Bascom Hall, University of Wisconsin-Madison. (Ron Cogswell | used by permission of the photographer)

University of Wisconsin campuses could be limited in their ability to raise tuition under two Republican bills that received a hearing in the Senate Universities and Technical Colleges committee. One would leverage tuition freezes on campuses as a penalty for free speech violations, while the other would aim to help with affordability for students and families by capping tuition increases.

With the conclusion of the budget process over the summer and a $250 million investment in the UW system, Democratic and Republican lawmakers have recently turned their attention to potential policy changes that could be made to the higher education system in Wisconsin. Democratic lawmakers announced their own proposals for helping with higher education costs last week.

Implementing financial penalties on UW, technical colleges for free speech violations

Rep. Amanda Nedweski (R-Pleasant Prairie) said her bill would enshrine the principle of current University of Wisconsin system policy in law to clarify and protect the First Amendment rights of students, staff and visitors. 

Current UW system policy includes its commitment to freedom of speech and expression along with some accountability measures including conduct and due process mechanisms to address violations. 

A similar bill passed the Assembly in 2023, but failed to receive a vote in the Senate. Earlier versions of the policy were introduced after a controversial survey of UW campuses that found that a majority of students who responded said they were afraid to express views on certain issues in class. The survey had an average response rate of 12.5% across all UW System campuses. 

The latest iteration of the bill was introduced just six days after the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who has become a recurring point of discussion and debate. Lawmakers passed a resolution this week to honor his life.

Nedweski noted that another survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) that found that 35% of students say using violence to stop someone from speaking on campus is acceptable at least in rare cases. The survey included responses from 423 people. 

“It’s clearly even more chilling in light of the recent political assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on a college campus. When we accept the false premise that speech is equivalent to violence, we allow violence to replace speech as a means of debate… We’ve seen many of our college campuses devolve into marketplaces of fear of certain viewpoints,” Nedweski said. “While Charlie Kirk’s assassination on the college campus is the most extreme example of this, it is not the first time conservatives on campus have been threatened or intimidated for their views.” 

Nedweski said the bill would help restore trust.

“The breakdown in public trust is real. It will only get worse unless our colleges and universities get serious about restoring intellectual diversity on campus, I believe,” Nedweski said. 

SB 498 would bar UW institutions from restricting speech from a speaker if their conduct “is not unlawful and does not materially and substantially disrupt the functioning of the UW institution or technical college.” It would also restrict enforcement of time, place and manner restrictions on expressive activities in public forum spaces, designating any place a “free speech zone,” charging security fees as a part of a permit application and sanctioning people for discriminatory harassment unless the speech “targets its victim on the basis of a protected class under law, and is so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively bars a student from receiving equal access to educational opportunities or benefits.” 

If an institution is found to violate the provisions by a state or federal court, then it would receive a notice and a person whose expressive rights were violated would be able to bring action against the UW Board of Regents or a technical college board. A plaintiff could be awarded damages of at least $500 for the initial violation plus $50 for each day after the complaint was filed and the violation continues up to $100,000. A plaintiff could also be awarded court costs and reasonable attorney fees. 

Students, employees and campus organizations would have a due process guarantee under the bill. If the due process provisions are violated more than once in a five-year period, a campus would be required to freeze tuition for all students for the following two academic years.

Nedweski said she hadn’t spoken with the UW system about the legislation this session, but she is open to conversations. 

“I’ve expressed it from the start of the session for the UW to come and work with us on this to get to a place where they can be a thumbs up, but I haven’t heard from anyone,” Nedweski said. “They will express some concerns about certain language in the bill and definitions, and I’d like to say today that, of course, the door is still open.”

UW Interim Vice President of University Relations Chris Patton that the system’s concerns with the bills center on the penalties. 

Patton said the penalty of freezing state funding would put the system’s financial health at risk — and potentially compromise the system’s ability to carry out its mission of being a “marketplace of ideas.” 

“Freedom of expression and free speech is not just a constitutional principle. It’s at the very core of what makes our universities thrive,” Patton said. “The First Amendment guarantees this right, and our institutions take seriously our responsibility to uphold it for all students, faculty, staff, visitors and stakeholders at the Universities of Wisconsin. We already have really robust policies and procedures in place.”

Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara (R-Appleton), a coauthor on the bill, urged lawmakers to “please understand” that the bill is “not to punish any of our institutions,” but is to “ensure that they’re following what’s already in the Bill of Rights.”

Sen. Chis Larson (D-Milwaukee), the top Democrat on the committee, expressed concern about the aims of the legislation, whether free speech was a top concern that was widespread on campuses and whether the bill could bolster harmful language. 

“I appreciate you guys coming up here to embrace DEI for Republican viewpoints, which this seems to be what this bill is all about — making sure that Republican viewpoints are more represented and encouraged and being inclusive to that,” Larson said. 

“You can call it DEI for conservatism, but there’s nothing in the bill that addresses anything specific to conservatives, liberals, Republicans, Democrats,” Nedweski replied. “It’s free speech protections for everyone.”

Larson noted that he represents the UW-Milwaukee campus and often speaks with students about their concerns and free speech is typically low on the list. He said he hears concerns about affordability and safety more frequently. 

“Other concerns include safety, especially for students who are LGBTQ, students who are of a different race than Caucasian, of their safety on campus, of being targeted with hate crimes,” Larson said. 

Larson also brought up a recent Politico article, which exposed racist messages sent into a group chat of Young Republicans, to ask whether lawmakers thought their bill could encourage that type of speech. 

Larson said he wasn’t concerned with self-censorship that discouraged people from “saying these racist, homophobic, xenophobic, glorification of rape things out in the public, because that is something that in a free and open society should have consequences associated with it.”

“We do not have the exemption for hate speech in our laws and in the First Amendment. It does not exempt hate speech,” Larson said. “It seems to me that this [bill] would pave the way to be able to say, yes, that would be something that is not only allowed on campus, but encouraged.” 

Nedweski said she was not concerned that the bill would “further unhinge people.” 

“We’re all concerned about the political temperature that has risen so high in this country,” Nedweski said. “I don’t have concerns this bill is going to push anybody overboard. The intent is to protect people whether I agree with what their ideas… are or not. I have no association with the group that you’re talking about. I don’t agree with the things that they said. It’s unfortunate that that happened.”

Capping tuition increases

Under SB 399, the UW Board of Regents would be prohibited from increasing undergraduate tuition by more than the consumer price index increase in a given year. 

The bill, coauthored by Sen. Andre Jacque (R-New Franken) and Rep. Dave Murphy (R-Hortonville), was introduced this year after the UW system adopted its third consecutive tuition increase in July. The increases were a maximum of 5% for each campus and were implemented after the recent state budget did not reach the requests the system said would be needed to avoid a hike. 

“With the continued rising prices in almost every area of the economy, some increase in resident tuition is to be expected but we must set common sense guardrails so that any price increases are reasonable, ensuring the UW system remains a cost-effective option for Wisconsin families,” Jacque said. 

Jacque said the recent hike “might be the impetus for the timing this session” but he has seen it as a “reasonable policy” for a while, noting that versions of the bill have been proposed in previous years.

Murphy said he thought the legislation would make it so that lawmakers don’t “have to always be looking” at tuition.

“It’s just up and down and up and down and up and down,” Murphy said. The bill, he added, would help provide a semblance of predictability down the line. “If you have a youngster in the K-12 system and you’re looking at what college is going to cost in the future, you could probably have a good idea of where it is going to go.”

Larson said he found it “noble” what the Republican lawmakers were trying to accomplish with the bill, but asked about why there wasn’t any state contribution included in the bill.

He noted that the portion of state funding that makes up the UW system’s budget has been decreasing over many years. 

“It’s like the cost of groceries,” Larson said, comparing it to “shrinkflation,” a form of inflation where the price of a product stays the same but the size or quantity of a product is reduced. “We’re gonna freeze the cost of a loaf of bread, and then year after year, you’re going to get one slice less, one slice less, one slice less. It will still be the same cost, but you’re getting less. I worry… if you freeze it, we’re going to be getting the equivalent of one slice less every single year in terms of what the deliverable is from the University.” 

Murphy noted that the legislation would just cap increases, not freeze tuition. 

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“All they do is critique process and complain about things,” Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said of his Democratic colleagues. “But we're getting bills done.” (Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

The Wisconsin State Senate met for a floor session for the first time in over 90 days, advancing bills that would ban cellphones in schools, require coverage of breast cancer screenings for women at high risk and allow candidates to remove themselves from ballots. 

Ahead of the session, Senate Democrats criticized their Republican colleagues for the sparse number of floor days and for the issues they chose to take up. 

“We are feeling the effects of the big, ugly bill on our families, our farmers and our neighbors who need food assistance or who are covered by Medicaid,” Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) said at a press conference. She was referencing the federal law approved over the summer that made cuts to the SNAP and Medicaid programs to help pay for tax cuts. “So what is the Republican agenda today? Nothing that addresses any of those concerns. The fact that some Republicans are here at all in this building is pretty unusual.” 

The Democrats displayed a poster that showed the number of times the Senate has met per legislative session from 2003 to 2025. Tuesday was the first time the Senate has been on the floor since July, when lawmakers passed the current state budget. 

During the current two-year session, the Senate has held seven floor sessions. In 2019, the Senate met 13 times on the floor. 

“We are on the path to become one of the least active state Senates in Wisconsin’s history. It’s irresponsible and reckless, but this is the Republican majority,” Sen. Dora Drake (D-Milwaukee) said, adding that Tuesday also marks the 14th day of the federal government shutdown.

According to WISN 12, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) has said there is enough funding for WIC and FoodShare benefits through October, but those programs will face shortfalls if the shutdown continues into November. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has said he would consider  taking executive action if the shutdown continues.

“Congressional Republicans are refusing to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that would prevent Wisconsinites from seeing their monthly insurance premiums doubled next year,” Drake said. “There is not one item on our calendar today aimed at making health care more affordable for Wisconsinites or to lower costs for Wisconsin families.”

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) said that compared to the Assembly, the Senate typically takes up a larger schedule of bills when it comes in. The Assembly has met three times this fall. 

“All they do is critique process and complain about things,” LeMahieu said of his Democratic colleagues. “But we’re getting bills done.” 

LeMahieu added that the Senate is going to meet in November, January, February and March before the end of the legislative session. Legislators will “keep looking at different things” to address gaps caused by the federal government shutdown, he added.

Cellphone ban bill

The Senate voted 29-4 to concur in a bill that will require school districts across the state to adopt a cellphone ban policy. The four opposing votes came from Democrats.

Under AB 2, school districts’ policies would need to ban cellphones during instructional times. School boards would be required  to implement the new policy by July 2026 and would need to include exceptions for emergencies, for educational purposes and cases involving student health care, individualized education plans (IEPs) or 504 plans (learning environment accommodations). 

“These are devices that are taking away from our kids’ learning, and folks are asking us to do something about it,” Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara (R-Appleton) said at a press conference ahead of the session.

A recent Marquette Law School poll found that 89% of voters support banning cellphones during class periods. The poll also found that 72% of voters support banning cellphones throughout the school day, including lunch and between classes. 

“Wisconsin wants this. Wisconsin is asking for this,” Cabral-Guevara said on the floor. 

According to NPR, at least 31 states and Washington D.C. had adopted a cellphone ban as of September. 

According to a recent Wisconsin Policy Forum report, cellphone policies vary widely across the state, though most school districts already restrict student cellphone usage to common areas. 

Sen. Melissa Ratcliff (D-Cottage Grove) listed a number of concerns about the bill, including whether the bill would impede parents’ ability to communicate with their children when there are safety concerns and would hinder local control. 

“Why are we, the state, worried about taking away kids’ cellphones before we enact legislation that prevents kids from having access to guns and prevents mass shootings?” Ratcliff asked. “While I understand the intent behind this bill, which is to reduce distraction in the classroom, we cannot ignore the profound and tragic reality of our current times. This measure, though well-meaning, would be a dangerous step backward in ensuring the immediate safety of our children, especially in the wake of recent horrific shootings.”

Cabral Guevara noted that the bill includes an exception for emergencies. 

The bill passed the Assembly in February, so it will now go to Evers’ desk.

Lawmakers also concurred in AB 5, which would implement new requirements for allowing residents to inspect textbooks, curriculum or instructional materials. 

Wisconsinites currently have the ability to submit open records requests to school districts to receive school materials. Under the bill, school districts would need to comply with requests within 14 days and textbooks would need to be listed online. 

This is the third session where lawmakers have pursued this policy. The 2023-25 version of the bill passed the Assembly, but never received a vote in the Senate. The 2021-23 version was vetoed by Evers. 

The current iteration of the bill passed the Assembly earlier this year.

Breast cancer screening coverage

Lawmaker advanced a bill that would require health insurance policies to provide coverage for diagnostic breast examinations and for supplemental breast screening examinations for an individual who has dense breast tissue. It would require that coverage include no patient cost-sharing.

The bill, SB 264, passed 32-1. Sen. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) was the lone opposing vote. 

According to KFF, breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer among women in the United States and the second leading cause of cancer death. According to the American Cancer Society, women with dense breast tissue have a higher risk of breast cancer. Dense breast tissue can also make it harder for radiologists to see cancer on mammograms. 

Cabral-Guevara said she started work on the bill when a constituent of hers, Gail Zeamer, came to her about the issue. Previous versions have failed two times before. 

Zeamer was diagnosed with cancer at a late stage. She had dense breast tissue and didn’t receive additional screening. She battled cancer for eight years and passed away in June 2024 at the age of 56.

During the press conference, Cabral-Guevara said that “40% of the women in Wisconsin have dense breasts… if you’re one of those 40%, you do need a secondary screening to be truly covered to determine if you do not have breast cancer.” 

“In memory of Gail, who has passed, as well as all the other women that have been affected by breast cancer living as well as deceased,”  she added,  “this bill is a true testament that we can work together here in this Capitol building and get things done.” 

Wisconsin already requires that insurance policies provide coverage for two mammograms for women between the ages of 45 and 49 and annual screenings for women over the age of 50. Insurance companies are not required to cover additional screenings for women with dense breast tissue or at higher risk. 

Speaking in favor of the bill, LeMahieu shared that his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and she has dense breast tissue. He said they have been on a journey to deal with the diagnosis. 

“There are people who don’t know their risk that they have dense breast tissue. They don’t know that a simple mammogram might not catch it. Fortunately, she did her research,” LeMahieu said. “My wife is the exact type of person this bill is intended to help.”

The bill is now in the Assembly where the Health, Aging, and Long-Term Care Committee is scheduled to have a public hearing on it Wednesday. 

Allowing candidates to remove their name from ballots

The Senate also concurred in AB 35 in a 19-14 vote. The bill would make it easier for candidates to remove their names from ballots in Wisconsin. Sen. Kristin Dassler-Alfheim (D-Appleton) joined Republicans in favor.

Lawmakers introduced the bill after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was not allowed to remove himself from the Wisconsin presidential ballot in 2024 after he dropped out and endorsed President Donald Trump. Currently, candidates can only have their names removed if they are dead. 

Sens. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) proposed adding additional language so that the law would only apply if someone hadn’t been bribed to get out of a race. 

“There are instances in our recent past where candidates have been taken aside and promised positions if they agree to drop their candidacy, so if we want to make sure we have the integrity of free and fair elections without the interference of corrupting influence. This is one small step in that,” Larson said. 

His amendment was voted down by Republicans. 

Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) said he has similar concerns about someone being pressured out of a race and also concerns about how the withdrawal mechanism would practically work. 

“Once [a] primary is done and somebody has won and their name is going to be printed on the general election ballot, if you take their name off, then you have now denied voters potentially a choice between one of the two parties, and there’s no mechanism in this bill to actually replace that party’s nominee on the ballot,” Spreitzer said. “If there were such a mechanism — and other states have that — I’d be open to something like this, but here, there could be a situation where a safe Democratic seat or a safe Republican seat ends up without a name.”

Candidates withdrawing from national or statewide races would have to pay the Wisconsin Elections Commission a $1,000 fee. Non-statewide candidates would need to pay $250. Under the bill, a person would face a Class G felony with a maximum penalty of up to $25,000 and imprisonment for up to 10 years if they intentionally filed a false statement withdrawing a person’s candidacy. 

Other bills advanced by the Senate: 

• SB 214, which would allow health care providers with a credential from another state to provide telehealth care services in Wisconsin. It passed 18-15 along party lines and will now go to the Assembly. 
• AB 39, which would require state employees to return to in-person work for at least 80% of their time, passed 17-16 with Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) joining Democrats against it. It passed the Assembly in September and will now go to Evers. 
• AB 162, which would require state agencies to collect a series of metrics on training and workforce development programs, including the unemployment rates and median earnings of participants six months after they graduate from a program. The Senate concurred along party lines. It now goes to Evers.
• AB 168, which would allow felony fraud claims related to unemployment to be prosecuted up to eight years after a crime was committed, passed along party lines. The  current statute of limitations is six years.
• AB 169, which would allow an employer to report to the Department of Workforce Development an unemployment recipient who declines or fails to show up to a job interview or declines a job offer. A report could be used to determine benefits. It will now go to Evers.

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The memorial service is held for conservative political activist Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium on Sept. 21, 2025 in Glendale, Arizona. The Wisconsin Legislature held a contentious floor debate before passing a joint resolution honoring Kirk Tuesday.(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The Wisconsin Senate and Assembly passed a joint resolution honoring the life of Charlie Kirk, the right-wing activist and ally to President Donald Trump who was assassinated last month. Debate was intense as Democrats said the resolution should have focused on condemning political violence, rather than honoring Kirk’s legacy. 

Senate approves without political violence condemnation

The first iteration of the resolution, offered by Sen. Andre Jacque (R-New Franken), focused on Kirk’s life, saying Kirk “dedicated his life with unwavering conviction to advancing the timeless principles of faith, liberty, and truth” through his organization Turning Point USA and that his “powerful voice, seen in his writings, broadcasts and countless speeches, challenged complacency, awakened courage, and emboldened millions to take up the cause of freedom with renewed strength and clarity.” 

“Beyond his public mission, Charlie Kirk was first and foremost a devoted husband and loving father, fiercely committed to his wife and their two young children, whom he treasured as the heart of his life,” the resolution stated. “The brutal and senseless act that claimed his life has shaken our hearts, leaving an immense void not only in his family but across our nation, which looked to him as a steadfast champion for liberty… the Wisconsin Legislature honors Charlie Kirk’s extraordinary life and legacy with deepest gratitude, recognizing his fearless devotion to God, his unshakable love of family, and his tireless service to country.” 

Democratic Senators objected to the lack of a condemnation of political violence as well as the positive light the resolution cast on Kirk’s legacy. They introduced an amendment  that would have focused the resolution on condemning the assassination and political violence wholesale. 

“Your resolution doesn’t mention political violence at all. It is just about what a great guy Charlie Kirk was,” Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) said. “That’s not what’s going to bring 33 senators here today together… What could have brought 33 senators here together is the universal condemnation of the assassination.” 

“The Wisconsin Legislature strongly condemns the assassination of Charlie Kirk and extends their deepest condolences to his family and loved ones,” the Democratic proposed resolution stated. “Democracy in the United States depends on the peaceful and civil debate of ideas—not intimidation, violence, or assassination.”

Republican senators rejected the proposal, saying it wasn’t relevant to the resolution at hand. 

The rejection kickstarted heated debate about Kirk’s legacy. 

“I find myself reflecting on the stark contrast between my celebration and the heartbreaking truth that today would have been Charlie Kirk’s 32nd birthday. Charlie Kirk should have had many more birthdays,” Jacque said. “Through Turning Point USA, he challenged a generation, not to surrender to cynicism or drift into apathy, but to stand firm in their beliefs… He was a voice of clarity in a time of confusion, and that voice so full of passion and purpose was silenced in unspeakable act of violence.” 

Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) started her remarks by quoting Kirk nine times. 

“Quote one,” Johnson said. ‘The American Democrat party hates this country. They wanna see it collapse. They love it when America becomes less white.’ Quote two: ‘If I’m dealing with somebody in customer service, who’s a moronic black woman, I wonder, is she there because of her excellence or is she there because of affirmative action?’’ Quote three: ‘I have a very, very radical view on this, we made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s.’” 

“Tell me, which one of you is willing to stand up and publicly admit that you or your constituents support this foolishness?” Johnson asked. She then called Kirk’s comments racist. 

Johnson said that Kirk’s legacy was emboldening people with his “hatred” and turning “them loose to be open to accepting their own racism and affirming their bigotry.” 

“My heart goes out to his wife and to his babies. My heart aches for them, but the empathy that I have for his family, Charlie never spared or even thought about extending that type of empathy to people who look like me,” Johnson said. “Choosing to whitewash his legacy and death does not erase who he was or what he stood for.” 

Sen. Dora Drake (D-Milwaukee) agreed. 

“I will support any resolution condemning his assassination, political violence, because it is the right thing to do, but I will not honor any legacy that undermines the advancement and equality of all Americans,” Drake said.

Republican lawmakers, including Jacque and Sen. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield), said that Democratic lawmakers were taking the quotes out of context.

Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) said he thought the resolution should have focused on condemning political violence and expressed concerns about the way that Kirk’s death was being used by some to go after perceived political opponents. He started reading from an article about the Elkhorn associate principal who was targeted after conservative influencers falsely claimed she had made posts on social media about Kirk’s death. 

Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) ruled Larson out of order and shut off his microphone. 

The Senate ultimately voted 18-15 along party lines to advance the resolution.

Assembly amends resolution 

The Assembly voted 54-42 to concur in the resolution after it was amended to condemn political violence and included some of the language that Democrats had in their proposal. 

The resolution did not go as far as Assembly Democrats suggested. A proposal from them also aimed to condemn the assassinations of both Kirk and former Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives Melissa Hortman. 

Assembly Assistant Minority Leader Kalan Haywood (D-Milwaukee) noted that Black History Month resolutions written by the Black Legislative Caucus have often faced difficult paths in the Republican-led Legislature. He specifically mentioned the year when the inclusion of civil rights activist and former quarterback Colin Kaepernick on a resolution kept it from coming to the floor.

Haywood said Kaepernick was “demonized for taking a silent knee to protest police brutality.” 

“I have watched several times as Black History Month resolutions and other resolutions recognizing people of color from Wisconsin and their history have been put under a magnifying glass and faced the most intense scrutiny,” Haywood said. “These resolutions over the last seven years have either been left off the calendar or threatened to not be included on the calendar because of the smallest quote, post or like your members find uncomfortable… What is the bar? Is there a different bar for people of color from Wisconsin and their lives and legacies to be recognized and honored by this body?” 

Haywood read off some of the quotes that Kirk made over the course of his life, echoing Johnson.

“These are quotes from Charlie Kirk, who was not a Wisconsinite, nor [did he] have any meaningful ties to our great state or any contributions to our state, and yeah, you are using his name and his death to score political points from Fox News and your far-right donors,” Haywood said. “Your resolution doesn’t even mention condemning political violence. This is all performative theater.”

Haywood said that Republicans were dividing people.

Rep. William Penterman (R-Hustisford) clarified that his amendment did include language about the increasing threats of violence that public figures are facing. He then noted that Kirk would have turned 32 on Tuesday.  

“Most of us in this body are over 32. I myself am not yet,” Penterman said. “As a human being, he had two young kids. He was married. Just having experienced the birth of my second child between last session and this and witnessing that miracle, my heart goes out to his wife, to his kids, and his family. He was a person. He was a husband. He cared about his community. He cared about Turning Point USA… His impact has been felt here in this state and will continue to be.”

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UW-Milwaukee offers its own tuition promise program which covers up to four years of tuition and segregated fees for students from families earning less than $62,000 per year. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Democratic lawmakers are proposing a package of higher education bills to help address affordability for students by investing in a statewide tuition promise program and to support faculty and staff members by reversing Walker-era collective bargaining and tenure policies. 

Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire), the ranking member on the Assembly Colleges and Universities committee, said Democratic lawmakers are looking for ways to ensure Wisconsin’s higher education system is strong and accessible to “anybody who has the talent and the work ethic to want to pursue something.” 

“That’s part of our American dream, is that no matter where you start out in life, you’ve got an opportunity to do better and to gain knowledge and training,” Emerson said. 

Emerson said Democratic lawmakers hope the bills can kickstart discussions about policy changes that could be made. She noted that Republican lawmakers have often stripped proposals from the budget, saying that policy should be passed through individual bills outside of the budget process.

“We’re putting some of these bills back out now and saying, let’s have the policy discussion,” Emerson said. “If you’re not willing to have that during the budget, let’s have the discussion now.” 

Emerson said the first pair of bills that lawmakers unveiled at a press conference last week seek to specifically help with the affordability of higher education. 

“A lot of us heard loud and clear last election that pocketbook issues are really what are leading people right now,” Emerson said, adding that it’s part of the reason she supported the recent state budget. “But it wasn’t a perfect budget, and so we thought, how can we make this a little bit better?”

One bill, coauthored by Sen. Kristin Dassler-Alfheim (D-Appleton) and Rep. Brienne Brown (D-Whitewater), would implement a statewide “tuition promise” program, allowing first-time, in-state students from households with an adjusted gross income of $71,000 or less to have their tuition covered at any UW school, other than UW-Madison. Under the bill, the state would dedicate nearly $40 million towards the program. 

The program would function as “last-dollar, gap funding” meaning it would fill in the rest of the tuition costs after all federal and state grants and scholarships are calculated.

According to The Hechinger Report , as of 2024, 37 states offered a statewide promise program. 

UW-Madison already offers “Bucky’s Tuition Promise,” which launched in 2018 and is funded with private gifts and other institutional resources, not state tax dollars. The program guarantees four years of tuition and segregated fees for any incoming freshman from Wisconsin whose family’s annual household adjusted gross income is $65,000 or less. 

Recent studies have found the tuition promise program increased enrollment among accepted students at UW-Madison and increased retention rates. 

UW-Milwaukee also offers its own program which covers up to four years of tuition and segregated fees for students from families earning less than $62,000 per year. 

The UW system also has a version of the program that recently relaunched in 2025 after the system secured private funding. The Wisconsin Tuition Promise first launched in 2023, but was ended in 2024 after Republican lawmakers declined to fund the program. 

Another bill by Dassler-Alfheim and Rep. Angela Stroud (D-Ashland) would invest $10 million in the UW system for student retention and talent development efforts. 

At the press conference last week, Dassler-Alfheim said the bills are essential for supporting the state’s workforce.  

“If our workforce is the engine that runs our economy, then our Universities of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Technical Colleges are the gasoline that power that engine as our baby boomers retire in droves. We have workforce shortages in every category. We have all struggled to schedule a doctor’s appointment, a plumber, an accountant, or even a cleaning at the dentist,” Dassler-Alfheim said. “The purpose of these two bills is to help qualified students access the higher education needed to advance themselves and to fulfill the promise to Wisconsin employers to develop the workforce necessary to maintain and grow Wisconsin’s economy.”

Democratic lawmakers also circulated bill drafts meant to help support staff and faculty at UW system campuses. 

One would again allow most UW system employees, faculty and academic staff to collectively bargain over wages, hours, and conditions of employment. UW employees were stripped of that ability under the Walker-era law Act 10. 

Another bill would reverse changes made in the 2015 state budget that eliminated language in state statute that protected tenure. Lawmakers said in 2015 that the changes were necessary to give the UW system flexibility to deal with budget cuts, though faculty members said then that the changes were an attack on tenure. 

Emerson said it is getting harder to recruit people to work at the universities in the state and that some of the changes could help. 

“If we’re making these big changes about how universities are dealt with, staff and faculty need to have a seat at the table for having these conversations and having a seat at the table in meaningful ways where their concerns are addressed too,” Emerson said. 

Emerson noted that in recent years Republican lawmakers have pushed through proposals and deals that triggered pushback from faculty members. 

The most recent budget deal negotiated between lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers included new work load requirements for UW faculty, mandating that they teach a minimum of 24 credits per academic year, or four 3-credit courses, starting in Sept. 2026. The requirement has garnered concerned reactions from faculty, some of who have said it could be difficult to balance teaching and research demands.

In 2023, Republican lawmakers negotiated with UW leaders to secure concessions on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in exchange for staff pay raises and money for buildings. The deal garnered a lot of pushback from staff and students at the time.

“You know, the workload requirements that came through the budget, or the DEI deal that happened last session, none of those would have happened if we had collective bargaining in place,” Emerson said. “Those are two things that when you have people who don’t work in an industry trying to put working parameters around that industry, it falls flat.”

Bills likely won’t advance in Republican Legislature

The Democratic proposals will face a difficult road in the Republican-led Legislature. Emerson said the likelihood for a public hearing on the Democratic bills is “slim to none.”

However, Emerson said Democratic lawmakers plan to take the ideas to people in the state other ways. She and some of her Democratic colleagues will be on the UW-Stevens Point campus this week to start a tour of campuses around the state. 

Emerson said the purpose is to have as many conversations with staff, faculty and students as possible. 

“If we’re not going to have a hearing in Madison on it, we are ready to take this around to other campuses and other parts of the state and have the conversation on the college campuses,” Emerson said. “I want to hear what matters to the students. I want to hear what, you know, the career people need their students to have to get jobs. I want to hear from the business people in these communities.”

Emerson said part of the goal is to also start laying the foundation for if Democrats win more legislative power in 2026. 

“It’s always good when you’re making policy about something that you’re talking to the people that this is going to impact, so this is what we’re really hoping to do — work out all the kinks, and dust everything off, and, hopefully, have a little bit more governing power coming up in the next session, and be able to really hit the ground running with some of these bills,” Emerson said.

Emerson said Democratic lawmakers’ approach is focused on figuring out how the state can make higher education available for “anybody no matter their zip code, no matter their income level,” and she expressed skepticism the Republican bills will do that. 

“A lot of the bills that I see coming from my Republican colleagues about higher education tend to either be punitive — one person said one thing on one campus, therefore we have to make sure nobody ever says that again and getting into these free speech pieces — or they’re doing things in a way that tells me that they haven’t been on a college campus for a really long time,” Emerson said.

The Senate Universities and Technical Colleges Committee is scheduled to have a public hearing on eight Republican-authored higher education-related bills Wednesday. 

One bill, coauthored by Sen. Andre Jacque (R-New Franken) and Rep. Dave Murphy (R-Hortonville), would place caps on annual tuition hikes. It was proposed in reaction to the 5% tuition increase that was approved after the recent state budget was completed. The increase was the third annual hike in a row. UW President Jay Rothman and UW regents had said the tuition increases would be necessary if the system didn’t secure enough funding from the state. 

In a memo about the bill, the Republican lawmakers said the Legislature needed to “implement a common sense law placing controls on these types of skyrocketing tuition increases” and that a cap on tuition increases would provide families with “the predictability required to budget for college expenses into the future.” Sen. Julian Bradley (R-New Berlin) has also argued that the bill is about “protecting affordability.” 

Under the bill, the UW Board of Regents would be prohibited from increasing undergraduate tuition by more than the consumer price index increase in a given year.

Emerson said she didn’t think the bill would have the intended effect of helping students and families afford school. She noted some of the effects seen during the decade-long tuition freeze implemented under the Walker administration. 

UW leaders said at the time that the freeze was unsustainable as it limited campuses ability to maintain its program and course offerings and wages for staff and faculty. 

“Students couldn’t get the classes that they needed… so people would sometimes have to go for an extra year to get all of the classes that they needed to complete their degree. It ended up costing people more because they had to stay in longer to get the one last requirement that they needed for their degree,” Emerson said. “It’s a good messaging point to say we’re gonna not increase [tuition] by a certain amount, but I don’t think that that has the end result that they’re thinking it does.”

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A bill restricting referendum proposals comes as school districts continue to rely on funding raised from property taxes through referendum requests, requiring voter approval. A rally calling attention to schools' reliance on referendums in the Capitol in 2025. Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner.

Wisconsin Republicans want to restrict school districts’ ability to seek referendums if they haven’t turned in financial reports to the Department of Public Instruction on time. 

At a public hearing Thursday, the Assembly Education Committee Thursday heard testimony on a bill drafted in reaction to the historic referendum that voters approved for the Milwaukee Public Schools last year, and that was followed by the revelation that the district was months late in submitting financial documents to the state.

The school district’s tardiness has led to upheaval throughout the district, including the decision to replace the MPS superintendent and additional audits ordered by Gov. Tony Evers.

The education committee also took testimony on a bill that would allow education students to complete their student teacher requirements during the summer and a bill to change curriculum requirements for human development classes if districts offer them. 

Rich Judge,  assistant state superintendent in the Division of Government & Public Affairs for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), registered against each bill, but did not provide testimony. The agency has not yet responded to a request for comment from the Wisconsin Examiner about its opposition to the bills.

AB 457, coauthored by Rep. Amanda Nedweski (R-Pleasant Prairie) and Sen. Rob Hutton (R-Brookfield), would require DPI to certify schools are in compliance with all applicable requirements to submit financial information to DPI. 

If a district is not in compliance, the school board would be prohibited from adopting a resolution to hold  a referendum. A resolution adopted or a referendum passed without the certification would be void.

“If a district cannot even meet its minimal statutory reporting duties, how can voters trust them to be responsible?” Nedweski asked rhetorically during her testimony. “This bill places no additional cost or burdens on school districts. It simply reinforces accountability and transparency… Trust is the foundation of strong schools and strong communities, and AB 457 helps ensure that that trust is never taken for granted.” 

MPS sought a $252 million recurring operating referendum in April 2024 to assist with staff pay and educational programming costs. The measure passed narrowly, and by the end of May 2024, DPI announced that the district was months late in submitting required financial reports. 

The DPI was still withholding about $42 million from the district as of June of this year due to its late financial reports. 

Nedweski said she didn’t know how many other districts might be late in their financial reporting to DPI. School districts need to be in compliance before they seek a referendum so that voters have adequate information, she said 

“If you’re going to pass a $252 million dollar recurring referendum, I think you should be able to make an informed decision,” Nedweski said.

The legislation comes as school districts continue to rely on funding raised from property taxes through referendum requests, requiring voter approval.

Democratic lawmakers on the committee expressed concern about the potential barrier the legislation could pose.

Rep. Angelina Cruz (D-Racine) noted that there have been a record number of referendum requests t in recent years and that the state Legislature opted not to provide any additional general aid in the 2025-27 state budget. School district leaders have said the lack of state aid will put them in tough positions when it comes to funding, even with the additional aid that the state is providing for special education costs. 

“With the state Legislature putting zero dollars in state [general] aid forward in this last budget to local school districts, we’re going to see that pattern of referendum continuing,” Cruz said. “I’m just concerned that we are creating another barrier in terms of our local public school districts having access to choosing to… fill the gaps that the state is intentionally creating.”

Even with the recent referendum, MPS is still looking at a $100 million budget shortfall and newly hired Superintendent Brenda Cassellius is looking for ways to tighten its budget.

This is not the only bill lawmakers have introduced that would place additional barriers and limitations on school districts seeking referendums. A bill introduced in March would eliminate the ability for school districts to seek recurring referendums, which are ongoing into the future, in part due to Milwaukee’s referendum. 

“Are you saying that people shouldn’t have access to the financial data for school districts before they make a decision to raise their own taxes?” Nedweski replied. 

“Absolutely not,” Cruz said. “I’m seeking clarity in terms of are we trying to create an additional barrier for public school districts, local communities to fund their schools? [The financial reports are] already a requirement by law.” 

Changing human development requirements 

The committee also took testimony on AB 405, also authored by Nedweski, which would change requirements for school districts that offer human development education.

Wisconsin doesn’t require public schools to teach human growth and development, or sex education. If they opt to do so, the state makes recommendations for the curriculum and state law imposes some requirements. Those include presenting abstinence from sex as the preferred choice of behavior for unmarried students, providing instruction in parental responsibility and the socioeconomic benefits of marriage for adults and their children, and explaining pregnancy, prenatal development and childbirth. 

Nedweski’s bill would add to those requirements. If it is enacted, students would have to be shown a “high-definition ultrasound video that shows the development of the brain, heart, sex organs, and other vital organs in early fetal development” and a “high-quality, computer-generated rendering or animation that shows the process of fertilization and every stage of fetal development inside the uterus and that notes significant markers in cell growth and organ development for every week of pregnancy until birth.”

Nedweski said that allowing students to “actually see the real life process of fetal development in action will be more tangible to them than simply reading in a textbook or seeing it in the still diagram or drawing.” 

“We have the resources at our disposal to bring this science into the classrooms, and we should use it to our advantage to give students a stronger educational experience,” she added. 

Nedweski’s bill would also require schools to include a presentation on each trimester of pregnancy and the physical and emotional health of the mother if they opt into teaching on recommended topics. She said this would help address mental health concerns.

“This bill simply builds off of those existing requirements to incorporate more scientific resources, such as the ultrasound video as well as lessons pertaining to the mental and physical health of the mother,” Nedweski said. “This bill is not a mandate because school districts are not required by law to offer human growth and development instruction. It merely makes modern enhancements to the topics required of districts that choose to teach it.” 

Nedweski was the sole person to testify on the bill. 

Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) asked Nedweski whether she consulted public health officials, noting that the Wisconsin Public Health Association and Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards are registered against it, according to the Wisconsin Ethics Commission lobbying website.

Nedweski said she didn’t speak to any public health officials or either statewide group in the process of authoring the bill, but spoke to a member of one of the local health departments in her district. 

Cruz asked about how much the curriculum would potentially cost. 

“There are all kinds of free materials available to any school district that would be wanting to utilize the video portion or the high resolution animation,” Nedweski said. She added that the curriculum decisions would ultimately be made at the local level.

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Taylor Swift performs at Soldier Field in Chicago on The Eras Tour on June 5, 2023 (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Ahead of Taylor Swift’s latest album being released Friday, Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) is proposing that Wisconsin exile practices in the ticket selling industry that disadvantage fans trying to attend shows and events.

The bill “Stop Wildly Inflated Fees and Ticketing Industry Exploitation” — yes, that really is SWIFTIE for short — would require sellers to disclose the total cost of ticket prices to potential buyers, put a cap on how much resellers can charge for tickets and prohibit ticket-buying bots that resellers use. Sen. Jamie Wall (D-Green Bay) and Rep. Jill Billings (D-La Crosse) are also coauthors on the bill.

The bill comes ahead of Swift releasing her 12th studio album — titled “The Life of a Showgirl” — on Friday.

Many states and lawmakers, including some of Wisconsin’s neighbors, started taking an interest in new laws to help regulate the live event ticket marketplace after Ticketmaster crashed during the initial sale of tickets to Swift’s The Eras Tour. Many of the mega pop star’s huge and dedicated fan base were down bad as secondary ticket prices for her tour soared, with some individual ticket prices rising to even more than $4,000.

The Michigan House passed a proposal in June that would curb bots for hoarding concert and event tickets. The Minnesota state government enacted legislation to help protect online ticket buyers in 2024.

“My daughters and I are Swifties. I would’ve loved to have taken them to see Taylor Swift live on the Eras Tour, but instead we saw the movie,” Roys said in a video with Style (Taylor’s Version) playing in the background and clips from the tour flashing on screen. “I didn’t even try to get tickets because I had heard the horror stories from so many friends of mine. This is not how it’s supposed to be. Live events should be for fans, not for profiteers.”

Roys is also seeking the Democratic nomination in the 2026 election for Wisconsin governor.

Several provisions in the bill seek to prevent fans from encountering a ticket hoax by barring resellers from listing tickets for resale before tickets have been put on sale, from putting tickets on sale if they don’t already own them and by capping secondary ticket sales, prohibiting a fee from exceeding 10% of the ticket’s initial price.

The bill also includes a provision to ensure ticket buyers can feel fearless when they make a purchase on the secondary market. Under it, resellers would be required to issue a full refund within 10 days of a request to a purchaser if a ticket is counterfeit, the event is canceled, the ticket doesn’t fit the description provided or the date or time of the event is moved. 

Bots — devices or software that get around security measures or access control systems on a ticket selling platform to bypass purchasing limits — would also be prohibited under the bill from purchasing more than eight tickets for one event and circumventing the ticket queue, presale codes or waiting periods when a sale is going on. 

“If you’re a fan, you deserve the chance to go see your favorite artist without being exploited by unscrupulous scalpers, by third-party bot farms that drive up prices and other practices that exploit fans and venues and artists,” Roys said. “All of us deserve to come together and share these wonderful live events without these kinds of consumer protection violations.” 

Under the bill, violators would be subject to civil forfeitures of at least $15,000 for each day the violation occurs; $1,000 per ticket listed, advertised, sold or resold in violation of the provisions;  and an amount equal to five times the total price of each ticket. 

A person could also be subject to a civil forfeiture of at least $10,000 per ticket listed, advertised, sold or resold in violation of the provisions.

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“We don't have a direct way to overrule what the Republican regime has done in the big, ugly bill,” Sen. Kelda Roys said. “We certainly can do everything we can in Wisconsin to make sure that the existing two independent clinics that provide abortion services are able to see as many patients as they possibly can." (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin paused abortion services Wednesday at its Madison, Milwaukee and Sheboygan locations due to the megabill signed by President Donald Trump in July. The law — officially titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act — included a provision that would take away federal funding from the organization if it continues providing abortion services. 

The organization announced the pause last week, saying that it was looking to see as many patients as possible before the Oct. 1 deadline. Wisconsin is the first state in the country where Planned Parenthood has taken this step in response to the federal law. 

In reaction, Democratic lawmakers called Wednesday morning for the state to reverse other restrictions on the books to help increase accessibility to the remaining independent abortion providers in the state.

“We’re sounding the alarm, but we’re also saying we can do something about this,” Rep. Lisa Subeck (D-Madison) said at a press conference. “We know that this is going to be a legal battle, and there will be other means by which Planned Parenthoods are fighting this change, but in the meantime, we cannot let Republicans block access for Wisconsin women to the care that they need.” 

This is the second time that Planned Parenthood is halting abortion services in Wisconsin since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, ending federally protected abortion rights. The group stopped providing abortions from June 2022 until September 2023, when a Dane County court held that a 19th century state statute did not ban abortions. The Wisconsin Supreme Court also ruled in July that the same 19th century law was invalid and unenforceable and had effectively been repealed by other laws passed after it. 

Planned Parenthood’s decision to pause services again leaves just two independent clinics that provide abortion care in Milwaukee. Abortion providers in neighboring Illinois have declared that they are prepared to provide services for Wisconsin women.

“We know that people in Wisconsin can go to other states that do not have these restrictions to access abortion care, but we think that that’s unacceptable, and that no matter who you are or where you’re from you deserve the freedom to get the health care that you need here in Wisconsin,” Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) said at the press conference.

The public health department for Madison and Dane County offered to help patients in need of services navigate their limited options. 

“Losing Planned Parenthood clinics as an option for abortion care means the full spectrum of reproductive health care will become very difficult to access in Wisconsin,” said Public Health Supervisor Sarah Hughes. “We know this changing landscape can be confusing and overwhelming, that’s why our Nurse Navigators are standing by to help people understand all options around pregnancy and reproductive health care.”

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 contraceptives, STI testing, pregnancy testing, and gynecological services to low-income and uninsured individuals. The Hyde Amendment has barred federal money from being used to fund abortion care across the country for decades. 

The new federal law puts the other services that Planned Parenthood offers at risk by barring 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.

“This was targeted directly at Planned Parenthood,” Subeck said. 

“Let me be clear, Republicans in the federal and state governments will stop at nothing short of a full abortion ban,” she added.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its member organizations in Massachusetts and Utah filed a legal challenge in July, but an injunction that was blocking the law from taking effect was lifted in September.

Attorney General Josh Kaul has also joined with other state attorneys general on a legal motion that argues the provision “impermissibly and unconstitutionally targets Planned Parenthood health centers for their advocacy and their exercise of associational rights” and also that “Congress ran afoul of limits on its spending power” because of its ambiguity. It argues the provision “fails to adequately define the scope of providers who qualify as “prohibited entities”; fails to provide clear notice of the timing of its implementation; and constitutes a change that [states] could not have anticipated when joining Medicaid.” 

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has said that ongoing litigation could change what the organization is allowed to do and that it  will continue to monitor the legal landscape and will be prepared to act the moment it is able to resume care.

Roys and Subeck introduced legislation Wednesday to help the last two clinics in Milwaukee take in patients. 

The Democratic bill would repeal several of the other restrictions on the books in Wisconsin, including a requirement that patients attend two appointments with the same physician 24 hours apart before receiving care, requirements that a patient have a physical exam and that a physician be physically present when medication is taken, and a requirement for an ultrasound. It would expand the number of providers allowed to provide abortion care from just physicians to physician assistants, nurse practitioners and advanced practice registered nurses. 

The lawmakers said the bill would help the two independent Milwaukee clinics — Care for All Community Clinic and Affiliated Medical Services — reach as many patients as possible while Planned Parenthood no longer offers services by removing barriers to providing access. 

“We don’t have a direct way to overrule what the Republican regime has done in the big, ugly bill,” Roys said. “We certainly can do everything we can in Wisconsin to make sure that the existing two independent clinics that provide abortion services are able to see as many patients as they possibly can and try to absorb some of the loss of service [provided by] Planned Parenthood, and open the door to make sure that patients in Wisconsin don’t suffer access restrictions that patients in other states don’t have to suffer.” 

Roys said the purpose of the restrictions “has always been to make abortion as onerous and as difficult for people to access as possible. It has nothing to reduce the need for abortion.” By lifting the restrictions, she said, the bill could help “increase abortion access, despite the federal backdoor abortion ban.”

However, in a Republican-led Legislature, the bill is unlikely to move ahead.

Conservative groups and some Republican lawmakers celebrated the news of the pause in abortion services last week. Rep. Joy Goeben (R-Hobart) called the pause in services at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin a “hopeful moment” in a statement last week.

“Every heartbeat silenced by abortion was a life full of possibility,” Goeben said. “This pause means more of those lives may now have a chance.”

Goeben and 11 of her Republican colleagues recently introduced a bill that seeks to narrow the definition of  abortion in Wisconsin. According to a bill summary, it would amend the definition of abortion to make an exception for “physician’s performance of a medical procedure or treatment designed or intended to prevent the death of a pregnant woman and not designed or intended to kill the unborn child, including an early induction or cesarean section performed due to a medical emergency or the removal of a dead embryo or dead fetus, or an ectopic, anembryonic, or molar pregnancy, which results in injury to or death of the woman’s unborn child when the physician makes reasonable medical efforts under the circumstances to preserve both the life of the woman and the life of her unborn child according to reasonable medical judgment and appropriate interventions for the gestational age of the child.” 

“Democrats should be lining up to sign on to this bill,” Goeben said in a statement about the bill. “This is what liberals have been shouting about from the rooftops for decades. However, they continue to perpetuate the notion women are not going to get the care they need in a heart wrenching emergency situation.”

Physicians, Democratic lawmakers and others have spoken to concerns since the overturn of Roe v. Wade that restrictive state laws governing abortion would result in women not receiving adequate medical care, even when there is an emergency. ProPublica has reported on the preventable deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, both of whom were denied timely care due to confusion created by Georgia’s six-week abortion ban. It has also reported on two women in Texas, Josseli Barnica and Nevaeh Crain, who died under the state’s restrictive abortion ban after care was delayed for their miscarriages.

Roys said the bill is an example of Republicans trying to distance themselves from the impact of restrictive abortion policies. 

“Republicans know that their abortion bans hurt women, and they kill women, and Americans are horrified to see women being arrested and jailed instead of taken to the hospital for treatment when they have a miscarriage. They are horrified to see pregnant people turned away from emergency rooms so that they can bleed out and almost die in Walmart parking lots… and now Republicans are desperately searching for a way to distance themselves from the terrible effects of the laws that they passed. And [to] simply say if you need to end your pregnancy, we’re going to call it something different than abortion is nonsense.” 

Roys said the bill is “pernicious” because it would essentially tell providers to provide a C-section or induce labor rather than provide an abortion. Those procedures, she said, are “much more difficult, painful, and risky and invasive than doing an abortion.” 

“It affects a woman’s future ability to birth and be pregnant the way that she wants to be, and it is incredibly cruel,” Roys said.

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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.”

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Assembly Republican and Democratic authors announced competing bills at a joint press conference last week. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Wisconsin lawmakers are once again trying to make changes to the state’s elections system, including allowing elections clerks to start processing absentee ballots the day before Election Day, though partisan divisions on how the changes should be made are already showing. 

Assembly Republican and Democratic authors announced competing bills at a joint press conference last week, saying they are starting a conversation around the proposals and aim to get them done this session. It’s unclear whether those conversations will end in new laws ahead of the 2026 elections, which will include a spring Supreme Court election, a high-profile, open race for governor and state legislative races where control is up for grabs. 

“There’s not a lot new in here,” Assistant Majority Leader Scott Krug (R-Rome) said. “We’ve gone through a lot of these things before, but we’re here to talk about things that should matter to every Wisconsinite, whether you’re Republican, Democrat or independent, about having faith and confidence in your elections from the beginning of the process all the way through to the end.”

Krug said his proposals would help ensure three things for voters: the “person who’s voting next to them is who they say they are,” that the “person is eligible to vote” and that they know “who won the damn election before they go to bed.”

One bill, Krug said, would take a “comprehensive look at how we approach absentee voting in the state of Wisconsin.” This would include allowing for processing of absentee ballots to start on the  Monday before Election Day and regulating drop boxes in Wisconsin. 

“Absentee voting is here to stay, so we want to make sure that we include a process where we can actually get these results across the finish line before we go to bed,” Krug said. He added that by pairing the issue with drop boxes regulations in his new bill he hopes it will “draw all legislators to the table.”  

Election clerks have called for change for years. Currently in Wisconsin, elections workers aren’t allowed to start processing absentee ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day. This has led to extended processing times, especially in the larger cities including Milwaukee — bolstering suspicions among  Republicans since 2018 about  late night “ballot dumps” in Democratic cities. 

Despite passing the Assembly, a bill to implement Monday processing died last legislative session due to opposition in the Senate. 

In addition to reviving Monday processing, Krug promoted new standards for drop boxes.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed a decision that had banned drop boxes in Wisconsin until the new ruling in July 2024. Some Republicans, though not Krug, were critical of the decision. 

“People who are in our communities who see drop boxes on the corner want to know if they have security, that they have standards, that they’re being used the same across the state of Wisconsin,” Krug said. “I know we don’t all agree on what those provisions and those standards should be, but we’ll have a good conversation about that.”

Another bill, Krug said, would eliminate the “ballot drawdown” process from Wisconsin statute and replace it with a process known as “risk-limiting audits.” The drawdown is used when there is a numerical discrepancy and as a result a ballot may be randomly selected and removed from the vote count. 

“Clerical errors can lead to an actually legal ballot being tossed out,” Krug said. “We’ve got to get rid of the drawdown.”

Risk limiting audits are a statistically based audit technique, which audits a certain number of ballots depending on the margin of victory in a given election, has been growing in popularity in recent years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The bill language for Krug’s first two bills is not available.

Krug said AB 312, which was introduced earlier this year, is also included in his package. The bill would require absentee voting sites to be open for at least 20 hours during the period for voting absentee in-person. 

“There’s going to be a limited number of session days going into the fall and spring,” Krug said, adding that it could be difficult to get “27 or 30 election bills” across the finish line individually. 

“Time is of the essence,” Krug said for getting the changes done before 2026 fall elections.

While the lawmakers held their press conference jointly, Rep. Lee Snodgrass (D-Appleton) said she is not currently supportive of Krug’s bills but that having the conversation is important. 

“I think it’s over bloated,” Snodgrass said about Krug’s “Monday processing” proposal. “I’d like to see a cleaner bill.”

“We are meeting the moment. Our country, and our state has never been more divided and more contentious. The partisan divide has become not just contentious, but even hostile,” Snodgrass said, adding that she and Krug want to “model that civil conversations in debate can happen in the same room, from the same podium and with the same goal in mind despite diverging ideas.” 

Senate Democrat critical of Krug’s legislation

In addition to Assembly Democrats not being on board with Republican election proposals, there already appear to be some obstacles in the Senate.

While speaking to reporters after the Assembly press conference, Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) criticized Krug’s Monday processing proposal, saying he was “very disappointed” with the new version as it contains a “poison pills” meant to satisfy the right-wing portion of his party. 

“The Monday processing concept has always been a good idea on its own merits, but it’s never been about the right to vote. It has always been about efficiencies for our clerks and our election officials to process ballots more smoothly,” Spreitzer said. “None of those things are about voting rights, and I’m not willing to trade those things for undermining people’s voting rights.” 

Spreitzer said the dropbox restrictions are “nonstarters” that would “functionally ban them in most communities.” A bill draft, according to VoteBeat, includes a ban on clerks fixing errors on ballots and guidelines for dropboxes, including where to place them, how to secure them, how to collect ballots and how to keep records of when they’re emptied as well as requiring they be under a continuous, livestreamed video feed. 

“I don’t know where these ideas are coming from, but it’s got to be from the extreme part of the Republican caucus, and I just don’t think these are what we should be putting forward related to our elections,” Spreitzer said. 

Spreitzer said Monday processing may not happen until Democrats have control, given the recent version of the bill.

“It may mean that we need to wait for a Democratic majority to pass this,” Spreitzer said. Senate Republicans currently hold a 17-15 majority. Democrats are hoping to change that in 2026 and need to win at least two additional seats to flip control of the chamber for the first time in over 15 years.

Waiting would delay any changes to 2027 at the earliest. 

Democratic bills

Snodgrass, alongside three of her Assembly Democratic colleagues, introduced proposals that have overlapping goals with Krug’s legislation last week.

Snodgrass said the Democratic package is meant to focus on “strengthening our democracy” by increasing access, educating people and providing the resources necessary to ensure that all eligible electors can vote. She said they specifically want to remove barriers to voting, not impose them.

One bill would require elected state officials to serve as poll workers during their first term and once every three years after that to help increase their understanding of the state’s election administration. 

“There’s no better way of learning than doing so,” Snodgrass said, adding that the bill would help elected officials be a “voice to talk about how Wisconsin’s elections are secure.” 

A pair of bills seek to ensure that polling places and voting are more accessible by requiring that election officials have one hour of voter accessibility training, and requiring election officials use the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s accessibility checklist at each polling place and uniform signs with  instructions for curbside voting. Several of the bills focus on helping young people in the state participate in elections. 

One bill would require that at least one special school registration deputy be present at each public high school in the state so eligible students can register to vote at school during the day. One bill would require high schools to give voter registration forms and nonpartisan voting information to students who are eligible to vote. 

The Department of Public Instruction would be required, under one bill, to develop a curriculum on the electoral process and voting. The agency would also have to mandate at least one hour of voter education instruction annually for K-12 students. 

“Too often, young people want to get involved, but don’t know how,” Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire) said. “By making voter registration and civic information part of the high school experience, we eliminate barriers and send a clear message, your voice matters, and your vote counts. This bill is not about partisanship. It’s about participation. It’s about preparing students to step confidently into adulthood, not just as graduates, but as citizens ready to shape their communities and their future.”

The package also includes a constitutional amendment proposal that would allow 17-year-olds to vote in primaries if they will be 18 by the general election. Another bill would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to preregister to vote if they turn 18 before the next election.

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Wisconsin State Capitol (Wisconsin Examiner photo)

Former state Rep. Brett Hulsey, known for controversial behavior in the Wisconsin Assembly, has joined the crowded Democratic field for governor in 2026.

“I am running for governor to make Wisconsin better for my family and yours. My grandkids and yours deserve the best schools, roads and clean lakes and beaches,” Hulsey said in his campaign announcement last week.

Hulsey represented Middleton in the state Legislature from 2011 to 2015. Prior to that, he served on the Dane County Board for 14 years, including chairing the Dane County Personnel and Finance Committee.

While in the Assembly, Hulsey was cited for disorderly conduct after police accused him of flipping a 9-year-old boy off his inner tube and taking pictures of him at a Madison beach. He also used $1,200 in campaign funds in 2013 to buy himself a 1987 Volkswagen Cabriolet, which he said he was going to use for parades and campaigning.

Hulsey decided not to run for reelection in the Assembly in 2014 so he could run for governor in 2014. He came in a distant second in the Democratic primary to Mary Burke. 

During his last campaign, Hulsey made national headlines for his plan to go to the 2014 Wisconsin Republican Convention in Milwaukee, dress up as a confederate soldier and hand out Ku Klux Klan hoods as a way of highlighting the policies of then-Gov. Scott Walker, which he said were racist.

Hulsey, a former teacher, cited his outspoken opposition to Act 10, a Walker-era law that stripped teachers and other public employees of collective bargaining rights, as a  reason he decided to run. 

“Attacks on teachers and cuts to school investment are coming home to roost with lower school performance. I will invest in our kids, schools, teachers, and support staff,” Hulsey said. 

Since his time in office, Hulsey has run the housing, energy and environmental consulting business Better Environmental Solutions LLC. 

Hulsey joins a growing group of Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls.

Candidates who have announced so far include Lt. Gov. Sarah Rodriguez, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, state Sen. Kelda Roys, state Rep. Francesca Hong, former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes and Mukwonago beer vendor Ryan Strnad. 

The primary for governor is scheduled for August 2026.

Republicans in the race include U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann.

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Bill Berrien, shown here in a screenshot from his campaign launch video, dropped out Friday from the contest for the GOP nomination in the 2026 race for governor. (Screenshot from campaign ad)

Whitefish Bay manufacturer Bill Berrien is dropping his bid for governor after a turbulent week for his campaign, saying he doesn’t see a way for him to win the Republican nomination. 

Berrien, the owner and chief executive officer of Pindel Global Precision Inc. and Liberty Precision New Berlin and a former Navy SEAL, entered the race about three months ago, saying the state needed a businessman in charge and trying to compare himself with President Donald Trump as a way of appealing to people. 

His exit leaves two Republicans in the race: U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is considered the highest-profile candidate, launched his campaign this week, and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann launched in May. 

Berrien cited two reports from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week as his reason for leaving the race, saying they were “clearly targeted to force me out of the race.” 

“As a result of our politics today, I cannot focus on the issues I know will turn Wisconsin around. I have come to the conclusion I do not have a path to the nomination,” Berrien said in a statement.

The Journal Sentinel articles found that Berrien had scrubbed his activity on the online publishing platform Medium.com where he followed Jiz Lee, a queer, trans nonbinary adult film performer, along with other authors of sexually explicit essays. Berrien had entered the race boasting of his conservative values, including saying he’d “keep boys out of our daughters’ sports and locker rooms,” a reference to the issue of transgender girls participating on girls’ sports teams. 

The Berrien campaign attempted to downplay the news this week, but it quickly traveled across the internet, even garnering the attention of Jiz Lee, the Journal Sentinel reported in a follow-up article. They wrote in a post on Bluesky it is “okay to follow trans porn stars” and “to read articles about sex and relationships,” but that “what’s not okay is the hypocrisy of backing forceful legislation that restricts what people, trans and otherwise, can do with their own bodies.” 

“That is shameful,” they said. 

Berrien downplayed his online activity in his statement, saying he followed over 5,000 people across various platforms, subscribed to over 100 newsletters and has hit the ‘like’ button on 20,000 posts.  

“It was a major attack piece and we confirmed opposition research started in January of this year, if not earlier,” Berrien said. “And for what? For reading! Nothing illegal, nothing unethical and nothing immoral. Just reading. Wouldn’t you want your political and business leaders (and all of society, frankly) to be widely read and thoughtful and aware of different perspectives and ideas? Yet, when a supposedly major metropolitan newspaper condemns someone for reading, we have ourselves a problem.” 

The primary for the open governor’s race, scheduled for August 2026, is still about a year out. 

Ahead of the news on his online activity this week, Berrien had already found pushback to his candidacy from Trump-aligned conservatives because he supported Nikki Haley in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, including donating over $30,000 to her campaign.

Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesperson Philip Shulman highlighted Trump’s influence  in the Republican primary in a statement about Berrien’s exit, saying it is a “lesson” for GOP candidates. 

“If you don’t show complete and total loyalty to Trump — past or present — then you better pack your bags and head for the door,” Shulman said. “His failure, despite his resume, financial investment, and doing somersaults to earn Trump’s love, shows just how far the other GOP candidates are going to have to go to win the nomination.” 

While the Republican field is shrinking, the Democratic field for governor is still growing with at least eight candidates in the race. 

Announced Democratic candidates include Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, state Sen. Kelda Roys, state Rep. Francesca Hong, former state Rep. Brett Hulsey and beer vendor Ryan Strnad. Others considering a run include Attorney General Josh Kaul, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes.

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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.

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U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany delivers a speech at his launch event in Wausau. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

WAUSAU — In his first event since launching his campaign for governor of Wisconsin, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany made the case for his governorship and promised the large crowd seated and standing around a barn on Wednesday that he’ll work hard to win in 2026.

The 2026 race will be the first open election for governor of Wisconsin in over 15 years as Gov. Tony Evers decided to retire at the end of his second term. Tiffany became the third Republican candidate in the race on Tuesday. Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann and Whitefish Bay manufacturer Bill Berrien are also running in the Republican primary for the office. The Democratic field is growing with at least six candidates so far. The primary is scheduled for August 2026.  

“We are making America great once again,” Tiffany, who stood in front of an American flag, told the crowd. “Now we need a governor that’s going to lead Wisconsin to prosperity. Are we going to be one of those states that chooses prosperity like Texas and Florida and Tennessee and Ohio or are we going to be one of the laggards like New York or California?”

Tiffany declared during his speech that he is “the leader” in the race as he called for people to join him in his work. 

“I will put every ounce of my energy into this… but I cannot do it alone,” Tiffany said. “I am going to need your help.” 

Berrien, who has never held elected office, criticized Tiffany as a “career politician” in a statement after his launch. 

“We need builders who will create prosperity for all through work, revitalize the manufacturing infrastructure that lies dormant in our state, and jumpstart our economy,” Berrien said. “As the only builder in this race, I’m the strongest general election candidate Democrats will face — and they know it!”

Schoemann, meanwhile, welcomed Tiffany to the race. 

“Looking forward to a Republican primary focused on ideas and winning back the governor’s office,” Schoemann said in a social media post on Tuesday. 

In his 16-minute speech, Tiffany highlighted his childhood on a dairy farm in Elmwood, in the western part of the state as one of eight children.

“Growing up on the farm, we learned to work hard. We learned how to work hard, and we learned to live on a budget, and there are no excuses on the farm, you pick up the shovel, you pick up the pitchfork and you go to work,” Tiffany said. “That’s the way it is. There’s no excuses when those chores start to pile up, and it’s kind of the Wisconsin way.”

The crowd of attendees, some wearing “Make America Great Again” hats, Turning Point USA shirts and even vintage Tiffany for Senate shirts, cheered enthusiastically throughout the speech. 

Linda Michalski, a Wausau resident who retired from working for Marathon County as an  accountant, said she got an invite to Tiffany’s event from the Marathon County Republican Party, of which she is a member. She said she hasn’t researched the other Republican candidates in depth, but that she believes Tiffany’s name recognition will give him an edge.

Michalski said Tiffany’s backstory stuck out to her. 

“Dairy farmers work hard. You can’t just let things slide. You can’t just go on vacation if you’re a dairy farmer, in a dairy farmer family. Things have to get done, and they can’t… If more people had a strong work ethic, they wouldn’t be faced with financial difficulties,” Michalski said. 

Tiffany is hoping to lean on voters like Michaski in the areas of the state where he is most at home, telling reporters after his speech that he needs to “juice up” turnout in northern and western Wisconsin in order to win in 2026. 

“I’m driving all over the state of Wisconsin today, and I was talking to people that were making commitments, and I think you’re going to see more people climb on board here,” Tiffany said. “I got to prove myself to people, the state of Wisconsin.” 

Tiffany, who lives in Minocqua, has represented Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, a massive area encompassing the northern part of the state, in the House of Representatives since 2020. Before he went to Washington D.C., Tiffany served in the Wisconsin Legislature, first in the Assembly for about three years, followed by nearly eight years in the state Senate, where he was a member of  the powerful, budget-writing Joint Finance Committee. 

Tiffany told reporters that he is expecting that he’ll have to raise $30 or $40 million, and that his campaign is “off to a good start.”

Republicans in the gubernatorial primary are anxiously awaiting a possible endorsement from  President Donald Trump. Tiffany said his last conversation with Trump, which centered mostly on the 7th CD, was in August. 

“We will see how he responds. If he chooses to endorse me, I will certainly welcome that endorsement,” Tiffany said. 

In his speech, Tiffany said he would freeze property taxes and said the annual $325 school revenue limit increase that districts receive due to a partial veto by Evers would be “dead on day one.” 

The annual revenue limit increase gives school districts the option to bring in additional revenue, though without additional state aid, their only option to benefit from the increase is to raise local property taxes. Many school districts throughout the state have been leaning on property taxes to help with costs, since state aid to schools has not kept pace with inflation for almost two decades.

Michalski, a homeowner, said that a freeze in property taxes would be a “welcome relief.” She said her own property taxes have jumped nearly $1,000 recently, a hike that she blames on the Wausau Common Council. 

“Our current government is — it’s awful. It’s just awful, what Gov. Evers is doing. He’s pushing away businesses, he’s adding taxes upon taxes, and… he’s imposing a tax on property owners for 400 years,” Michalski said. 

Tiffany didn’t have additional specifics when it came to exactly how he would freeze property taxes while talking to reporters after his speech. 

“There’s plenty of money in Madison that I think we can help out those local municipalities to do the property tax freeze taxes at the local level. Where are the schools and the local municipalities going to get their money, right? I think the state can help out, especially after the spending blowout with this budget,” Tiffany told reporters after his speech. 

Asked by a reporter if he would seek a suspension of school referendums, Tiffany said he hasn’t “dug that deep into the details” and would “have to study that a little bit.” 

Kevin Lund, a nurse from Kronenwetter, said he appreciates the “Wisconsin First” message that Tiffany delivered. While he identifies as a libertarian, not a Republican, Lund said he has been following Tiffany since he took over from former U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy in 2020. 

“He’s paralleling a lot of the conservative type of sentiments that have been kind of nationwide,” Lund said, adding that he is happy about that. “He’s winning on the 80-20 issues, and as long as he can continue to convey that message throughout the state, I think, he’ll find a lot of success.” 

Those issues, Lund said, include immigration and the economy. 

“When you have money, all of a sudden, everybody’s a little bit happier,” Lund said, adding that young people in particular are dealing with challenges trying to afford a home and are “seeing a stagnation in wage growth.” 

“That’s got to be concerning to the younger generation. I’ve got a daughter that’s young, and… I’m wanting to see young people be able to have the chance to succeed in the state,” Lund said.

Tiffany, speaking about his tenure in Congress, highlighted his visits to the southern border where he said he saw “the damage that was being done to America, where every state had become a border state.” Tiffany, who is a member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, has been supportive of Trump’s crackdown on immigration during his second term. 

During his speech, Tiffany repeatedly blamed Democrats for problems in the state and played up cultural issues.

“For too long, Democrats have torn down what has been built up in Wisconsin,” Tiffany said. “If we give them four more years? Buckle up! Buckle up! Because you’ll see illegal aliens having driver’s licenses. You’ll see men playing girls’ sports and cheap foreign labor will replace you.” 

Tiffany also declared that there would be “no sanctuary cities” in Wisconsin under his leadership and called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) “unconstitutional and un-American.” 

“I talk to parents, and they have a simple message in regards to education, they just say, ‘Just educate our kids. Don’t indoctrinate them. Just get them a good education.’” Tiffany said, adding that he would seek to ensure that “dollars for education are going to students, teachers, and communities, not the system.”

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A row of framed houses under construction. (Getty Images)

Assembly Republicans proposed a package of bills they say would help increase affordable housing throughout Wisconsin on Tuesday. Rep. Rob Brooks (R-Saukville) said he hopes to build on the success of bills passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Tony Evers in 2023. Those measures created and expanded state loan programs and were supported with over $500 million in state funds.  

At a news conference in the state Capitol Tuesday morning, Brooks said GOP lawmakers anticipate cooperation from the governor’s office once again. The authors have worked with Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) on many of the bills, he said, and have put the bills on a fast track with hearings to take place soon. 

“We hope to get out more affordable housing throughout the state, and when I refer to affordable housing, I want to be clear, we’re not talking about subsidized housing. We’re talking about affordable housing,” Brooks said. “What I’m talking about is the housing stock that was built just a generation or two ago. We’re talking about small ranch homes, some of those homes built without garages or alleyways or detached garages.” 

Seven bills were drafted as of Tuesday, but Brooks said there could be up to 10 in the final package. “It’s kind of a fluid process right now,” he said. 

According to the National Association of Realtors, in 2024 the average age of a first-time homebuyer in the U.S. reached an all-time high of 38, said Tom Larson, president and CEO of the Wisconsin Realtors Association. He said that the average price of a home in Wisconsin is $340,000, and that over the last 15 years, Wisconsin has built fewer housing units per capita than the national average. 

“Housing prices continue to rise faster than wages, and the longer it takes somebody to purchase a home, the longer it takes for them to build wealth, the longer it takes for them to establish roots in our community, which has a direct impact on our labor force and our economy,” Larson said. “Wisconsin’s [housing] affordability is worse than any of our surrounding neighbors. It’s worse than Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan and Iowa.”

He said the Wisconsin real estate industry is “cautiously optimistic that the passage of these bills will help address Wisconsin’s affordability crisis.” 

New WHEDA programs 

One bipartisan bill, coauthored by Rep. Jessie Rodriguez (R-Oak Creek) and Sen. Jesse James (R-Thorp) would create a Workforce Home Loan Program through the WHEDA. The bill has two Democratic coauthors as well: Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) and Rep. Amaad Rivera-Wagner (D-Green Bay).

Rep. Dan Knodl (R-Germantown), who is also an author on the home loan legislation, said the bill is intended to help Wisconsinites who want to become homeowners. 

“Instead of putting down roots, people have been stuck in renting situations and are unable to build equity or stability, so, how do we do that to help them get into that first step of home ownership?” Knodl asked rhetorically. 

The program would allow first-time home buyers access to second mortgage loans of up to $60,000 at 0% interest. The loans could be used to help with down payments and closing costs. Knodl said the repayment terms would be flexible and tailored to household income, and there would be the option to defer payments for low-income families.

He said that the program would sustain itself through the repayments borrowers make.

“Home ownership is about more than buying a house. It’s about building stronger communities, investing in schools and growing local economies,” Knodl said.

Another bill proposed by Rep. Dave Murphy (D-Greenville) would require the agency to establish a grant program to support developers who want to convert multifamily housing to condominiums. 

WHEDA would be required to direct $10 million from the Main Street Housing Rehabilitation revolving loan fund to the grant program, which would cover up to $50,000 in reasonable attorney fees, state and local permitting fees, and any other costs associated with the conversion. 

Changes to help speed up, support development

A handful of the Republicans’ proposals would change laws to support more development and  standardize the process for a variety of housing developments.

Rep. David Armstrong (R-Rice Lake) has proposed creating residential tax increment districts, or TIDs. A TID is a financial tool  municipalities can use to designate certain areas for economic development and use the district’s property tax growth to help pay for improvements to the area. 

Armstrong said the TIDs are one of the biggest tools that municipalities have to do something about housing, and his bill would help address the biggest barrier to building more workforce housing — the cost of subdivision infrastructure, including sidewalks, curb and gutter, water, sewer and utilities. 

His bill would establish a “pay-as-you-go” TID, applying a portion of the tax increment from new homes  to offset the cost of subdivision development.

“In my area, a starter home is $400,000,” Armstrong said. “That’s not a starter home. That’s not what my workforce can afford.”

Armstrong also has a second bill that would require communities to align  comprehensive plans and the zoning ordinances. He said it would provide clarity and predictability for municipalities, builders and developers. 

Rep. Joy Goeben (R-Hobart) has authored a bill to provide a statewide framework for local regulations of “accessory dwelling units” — secondary housing units located on the same property as a primary residence. 

“Currently, Wisconsin lacks a unified approach, resulting in a confusing, patchwork of regulation that varies across local governments,” Goeben said. She said her bill “addresses that confusion” and gives property owners a pathway to add accessory units. “This legislation strikes a balance, ensuring individual property owners can efficiently add housing while maintaining reasonable community standards,” she said. 

According to the bill draft, local regulations would be allowed to limit the size and height of an accessory unit , require that a unit satisfy current setback and lot coverage requirements, and prohibit units built  after the effective date of the bill from being turned into short-term rentals.

Rep. Rob Kreibich (R-New Richmond) is proposing a bill that would set out a process for local governments and developers seeking to build a subdivision, including providing an opportunity for developers to meet informally with local representatives before submitting plans. He said the bill is meant to place local governments and developers on the same page “from the beginning of the process all the way through to the end of the process.” 

“Over the next five years, we’re gonna probably need about 140,000 housing units in the state of Wisconsin. At the current pace, we’re not going to even get close,” Kriebich said. “Delays and miscommunication oftentimes leads to delays or no subdivisions whatsoever, so this will clean up that process and again allow some tweaks in statutes to fast track new home construction in the state of Wisconsin.”

Delay new building codes

Rep. William Penterman (R-Hustisford) is seeking to delay the deadline for the implementation of new codes for commercial and multi-family residential buildings. The code changes are the first major updates to the codes in over a decade, and are being implemented following a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that struck down lawmakers’ ability to indefinitely block administrative rules.

“Unfortunately, there was a recent Supreme Court ruling that will mandate that the new building code need to go into effect, and while we’re not here to prevent that, we need to have clarity as to when exactly that’s going to happen,” Penterman said. 

Currently, the Department of Safety and Professional Services has said that all commercial building plans submitted to DSPS for approval must meet the standards set in the upgraded code starting on Oct. 1, though the new code technically went into effect on Sept. 1.

Penterman has proposed a bill that would delay that requirement until April 2026. 

“This gives businesses, commercial buildings, residential housing and municipalities more time to review these plans, make sure everything’s all set to go,” Penterman said.

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Rep. Tom Tiffany made his intention to run for governor official Tuesday after teasing his plans for weeks. (Congressional photo)

Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany launched his campaign for governor Tuesday afternoon — becoming the third, and highest profile, candidate in the 2026 Republican primary. 

The 2026 race for governor in Wisconsin will be the first open election in over 15 years as Gov. Tony Evers decided to retire at the end of his second term. Two other Republicans are already in the race: Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann and Whitefish Bay manufacturer Bill Berrien. 

“In 2026, Wisconsin will have a choice between opportunity, security, and freedom or following the path of failure seen in Minnesota and Illinois,” Tiffany said in a statement after officially launching his campaign on a conservative talk radio show hosted by Dan O’Donnell. “I will not allow our state to be dragged down that woke and broke road.”

Tiffany, who lives in Minocqua, had been teasing a run for governor for months and is expected to have an official launch event in Wausau on Wednesday evening.

The 67-year-old said in a statement that he would seek to “freeze property taxes, protect our farmland from Communist China, and fight every day for families, for farmers, and for the hardworking people who make this state great.”

In contrast to the short list of Republicans running so far, the Democratic primary field has become increasingly crowded in recent weeks. Official candidates include Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, state Sen. Kelda Roys, state Rep. Francesca Hong and beer vendor Ryan Strnad. Others considering a run include Attorney General Josh Kaul, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes, who recently announced she would be stepping down from her position in the Evers administration. 

Tiffany was elected to represent Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, a massive area that encompasses the northern part of the state, in the House of Representatives in a special election in 2020. He took over from current U.S. Transportation Secretary and former Republican Rep. Sean Duffy, who had resigned to care for his family.

Before going to Washington, D.C., Tiffany was in the state Legislature, first in the Wisconsin State Assembly for about three years, followed by nearly eight years in the state Senate. During his tenure, he served on the state’s Joint Finance Committee, which is responsible for writing the state budget. Before that, Tiffany was the Town Supervisor of Little Rice and managed petroleum distribution for Zenker Oil Company.

Tiffany said that he could stay in Congress for much longer if he wanted to, but that he thinks he can do more as governor and is in the race to “uphold conservative principles.”

“It really is time for new leadership and I believe I have the vision to be able to lead the state of Wisconsin and make us one of the great states of America once again,” Tiffany said. 

In Congress, Tiffany is a member of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus and has been a consistent ally to President Donald Trump. Tiffany also supported attempts to overturn former President Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election. So far this year, Tiffany has supported Trump’s tariffs and crack down on immigration, including targeting the H-1B visa program. 

“I support them,” Tiffany said of Trump’s tariffs in his interview with O’Donnell. “At the end of the day if the tariff regime is handled properly, we are going to bring manufacturing back to the United States of America.” 

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Devin Remiker criticized Tiffany in a statement, calling him “Tariff Lover Tom” and saying he “has been jacking up prices on Wisconsin families with his blind support for a trade war that is making everything from beer to beef to school supplies way more expensive — working Wisconsin families can’t afford Tariff Lover Tom being in charge.”

Tiffany said that he would also seek to uphold Wisconsin’s 20-week abortion ban. He has supported federal legislation in the past that would ban abortion at six weeks. 

“I do support that law, and I will uphold it as governor of the state of Wisconsin,” Tiffany said. “I think back to the debate that we had 10 years ago, and you had people on both sides. You had some that were, like, we want unlimited abortions. We had others that said there should be no abortions allowed in the state of Wisconsin, and ultimately, the people of the state said we really want to see something in the middle.”

Tiffany also said he would work to reduce taxes in Wisconsin, including freezing income taxes. He didn’t commit to a flat income tax or eliminating the income tax as some Republicans have proposed.

“I also believe we can reduce income taxes. Can we take it down to zero? I don’t know the answer to that,” Tiffany said.

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Jessica Seawright was joined at her launch event Monday by state Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) and Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee). (Photo courtesy of campaign)

Jessica Seawright, a social worker, disability rights advocate and mother, launched her campaign for Assembly District 21 Monday.

All 99 Assembly seats will be up for election in 2026 and it will be the second time that legislative maps adopted in 2024 will be used. Under those maps, Democrats were able to gain 10 seats in 2024, bringing their numbers up to 45.

Their goal for 2026 is to hold all of their seats and gain at least five more in order to flip the chamber. Republicans have held the Assembly for the last 15 years.

Rep. Jessie Rodriguez (R-Oak Creek) currently holds the 21st seat located in Milwaukee County, including Oak Creek and a portion of the city of Milwaukee near the Mitchell International Airport. She was first elected in a special election in November 2013, and has won reelection six times. Since 2021 she has also been a member of the powerful Joint Finance Committee, which is responsible for writing the state budget every two years. 

Under the new maps, Rodriguez won another term in 2024 with 51% of the vote against her Democratic challenger. According to an analysis by John Johnson, a research fellow at Marquette University, the district leaned Democratic by 4 percentage points in the presidential election and 7 percentage points in the U.S. Senate race. Rodriguez has not yet  announced her reelection campaign.

Seawright said the new legislative maps provide the opportunity to ask for more from representatives. 

“I wanted more — more understanding, more presence and I decided that it was time to step up,” Seawright said. 

Seawright was joined at her launch event Monday by state Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) and Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee). The Oak Creek venue where she made her announcement was previously part of Sinicki’s districts, before the maps changed.

Seawright said she sees the 21st as a 50-50 district.

“It’s really close, and not everyone is going to agree with me,” Seawright said. “The strength that I believe that I bring is decades of training, listening to people, understanding their perspective, understanding the impact of coming off extremely partisan, and what that does to stifle coordination, collaboration and participation of the voters of their residents in a community.” 

Seawright said her family has lived in Wisconsin since 2018, first in Racine and now in the Garden District community in Milwaukee. They moved from Utah because they had family in the state who would help with caregiving and respite for her 10-year-old son. 

“We have a fantastic neighborhood. I love it,” Seawright said. “We have community support. We have some great work happening in our parks,” including projects to make the spaces more accessible. 

Seawright said she has been working to build a coalition over the last six months leading up to her launch and she is launching over a year out from next year’s general election in November so she has time to get to know the district. 

“I want to be out there. I want to have open-ended conversations that aren’t pressured by me asking for folks’ vote before I earn it,” Seawright said. “I want to show up. I’ll be out in the community… I have the opportunity starting early to do the work that it will require to run for this office.” 

Her 10-year-old son, who has complex medical needs due to a genetic condition, is the major reason she became an advocate. She joined U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin to speak out against cuts to Medicaid and told the story of her son qualifying for and receiving services through the Katie Beckett program, which helps children with disabilities access Medicaid coverage while living at home instead of being in an institution. Her son also received a waiver for children’s long term support through Medicaid. Seawright worked with the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities and serves on the state’s Council for Children with Long-Term Support Needs. 

“I began to have the opportunity to spend time with adult self-advocates, and that was so powerful and inspiring, and it’s motivating,” Seawright said. “You want to step up. You want to be there to make sure that your friends feel heard.”

Seawright said that she wants to work for an expansion of Badgercare — Wisconsin’s Medicaid program — even as federal changes to Medicaid by the Trump administration caused Gov. Tony Evers’ administration to declare that it is “fiscally and operationally unfeasible” to expand it due to changes in Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act.

“I look forward to exploring the options that make it feasible, because right now, we’re looking at folks on the marketplace having premiums increase so high that they’re going to lose access,” Seawright said. 

Seawright said that fully funding public education is another of her top priorities, especially increasing the special education reimbursement that public schools receive from the state. 

The special education reimbursement rate was raised to 45% under the most recent state budget passed by the Republican-led Legislature and signed into law by Evers. It is the highest rate in years, but fell below what Democrats and public education advocates had called for — a 60% or even a 90% rate.

“Kids like my son, who do need various services in order to access public school, have costs that are mandated by federal protections… I’ve heard from school boards and other school leadership, teachers that it is often pulled from the general fund, and it is making it very difficult to create the inclusive educational environment that I dream of for my son,” Seawright said. “I’d really like to continue and come back to special education reimbursement.”

She said she is flexible about the size of the increase to the reimbursement.

“I look forward to building connections with local leaders, with school boards, within the state Assembly, and talking about a pathway forward that moves us up every year, that moves us on a trajectory where Wisconsin regains its prowess around supporting our kids,” Seawright said. 

Her background as a social worker and her research on criminal justice inform her focus on improving community safety through treatment, prevention and alternatives to incarceration. 

“I am grateful for the work of first responders, for police officers, and I’ve worked alongside correctional professionals at the juvenile and adult level, and that’s kind of where I’m coming from,” Seawright said. “I am seeing what first responders are being asked to do… My mom is an emergency room nurse, and I see what folks are going through in terms of what comes into the emergency room, and I’m dismayed by any changes moving us away from prevention services being funded.”

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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.”

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State Superintendent Jill Underly with Madison La Follette High School Principal Mathew Thompson and Madison Public School District Superintendent Joe Gothard in the hallway at La Follette in September 2024. | Photo by Ruth Conniff

During her 2025 State of Education address in the Wisconsin Capitol rotunda, State Superintendent Jill Underly called the Trump administration the “biggest school-yard bully” that Wisconsin schools must overcome and said chronic underfunding at the state level continues to put pressure on districts to do more with less. 

Thursday’s address was Underly’s first during her second term in office. She won reelection in April this year. She used the address as an opportunity to call for the state to give more support to schools.

“Public education in Wisconsin is not just a system; it’s a living story written daily by the people who believe in its promise…  by students walking into classrooms filled with possibility, by the teachers who dedicate their lives to unlocking potential, by the families and the communities who support them,” Underly said. However, she warned that pride in the public education story “does not guarantee a happy ending.” 

“Pride alone can’t patch a leaking roof. Pride doesn’t shrink a class of 32. Pride will not put a counselor in every school, and pride does not replace sustainable funding. Pride doesn’t fix inequity,’ Underly said. “Pride must be paired with action.” 

The first several months of Underly’s term have been marked by federal upheaval as the Trump administration has abruptly paused and pulled federal funding that goes to education priorities and also by the completion of a state budget that fell short of public school advocates’ goals. 

Underly said the Trump administration is using funding as a bargaining chip by withholding it with little notice in order to demand schools comply with unclear and unlawful requests. 

Most recently, the Trump administration decided to withhold nearly $11 million in grants to support deafblind students and special education teachers. The explanation delivered to the state DPI was that the programs “reflect the prior administration’s priorities and policy preferences and conflict with those of the current administration.” 

Over the summer, schools across the nation were thrown into uncertainty after the Trump administration said it would be withholding Title program payments. The administration eventually reversed its decision. 

“Their efforts seek to sow confusion and create chaos and erode trust in an education system already under incredible pressure. We teach our students to stand up to bullies, but this year, the biggest school-yard bully in our public schools is our own federal government,” Underly said. “We will not allow politics or outside forces to rewrite the story of Wisconsin’s public schools. We will not stand by while the future of our children is at stake. We will fight, we will lead, and we will stand up for every student.”

Underly also said the state government is putting school districts in a situation where they must stretch their budgets and are left to solve their problems alone. 

“Decades of insufficient funding have forced a historic number of districts into an impossible situation, turning to referenda year after year just to survive, all while facing micromanaging from Madison and endless finger pointing from lawmakers who too often choose politics over partisanship,” Underly said. 

The state budget, which was passed by the Republican-led state Legislature and signed by Gov. Tony Evers, included a boost in special education funding from about 30% to 45%. But school districts have said that another aspect of the budget, which made no increase at all in state aid for both years of the biennium, left them in a tight spot. Underly said the budget was “not perfect” but “makes meaningful progress for our schools, especially in special education” and acts as a “starting point.” 

‘Pulling resources away from public schools to fund private ones’

“And here’s the truth: We are starving one system while funding another. We cannot afford to keep pulling resources away from public schools to fund private ones and expect both to thrive. That is not good stewardship, and that is not Wisconsin,” Underly said. 

Underly was referencing the state’s school voucher programs, which allow students to use public funds to attend participating private schools. Caps on the program, which limit the number of students who can participate, are scheduled to lift after the 2025-26 school year. 

The growth of the state’s school voucher programs coincides with public school districts’ increasing reliance on raising money through property tax hikes that local taxpayers have to decide whether to approve.

“This under-investment has created a growing sense in too many classrooms during too many school board meetings and around too many kitchen tables that our schools are being left to go it alone,” Underly said. 

Underly said the financial pressures are placing teachers and students under other types of stress as well. 

“Our schools are not failing. We are failing our schools, and we can’t afford to keep writing this chapter. If we truly believe in writing a better story for public education, then it’s long past time for our state to step up and deliver on its promise,” Underly said. “When we underfund, we burn out teachers. When we ignore, we lose talent.” 

Underly called attention to the mental health problems that many students are facing, saying that the political environment could be making things worse. She specifically noted the high rates of depression, anxiety and self-harm among LGBTQ+ students, especially transgender students. 

“The debates taking place in the public sphere, and right here in this Capitol building aren’t about sports,” Underly said, referencing bills that have been debated this year that would bar transgender girls from participating on girls’ sports teams. “They’re about something much deeper — whether kids are allowed to belong. It’s not just one group of kids, it’s every kid. It’s the kid who doesn’t know where their next meal is going to come from. It’s the kid growing up in a low-income neighborhood without access to the same opportunities just a few miles away. It’s the kids still learning English like so many generations of Americans before them, navigating a world that too often makes them feel invisible. It’s the rural kid who has big dreams but lacks access to broadband or after-school programs.” 

Undery said that despite the challenges, there is hope for the future of Wisconsin schools. 

“Throughout history, Wisconsin has led the way,” Underly said, noting that the state had the first kindergarten program in the country and created one of the first statewide public library systems. 

“That courage, that commitment to progress, that’s in Wisconsin’s DNA,” Underly said. “Now, we stand at a defining moment. In this next chapter, you re-elected me to lead that work not to maintain the status quo, but to drive real change to lead to act to set a clear path forward, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.” 

She listed priorities including hands-on learning, embracing new technologies, creating personalized learning experiences and recruiting and retaining teachers. She also said DPI is also working to modernize to be a “stronger and more effective partner” to schools and educators.

“The future isn’t red. The future isn’t blue. The future, Wisconsin, is sitting in our classrooms right now, and this is our wake-up call. This is the mirror we must face,” Underly said. “Will we be the generation that looked away as our schools crumbled? Or will we be the ones who stood up, kept our promise, and chose to write a different story?”

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State Rep. Francesca Hong sits for a photo in her office in the Capitol in 2022. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

State Rep. Francesca Hong, a Madison Democratic Socialist, chef and bartender, is joining the growing Democratic field for governor — saying she hopes to be a relatable candidate who can bring working class people together to foster a government that works for them. 

Hong launched her campaign with a 90-second ad shot in the kitchen of L’Etoile, a high-end restaurant across from the Capitol in Madison and in the dining area of the adjacent restaurant Graze. Hong points towards the Capitol, which is labeled in the ad “MAGA-controlled Legislature,” and says that “a lot of people in that building don’t get why it’s so hard to get by right now.” 

“Working hard doesn’t mean you can always keep up. One wrong step can lay you out flat. This is by design,” Hong says.

Hong told the Wisconsin Examiner in an interview that she is running because she sees the current moment as ripe for a “movement” for “building working class power,” as “more and more people are realizing that the system is rigged.”

“It’s about politics rooted in care — where we care for ourselves, our children, our small businesses and our workers. The movement requires building coalitions, meeting folks where they are, honoring and receiving all different types of talents and treasures and time that people are willing to give to engage with others. It’s happening, and it needs to happen faster here in Wisconsin.” 

Hong said she feels a sense of urgency because of the direction the Trump administration and Republicans are taking. 

“We have an authoritarian regime that endorses mass suffering, gutting food from children and gutting health care from working people and dismantling public education and programs,” Hong said. “It’s irresponsible to be thinking about incrementalism as a way to make this moment. I think it’s unrealistic to rely on incremental policy, and what working class people are demanding is that they have their needs met… Wisconsinites, they f-ing hustle, and they deserve a governor who is going to be working as hard as they are.”

Four other Democratic candidates are already in the open race, including State Sen. Kelda Roys of Madison, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and Mukwonago beer vendor Ryan Strnad.

Two Republican candidates have entered the race on the GOP side so far: Whitefish Bay manufacturer Bill Berrien and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany has said he will make a decision about entering the race by the end of the month. 

Hong was first elected to the state Assembly in 2020, becoming the first Asian American to serve in the body. At 36, she is the youngest candidate to join the race so far.

Gov. Tony Evers’ decision not to seek a third term opened the way for a competitive primary. “I think that this is probably the only time where someone like me can run for governor and win,” Hong said. 

She acknowledged that her campaign will be different in style and substance from more traditional campaigns. “I think there’s going to be some skepticism that’s going to come from the establishment folks in political circles about some of the campaign strategies we may lean on, especially when it comes to creative digital,” she said.

Hong formerly owned Morris Ramen, a restaurant in downtown Madison she opened with Matt Morris and restaurateur Shinji Muramoto in 2016 and closed last year. She currently bartends and picks up shifts at another restaurant every once in a while. She is also a single mother who rents her home in Madison.

“It’s going to sound corny, but I really love this state,” Hong said. “It’s where I have failed and succeeded. When it comes to my culinary career or winning an election and being sent to the Capitol. It’s where George [her son] was born. It’s my parents’ home. They’ve lived here longer than anywhere else, and the state has given me and my family a lot.” 

She says she began considering running for governor after the recent state budget process.

Hong voted against the budget and called on other Democrats to do the same because it made no increases in general state aid to Wisconsin’s public schools. During her time in the Legislature, Hong has also been a champion for providing school breakfasts and lunches to all students free of charge. 

This session Hong joined the Legislative Socialist Caucus. She said she identifies as a Democratic Socialist. 

“That means I’m dedicated to building working class power where everyone has their basic needs met to be able to take care of themselves and the people that they love and their neighbors and somebody that they don’t know,” Hong said. 

Her campaign comes at a moment when other Democratic Socialists are running high-profile campaigns across the country. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders has been traveling the country on a “Fight Oligarchy Tour” that made stops in Wisconsin. In New York City, state Rep. Zohran Mamdani recently won the Democratic nomination for mayor.  

Hong said Mamdani’s message  resonated with her. 

“Mamdani has showed us that meeting voters where they are, building a diverse, multi-generational, multi-faith, multi-racial and multi-ethnic coalition is how you build trust with voters,” Hong said, adding that she appreciates his focus on  “affordability and concrete ways that government can do its job and be a force of good.” 

The policies that she has proposed in the Legislature have been “practical,” Hong said.

Hong was a leading sponsor on a state law that requires schools teach Hmong and Asian American history. Hong, the daughter of Korean immigrants, also helped launch the state’s first Legislative Asian Caucus alongside two of her new colleagues this session and has authored resolutions to proclaim 2025 as the year of the snake and celebrate 50 years of Hmong, Lao, Cambodian and Vietnamese people residing in Wisconsin.

This session, she has also coauthored a resolution to declare that Wisconsin have an Economic Bill of Rights and a bill to prohibit state employees’ cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in public buildings without a warrant. 

“We can make better possible when there are universal policies that support working class people — universal child care, guaranteed paid leave, fully funded public schools, access to capital for small businesses and investing heavily in a care infrastructure where we can take care of our seniors,” Hong said. “Regardless of political identity, these types of social insurance programs are designed to ensure that working class people can not only get by, but be able to take care of themselves and their families in the ways that they see fit.” 

Hong said it is “imperative” that Democrats flip the state Assembly and Senate to make progress towards those policies. New legislative maps adopted in 2024 brought that goal into sight for Democrats for the first time in many years.

Hong said she is going to do everything she can to support candidates running for the Assembly and to help flip districts currently represented by Republicans. The Wisconsin Legislature has been led by Republicans since 2010.

This will be Hong’s first time running for statewide office. Hong said she is anticipating an array of challenges for her campaign. She said she will continue putting in a lot of hours as a state lawmaker, and she may not be able to pick up as many shifts at Gamma Ray, the Madison bar she works at.

Hong said she is also committed to meeting people where they are in a wide variety of places, including bowling alleys and pro wrestling matches and the rodeo. She said those are the places where people might be willing to share their stories. 

Hong recalled stopping at a bar in Chippewa Falls. She said she got her usual Miller High Life, while two men next to her had a Miller Lite light and a regular Miller Lite. She said she made a comment along the lines of “you might as well just be drinking water at that point” and it led to a conversation about concerns one of the men had about hospital access in a part of the state grappling with recent hospitals closings.

“He was worried that his elderly mother, who was almost 90 and still drives herself to the hospital… she’s not going to get the care she needs,” Hong said. “That is real. Health care is very real for folks, health insurance is too expensive. We have policies that are going to help make health insurance cheaper, both for small businesses and for workers. 

Hong hopes she can give people the sense that “there’s somebody in their corner,” and show them that she “can be a strong messenger for helping people realize that together we can make better possible.”

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Jung launched his campaign on Tuesday from the waterfront in Racine, and was joined by some current lawmakers, including Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) and Sen. Dora Drake (D-Milwaukee). (Photo courtesy of State Senate Democratic Committee)

City of Racine transit and mobility director Trevor Jung is running as a Democrat for southeast Wisconsin state Senate District 21 — the final of three districts that Democrats aim to flip in 2026 to help them capture the Senate majority. 

“I owe everything to my hometown,” Jung, who was born in Russia and raised in Racine, told the Wisconsin Examiner in an interview. “This is a special place with a lot of warmth and compassion… The state really has turned its back on places like the neighborhood that I grew up in, and whether you’re in Racine or Franklin or Greendale, the state has really neglected us.”  

Jung launched his campaign on Tuesday from the waterfront in Racine, and was joined by some current lawmakers, including Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) and Sen. Dora Drake (D-Milwaukee). 

“For me, this is about giving back to the place that gave me everything, and focusing on affordability, good paying jobs and making sure that we avoid what everybody is really sick of, which is the nastiness, the politics that too often turn people,” Jung said. 

Democrats, who haven’t held a majority in either legislative chamber in over 15 years, need to flip two seats and hold their current seats in order to win the Senate majority in 2026.  

Along with SD 21, Wisconsin Democrats are aiming to flip are Senate District 17, currently represented by Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green), and Senate District 5, currently represented by Sen. Rob Hutton (R-Brookfield).

The 21st district’s incumbent, Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine), has served in the Senate for the last decade. He was first elected to the Senate in 2010, but lost a recall election in 2012.  Wanggaard was unchallenged during his most recent general election in 2022. In his 2018 reelection bid, he beat the Democratic candidate with nearly 60% of the vote.

But this year the district has changed considerably under new maps adopted in 2024.The current district encompasses part of Racine County, including the northern part of the city, and part of Milwaukee County, including Franklin, Hales Corner, Greendale and Greenfield. 

According to an analysis by John Johnson, a research fellow at Marquette University, the area encompassed by the new district lines leaned Democratic by 1 percentage point in the 2024 presidential election and by 2.2 percentage points in the 2024 U.S. Senate race. 

“You’re going to have to earn every vote,” Jung said of the district. “We’re going to be out there. We’re going to be listening to people. We’re going to be having conversations about what priorities residents of the district have, and we’re going to make sure that folks know that this is not about left or right. This is about building relationships and solving problems and having honest conversations about how the state can work together with the private sector and local government to make the quality of life better for people who live in southeast Wisconsin.”

Shortly after Jung’s campaign announcement, Wanggaard criticized the Democratic candidate in a statement.

“While Trevor is a nice, friendly, soft spoken young man, he uses that to hide his crazy liberal ideas that are more at home in San Francisco than in Milwaukee and Racine counties,” Wanggaard said. “Do not be mistaken — he is every bit an extreme Madison/California liberal as there is. He will vote in lockstep with everything the Democrats stand for — from raising taxes to allowing boys in girls’ locker rooms.” 

Wanggaard said in a statement that he plans to make a decision about whether to run near the end of this year. In his most recent campaign finance report, he reported raising only $0.80 this year.

“My timeline for making a decision whether or not to run for another term remains the same,” Wanggaard said. “As I stated last November, last January, and in July, I will continue to discuss another term with my family and friends.”

Wanggaard said that he has been receiving support and encouragement to run. 

“The priorities for the next term will remain the same, and what I’ve heard throughout the district — grow the economy, improve public safety, eliminate fraud and abuse, and protect the vulnerable,” Wanggaard said. 

Jung said he will run a positive campaign focused on the issues that matter to people in the district.  

“While my opponent is going to try to make whatever the national narrative is that’s focused on politics and name calling, we’re going to be focused on having a vision for making people’s lives better in Wisconsin,” Jung said, adding that it is still unclear who his opponent ultimately will be.

Jung said his campaign is about responding to people’s needs. 

“We’ve got dramatic cuts in shared revenue to make sure that we’ve got proper public services and public safety,” Jung said. “You have the state of Wisconsin ranking 27th in spending per pupil in our public schools, when just a generation ago, we were one of the best states in the nation in terms of making sure our students have what they need to succeed.”

Jung said the 2023 changes to shared revenue were a “Band-Aid” for local communities such as his and that he wants to ensure public schools have adequate funding. 

“We’re funding two education systems, and that’s not efficient,” Jung said, referring to the expansion of taxpayer-funded private schools — though he fell short of saying he’d want to see an end to the state’s school voucher system. 

Jung said in his current position in Racine city government, he and others have worked to expand transit service to the Social Security office as a way to ensure that elderly and disabled residents are able to access their benefits. He said they have also worked to prioritize savings, by helping bring down the cost of public transit, service, by ensuring people get the most out of public transit and sustainability, through environmentally conscious decisions. 

In his current role, which he plans to continue as he runs for state Senate, Jung said that he has seen the state of Wisconsin fail to be an adequate partner. 

“Instead of being an ally in that work to save local government money and to deliver better service, in large part, they’ve been an adversary,” Jung said. “They too often focused on national politics rather than getting stuff done for people at the local level.” 

This isn’t Jung’s first time running for public office. He previously served as the youngest member of the Racine Common Council, elected at age 23. He ran for the office after graduating from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a degree in urban studies and a focus on urban planning. 

His position on the common council, Jung said, “gave me a really good insight into, because of levy limits and revenue constraints and shared revenue, cuts that we had to make — really difficult decisions that we shouldn’t have had to make because of the state turning its back.”

Jung said that he has several priorities that he would want to work on in the state Senate that boil down to what he calls the “five Ts”: talent, training, transportation, technology and tourism. 

“If we get those right, Wisconsin can be one of the fastest growing states in the union,” he said. 

“What do we do to keep young people here and attract the next generation of talent in order to be a competitive place?” Jung asked rhetorically. “We need to work with organized labor and create a pipeline for the skilled trades so that people have access to family-supporting jobs.” 

Jung said that the state also needs to support public transportation, “whether that’s a robust public transportation system that gets people to work, doctor’s appointments, school or investing in alternatives to the personal vehicle, like transit and rail.” 

“We’ve got this new revolution in robotics and green energy and advanced manufacturing,” he added. “What can we do to make sure that Wisconsin is a place that is a leader in these new sectors?”

“This is the most beautiful state in the country,” Jung said, laying out his argument that tourism can do more for the economy. “Southeastern Wisconsin has an incredible architecture on the shores of Lake Michigan. We have a beautiful opportunity to make sure that visitors coming here can sustain the quality of life for residents who live here.” 

Jung said the state needs new energy and leadership that rejects “austerity” in favor of “investment.” 

“We need a positive vision for the future,” Jung said. “I’m excited about the youthful energy that we can bring to this campaign, but also looking forward to collaborating with people of all different walks of life to make sure that this is a well rounded and informed effort.”

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