Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, a Milwaukee Democrat, announced Tuesday he’s running for governor in 2026.
Barnes served as lieutenant governor under Gov. Tony Evers from 2019 to 2023, the first African American to hold the position. He previously served in the state Assembly from 2013 to 2017. Barnes’ entry into the race has long been anticipated, especially after a poll in early October showed him with the most support (16%) among a wide open field of Democratic contenders.
Wisconsin Watch has checked several claims related to Barnes during his unsuccessful 2022 campaign against Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson. Here’s what we found:
Defunding police: Barnes did not say that he supported defunding police, though in 2020 he backed reduced spending for Milwaukee police.
Gun rights: Barnes did say in a 2013 social media post he “could not care less about a 2nd Amendment ‘right.’ Bear arms all you wish, but you should pay for your mishandling.” In 2022, he said “we can respect the Second Amendment” while increasing “common-sense” gun control measures.
Immigration: Barnes did not say that he wanted to open U.S. borders. He backed a policy that “secures the border and also includes a path for citizenship.”
Abortion: Barnes did oppose the government legislating a limit on abortion, though a spokesperson at the time told Wisconsin Watch he didn’t support “abortion up until birth,” noting the standard before Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 allowed limits on abortion after viability. He emphasized the abortion decision should be between a woman and her doctor.
Taxes: Barnes did not support raising taxes on the middle class, but rather backed middle-class tax cuts.
Criminal justice: As a state Assembly member in 2015, Barnes did vote against a law that expanded penalties for battery and threats against public officials.
Climate: Barnes did support the Green New Deal in 2021. During the 2022 campaign, he supported elements of the federal proposal to fight climate change while not referring to it by name.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
The American Farm Bureau Federation’s 2025 Thanksgiving Dinner Cost Survey finds that the average price of the classic holiday meal for 10 people is about 5% lower than in 2024.
The decline is driven primarily by a steep drop in turkey prices—down roughly 16% from 2024—as supplies recovered from earlier losses caused by highly pathogenic avian influenza. With flocks rebuilt and production stabilized, the cost of the turkey fell enough to outweigh price increases in several side dishes.
Items such as sweet potatoes, some vegetables, and dairy products rose in price this year, while a few other components saw modest declines or remained steady.
Overall grocery inflation remains a factor for many households, but the turkey reduction exerted such a strong influence on the total basket that the combined meal cost decreased compared to last year.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
This fact brief was originally published by North Dakota News Cooperative on November 25, 2025, and was authored by Sabrina Halvorson. North Dakota News Cooperative is a member of the Gigafact network.
In 2018, a mobile home park owner in Stevens Point lost his operator’s license after submitting falsified drinking water samples to the state, purportedly leaving longtime residents of the park at risk of consuming excess iron and manganese. He appealed.
In 2022, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources authorized the spreading of human waste on farmland in Vilas County. A nearby Indigenous tribe contested the permit when it became apparent the state hadn’t included sufficient setbacks from tribal land.
And in 2021, a wildlife rehabilitator in Frederic, Wisconsin, who also served as a local police chief, lost her rehabilitation license after a raccoon in her care — Gimpy — bit an employee. The rehabilitator appealed.
These cases, all of which went to administrative hearings, pit state regulatory authority against individual residents. That’s why I was interested in reading them in my role as an investigative reporter. But I learned vital information in these and other cases, nearly always the parties’ names and places of work, is missing.
Wisconsin’s Division of Hearings and Appeals, the agency that oversees administrative hearings for several state departments, has taken to posting only heavily redacted records on its website. That means readers will often see black bars drawn through the names of people and businesses, state employees who evaluate permits and licenses, attorneys who represent parties and even newspapers that publish notices related to the cases.
Bennet Goldstein
Division Administrator Brian Hayes told me that last year’s passage of a state law prompted the DHA to evaluate how it posts personally identifying information on its website. That law enables judges to request that their personal information, including addresses and telephone numbers, be removed from public view.
The DHA, Hayes said, extended this protection to witnesses and petitioners, saying disclosing this information “needlessly opens up litigants to scams and stalkers.”
Hayes noted, however, that personally identifying information likely would have to be released to someone who submitted a records request for unaltered documents.
So I submitted one.
It took two months and the assistance of an attorney to wrestle the name of Gimpy’s owner from the agency. (Gimpy, however, was named.) The employees I encountered in this process offered a moving target of justifications.
First, DHA’s records custodian said she can provide unredacted documents only to parties to a case and suggested that I request the redacted version. I pointed out that the law requires her to either release the requested record or offer a legal justification for withholding it.
Another employee cited Wisconsin’s 1980 victims’ rights law, which provides a bill of rights for witnesses and victims of crime. The problem with this excuse is that the protections are situated in Wisconsin criminal code, not licensing.
In the end, I received unredacted records in the raccoon case and an apology from DHA for the difficulties I encountered in obtaining this information. But I still am moved to question the will to secrecy at the heart of this matter.
In fact, many of these cases involve public hearings. Anyone who attended could presumably observe witnesses and evidence — or see the names of parties on public notices state agencies post to announce hearing schedules.
When protective laws are zealously applied to contexts for which they were not intended, it can cause its own form of harm. The public is circuitously deprived of information related to potentially unscrupulous activity on the part of both individuals and government.
It shouldn’t take an attorney to pry open the gates for administrative decisions, even if the state means well.
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. Bennet Goldstein is an investigative reporter with Wisconsin Watch.
Edith Butler is dealing with a real-world math problem: Her housing costs keep rising while a tax credit intended to help keeps shrinking.
The widow and retired nurse, 68, lives by herself in a two-bedroom Eau Claire home. She paid $9,000 in rent over the course of last year, eating up more than 60% of her Social Security paycheck — her primary source of income. Her utility costs are also expected to hike next year.
She received $708 last year from claiming a homestead tax credit, which is meant to help lower-income homeowners and renters recoup some property tax costs. That was down from the $900 credit she received five years ago after paying just $6,600 in rent.
In the past, the homestead credit has paid to fill her propane tank for about three months during winter and offset some other costs. But it’s dwindling each year because the state rarely updates eligibility guidelines and credit calculations for inflation. Butler’s credit shrinks whenever the federal government increases her Social Security payment to account for the rising costs of living.
She’s not alone. Statewide homestead credit claims dropped from an average of $523 per recipient in 2013 to $486 in 2025, with thousands fewer claimants as fewer people remained eligible.
“These things have never adjusted. But we’ve paid into these programs all our lives. I paid taxes for 50 years, (and) my Social Security is my benefit that I paid in,” Butler said. “You work hard and you pay into programs, and then when you need them in your older years like this, they’re not there for you.”
The Legislature has not substantially updated the homestead credit for 25 years, causing its value to erode. Recent Democratic proposals to update program guidelines have failed to gain Republican support.
A tax credit’s history
An AP story on the homestead tax credit as published in The Sheboygan Press, Jan. 20, 1966.
By the 1960s, many in Wisconsin acknowledged the regressive nature of property taxes — that lower-income residents pay higher shares of their income than richer households do, John Stark, then-Assistant Chief Counsel in the Legislative Reference Bureau, wrote in a 1991 history of property tax relief in Wisconsin. But the state Constitution’s “uniformity clause” restricted what type of tax relief lawmakers can enact.
Against that backdrop, a State Commission on Aging in 1962 held hearings around the state in which older adults expressed concerns about health care and property taxes. The Legislature responded in 1963 with the homestead credit. Residents 65 and older could claim up to $225 (the equivalent of $2,380 today), with the precise calculation based on income, property taxes paid through ownership or rent.
The Legislature expanded eligibility over the years, notably in 1973, when it lowered the age minimum to 18. That dramatically boosted total claimants and payouts. By 1988, more than 250,000 people received a collective $100 million (roughly $270 million today) in credits.
The trend has since reversed.
Fewer than 67,000 residents claimed a collective $32.6 million in credits last year — a precipitous plunge, Department of Revenue data show.
The program’s income cap today — $24,680 — has barely budged since 2000. The nearly identical cap of $24,500 in 2000 is the equivalent of $45,812 today when adjusted for inflation.
Meanwhile, the program’s “phaseout income” of $8,060, under which homeowners or renters can recoup the maximum 80% of property taxes paid, has increased by only $60 since the 1989 tax year.
Today’s maximum credit a household can claim ($1,168) is just $8 higher than the 1990 level.
Diane Hanson, Butler’s tax agent, said her clients are receiving smaller credits each year or becoming ineligible as inflation pushes wages or Social Security payments above the static income limit.
Still, Hanson suspects many who remain eligible don’t realize it.
The homestead credit helped Hanson through her most challenging times. After learning about it at her local library, she claimed the credit for several years while raising her two children during a divorce, one of them with disabilities.
After becoming a tax agent in 2019, she began to educate clients facing similar circumstances. They include Renata Braatz, who raises her 12-year-old son and spends about 30% of her monthly income on rent through the Section 8 voucher program. She claimed about $600 through the homestead program last year. She spent it on groceries and other expenses for her son.
“I never knew about it. I lived here for six years, and I just started doing it two years ago,” Braatz said.
But asking questions paid off.
“Renata was proactive, reaching out, phoning us, and asking if there could be any credits for her. I think that is more than some folks know to do,” Hanson said. “Before I was a tax professional, I myself didn’t know how much the federal earned income credit can help out parents.”
Democrats call for credit’s expansion
Senate and Assembly Democrats earlier this year introduced identical bills to expand the homestead credit — allowing households earning up to $35,000 to claim it and indexing the maximum annual income, phaseout income and maximum credit to inflation. The proposal would have reduced state revenue by an estimated $36.7 million, $43 million and $48.8 million over the next three fiscal years.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers also proposed a homestead credit expansion in his last two-year budget.
Neither proposal advanced in the Republican-controlled Legislature.
Sen. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, authored the Senate version of the bill with colleagues. His district borders Illinois, which offers a range of more generous homestead tax incentives. Several constituents who previously lived in Illinois asked him why Wisconsin doesn’t offer what Illinois does, inspiring the legislation.
The Wisconsin Constitution’s uniformity clause prohibits lawmakers from enacting Illinois-like tax exemptions for older adults or other low-income residents, Spreitzer said, but the credit offers a legal work-around.
“There’s not really another credit that takes the place of this,” he said. “That’s why the homestead credit is so important.”
Spreitzer said he plans to reintroduce an expansion bill, and he encourages residents to share their perspectives with their representatives.
“If we want to do something about affordability, this is a very direct thing we can do,” Spreitzer said. “We’re not creating a new credit here. This already exists. We’re just talking about increasing who qualifies and how much money they would get back, and that’s money that they would directly be able to get back on their taxes and then spend to put food on the plate for their families.”
Hanson sees a path for bipartisan support for an update.
“The alternative is to see it dwindle,” Hanson said. “It hurts the segment of people that actually need it, the people who just don’t get much help anywhere. They’re still working hard to be independent.”
Learn more about the homestead credit
Visit the Department of Revenue’s website to learn more about eligibility for the credit.
You can claim it by filing online or through mail within 4 years and 3 ½ months after the fiscal taxable year to which the claim relates. That means you can still file for a 2021 credit before April 15, 2026.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Before the system was used, dispatchers would often have to place someone who called the non-emergency line on hold to take a call for someone who called 911 with an actual emergency.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission has agreed to adjust an order that governs how Madison should run its elections after the city discovered nearly 200 uncounted absentee ballots.
Chef Diane Moua is a three-time James Beard award finalist, and her restaurant Diane’s Place was named Food and Wine magazine’s 2025 Restaurant of the Year.
Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes has entered Wisconsin's 2026 race for governor, joining a crowded Democratic primary field and vowing to "get things done the Wisconsin way" if elected.
The parent company of Associated Bank will acquire Nebraska-based American National Bank’s parent company in a roughly $604 million all-stock deal, the companies announced Monday.
An RSU-13 school bus driver is on administrative leave following a collision with a student pedestrian who had just exited from his school bus and later died. The incident remains under investigation.
On Nov. 21 at around 2:20 p.m., Rockland Police and Rockland Maine Fire & Rescue EMS responded to a vehicle-pedestrian crash at an intersection. The Rockland Main Police Department noted that the incident involved an RSU-13 student who was struck by a school bus. The student was life-flighted to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. The student, identified by local media as 12-year-old Brayden Callahan, died Friday.
STN reached out to the Rockland Police Department for more information but had yet to hear back at his writing. Local media reported preliminary information from the police indicated that school bus driver Jeffery Colburn, 65, did not see the student. Articles add that Callahan had just exited the bus and was entering the crosswalk when Colburn pulled into the street.
Video footage reportedly shows that the crossing arm was not deployed at the time, the driver was leaning too far to the right in his seat, and that the bus first ran over Callaha with the front passenger-side tire, then again with the two rear passenger-side tires.
RSU-13 Superintendent John McDonald said in a letter to parents Sunday the school bus that struck Callahan has been decommissioned and a substitute driver was assigned to pick up students on that particular route.
“We have been working with the [Maine] Department of Education on a plan to have a replacement bus in our fleet up and running soon, and we appreciate their quick response in supporting us in this effort,” McDonald said, adding that counselors were available on the route and at school.
Rockland Police Chief Carroll added in a Facebook post that the investigation will be time-consuming due to the nature of the crash and the number of passengers on board who witnessed the incident.
“I also want to address the negativity, blaming and other rumors that inflame the emotions of everyone, doesn’t help with this process,” he wrote. “This is a time to grieve and support the family that has suffered a great loss. This is not the time to distract with other non-related things that have nothing to do with this tragedy itself.
“Let the investigation tell the story. Again, I assure you, we will complete a thorough investigation and provide a true series of events that lead to this horrific event,” he continued. “Recognize that we are all suffering. But in the end, let’s keep Brayden’s family in your prayers.”
This is a developing story. STN will provide an update as more information becomes available.
Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes in his launch video for his 2026 gubernatorial campaign. | Photo courtesy Mandela Barnes for Wisconsin campaign
Former Lt. Gov. and Senate candidate Mandela Barnes launched his campaign for governor on Tuesday — pledging to stand up to the Trump administration and work to make Wisconsin more affordable.
The 2026 gubernatorial election is the first open race for governor since 2010 and Barnes joins a crowded field of Democratic hopefuls. Some of those candidates include Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, state Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison), state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), Milwaukee County Exec. David Crowley and former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes.
There are about 10 months until the August primary.
In his announcement video, Barnes accuses President Donald Trump and the federal government of looking the other way as working people struggle to keep up with costs. He says the state needs to reject the “Washington Way” and get things done the “Wisconsin Way.”
The video kicks off with Barnes highlighting his family ties to unions, grabbing a jacket with the insignia of UAW, Local 1866, which is the Oak Creek chapter of the United Auto Workers union. He says it belongs to his dad who “wore it everywhere because being part of a union wasn’t just a job.” In the video, construction workers walk behind Barnes while he speaks.
“It meant you looked out for each other. It meant you had each other’s backs,” Barnes continues, adding that union jobs helped people afford a home, support their families and save for retirement. “That’s not the case anymore. Seems like the harder you work, the more Washington looks the other way. Lower taxes for billionaires, higher prices for working people.”
“Under Trump, the name of the game has been distraction and chaos to avoid accountability,” Barnes says. “It’s not about the real world. It’s a show. Outrage. Performances. Everybody trying to go viral. Meanwhile, families doing everything right are still falling behind.”
Barnes also announced Tuesday that he plans to kick off his campaign with a tour across the state, with stops in Madison, Milwaukee and Green Bay this week. He said he plans to meet voters to hear about their concerns about rising costs and to share his vision to improve affordability. According to a press release from his campaign, Barnes as governor would seek to expand BadgerCare — Wisconsin’s Medicaid program — and “close tax loopholes for the ultra-rich so we can cut taxes for middle-class families.”
“It isn’t about left or right. It’s not about who can yell the loudest,” Barnes says in his ad. “It’s about whether people can afford to live in the state they call home. A state where you can afford your health care, where your kids can learn a skill and stay close to home, where a good day’s work earns a good day’s pay and where families can not only get by, but thrive.”
Barnes will need to overcome concerns about his prior statewide loss to U.S. Senator Ron Johnson as he campaigns to win the Democratic nomination.
In the 2022 Senate race, Barnes won the Democratic nomination after the crowded field thinned and when some high-profile Democrats dropped out in the weeks before the primary date. He lost his general election challenge to Johnson, who had been considered one of the most beatable Republican incumbents in the country for Democrats, by a narrow margin.
Before launching his campaign, Barnes had already faced pushback to his run for governor due to that 2022 loss.
The New York Times reported in October that some Wisconsin Democrats were uneasy about Barnes running statewide in 2026. A few days later the Milwaukee Courier, the city’s longest-running Black-owned newspaper, published an opinion piece urging Barnes not to run, saying the state couldn’t risk another loss. The Courier noted that Barnes ran 50,000 votes behind Gov. Tony Evers in 2022, with Evers winning a second term that year. Barnes lost the Senate race by a little over 26,000 votes.
“We need a candidate who can unite this state — and win. Mandela Barnes already showed us he can’t,” the Milwaukee Courier oped stated.
Barnes is pushing back on that narrative. In his campaign ad, he says he knows how to “bring people together” and “how to get things done.”
“I’m running for governor because this jacket wasn’t just something my dad wore. It was a promise,” Barnes says. “We show up. We look out for each other.”
Barnes served in the Wisconsin State Assembly for two terms from 2013 to 2017 before he was elected as the state’s first Black lieutenant governor. He won the lieutenant governor nomination in 2018 in a two-person race, going on to win on the same ticket as Evers.
Since losing the Senate race in 2022, Barnes has served as president of Power to the Polls Wisconsin, a community-based organizing project focused on getting people out to vote. According to his campaign, he led a team that helped knock on over a million doors to engage infrequent voters and improve turnout and get people out to vote for Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz and Justice Susan Crawford in their successive winning campaigns.
The primary election is scheduled for Aug. 11, 2026. The Republican field is less crowded with U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, considered the front runner, and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann the only announced candidates.
A Delray Beach, Fla., police officer speaks with a driver in 2019. The Trump administration wants access to state driver’s license data through a computer network used by law enforcement to share records across state lines. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Four Republican states have agreed to help the Trump administration gain access to state driver’s license data through a nationwide law enforcement computer network as part of the administration’s hunt for alleged noncitizen voters.
The Trump administration said as recently as October that federal officials wanted to obtain driver’s license records through the network.
The commitment from officials in Florida, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio comes as part of a settlement agreement filed on Friday in a federal lawsuit. The lawsuit was originally brought by the states last year alleging the Biden administration wasn’t doing enough to help states verify voter eligibility.
The settlement, between the states and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, requires the federal department to continue its development of a powerful citizenship verification program known as SAVE. Earlier this year, federal officials repurposed SAVE into a program capable of scanning millions of state voter records for instances of noncitizen registered voters.
In return, the states have agreed to support Homeland Security’s efforts to access the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, an obscure computer network that typically allows law enforcement agencies to search driver’s license records across state lines. Nlets — as the system is known — lets police officers easily look up the driving records of out-of-state motorists.
The Trump administration and some Republican election officials have promoted the changes to SAVE as a useful tool to identify potential noncitizen voters, and Indiana had already agreed to provide voter records. Critics, including some Democrats, say the Trump administration is building a massive database of U.S. residents that President Donald Trump or a future president could use for spying or targeting political enemies.
Stateline reported last week, before the settlement agreement was filed in court, that Homeland Security publicly confirmed it wants to connect Nlets to SAVE.
A notice published Oct. 31 in the Federal Register said driver’s licenses are the most widely used form of identification, and that by working with states and national agencies, including Nlets, “SAVE will use driver’s license and state identification card numbers to check and confirm identity information.”
A federal official also previously told a virtual meeting of state election officials in May that Homeland Security was seeking “to avoid having to connect to 50 state databases” and wanted a “simpler solution,” such as Nlets, according to government records published by the transparency group American Oversight.
The new settlement lays out the timeline for how the Trump administration could acquire the four states’ records.
Within 90 days of the execution of the agreement, the four states may provide Homeland Security with 1,000 randomly selected driver’s license records from their state for verification as part of a quality improvement process for SAVE.
According to the agreement, the states that provide the records will “make best efforts to support and encourage DHS’s efforts to receive and have full use of state driver’s license records from the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System” and state driver’s license agencies.
The language in the agreement is open-ended and doesn’t make clear whether the pledge to help Homeland Security obtain access to Nlets is limited to drivers from those four states or is intended to require the states to help the agency acquire the records of drivers nationwide.
An agreement to help
The agreement could pave the way for Republican officials in other states to provide access to license data.
Nlets is a nonprofit organization that facilitates data sharing among law enforcement agencies across state lines. States decide what information to make available through Nlets, and which agencies can access it. That means the four states could try to influence peers to share Nlets data with the Trump administration.
“They’re not just talking about driver’s license numbers, they’re talking about the driver’s records. What possible reason would DHS have in an election or voting context — or any context whatsoever — for obtaining the ‘full use of state driver’s license records,’” said David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research.
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, said in a statement to Stateline that the settlement agreement provides another layer of election integrity and protection as officials seek to ensure only eligible voters are registered. He didn’t directly address questions about Nlets access.
“The SAVE program provides us with critical information, but we must also continue to utilize information from other state and federal partners to maintain clean and accurate lists,” Pate said in the statement.
Two weeks before the Nov. 5, 2024, election, Pate issued guidance to Iowa county auditors to challenge the ballots of 2,176 registered voters who were identified by the secretary of state’s office as potential noncitizens. The voters had reported to the state Department of Transportation or another government entity that they were not U.S. citizens in the past 12 years and went on to register to vote, according to the guidance.
In March, Pate said his office gained access to the SAVE database and found 277 of those people were confirmed to not have U.S. citizenship — just under 12% of the individuals identified as potential noncitizens.
What possible reason would DHS have in an election or voting context — or any context whatsoever — for obtaining the ‘full use of state driver’s license records.’
– David Becker, executive director, Center for Election Innovation & Research
Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
Matthew Tragesser, a spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — the agency under Homeland Security that oversees SAVE — told Stateline last week that USCIS was committed to “eliminating barriers to securing the nation’s electoral process.”
“By allowing states to efficiently verify voter eligibility, we are reinforcing the principle that America’s elections are reserved exclusively for American citizens,” Tragesser said in a statement.
The SAVE program — Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements — was originally intended to help state and local officials verify the immigration status of individual noncitizens seeking government benefits. In the past, SAVE could search only one name at a time. Now it can conduct bulk searches; federal officials in May also connected the program to Social Security data.
“It’s a potentially dangerous mix to put driver’s license and Social Security number and date of birth information out there … where we really don’t know yet how and when and where it’s going to be used,” Minnesota Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon said in an interview on Monday.
Democratic states object
As the Trump administration has encouraged states to use SAVE, the Justice Department has also demanded states provide the department with unredacted copies of their voter rolls. The Trump administration has previously confirmed the Justice Department is sharing voter information with Homeland Security.
The Justice Department has sued six, mostly Democratic, states for refusing to turn over the data. Those lawsuits remain pending.
On Monday, 12 state secretaries of state submitted a 29-page public comment, in response to SAVE’s Federal Register notice, criticizing the overhaul. The secretaries wrote that while Homeland Security claims the changes make the program an effective tool for verifying voters, the modifications are “likely to degrade, not enhance” states’ efforts to ensure free, fair and secure elections.
“What the modified system will do … is allow the federal government to capture sensitive data on hundreds of millions of voters nationwide and distribute that information as it sees fit,” the secretaries wrote.
The secretaries of state of California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington signed on to the comment.
The settlement agreement purports to make this year’s changes to SAVE legally binding.
The agreement asks that a federal court retain jurisdiction over the case for 20 years for the purposes of enforcing it — a move that in theory could make it harder for a future Democratic president to reverse the changes to SAVE.
But Becker, of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said he doesn’t expect the settlement agreement would make it more difficult for a future administration to undo the overhaul.
“Should a different administration come in that disagrees with this approach,” Becker said, “I would expect that they would almost certainly completely change how the system operates and how the states can access it and what data the federal government procures.”
Iowa Capital Dispatch reporter Robin Opsahl contributed to this report. Stateline reporter Jonathan Shorman can be reached at jshorman@stateline.org.
This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Arizona Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly speaks with reporters in the Mansfield Room of the U.S. Capitol on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — Arizona Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly said Monday the threat of a court-martial for a video he and other senators released telling military members not to follow illegal orders is an effort to silence the president’s political opponents.
Kelly, a retired Navy captain, was one of six Democratic lawmakers with backgrounds in the military or intelligence agencies who appeared in the video that was posted on social media in mid-November.
President Donald Trump alleged the lawmakers had committed “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” for telling members of the military and intelligence communities that they “can” and “must refuse illegal orders.”
Kelly said during a press conference that he and his wife, former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, who survived being shot during a town hall in 2011, have experienced a sharp increase in threats in the weeks since Trump reacted negatively to the video.
“My family knows the cost of political violence. My wife, Gabby, was shot in the head and nearly died while speaking with her constituents,” Kelly said. “The president should understand this too. He has been the target of political violence himself.”
Kelly then listed off other recent instances of political violence, including the killing of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, the arson at the official home of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk during a rally at Utah Valley University.
“Every other president we have ever had in the history of this nation would have tried to heal the country,” Kelly said. “But we all know Donald Trump, he uses every single opportunity to divide us, and that’s dangerous.”
Kelly said he and the other Democrats in the video would not be intimidated or silenced by Trump’s comments or the investigations.
“It’s a dangerous moment for the United States of America when the president and his loyalists use every lever of power to silence United States senators for speaking up,” Kelly said. “But we all know that this isn’t about me and it’s not about the others in that video.
“They’re trying to send a message to retired service members, to government employees, the members of the military, to elected officials and to all Americans who are thinking about speaking up — you better keep your mouth shut, or else.”
Video caused stir
The lawmakers’ video reminded servicemembers they’d sworn an oath to the Constitution, something Kelly said shouldn’t have been controversial.
“No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution. We know this is hard and that it’s a difficult time to be a public servant,” the Democrats said in the video. “But whether you’re serving in the CIA, in the Army, or Navy, or the Air Force, your vigilance is critical.”
Kelly declined to say directly during the press conference if the video was a response to ongoing strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea that Trump and others in the administration have said are shipping illegal substances to the United States.
“I think it’s good for people to get a reminder. And we wanted to show that we had their back and we understood the situation they were in,” Kelly said. “And we said something that is in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to the law of armed combat.”
Investigations opened
The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have each opened investigations into the strikes after The Washington Post reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a verbal order to make sure everyone died during a Sept. 2 strike on one of the boats.
Kelly said that he has “tremendous confidence” in committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi and ranking member Jack Reed of Rhode Island. But he repeatedly criticized Hegseth as unqualified, saying he often “runs around on a stage like he’s a 12-year-old playing army.”
“If there is anyone who needs to answer questions in public and under oath, it is Pete Hegseth,” Kelly said.
The Armed Services Committee, he said, should have both a public hearing and one for senators in a classified setting to get more details on the strikes on boats off the coast of Venezuela, including whether the Trump administration has a strategy.
Kelly said if Trump wants to remove Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, then he must make that clear so Congress can have a debate and Americans can have a say in a potential war.
“Regime change as a policy in the United States, generally, in our history, has not worked out well. Think of South Vietnam, think of the Bay of Pigs, Iraq and Afghanistan. It results in the deaths of U.S. service members without the intended outcome,” Kelly said. “And in this case, I don’t even think we know the intended outcome. The president needs to make a case to the American people when he is about to put thousands of American men and women in harm’s way.”
A makeshift memorial of flowers and American flags honoring the late West Virginia National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom stands outside the Farragut West Metro station on Dec. 1, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has accelerated his drive to curb legal immigration, after a native of Afghanistan who had been granted asylum was accused in a shooting in the nation’s capital that left one member of the West Virginia National Guard dead and another in critical condition.
“In the wake of last week’s atrocity, it is more important than ever to finish carrying out the president’s mass deportation operation,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during Monday’s press briefing. “They must go back to their home countries.”
The Trump administration at the beginning of the president’s second term launched an unprecedented crackdown on all forms of immigration. The deadly shooting on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, in a commercial area of the District of Columbia just blocks from the White House, has intensified the push.
The Department of Homeland Security in a social media post after the Wednesday attack called for immigrants to “remigrate,” which is a far-right concept in Europe that calls for the ethnic removal of non-white minority populations through mass migration.
“There is more work to be done,” Leavitt said, “because President Trump believes that he has a sacred obligation to reverse the calamity of mass unchecked migration into our country.”
The suspect in the guard shooting is a 29-year-old Afghan national who entered the country during the Biden administration through a special immigrant visa program for Afghan allies after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from the country in 2021.
Still hospitalized is U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24. Trump has indicated he intends to honor both Beckstrom and Wolfe at the White House.
District officials said the shooting of guard members was “targeted,” but the motive remains under investigation.
Pauses on asylum
Leavitt said the Trump administration will continue “to limit migration, both illegal and legal,” after the shooting.
Separately on Wednesday, the administration ended Temporary Protected Status for more than 330,000 nationals from Haiti, opening them up for deportations by February.
Within hours of Wednesday’s shooting, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services halted all immigration requests from Afghanistan nationals. On Thursday, USCIS head Joseph Edlow announced that by direction of Trump the agency would reexamine every green card application from “every country of concern,” which are the 19 countries on the president’s travel ban list.
And by Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed all U.S. embassies to suspend all visa approvals for individuals with passports from Afghanistan.
Over the weekend, Trump told reporters that those pauses on asylum could last “a long time,” although it’s unclear what authority the executive branch has to suspend a law created by Congress through the 1980 Refugee Act.
This is not the first time Trump has tried to end asylum this year, as there is a legal challenge to the president barring asylum seekers from making asylum claims at U.S. ports of entry.
Venezuelan boat strikes
During Monday’s press conference, Leavitt also defended the Trump administration’s continued deadly strikes on boats off the coast of Venezuela allegedly containing drugs. The attacks have been occurring since September.
The president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have stated, without evidence, that the boats’ operators are narco-terrorists and that the strikes are legal, since they have taken place in international waters. Roughly 80 people have been killed in nearly two dozen attacks since September.
Leavitt disputed any questions of wrongdoing by the administration during a Sept. 2 strike, when two survivors clinging to boat wreckage were allegedly killed by a follow-on strike, as first reported by The Washington Post Friday.
“President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have made it clear that presidentially designated narco-terrorist groups are subject to lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war,” Leavitt said, adding that Hegseth authorized a military commander to conduct the operation.
However, the attacks have raised concern among members of Congress, and following the Post story, the U.S. Senate and House Armed Services committees moved to open bipartisan inquiries into the military strikes, with a focus on the alleged follow-on attack that killed two survivors.
How the National Guard wound up in the district
Trump initially mobilized 800 National Guard troops to the nation’s capital in August after claiming a “crime emergency” in the district, despite a documented three-decade low in crime.
Many were instructed they would be carrying service weapons, The Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 17. The White House effort was accompanied by a heightened U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence in the district.
The mobilization then became tied up in court for months.
A federal district judge in the District of Columbia found the administration’s deployment of more than 2,000 guard troops in the city illegal but stayed her Nov. 20 decision for three weeks to give the administration time to appeal and remove the guard members from the district’s streets.
The guard troops had been expected to remain in the district through the end of February.
The administration filed an emergency motion in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for a stay to be issued on the order by Thursday. The administration filed the emergency motion the same day as the attack on the two National Guard members.
Trump ordered an additional 500 guard members to the district following the shooting.
The Joint Task Force District of Columbia has been overseeing guard operations in the district, including units from the district, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and West Virginia.
Sign for the Wisconsin Elections Comission. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)
The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted unanimously Monday to modify its order imposing a number of requirements on the Madison city clerk’s office due to the loss of nearly 200 absentee ballots in the 2024 election.
In August, the commission ordered the city to make a number of changes to its election practices in an effort to prevent the loss of future ballots.
The original order requires the city to develop an internal plan delineating which employee is responsible for statutorily required tasks, change the absentee ballot processing system so bags and envelopes aren’t lost, update instructional materials for poll workers and complete a full inspection of all materials before the scheduled board of canvassers meeting after an election.
In a special meeting on Monday, the commission voted 6-0 to approve a request from newly appointed clerk Clerk Lydia McComas to modify a section of the order about the timing of printing and preparing poll books.
Under the original order, Madison is required to print its poll books no earlier than the Tuesday before an election and must arrange to receive those books no later than the Friday before the election.
McComas told the commission in a memo that the city had found a vendor that could print the poll books on the Friday before an election and deliver them by the Sunday before the election. This would allow the final printed poll books to include as many absentee ballots as possible, limiting the number of absentee ballots that are returned after the poll books are printed.
In her memo, McComas wrote that the modification would allow the city to achieve its “shared goal” with the commission of reducing “the chance of human error.”
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