Sen. Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) speaks at a press conference Wednesday morning about the Senate Democrats' "Affordable Wisconsin Agenda." (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)
If there’s one word at the top of Democratic Party political discourse this year, it’s “affordability.”
Whether focused on a particular issue — child care, health care and housing are the most frequent examples — or on the cost of just about everything, making goods and services and life “affordable” figures high in the opening pitches of candidates across the state.
“I think the No. 1 issue that we need to focus on is affordability,” said Mitchell Berman, a Racine County nurse, when heannounced in August he would seek the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District.
Trevor Jung in Racinelaunched his state Senate campaign in September with a focus on “affordability” and “good-paying jobs.” Corrine Hendrickson, a former child care proprietor in New Glarus, said “affordability” is the top issue forher state Senate bid — and she wasn’t just talking about child care.
Democrats campaigning to be the party’s nominee for governor as diverse asDavid Crowley,Missy Hughes, andFrancesca Hong have all uttered the word in introducing themselves to the public.
On Wednesday, the State Senate Democratic Committee had a press conference outside the Capitol to announce the Democrats’ focus on affordability, both for their upcoming legislative agenda and with an eye on the 2026 elections.
“Right now in Wisconsin, 65% of families are saying they are just getting by or they are struggling,” said Sen. Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton), the Senate minority leader. A spokesperson said the July Marquette University Law School poll was the source for thesurvey finding.
State Senate Democrats plan to spend the next few weeks traveling Wisconsin and hearing from state residents. Hesselbein said those conversations will become fodder for “tangible policy solutions that will help working families keep more of their hard-earned money, and we’re calling it the Affordable Wisconsin Agenda.”
Nathan Kalmoe, a University of Wisconsin political scientist, said via email that emphasizing poor economic conditions could be risky for Wisconsin Democrats running in state elections. While Republican lawmakers “may take some blame, the governor is a Democrat,” and voters tend to hold the chief executive responsible for economic conditions, he said.
Kalmoe added that focusing on the economy exclusively at the expense of concerns for the most marginalized or concerns about Trump administration actions that threaten democracy would be “disturbing, and dangerous.”
Nevertheless, polling trends in the last several months suggest why Democrats nationwide have been focusing on inflation and the economy, said John D. Johnson, a research fellow and political analyst at Marquette University.
In Marquette polls shortly after President Donald Trump was elected to a second term in November, and again before he took office in January, 41% of adults nationally said they believed his policies would reduce inflation.
In Marquette’s most recent national poll, conducted in mid-September and released Oct. 2, “that had fallen to 25%,” Johnson said in an email to the Wisconsin Examiner. “Meanwhile, the share believing Trump’s policies would increase inflation grew from 45% to 60%.”
In the September poll, 40% of adults named “inflation and the cost of living” as the top issue in the U.S. “Another 19% chose ‘the economy’ more generally,” Johnson said.
“Overall, 29% of adults approved of Trump’s handling of ‘inflation and the cost of living’ while 71% disapproved,” Johnson said. (On “border security,” meanwhile, 55% of those polled approved Trump while 45% disapproved.)
In May, 68% of Republicans and 23% of independent voters told the Marquette pollsters they approved of how Trump was handling “inflation and the cost of living.” By September, Republican support had slipped to 57%, but among independents, support had plummeted to 14%.
“In other words, this is (1) an issue where there is a lot of daylight between how Republicans and Independents rate Trump, and (2) an issue where Trump is falling with both Democrats and Independents,” Johnson said.
At the Senate Democrats’ news conference Wednesday, a succession of senators — along with one state representative who is a Senate hopeful — spoke of how the issue of affordability cuts across a wide range of topics. And each laid blame for inaction on their Republican rivals.
“Senate Democrats have already been leading the fight to lower the cost of housing, whether trying to expand the homestead tax credit or preventing hedge funds from buying up available housing stocks, but undoubtedly more needs to be done,” said Sen. Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick).
Rep. Jenna Jacobson (D-Oregon), who has the endorsement of the Senate Democrats as she seeks the party’s nomination in the 17th Senate District next year, pointed to “reckless federal policies” hitting farmers and hiking grocery bills.
Democratic state lawmakers have proposed a free school meal bill along with grants for farmers who provide food to food pantries, replacing a federal program cut by the Trump administration, she said; both are “examples of some of the kinds of policies that we can advance to lower everyday costs.”
Sen. Kristin Dassler-Alfheim (D-Appleton) warned of coming spikes both in health insurance costs and in the rates of people without health insurance because of the expiring Affordable Care Act premium subsidies at the center of the federal shutdown fight in Congress. “We need Congress to get to work and renew these ACA subsidies,” she said.
Meanwhile, bills in the state Legislature to lower prescription drug costs and cap the price of asthma medication “haven’t even gotten a public hearing,” Dassler-Alfheim said. “We could be doing more here in Wisconsin to make life a little bit more affordable for everyone.”
Sen. Sarah Keyeski (D-Lodi) said Wisconsin continues to face “a child care crisis,” with too few options for working families. Care is increasingly costly, “not because child care providers are making huge profits,” she said. “It’s because we can no longer underpay those doing the child care work, mostly women.”
Democrats have been pushing for expanding child care support, “yet Republicans in Madison stand in the way every single time,” Keyeski said.
Hesselbein said that the Senate Democrats hope that they can follow up on their conversations with voters across the state by “bringing those ideas back to the state Legislature, working on them and hopefully being able to pass them in a bipartisan manner.”
At the same time, however, she blamed inaction on Republican lawmakers who “are mired in internal conflict, unwilling to cross the aisle and get stuff done for Wisconsinites.” The 2026 election will enable voters to “turn the page,” she said, “and vote for a vision that puts Wisconsinites first, that puts you and your families first.”
Democratic Senators called attention to cuts to two veterans programs taking effect in October due to funding being left out of the state budget by Republican lawmakers. The Wisconsin Senate passing the 2025-27 budget bill in July. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
State lawmakers have failed to find a solution to stop cuts taking effect in October to two Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs programs that help veterans struggling with homelessness and mental health issues.
The Veterans Housing and Recovery Program (VHRP) is closing two of its locations, one in Chippewa Falls and the other in Green Bay, and the Veterans Outreach and Recovery Program (VORP), which serves veterans dealing with mental health and substance use issues and aims to reduce the suicide rate among veterans, is set to lose seven positions.
The VHRP has been the center of back and forth between Democrats and Republicans for months since the announcement of the closures in July.
A Republican bill to fund the program received a hearing in September, but it was too late to stop the closures.
VORP launched in 2015 with the help of a federal mental health grant. It is now state funded and Evers used American Rescue Plan Act funds in 2023 to expand the reach of the program, but those funds have run out.
Gov. Tony Evers had requested seven positions and more than $1.1 million to help support the program, but Republican lawmakers stripped that proposal from the state budget. Those seven positions were set to expire in October without the additional funds, though the cuts have already taken effect with the state Department of Veterans Affairs reducing the number of regions under the program from 16 back to 11.
The additional employees had helped the agency reach more veterans, provide support in a more timely manner and give veterans more individual attention, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. In 2023-24, the program provided services to 2,222 people — a nearly 70% increase compared to the prior year.
Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) and Sen. Jamie Wall (D-Green Bay) called attention to the cuts during a press call on Tuesday, blaming Republicans for the failure to provide the needed funding.
“I’m frustrated, and I’m devastated at the same time,” Hesselbein said. “As of today, these facilities are closed and the veterans they once housed have been relocated.”
Hoey said at the hearing on the bill from Sen. Andre Jacque (R-New Franken) that the earliest the Chippewa Falls facility would be able to reopen is sometime after Oct. 1, 2026. The Green Bay location, he said, could be reopened relatively quickly if there was funding and depending on whether the federal government would approve a request for a change to its scope.
Hesselbein noted that Evers and Democratic lawmakers have provided several opportunities for Republicans to keep the VHRP sites open and provide funding to VORP.
Democratic lawmakers, led by Hesselbein and Rep. Robyn Vining (D-Wauwatosa), introduced a bill to provide funding for the VORP positions, but it hasn’t received a hearing in the Republican-led Legislature. No Republican lawmakers have signed on to it, nor have they introduced their own version that would provide the funding.
A separate bill, authored by Wall, Sen. Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick) and Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Clare), would provide the necessary funding for the VHRP sites. It previously would have provided $1.9 million, but an amendment to the legislation increases that to $2.6 million, which, Wall said, would be necessary to restart the programs.
“My disappointment is with the leadership of legislative Republicans that has not made this program, has not made that bill, has not made homeless veterans a priority over the last few months,” Wall said. “They’ve run out the clock until here we are on Sept. 30, with the funding going away now. It’s possible to revive these programs… but it’s going to take a little bit more money and a lot more time. In the best case, we’re looking at next fall before we can stand up these programs again.”
Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto) blamed Evers for the closures, again, in a statement on Tuesday, claiming that there is money available to fund the programs.
“The Legislature appropriated enough funding to support the Veterans Housing and Recovery Program,” Wimberger said. “Evers simply refused to spend it. The closing of veterans’ homeless shelters is his decision alone, and he quite literally is refusing to use available funding in the exact same manner as he did last year to run those facilities.”
Evers has previously rejected Wimberger’s claim, noting that a paper from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau to the Joint Finance Committee warned lawmakers that additional funds were needed for the program.
A letter from Republican lawmakers also noted that there has been a balance that the Department of Veterans Affairs returns to the state treasury at the end of the year, though Hoey has noted that the agency is “only allowed to spend the money [the Legislature] tell[s] us to spend.”
Wall made a similar point during the press conference, saying that “we don’t just write a blank check to the Department of Veterans Affairs or any other part of the state budget. What we do is say that there’s so much money in this budget line for this program and so much money in that budget line for this other program, and so the fact that the Department of Veterans Affairs had surplus money and other budget lines doesn’t mean that they could just willy-nilly take that and spend that any way they wanted to for the benefit of this program.”
Hesselbein said this is a continuation of Republicans’ “strange finger pointing.”
Hesselbein used the deadline for the closures and cuts as an opportunity to talk about what Democrats would do if they were in the majority. Democrats are seeking to flip the Senate in 2026 and need to win two additional seats to do it.
“Republicans chose to do nothing,” Hesselbein said. “Rest assured in a couple of years, when I’m the majority leader, these kinds of antics won’t be tolerated in a Democratic majority, but unfortunately, while that day is on the horizon, it’s not here yet.”
A Planned Parenthood Clinic in downtown Milwaukee. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin will once again pause abortion services at its clinics next week after an injunction that blocked portions of President Donald Trump’s megabill was lifted.
Three Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin clinics in Madison, Milwaukee and Sheboygan currently offer abortion services and are together the largest provider for abortion services in the state.
The temporary pause in services will take effect on Oct. 1. Until then, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin says that it is working to see as many patients as possible and continuing to monitor the legal landscape.
“Our commitment is unwavering: Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin will continue to provide the full spectrum of reproductive health care — including abortion — as soon and as we are able to,” Tanya Atkinson, president of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin said in a statement. “In the meantime, we are pursuing every available option — through the courts, through operations, and civic engagement.”
“To the patients who count on us: we are here for you. To our staff and supporters: thank you for standing with us. We remain dedicated to care — no matter what,” Atkinson said.
The organization is halting services due the federal tax cut and spending megabill — officially titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act — signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year.
Federal funds have been prohibited from being used to pay for most abortion care for nearly five decades under the Hyde Amendment. However, Planned Parenthood has been able to use federal funds via Medicaid payments and Title X, a federally funded family planning program, to help provide services other than abortion care, including contraceptive care, STI testing, pregnancy testing, and gynecological services to low-income and uninsured individuals.
The new law includes a provision, which is set to expire July 4, 2026, that bars Medicaid payments for one year for organizations that received more than $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in fiscal year 2023 and primarily engage in family planning services and reproductive health and provide abortions. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin noted that the law was crafted specifically to penalize Planned Parenthood and its patients.
The law is being challenged in court, but an injunction that was blocking the law from taking effect was lifted earlier this month by the First District Court of Appeals.
According to the UW-Madison’s Collaborative for Reproductive Equity (CORE), after October 1, clinic-based abortion care in Wisconsin will only be available at two independent clinics in Milwaukee.
“Effectively, 99% of Wisconsin counties now lack clinic-based abortion care,” the organization said in an email.
This is the second time that abortion services will disappear from the state since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs decision, abortion care in Wisconsin halted for about 15 months from June 2022 until September 2023, when Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin determined it had enough legal standing to resume.
Abortion had been halted in Wisconsin due to a criminal law enacted in 1849, but that was ruled invalid and unenforceable by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in July. The Court found in its 4-3 decision that the law had effectively been repealed by other laws passed after it.
A coalition of Illinois abortion providers and advocates said at a press conference in Chicago Thursday morning that they were prepared to take Wisconsin residents who need abortion services.
Dr. Allison Cowett, an OB-GYN and chief medical officer for Family Planning Associates, which is the largest independent abortion provider in Illinois, said the agency saw a significant jump in patients the last time abortion services were restricted in Wisconsin.
“Before Dobbs, less than 3% of our patients traveled to Illinois from Wisconsin for an abortion. When Wisconsin’s 1849 trigger ban went into effect, that number jumped to 9%,” Cowett said. “One in every 12 patients we cared for here in this building came from Wisconsin. After 15 months of that ban, abortion services in Wisconsin were restored, and that number dropped in half.”
She expects the previous increase to be repeated.
“With the sharp reduction in abortion access expected in Wisconsin in less than a week, we anticipate a large influx of patients, once again, forced to travel to Illinois for this basic health care,” Cowett said.
Megan Jeyifo, executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund, said the pause in services amounts to a ban and Illinois is prepared to once again take in patients.
“Illinois is ready. Our constellation of care, which includes providers, funds, advocates, and our incredible elected officials will not leave people stranded,” Jeyifo said. “We will not abandon people when they need us. We will be here with open arms to support the needs of our neighbors. Abortion is not just a procedure or a few pills. Abortion gives women and girls and trans and non-binary people control of our lives, our families and our futures.”
Wisconsin Democrats were critical of Trump’s law for how it is affecting access and recommended that people continue to reach out to Planned Parenthood if they need care.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) told reporters after a discussion with people affected by Trump administration changes to the Affordable Care Act in Mount Horeb that Planned Parenthood’s announcement is just one of the health care impacts from Trump’s “big, ugly bill.”
“Planned Parenthood does incredible things for people’s health, cancer screenings, wellness checkups, full range of reproductive care, and this is obviously already having impacts on the type of care that Wisconsinites will be able to receive, and it’s a tragic result,” Baldwin said.
State Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) and state Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said in a joint statement that “the Trump administration and Republican extremists are focused on targeting access to reproductive health care.”
“Planned Parenthood’s announcement that it is pausing abortion services is the latest example of the devastating effects of Trump’s Big, Ugly Bill. Wisconsinites will continue to have their lives upended and their wellbeing threatened by that piece of legislation,” the lawmakers said. “It is important to note that abortion is and remains legal in the State of Wisconsin. Those who need that health care should continue to contact Planned Parenthood for help in finding access to those services or reach out to other providers who offer abortion services.”
Wisconsin Right to Life, an anti-abortion advocacy organization, celebrated the pause in services in a statement.
“Taxpayer dollars should never fund the taking of innocent preborn lives,” Executive Director Heather Weininger said, claiming that Planned Parenthood has “long centered its operations around abortion services, and this announcement only confirms that reality.”
According to Planned Parenthood’s annual report from 2022-23, abortion services accounted for 4% of all the health services the organization provided.
“Women and girls facing difficult or unexpected pregnancies deserve compassion, real support, and life-affirming care — and that’s exactly what the pro-life movement is committed to providing,” Weininger said.
Gov. Tony Evers and Veterans Affairs Sec. James Bond spoke an event for veterans in the state Capitol on April 22, 2025. (Photo via Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs Facebook page)
A Republican bill that would provide funding for the Veterans Housing and Recovery Program received a hearing in the state Senate on Thursday, advancing a potential solution to the cuts the program is facing even as it appears too late to stop the closures.
Sen. André Jacque (R-New Franken), the lead author on the proposal, told the Senate Natural Resources, Veteran and Military Affairs committee that it is the responsibility of lawmakers to ensure that Wisconsin “properly honors the sacrifices made by our brave men and women of the armed services” and his bill would help do that. He also serves as the chair of the committee.
“I know that there’s been a lot of confusion and contentious finger pointing over responsibility for the interruption of service at these sites. Ideally, these issues would have already been resolved but finger pointing accomplishes nothing,” Jacque said.
The Veterans Housing and Recovery Program (VHRP) has been a source of back-and-forth between Gov. Tony Evers and Democratic lawmakers and Republican lawmakers since the closure of two sites, one in Chippewa Falls and the other in the Green Bay area, was announced in July.
The program, operated by the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, has focused on providing support to veterans on the verge of or experiencing homelessness, including those who have experienced incarceration, unemployment or physical and mental health problems. Veterans in the program are able to participate for a maximum of 24 months, but the average length of stay is six to 10 months.
Evers announced in July that the sites would close on Sept. 30 due to a lack of state funding in the budget. He had requested an additional $2 million from lawmakers to help sustain the program, but that request wasn’t heeded and Democratic attempts to put the funding back in the budget were rejected by Republicans — apart from Jacque, who voted with Democrats.
Gov. Tony Evers’ administration announced shortly after the end of the budget process in July that the two facilities would be closing.
Evers blamed the closures on lawmakers for not providing the additional funds, while lawmakers said Evers didn’t try to negotiate for the funding.
Then some Republican lawmakers who represent areas surrounding the facilities started claiming that money should be available for the administration to use. In a 16-page letter on Sept. 10, a handful of Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto) and Jesse James (R-Thorp) and Reps. Karen Hurd (R-Withee) and Benjamin Franklin (R-De Pere), claimed that the Evers administration should have access to funds to help support the program. That letter pointed to the balance that the WDVA returns at the end of the year, though an agency spokesperson has noted that the agency cannot spend funds on whatever the administration chooses, and is “only allowed to spend the money they tell us to spend.”
Evers had also denied the claim, saying “the money is not there.” He noted that a paper from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau to the Joint Finance Committee warned lawmakers that additional funds were needed for the program.
“Without additional funding, the Department [of Veterans Affairs] would not have sufficient resources to maintain the program’s three sites,” the paper stated.
Senate Bill 411 would provide $900,000 in 2025-26 and $1,050,000 in 2026-27 for the program and for costs associated with the Chippewa Falls site. Jacque’s bill also includes two other policy changes that he said veterans have been requesting. One would require the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin system to provide funding to the UW Missing-in-Action Recovery and Identification Project to support missions to recover and identify Wisconsin veterans who are missing, and the other would lower the eligibility threshold for veterans and surviving spouses to claim the veterans and surviving spouses property tax credit.
“We have the opportunity to achieve a proactive, bipartisan solution to the funding problem, and I encourage my committee members to join me in approving this funding package,” Jacque said. “Supporting our veterans has not been and must not be a partisan fight. I truly believe there’s enough support and good will on both sides of the aisle to accomplish each of these priorities.”
The bill does currently has only nine Republican sponsors and no Democratic sponsors. Democratic lawmakers had proposed their own bill with Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) saying at a press conference that she preferred “clean legislation.” That bill is unlikely to advance in the Republican-led Legislature even as Democrats call for a bill hearing on it.
Jacque said legislators are also discussing the potential for the Joint Finance Committee to reallocate funds for the program, and that his conversations about his bill have been productive on both sides of the aisle.
“That was my goal in bringing it forward immediately after the budget was done, to have a vehicle to continue that conversation and make sure that we get some additional progress done on these issues beyond budget,” Jacque said.
The VHRP has been funded through three revenue streams: trust fund payments, payments made by program participants and per diem payments, which are made to the agency by the federal government at a current rate of about $71 per resident per day.
Growing staffing and maintenance costs have strained those funds. A contract with Lutheran Social Services, which staffs the facilities, makes up about 70% of the costs. The Evers administration had postponed some of the looming financial hardship by allocating American Rescue Plan Act funding to the program in 2023-24, but those funds have been expended.
WDVA Assistant Deputy Secretary Joey Hoey said in testimony that it is too late to stop the closure of the facilities at least for a time.
Hoey said that when the budget passed on July 3, the three VHRP sites were in their fourth year of the federal VA’s Grant and Per Diem (GPD) Program with the option to renew for a fifth and final year starting October 1, 2025.
The agency was forced to consolidate the facilities to the Union Grove location, the site in best physical condition, without dedicated state funding for the program. The agency also had to notify the USDVA that it would not be renewing its grant agreement for Chippewa Falls. It asked to renew and change the scope of the grant agreement that covers both Union Grove and Green Bay, reducing the total number of beds from 57 to 40 to reflect the closure of the Green Bay facility.
“Being forced to close our facilities in Green Bay and Chippewa Falls was gut wrenching for the veterans and for staff,” Hoey said. “I want to assure everyone in this room that with the help of veteran advocates, our partners at Lutheran Social Services and others, we were able to provide all the veterans in our care at Green Bay and Chippewa Falls with alternative options. As of last week, neither facility has any veterans still at the facility. All those residents have been successfully placed either in other treatment programs for veterans, other treatment programs that are not veteran centered, some have moved to Minneapolis, some moved to Michigan, a good amount have moved to our facility in Union Grove, but no veterans were kicked out on the street.”
Hoey said even if the state were to pass the bill before the end of September, the state agency cannot rescind the notification for Chippewa Falls. It would only be able to apply for the next round of grants, which wouldn’t be available until October 2026.
“The earliest we could resume the program in Chippewa Falls would be sometime after October 1, 2026,” Hoey said. “If this bill passes, we stand ready to ask the USDVA to change the scope of our agreement covering Union Grove and Green Bay to go back up to the 57 beds included in the original grant. We believe that the USDVA would approve that change, meaning we could resume the program in Green Bay relatively quickly, provided that the landlord has not rented out the facility we were using and that we can sign a contract with Lutheran Social Services.”
Senate and Assembly Democratic lawmakers proposed their own package of education bills ahead of the floor session that would increase general aid for public schools by $325 per pupil, provide transparency on voucher school costs and provide free school meals to students. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Wisconsin Assembly Republicans passed a handful of bills Thursday on an array of issues. Democrats argued the measures won’t solve the problems facing Wisconsinites and unveiled their own proposals.
The Assembly floor session is the first since lawmakers broke for the summer after completing the state budget. The Senate does not plan to meet this month, and Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) told reporters during a press conference that it was a “shame” they wouldn’t. She said she has had conversations about meeting in October.
Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said Republicans’ agenda for Thursday was an example of “prioritizing culture wars” rather than “doing what’s right.”
Democrats’ education bills
Senate and Assembly Democratic lawmakers proposed their own package of education bills ahead of the floor session that would increase general aid for public schools by $325 per pupil, provide transparency on voucher school costs and provide free school meals to students.
“We would like to see our legislative Republican colleagues focus on the issues that are facing Wisconsinites — issues like cost of living, their public schools and their property taxes,” Neubauer said. “That’s why we’re bringing forward this package today, because we know from conversations with our constituents what they’re really concerned about.”
The Democrats’ education agenda contrasts with the plan announced by Assembly Republicans earlier this week. Republican proposals include encouraging consolidation of schools, calling on Gov. Tony Evers to opt into a federal school choice program, banning drones over schools and improving math education.
One Democratic bill would dedicate $325 in additional per pupil state aid to Wisconsin school districts. It would cost nearly $500 million for 2025-26 and nearly $700 million for 2026-27.
Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) called it the “bare minimum” that school districts need and said it would help school districts avoid raising property taxes.
“School districts will do better under this bill than current law,” Roys said. “We know every kid around the state deserves to go to a great school so that they can meet their potential, but to be clear, this bill is not everything that our kids need or deserve, not even close.”
Wisconsin’s most recent state budget did not give school districts any increase in per pupil general aid, despite calls from education advocates, Gov. Tony Evers and other Democrats to provide additional funding.
Republican lawmakers said they would not increase state aid after Evers used his partial veto power to extend a cap on the annual increase to limits on the revenue districts can raise from local taxpayer of $325 per pupil for the next 400 years. Without state funding, school districts only have the option of increasing property taxes to bring in the additional funds. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau projects that property taxes will increase by more than 7% on average over the next year.
Roys said the bill is a “test” to see if Republicans want to help keep property taxes stable, since providing no state aid to schools will drive those taxes up. She blamed Republicans for placing districts in a situation where they have to go to property taxpayers to keep up with costs.
Roys also knocked a Republican bill that would encourage school districts to explore consolidation and sharing services.
“They want to consolidate school districts. They want to close schools, and by the way, everything’s the governor’s fault. Give me a break,” Roys said. “They want to hold the line on property taxes? Prove it.”
The bill also includes an additional $31 million to ensure no school districts receive less state aid in 2025-26 than they received in 2024-25.
The Department of Public Instruction’s July 1 estimate found that 277 districts — or 65.8% — of school districts were going to receive less in general aid from the state in 2025.
Another bill seeks to provide greater transparency on the costs of voucher schools to districts by requiring property tax bills to include information about the cost. The bill would expand on a push that public school advocates are making at a local level after the city of Green Bay was able to add the information.
Rep. Deb Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay) said the bill would help inform residents who may be confused about where their tax dollars are going.
“We can say, time and time again, that the state is underfunding our local public schools. That is true. What they also don’t understand, and there’s a really simple fix, is how much of that money is leaving their district to go to other voucher schools. In some cases, millions and tens of millions of dollars… It is a simple fix. It is very straightforward,” Andraca said.
Requiring in-person work for state employees
AB 39 would require state employees to return to in-person work for at least 80% of their time — or four days a week for a full-time employee — starting this year. The bill passed 51-44 with all Democrats opposing it.
The bill initially required state agency employees to be in person the whole week, but an amendment dropped the minimum to four days.
Republican lawmakers have been calling for stricter limits on remote work for several years. The policies became normal for state employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nedweski said she isn’t “anti-telework,” but said remote work needs to be managed and measured. She said agencies haven’t provided data to show it is working. During the Assembly Committee on Government Oversight, Accountability and Transparency hearing on the bill, agency leaders said remote work policies have helped with recruitment and retention of employees.
“It’s time for state employees to return to the office and do the work that Wisconsin’s hard-working taxpayers are paying them to do to the best of their ability and in their most productive and efficient way,” Nedweski said. “We have a policy that allows for remote work agreements. We’re not saying the policy is ending, we’re saying, come back, have your performance evaluated and re-sign your remote work agreement.”
Rep. Mike Bare (D-Verona), the ranking member of the GOAT committee, pointed to the testimony they heard as he argued the bill wouldn’t help.
“A bill like this with a one-size-fits-all return to work policy will not make our state government better… Remote work policies were born from a crisis, and we all remember too well. They’ve become a success for our state government. We now have state workers dispersed all across the state. We’ve achieved savings by consolidating physical workspace. We’ve stayed competitive with the private market by appealing to how employees want to work and then what they expect from their work environment.”
Flag prohibition
AB 58 would prohibit flags, other than the United States flag, the state of Wisconsin flag and a few others on a list of exceptions, from being flown outside state and local buildings including the Wisconsin State Capitol. The bill passed 50-44, along party lines.
Rep. Jerry O’Connor, the author of the bill, argued that flags are part of the reason for increasing divisiveness, and even political violence. Wisconsin leaders condemned political violence during the session after the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday.
“It’s not the role of the government to pick the winners and losers on partisan and activist issues,” O’Connor said.
Some of the exceptions would include local government flags, those commemorating veterans, prisoners of war or missing in action, those recognizing a foreign nation for special purposes and a flag of a unit of firefighters, law enforcement officers or emergency medical technicians.
He said these exceptions are “simply recognizing those flags that are efficiently recognized by all levels of government.”
“We should have a shared outlook as to what we do as elected officials in this building here to promote unity and not division… I think we all could agree that those are the flags that represent all of us,” O’Connor said.
Rep. Chuck Wichgers (R-Muskego) spoke specifically about pride flags, which are a symbol of the LGBTQ+ community, when explaining his support of the legislation.
“You’re asking every Wisconsinite to sanction what that means,” Wichgers said in reference to the Progress Pride flag. The chevron portions of the flag include black and brown stripes to represent people of color who identify with the LGBTQ+ community as well as those living with HIV/AIDS. The light blue, pink and white stripes in the chevron represent transgender people.
“I can guarantee you when you ask the people that are in favor, they’re not going to know what that chevron means, so we’re endorsing, sanctioning something that is being flown above our flag that is probably divisive,” Wichgers said.
Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) said, however, that she views the bill as being divisive and as a violation of the First Amendment.
“I think as a body we should be promoting inclusiveness. It’s not just the more morally right thing to do. It also strengthens our communities, promotes mutual respect, and actually leads to more civic engagement,” Sinicki said. “These symbolic acts do matter. They matter to me, and they matter to the majority of people across Wisconsin.”
Prohibit health services funding for immigrants without legal status
AB 308, coauthored by Rep. Alex Dallman (R-Markesan), passed 50-44 along party lines. The bill would prohibit state, county, village, long-term care district and federal funds from being used to subsidize, reimburse or provide compensation for any health care services for a person not lawfully in the United States.
Dallman said at a press conference that the bill is meant to stop Wisconsin from expanding its Medicaid to cover immigrants without legal status. Wisconsin already doesn’t allow this.
“This is going to take a step forward to say that we are going to again keep these funds available for our citizens who are paying in all these dollars,” Dallman said.
Advocates expressed concerns to the Examiner earlier this week that the bill would lead to health service providers having to check everyone’s citizenship status before providing care.
Rep. Angela Stroud (D-Ashland) said the bill is “the kind of thing that makes people hate politics.”
“We don’t provide health care to undocumented immigrants. The reason we’re voting on this today is so that the majority party can go out and tell their voters that Democrats failed to stop giving health insurance to undocumented people, but we can’t stop something that isn’t happening. Why waste time and taxpayer money this way?” Stroud said. “If you don’t have affordable health care, they don’t want you to hold them accountable. Instead, they want you to blame someone else.”
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said he is “very confident” in the Capitol police force and noted that many of the incidents that have occurred were not located in Capitol buildings. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner).
Wisconsin leaders condemned political violence and said they are continuing to discuss security in the Capitol on Thursday following the assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University.
Kirk, a conservative activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed Wednesday while speaking at a university event in Orem, Utah. The search is still underway for the shooter.
During a floor session Thursday, the Wisconsin State Assembly held a moment of silence for Kirk as well as one to honor the 24th anniversary of 9/11.
“Mr. Kirk’s family are in our thoughts today,” Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) said at a press conference. “We are still sad about the assassination of Representative Melissa Horton in Minnesota. Political violence and violence is never the answer — whether it’s the arson attack on Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home, the attempt on President Trump’s life or the university and college shootings that are happening all across our nation. Violence is never the answer.”
Hesselbein also acknowledged the shooting at Evergreen High School in Colorado that happened Wednesday afternoon.
“This was another senseless act of political violence unfortunately against Charlie Kirk, and I want to express my deepest condolences to his loved ones,” Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said. “We all condemn political violence in the strongest possible terms. No one should fear for their lives because of their jobs.”
Security and safety concerns have been at the forefront of lawmakers’ minds this year, especially after the assassination of Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband. The names of several Wisconsin politicians were found on a list of targets belonging to the Minnesota shooting suspect.
“Given the recent rise in political violence, of course, this is top of mind for many of our colleagues, and of course, the staff who work in the Capitol as well as the press, the guests, the children that come through this building on Capitol visits,” Neubauer said. “It’s an ongoing conversation, and we hope to continue that with our Republican colleagues, who of course control the safety in our chambers, as well as the other entities in the Capitol.”
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said he is “very confident” in the Capitol police force and noted that many of the incidents that have occurred were not located in Capitol buildings.
“When you look at Minnesota, it was in their homes. If you look at what happened yesterday to Charlie Kirk, it was in a public venue on campus, so the idea that we’re somehow going to fortify a single building to make people feel safer when the reality is that most of the violence that has occurred has not been inside of the buildings, but outside of people’s home.
In a video Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump condemned the assassination and listed acts of violence that have occurred against right-leaning figures, including the attempt on his own life last year, but neglected to mention the murder of the Hortmans. He blamed the incidents on “radical left political violence.”
“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now,” Trump said. “My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity, and to other political violence.”
Asked about Trump only recognizing violence against conservatives, Vos said he didn’t see the comments. But Vos said he knows that in Trump’s “heart” he believes that “assassination is 100% of the time wrong.”
“When Melissa Hortman, who was clearly a liberal Democrat, I didn’t hear anybody on the right celebrating the fact that she was assassinated. It was awful, and that’s what it should be,” Vos said, adding that he condemned anyone celebrating Kirk’s death.
During the moment of silence, Vos said Kirk was a man “who represented free speech” and “was silenced in the most horrific way possible.” He said that the country is “rapidly deteriorating” as “many see the other party as their mortal enemies out to destroy the country, not just good-hearted political rivals that we should be.”
Wisconsin’s congressional delegation and other state leaders also condemned political violence on Wednesday, though one Republican has taken the route of blaming others for the violence.
Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin said that “there is no two ways about this: political violence has no place in America. I am keeping Charlie and his family in my thoughts in this truly horrifying moment.”
U.S. Rep. Tony Wied called Kirk “a true American Patriot” and said “his legacy will live on for generations to come.”
“There is absolutely zero place for political violence in our country,” Wied said.
“Violence against anyone because of their political beliefs is wrong. Violence against others is wrong. Violence is never the answer for resolving our differences or disagreements,” Gov. Tony Evers said. “Wisconsin joins in praying for Charlie Kirk and the Utah Valley community and first responders.”
U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who represents Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, has been posting consistently since news broke about the assassination, blaming reporters and Democrats for the violence.
“The left and their policies are leading America into a civil war. And they want it,” Van Orden wrote in one post. In another, he said reporters and Democrats were “directly culpable.”
Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Devin Remiker said in a statement that Van Orden was encouraging violence.
“His terrifying statements, which are inviting civil war and encouraging violence against Democrats and the media, are being completely ignored by Republicans in Wisconsin and in D.C.. They have a responsibility to tell Derrick Van Orden to stop pouring gasoline on an open flame, and I implore them to do so immediately,” Remiker said.
Remiker had already condemned the violence in a statement Wednesday, saying, “this sort of violence will continue until all of us, regardless of party, condemn these sorts of heinous actions.”
State Senate candidates Lisa White (left, photo courtesy of candidate), Corrine Hendrickson (center, Wisconsin Examiner photo) and Sarah Harrison (right, photo courtesy of candidate)
Wisconsin Democrats have their eyes set on winning the Senate majority in 2026 and are two seats away from that outcome. With the general elections over a year away, current lawmakers started working towards their goal over the summer — endorsing their preferred candidates and working with them to boost their messages and critiques of Republican incumbents.
But the strategy has ruffled feathers with some announced and potential candidates, who say lawmakers discouraged them from running and are acting as though party “insiders” should be able to determine who represents local communities.
November 2026 will be the first time legislative maps adopted in 2024 will be in effect for the 17 odd-numbered Senate seats up for election. Democrats were able to cut the Republican majority from 22 seats to 18 seats in 2024. They will need to win two additional seats to take the majority in 2026.
There are three seats on Democrats’ target list: Senate District 17, currently held by Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green), Senate District 5, currently held by Sen. Rob Hutton (R-Brookfield), and Senate District 21, currently held by Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine). Democrats are also looking to hold Senate District 31, currently represented by Sen. Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick).
After the new state budget was signed in early July, Democrats immediately turned their attention to the elections. Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) and other members of the Senate Democratic caucus showed up for a pair of campaign announcements in July.
Rep. Jenna Jacobson (D-Oregon) announced her challenge to Marklein, and Rep. Robyn Vining (D-Wauwatosa) launched her campaign challenging Hutton. The announcements were boosted by the Wisconsin State Senate Democratic Campaign Committee (SSDC), which is the lawmakers’ political arm that works to help Democrats win elections.
“One of the reasons why senators are getting involved with these candidates that are running is because we’ve known them for years,” Hesselbein said, recalling that she first met Jacobson in 2017 while she was serving on the village of Oregon Board of Trustees. “I was really excited about her candidacy.”
Reps. Jenna Jacobson and Robyn Vining pose for a photo with members of the Senate Democratic caucus after Vining’s campaign launch in July. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Hesselbein told the Examiner in July that the endorsements are not coming from the party.
“It’s senators that know the content of the character of Jenna Jacobson and Robyn Vining,” Hesselbein said. “That’s why we’re supporting them. We know that if there’s going to be a primary, there’ll be a primary.”
Hesselbein said she spoke with all of the people who were considering running to let them know what she was thinking. She said it was important to her that people know where she stood, mentioning that when she ran unsuccessfully for the Assembly in 2010, a late endorsement took her by surprise.
“I wish I would have known at the beginning what they were going to do. I’ve always been very extremely honest and forthright with everybody,” Hesselbein said. “They might be upset that I chose a candidate, but they certainly know the reasons why, and we had a conversation about it.”
Senate District 17
For the last decade, Marklein has represented Senate District 17 — winning three elections easily and serving as the chair of the powerful Joint Finance Committee since 2021.
Lafayette County Democratic Party Chair Nancy Fisker said her community is looking for someone who will represent the values and needs of rural Wisconsin and the task of beating Marklein, who tends to vote along party lines, will be hard.
“He’s a great politician. He has a really great ground game. He’s been in office long enough that he has people in place who will put him in the right place at the right time,” Fisker said. “He’s very sociable, and people love that.”
Marklein won SD 17 with 60% of the vote in 2022. Under the new maps, however, the district is more competitive. An analysis by John Johnson, a research fellow at Marquette University, found the district leaned Democratic by 1 percentage point in the 2024 presidential election and by over 4 percentage points in the 2024 U.S. Senate race.
Marklein hasn’t announced whether he will run for reelection yet. In July, he reported raising over $69,000.
Fisker said the new maps have led to renewed excitement around these races. That excitement can be seen, she said, in the number of people who have shown interest in running, which was as many as seven people at one point.
The first candidate to enter the race was Lisa White, a Potosi businesswoman and grandmother. She said she’s been concerned about cuts to Medicaid by the Trump administration as well as women’s and rural health care in general.
“My determination is to represent the southwestern portion of our state, which has not happened for decades,” White told the Wisconsin Examiner in an interview. “I feel I’m the singular voice in that pool of people who can truly, truly represent the entire district, and not just the Madison area.”
White also said she wants to see an end to the private school voucher program in Wisconsin.
Corrine Hendrickson, a well-known child care advocate, is also planning to enter the race for the seat and launch her campaign later this month.
Hendrickson told the Examiner in an interview that the recent budget process pushed her to consider running. The budget’s investment in child care did not meet what many child care advocates, including Hendrickson, said was necessary to help keep them afloat. Hendrickson also recently made the decision to close her own family child care program.
“We’re talking to the representatives. We’re inviting them in. We’re showing them our books… and it’s not enough, and so to me, that means that our representatives truly aren’t listening, and they’re just really moving the goal posts so that they have an excuse not to invest in child care,” Hendrickson said.
Hendrickson said she was excited when she learned so many people were considering running in the race.
“We’ve had to beg people to run against this man in the past,” Hendrickson said, adding that knowing there were others weighing running made her consider, “Am I the best person? What makes me the best person?”
“Really, the only way to find that out is to go through the process,” Hendrickson said.
With so many potential candidates, Fisker said county parties across the district decided they would host forums for those considering a run.
County Democratic parties in Wisconsin usually do not endorse candidates in primaries, Fisker said.
“It’s always been very difficult to get people to run. People just aren’t interested in running for a variety of reasons. So this year we started looking around like we always do, and you know, we had seven people who raised their hand and said, ‘I think I’m interested, but I want to look into it a little further,’” Fisker said. “We were amazed.”
It’s not entirely unheard of for the state party to make endorsements ahead of primaries, especially when an incumbent is running for reelection. During the 2025 primary for the state superintendent, for example, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin endorsed state Superintendent Jill Underly for a second term.
Fisker noted the SSDC has nothing to do with the state party, and she said it was clear early that the sitting senators were planning to endorse a candidate.
“We thought we really had convinced them to wait,” Fisker said. “All it would have taken was them to wait for three or four months. We’re way out here from the election, and you know, the candidates would have self-selected at some point.”
Jacobson, surrounded by five Democratic senators, launched her candidacy the Monday after Gov. Tony Ever signed the new state budget — just a few days ahead of any county party forums taking place.
Hendrickson said she received a heads up from Hesselbein that she would be endorsing Jacobson and the top Senate Democrat encouraged her to run for the Assembly instead. Hendrickson said she felt the decision for Jacobson to announce alongside the senators just ahead of the forums being held “was a move to pressure us to back up.”
“They’re not voters. They don’t live in this district,” Hendrickson said of the lawmakers. “This district is hungry for a candidate that’s from the area, that understands the deep rural part of this district and how hard we’re all struggling as communities because of the state budget and because of the decisions that Marklein’s making as the co-chair of the JFC.”
Participants at a forum for potential SD 17 candidates in Dodgeville included Corrine Hendrickson, Sam Rikkers, Lisa White, Matt Raobin and Rep. Jenna Jacobson. (Photo courtesy of Hendrickson)
Matt Raobin, owner of Brix Cider in Mount Horeb has decided against running for personal reasons, he said, but he described a similar experience in a Facebook post, saying that he reached out to members of the SSDC as he was considering a run.
“In that meeting, it quickly became clear that these are the people who choose the candidate, for better or worse. “We want to avoid a primary,” I heard repeated multiple times,” Raobin wrote, adding that he understood the desire to avoid a primary but also found it problematic.
“We are in a moment when the Democratic Party needs to reinvent itself. Approval ratings are low. Nationally, we’re taking beating after beating from a Republican trifecta and a hard right Supreme Court. The last thing the Democratic Party should be doing is taking steps to block out new voices from having a chance to be heard,” Raobin wrote. “Avoiding a primary means avoiding the hard work of renewal. It stifles creativity. It squashes out new ideas before they’ve had a chance to grow. It prevents us from testing a candidate’s true viability, and it heavily favors insiders over outsiders.”
The county parties pushed ahead with the forums, giving candidates and potential candidates a chance to introduce themselves to answer questions from the community.
“I’ve really not seen anything quite like this… we had people from six different counties who came to our forum in Hazel Green,” Fisker said. “It’s been really interesting and fun to see how much people want this… This is what democracy looks like. It should be up to them whether they want to run or not, and then, and then it’s up to us as voters to get out and vote for them in the primary and make our choice.”
White, who is continuing her campaign, said she understands that she is the “underdog” in the race, but thinks it will be worth it no matter the outcome. She said she hopes she is informing people along the way about the issues faced by the district.
“There’s no way I can lose if you look at the big picture,” White said. “How can you lose when you are bringing people in… that would have ordinarily tuned out.”
Senate District 5
In the southeast corner of the state, a similar situation has taken shape in Senate District 5.
The district has been represented by Hutton since 2022 but has changed since the last time he ran. It’s a purple district that represents portions of Milwaukee County, including West Allis and Wauwatosa, and Waukesha County, including Pewaukee, Brookfield and Elm Grove.
Weeks before Vining’s announcement, Brookfield businesswoman Sarah Harrison became the first to enter the race.
Harrison told the Wisconsin Examiner she was encouraged by people in her community to run for the seat — some even reached out to make sure she was still running after Vining’s announcement. She said there is excitement about the race for the 5th Senate District because it appears winnable for Democrats.
The self-described “data geek” said that as she considered whether to run, she looked at where Democrats had the strongest performances in the past and areas where Democrats could pick up votes and Democrats could grow more in parts of the district that cover Waukesha County. She said her strong “grassroots ties” there would help her connect with voters in areas that have long been represented by Republicans. She said she also brings her experience as a single mom, a business owner and someone who has worked with Fortune 50 and Fortune 500 companies.
“I still believe that I’m the best candidate for this seat,” Harrison said. Waukesha County residents, she said, “have been underrepresented for so long.”
Vining currently represents a third of the district in the Assembly. The other two Assembly districts are represented by Rep. Adam Neylon (R-Pewaukee) and Rep. Angelito Tenorio (D-West Allis).
Hutton hasn’t announced whether he’ll run again. He has raised over $5,600 this year, according to his July 2025 report, and has about $89,770 on hand. Campaign filings from July 2025 showed that Vining had raised about $3,000 from January through June and had about $22,000 on hand. Harrison had raised a little over $2,100.
Harrison said she felt heard in her initial conversations with the SSDC about running, but that it soon became clear that there wasn’t anything she could do to earn the support of the lawmakers. She said primaries should be about vetting the “best candidates and the best ideas.”
“We fought to end the gerrymandered maps so that voters could choose their representatives, and I respect that the SSDC wants to have a say,” Harrison said. “I won’t let that stop me from running. I’m a fighter.”
Harrison has run for office, running in 2022 for the Assembly in the seat once held by Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, who is now the first Democrat to announce a campaign for governor. She pulled in 43% of the vote in the Republican-leaning seat.
“It was drawn to be essentially unwinnable,” Harrison said.
Michalski lost his reelection bid in 2024 to Vining. When Vining made her own pitch for her Senate candidacy in July, she underscored her record of winning competitive races.
In 2024 with new legislative maps in place, Harrison ran for the Assembly again, this time against Rep. Adam Neylon of Pewaukee. She brought in 41% against the incumbent.
“I took on the work and the labor, and I ran two really good campaigns that were beneficial to folks up the ticket, beneficial to the communities. I did all of that at my own cost, in terms of money and time. I had some support from the party, but not a lot.” Harrison said. “To turn around and make this endorsement, it was disappointing.”
Harrison, who runs a data consulting company, said some of her top issues include ensuring local governments have sufficient funding and that people have access to affordable and accessible child care.
“We’re seeing that folks are hit hard by the need for local referendums because the state has not fully funded a lot of the things they’re requiring,” Harrison said, adding the 2023 law, which updated the way local governments received their shared revenue payment, was just “a toe in the right direction.”
When it comes to health and child care, she said “both of those impact working families and their ability to participate in the economy and to build a better life for their families.”
She said she would also want the state to accept the Medicaid expansion and work towards “making sure that folks are able to be seen [by a doctor] in a timely manner.” However, she acknowledged the new obstacles that will exist to making those changes under the Trump administration.
“I’m very concerned, especially with some of the changes at the national level that we at the state level are going to have to provide more of a safety net,” Harrison said.
As she continues her campaign, she has been doing “walk and talks,” getting out in the community to find out what’s on the minds of residents.
“A lot of people do not want an anointed candidate that was chosen, kind of, by folks who are seen as being insiders. They want to make that choice. They want to have that primary to vet the best candidate. They don’t want a candidate handed to them.”
“It absolutely does make it more challenging for me,” Harrison said of the senators’ involvement. “But it also shows that I’m not someone who’s going to be a yes man. I am going to stand up for what I believe is correct.”
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