerate the publication of any material that misrepresents the narrow scope of his plea, repeats as fact the government’s unproven and rejected allegations, or otherwise defames him,” Sample wrote.
Sample also emailed a copy of the transcript of Daly’s Dec. 15, 2025, sentencing hearing before U.S. District Court Judge J.P. Stadtmueller, with several passages highlighted.
Among them is a statement from Daly’s former attorney, Matthew Dean Krueger, that Daly’s crime is “a very limited offense.”
Krueger also told the court that “the government suggests that the defendants put each of these prospective donors at risk. No, it is the other way around. It’s the donor that put themselves at risk by subscribing or submitting a contribution.”
Daly is now in the midst of a monthslong court proceeding in which he is fighting to have his conviction vacated.
In a Sept. 30 request for an evidentiary hearing, Sample argues in a filing with the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Wisconsin that Daly received “substantively incorrect advice” from his previous attorneys and was in “profound turmoil over his plea” — and therefore unable to make a “knowing and intelligent decision during the critical window when his right to withdraw that plea was absolute.”
In his 2023 plea agreement, Daly “acknowledges, understands and agrees that he is, in fact, guilty of the offense” of which he was charged. “The defendant admits that these facts are true and correct and establish his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
At Daly’s December 2023 sentencing hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Knight argued that “Mr. Daly has pled guilty to a year-long criminal conspiracy to lie to the FEC and to defraud donors. So the idea that somehow it’s inaccurate to suggest that there’s a multi-year course of criminal conduct, that’s literally the offense of conviction. That is beyond dispute at this point, and any suggestion to the contrary should just be flatly rejected.”
This story was produced and originally published by NOTUS, a publication from the nonprofit, nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute.
Fundraiser convicted of defrauding ‘vulnerable’ victims is back — and making millions from Republican campaigns 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.
Election Day 2026 is now 365 days away. Over the next year Wisconsin voters will cast their ballots in a number of races that will set the future direction of the Badger State.
Voters will see candidates — and campaign ads — in 2026 for races from the governor’s office to the Capitol’s legislative chambers to the halls of Congress. Many of the top statewide races feature open seats, which will mean new faces in offices following next year’s elections.
There is much on the line. Will Republicans retake control of the governor’s office? Will Democrats win a majority in either chamber of the Legislature? Will the liberal majority grow on the Wisconsin Supreme Court?
Here are five election storylines Wisconsin Watch is following as the state heads into 2026.
Before next November, Wisconsin has another Supreme Court race in April.
Appeals Court judges Maria Lazar and Chris Taylor are running for the seat currently held by Justice Rebecca Bradley, who announced in August she would not run for another 10-year term on the court. While it’s still possible for other candidates to enter for February primary contests, signs point to Lazar and Taylor as the likely contestants.
The candidates are political polar opposites, even as Wisconsin’s judicial races remain “nonpartisan” in name only. Lazar is a conservative former Waukesha County Circuit Court judge, who served as an assistant attorney general during former Gov. Scott Walker’s administration and defended key policies in court, including the administration’s voter ID laws. Taylor, a former policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, served as a Democrat in the Assembly before Democratic Gov. Tony Evers appointed her to the Dane County Circuit Court in 2020. She ran unopposed for an appellate seat in 2023.
But, unlike the 2024 and 2025 Supreme Court elections, the race between Lazar and Taylor is not for a majority on the court. That makes it less likely to draw record spending than previous years, said David Julseth, a data analyst with the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
Still, Taylor has already raised more than $500,000 in the first half of the year, according to campaign finance reports. The financial position for Lazar, who announced her candidacy in early October, will become clearer after fundraising reports are filed in January.
Republicans have controlled both the Assembly and the Senate since 2011. But while the GOP held onto majorities in both chambers in 2024, Democrats flipped 14 Senate and Assembly seats last year to further chip away at Republican control.
The party breakdown in the Legislature this session is 18-15 in the Senate and 54-45 in the Assembly.
The attention of political watchers is on the Senate where Democratic Campaign Committee communications director Will Karcz said gains in 2024 put the party in a good position to win a majority in 2026.
The Assembly poses more of a challenge. Twelve Assembly seats were won within less than 5 percentage points in 2024. Just five of those races were won by Republicans, so Democrats would have to flip those seats and maintain the seven other close contests from 2024 to win a majority next year. And those five include some of the more moderate Republican members, such as Rep. Todd Novak, R-Dodgeville.
The Senate Democratic Campaign Committee is eyeing three districts currently held by Republicans in parts of the state where portions of the new legislative maps will be tested for the first time. They include the 5th District held by Sen. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield; the 17th District held by Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green; and the 21st District held by Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine. Democrats running in those districts include Rep. Robyn Vining in the 5th, Rep. Jenna Jacobson in the 17th and Racine Transit and Mobility Director Trevor Jung in the 21st.
The party is also eyeing the 25th District seat held by Sen. Romaine Quinn, R-Birchwood, as a potentially competitive race.
Democrats would gain a majority in the Senate if the party flips two seats and holds onto District 31 held by Sen. Jeff Smith, D-Brunswick. Republican Sen. Jesse James, R-Thorp, in mid-October announced he plans to run for the District 31 seat. James moved to Thorp after his home in Altoona was drawn out of his seat in the 23rd District, but last month said he planned to “come home.”
Wisconsin’s 2026 gubernatorial election is the state’s first since 2010 without an incumbent on the ballot. Evers announced in July he would not seek a third term, opening up the field for competitive primaries ahead of the general election next November.
Neither candidate field is set at this point, but two Republicans and seven Democrats already announced gubernatorial campaigns this year. There is still a long stretch of campaigning before Wisconsin voters choose their candidates. The Marquette University Law School Poll released Oct. 29 shows a majority of registered voters haven’t heard enough about the candidates. Additionally, 70% of Republicans and 81% of Democrats have yet to decide on a primary candidate, the poll shows.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann make up the current Republican primary field. Tiffany is positioned as the front-runner largely due to the base of more than 700,000 residents in his congressional district, said Bill McCoshen, a lobbyist and Republican strategist who previously worked for former Gov. Tommy Thompson.
Tiffany and Schoemann are both “consistent conservatives,” and a clean primary between the two candidates could benefit Republicans further into next year, McCoshen said.
“Republicans did a lot of damage to themselves in the 2022 primary and weren’t able to put the whole house back together in time for the general,” McCoshen said. “There are a lot of Republicans who, sadly, did not vote for (2022 Republican gubernatorial nominee) Tim Michels, and we can’t have a repeat of that.”
The Democrats include Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, Madison state Rep. Francesca Hong, former Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. leader Missy Hughes, former Madison state Rep. Brett Hulsey, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Madison state Sen. Kelda Roys and beer vendor Ryan Strnad.
The unanswered question for Democrats is whether former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes enters the primary contest. Some polls already indicate Barnes, who ran for U.S. Senate in 2022 and narrowly lost to Sen. Ron Johnson, would be the Democratic front-runner if he enters the race.
The Marquette poll shows none of the Democratic primary candidates has reached double-digit percentage support. Hong had the most support among Democrats at 6% with Rodriguez next at 4%.
All eight of Wisconsin’s congressional districts are up for election in 2026, but the race to watch is the 3rd Congressional District in western Wisconsin currently held by U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden.
Van Orden was elected to the 3rd District in 2022. It had been held by former Democratic Rep. Ron Kind for 26 years before he retired. In his two terms in Congress, Van Orden, an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump, has garnered a reputation as a polarizing political figure.
“Derrick Van Orden does not have as firm a grip on the district as incumbents do, like Bryan Steil, in their districts,” said Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center and political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “He’s a controversial figure. He’s given his opponents a lot of material that could be used against him.”
Van Orden won reelection in 2024 by less than 3 percentage points over Democrat Rebecca Cooke. The 2026 contest will most likely be a rematch between Van Orden and Cooke, a waitress who previously ran a Democratic fundraising company.
In 2024 and 2026, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee put the Van Orden-Cooke race on the party’s lists of flippable House seats. National election analysis sites, such as the Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball, rate Wisconsin’s 3rd District as a toss-up.
Wisconsin voters in the Northwoods will see an open contest in the 7th Congressional District with Tiffany’s exit to run for governor. At least three Republicans have already announced campaigns in the 7th: former 3rd District candidate Jessi Ebben, Ashland attorney Paul Wassgren and Michael Alfonso, the son-in-law of U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
That seat is likely safe for Republicans. Tiffany won reelection in 2024 by 27 percentage points.
Signs are beginning to emerge as to what mood voters will be in as they head to the polls.
Democrats could benefit from a midterm election year, where Trump is not on the ballot and elections often favor the opposite party of the White House.
Since Trump’s inauguration in January, his administration has garnered headlines for its immigration policies, cuts to federal government agencies and the deployment of the National Guard to Democratic cities, such as Chicago. Opposition to Trump and his policies has led to mass demonstrations across the country this year.
“National politics now is largely a battle between the Trump administration and Democratic governors and attorneys general around the country,” Burden said. “So I think Trump is going to be near the center of the governor’s race.”
Inflation and the cost of living are the top issue for Wisconsin’s registered voters heading into 2026, which could also support Democratic candidates running against Republicans currently in office. The poll found 83% of Democrats, 79% of independents and 54% of Republicans are “very concerned” about inflation. The top concern for Republicans, according to the poll, is illegal immigration and border security, with 75% of Wisconsin GOP respondents saying they are “very concerned” about the issue.
“Inflation stuff is much more of a problem for the Republicans at this point because presidents tend to get blamed for that,” said Charles Franklin, the Marquette poll director. “Across all of our questions that touch on inflation, cost of living, price of groceries, those are some pretty grim numbers if you’re the incumbent party that may be held to account for it. We saw how much that damaged Biden when inflation spiked in the summer of 2022.”
Republicans, though, could benefit from increasing voter concern about property taxes. The Marquette poll shows 56% of voters say reducing property taxes is more important than funding public education — a reversal from responses to that question during the 2018 and 2022 elections that Evers won. And 57% of voters said they would be more likely to vote against a school referendum, a huge swing from just four months ago when 52% said they would support a referendum.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
5 things to watch over the next year as Wisconsin’s election cycle begins 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.
For more than a decade, Jay Barthuly has been bringing veterans — some of whom also have disabilities — out to an elk hunting trip in Montana. And he’s done a lot of it on his own dime.
The post Madison store owner takes veterans on annual elk hunting trip in Montana appeared first on WPR.
Twenty Wisconsin school districts located on tribal lands that collectively enroll more than 21,000 students have not received routine federal funding for operations, including teacher salaries. The federal government issued […]
The post Wisconsin school districts on tribal land are not receiving federal payments due to shutdown appeared first on WPR.
"There are a lot of benefits, but mostly it's about getting out of the house and building a community with others," ArtStart Program Director Ashley McLaughlin said.
The post SPARK! program in northcentral Wisconsin uses art to connect people living with memory loss appeared first on WPR.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has vetoed a GOP-backed bill that would have ordered tens of thousands of state employees to work in-person most of the time.
The post Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoes in-person work mandate for state employees appeared first on WPR.
Nearly 700,000 Wisconsinites are wondering whether they'll get their November federal food assistance benefits amid the ongoing government shutdown.
The post ‘Like a rollercoaster’: Wisconsinites uncertain about November food assistance appeared first on WPR.
Wisconsin farmers are cautiously optimistic that a trade deal between the Trump administration and China will help give soybean growers more market certainty moving forward.
The post Wisconsin soybean farmers cautiously optimistic about Trump’s trade deal with China appeared first on WPR.
For former state archaeologist Robert Birmingham, the mound landscapes are a "spectacular phenomenon" unique to the region — a piece of ancient history that still matters today.
The post Archaeologists dig into Wisconsin’s ancient effigy mounds in new book appeared first on WPR.
Construction is now underway on a major interstate expansion project in Milwaukee.
The post Construction begins on I-94 expansion project in Milwaukee appeared first on WPR.
Workers, including one man in a wheelchair, discuss a project they are working on in Houston, Texas. (Getty Images)
A state program to help people with disabilities find employment is running short of funds, the state labor department reported Monday, leading to a waiting list for people seeking the agency’s services.
The Department of Workforce Development will seek $4.6 million from the state Legislature to fully fund the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation in the 2026 fiscal year.
The division serves about 19,000 people at any one time and enrolls about 1,000 new participants each month who have disabilities and are looking for work opportunities, said Haley McCoy, director of communications at DWD.
The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is about twice that for the general population, said Melanie Cairns, managing attorney for Disability Rights Wisconsin.
“The Division of Vocational Rehabilitation provides vital support and services that people with disabilities need in order to work and to find better work,” Cairns said.
Those services include assessment of a person’s current job skills and discussions about the individual’s work goal and what services and supports they need to pursue that goal, Cairns said. Those can include grants for training in a specific occupation or skills, job coaching and other forms of support.
Federal funds cover 78.7% of the program’s cost, with the state required to pitch in 21.3% to match that. The additional state appropriation DWD is seeking would unlock the corresponding additional federal money.
The 2025-27 state budget appropriated $21.3 million in state funds for the 2026 fiscal year — $2.4 million less than the state spent in 2025 and $4.6 million less than what the state had projected it would need, according to DWD.
Unless the shortfall is made up, the agency will have to put potential new participants on a waiting list, according to DWD. McCoy said about 2,000 people are currently awaiting an employment plan through the division and would be put on the waiting list as a consequence.
DWD has scheduled a virtual public hearing for Thursday, Nov. 13, at 2 p.m., to explain the need for the waiting list and seek comment from the public about that prospect.
“We want to find a solution to continue to provide employment services for anyone with disabilities who wants to find a job,” said DWD Secretary-designee Amy Pechacek in a statement Monday. “We welcome the public to participate in this public hearing and are working with all stakeholders to address this issue.”
Migrants from Mexico and Guatemala are apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers after crossing a section of border wall into the U.S. on Jan. 4, 2025 in Ruby, Arizona. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — A panel of District of Columbia Court of Appeals judges Monday heard oral arguments from the Trump administration defending the president’s move to end asylum claims at the southern border through an executive order.
Civil rights and immigration advocacy groups sought to make permanent a District of Columbia District Court’s July injunction that found the Trump administration could not block asylum seekers from making asylum claims — a form of protection extended to those fearing persecution.
A separate appeals panel lifted the lower court’s order, permitting the administration to block asylum seekers while the merits of the case were argued.
The Trump administration cited the 212(f) proclamation and claimed that because there is an “invasion” at the southern border, asylum protections – which were created by Congress – could be denied. The 212(f) proclamation gives the president the authority to suspend entry of migrants under certain circumstances.
Encounters with migrants at the southern border have remained the lowest in years.
The executive order from January fell in line with the president’s immigration crackdown, as he aims to limit immigration in the interior of the country with mass deportations and cease migration to the United States through curbing access to asylum and refugee resettlement.
During Monday’s oral arguments, Department of Justice attorneys on behalf of the Trump administration argued that Trump has the authority to decide who is admissible into the country, regardless if it’s an asylum claim.
The suit was brought on behalf of three organizations by the American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigrant Justice Center, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, Texas Civil Rights Project, ACLU of the District of Columbia and ACLU of Texas.
Those three organizations are the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, or RAICES, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project. They provide legal services to people seeking asylum and argued that they are unable to do so under Trump’s proclamation.
The judges on the panel included Cornelia T.L. Pillard, Justin R. Walker and J. Michelle Childs.
Former President Barack Obama nominated Pillard and former President Joe Biden nominated Childs. President Donald Trump nominated Walker during his first term.
Arguing on behalf of the Trump administration, DOJ attorney Drew Ensign said the president’s proclamation was an extension of his executive branch powers.
Ensign argued that the Trump administration views asylum as discretionary, and that the president can “take the steps necessary to make an entry bar effective, including defining consequences for violating it.”
Ensign argued that because the appeals court this summer allowed for the district court’s order to be paused, it means the government is likely to prevail on its argument.
Lee Gelernt of the ACLU argued that the proclamation’s use of 212(f) cannot override asylum law in the Immigration Nationality Act that Congress passed.
“This is an internally coherent statute which Congress has put together the pieces,” Gelernt said of the INA. “And what’s ultimately happening here is that the administration doesn’t like the way Congress has put together the pieces.”
He added that Congress was specific in describing a migrant who would not be allowed to qualify for asylum, such as someone who has ties to terrorism.
“But 212(f) itself cannot override asylum,” Gelernt said.
Ensign also asked the panel of judges, if they decide to allow the lower court’s injunction to go into effect, to give the Trump administration at least two weeks to implement the new policy at the southern border.
Login