The blue wave that swept across Tuesday’s midterm election will deliver Democrats new power over state government, giving them the opportunity to advance long-sought policy changes.

Democrats flipped hundreds of seats, won control of several GOP-held chambers, broke veto-proof supermajorities and won a majority of governorships for the first time since 2010.

Democratic lawmakers from multiple states pledged to use their new statehouse power to attack rising prices, protect reproductive rights, pass new gun safety measures and grow the housing supply.

The changed landscape also gives state Democratic leaders more power to oppose the agenda of President Donald Trump, said Marc Farinella, senior advisor to the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.

That may mean opposing Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts, Farinella said, or bolstering state funding of Medicaid and food stamps, both of which have faced significant federal cuts under Trump.

Legislating will prove much easier in states with newly won Democratic trifectas, where the party controls both chambers and the governor’s office. Those states include Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But newly divided governments in other states — Iowa, Ohio, Georgia, Texas — could result in gridlock.

Following the midterms, state legislatures will see their biggest leadership shakeup in years, as the National Conference of State Legislatures expects nearly half of state chambers to have new leaders next session.

“None of us have ever been in a majority, so it’s a big learning curve,” said Arizona state Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, assistant House minority leader. She said Democrats, who will control Phoenix for the first time in 60 years, are connecting with their counterparts from other states, such as Colorado, that have swung from red to blue.

The Pennsylvania state Senate flipped to Democratic control for the first time since 1978, handing the party a resounding trifecta after Gov. Josh Shapiro sailed to reelection.

Already, Shapiro and Democratic state lawmakers have pledged to revive a slew of policies that had previously passed the state House but died in the Republican-controlled Senate. Those include raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, codifying abortion rights, passing a law to allow survivors of sexual abuse to sue their abusers and increasing funding for mass transit.

“I think here in Pennsylvania we made very, very clear at the state level and the federal level that we are rejecting Donald Trump’s policies and we want to see costs come down,” Shapiro said Wednesday. “And now you’ve got an opportunity to see that happen in Harrisburg and in Washington.”

At the same time, Farinella said, this week’s “historically forceful rebuke of Trump and his agenda” will prompt an as yet undetermined response from Republicans. After a decade of near-total control by Trump and the MAGA movement, the decisive GOP losses could free some Republicans to return to more centrist policies, he said.

“To me, it’s the big outstanding question coming out of the election,” Farinella said. “How will the congressional Republicans and how will the Republicans in state legislatures now feel about the latitude they have or don’t have in terms of their own policy preferences?”

Progress or gridlock?

In New Hampshire, Democrats pulled off a stunning upset, flipping control of both the state House and Senate.

Though Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte won reelection, Democrats appear to have secured veto-proof supermajorities.

Democratic state Rep. Christal Lloyd said she plans to focus on addressing federal cuts to Medicaid through state funding and address education funding to help alleviate growing local property tax burdens. But she said Democrats won’t just rush to push through progressive bills.

“We want to make lasting changes, positive changes, and we want to write good legislation that helps our constituents and helps their lives,” Lloyd told Stateline. “And it’s up to us to live up to the trust that the voters put in our hands.”

While the governor won her race, her power will be greatly diminished by legislative supermajorities.

“If she tries to veto anything, we’ve got the supermajority,” Lloyd said. “But that’s not to say we won’t work with the other side. We’re going to negotiate where possible.”

Democrats will also wield new power in Concord after winning total control of the state executive committee, a unique-to-New-Hampshire body that serves as a check on the governor, approving or rejecting state contracts and vetting gubernatorial nominees.

That body has pledged to immediately focus on funding Planned Parenthood and holding the scandal-ridden state Supreme Court accountable.

“There is no rubber stamp for the governor,” said state Rep. Luz Bay, a Democrat newly elected to the council.

In other states, the new legislative mix may produce gridlock.

In North Carolina, Democrats already controlled the governor’s office and on Tuesday night they flipped control of the state House, though Republicans held onto the state Senate with a two-seat margin. It’s possible some Republican senators will join Democrats to approve legislation, said Chris Cooper, a professor of political science and public affairs at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina.

But he wouldn’t count on it.

“I think the greater possibility really is that we see very little, that we just see stalemate coming out of Raleigh and if you’re a Republican, maybe that’s not so bad,” Cooper told NC Newsline on Wednesday.

The GOP has already ticked off many of the items on its legislative wish list since gaining power in 2011, he said. And Democratic Gov. Josh Stein has seen a dozen of his vetoes overridden by the GOP-controlled legislature.

“If less happens in Raleigh and you’re a conservative Republican, I’m not sure you’re that upset about that,” Cooper said. “It’s the Democrats who still wouldn’t be able to act.”

In Texas, where Democrats hadn’t won a statewide office since 1994, they swept all statewide offices and flipped control of the state House. Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa has pledged to declare a “high-cost emergency” in Texas and to issue executive orders to suspend the state gas and diesel taxes and to freeze electricity rates.

But Senate Republicans, who held the upper chamber Tuesday, have promised to oppose her.

“Texas stands as long as the Texas Senate Republican caucus holds the line,” Republican state Sen. Charles Schwertner posted on X Tuesday night. “We will.”

Focusing on pocketbooks

In Arizona, Democratic lawmakers say they’re focused squarely on affordability.

“In Arizona, lots of people have lost their SNAP (food stamp) benefits, and lots of people are having a really hard time affording their rent and their mortgages,” said Gutierrez.

She said her caucus will aim to ban grocery stores from using dynamic pricing to gouge consumers; control rent hikes; and try to make homes more affordable by placing restrictions on corporate property purchases, which can drive up prices. Arizona Democrats also want to constrain a state program that allows K-12 students to receive public funding to pay for private school tuition.

In Missouri, Republicans are questioning their legislative agenda after losing 16 House seats in their worst performance since the Watergate scandal. The GOP maintained its majority but lost its supermajority status.

“We’re in a total reassessment,” Rep. Darin Chappell, who was selected as the House majority leader, told The Missouri Independent. 

Other Republican lawmakers said they needed to focus more on voters’ affordability priorities and less on legislative pet projects. “People have been speaking loud and clear that they want us to focus on issues that affect their pocketbooks,” said state Rep. Israel Baeza, a Republican.

Major Republican losses in Utah deprived the GOP of a legislative supermajority for the first time since 1993. While Republicans maintain total control of state government, this week’s “blue tsunami” could cause leadership shakeups and reshape policy priorities, the Utah News Dispatch reported.

Democratic state lawmakers must act quickly to capitalize on their momentum, said Gaby Goldstein, the founder and president of State Futures, a nonprofit that coordinates hundreds of Democratic lawmakers across the states.

She said states have the ability to immediately alleviate affordability pressures by bringing down the costs of prescription drugs, erasing medical debt and addressing labor issues such as minimum wages.

“These are policies that have a big, immediate impact on people’s lives, and can tell that broader story about why people’s lives are different when Democrats are in power,” she said.

After winning control of both chambers of Congress, Democrats are poised to launch investigations and increase oversight of the Trump administration. But Goldstein said state Democrats must deliver on the affordability promises they made to get into power.

“It needs to result in people’s lives feeling appreciably better if Democrats want to hold on to power in ‘28,” she said. “At the federal level, the story has to roll up from what Democrats have done at the state level because oversight hearings are going to feel good, but they’re not putting any money in your pocket.”

Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at khardy@stateline.org. Stateline reporter Anna Claire Vollers can be reached at avollers@stateline.org. 

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David Crowley made his first media appearance as Wisconsin’s governor-elect Wednesday afternoon, answering reporters’ questions at a community hub on N. Martin Luther King Drive in Milwaukee’s inner city.

The Milwaukee County executive defeated Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany by 8 percentage points in Tuesday’s election.

Crowley will take office as the state’s first Black governor in January, with fellow Democrats having taken control of both the Assembly and the Senate.

Here are four of the exchanges from the question-and-answer session, along with a list of promises Crowley is making.

On some questions, Crowley deferred to legislative leaders. 

Question: Did Wisconsin give you and Democrats a mandate?

Crowley: “At the end of the day, what I recognize from the wins … is that we have been delivering and talking about exactly what we’ve heard from Wisconsinites all across the state of Wisconsin, that they want us to tackle the affordability crisis. And nothing has changed related to what our priority is going to be. We have to lower costs. We have to make sure that people can keep more money in your pockets. Whether we’re tackling health care, public education, child care, we need to make sure that we’re doing it together, working with the Legislature in order to put something forward.”

Question: Are you looking for specific bills to tackle affordability?

Crowley: “Well, you’re asking me about the legislative process. I think it’s extremely important to talk to the legislative leaders. I look forward to working with them about what our priorities are going to be. We are less than 24 hours of knowing that we won this race.”

Question: Do you want to see right away legislation to expand Medicaid or create Badger Care for all?

Crowley: “Well, when you think about what bills are going to be on my desk, I would say you want to talk to the legislative leaders. What I’m focusing on right now is making sure that we are going to be ready on day one. That means that we have to focus on the transition team….”

Question: Were the election results mainly a vote against President Donald Trump?

Crowley: “The Republican Party is Trump’s party. The Republican Party has enabled what they’ve been doing in Washington, D.C. You can’t give excuses on why you have been carrying the water of one man versus carrying the water and the concerns of the people that you represent. What this was a mandate on is the fact that Republicans have been selling us down a particular path to where it’s not working for Wisconsin. It’s not working for the American public.”

Crowley makes several promises

In remarks before taking questions, Crowley emphasized affordability, presenting a lengthy list of promises.

“We’re going to lower costs for housing, utilities, health care and child care,” he said.

“We’re going to deliver real, meaningful property tax relief that doesn’t place the burden on our local communities.

“We’re going to expand access to quality, affordable health care.

“We’re going to strengthen our public schools, expand pathways to good-paying jobs and apprenticeship opportunities, and support small businesses and communities all across the state of Wisconsin.

“We’re going to invest in the infrastructure of tomorrow, carry on Governor (Tony) Evers’ work on fixing the damn roads and ensure our neighborhoods are safe, nurturing spaces for our kids and our grandkids to thrive.”

What David Crowley promised in his early remarks as governor-elect is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

The depth and breadth of Republicans’ stunning losses in Tuesday’s blue wave are still coming into focus. Unprecedented Democratic wins in red states including Texas, Kansas, South Carolina and possibly Mississippi ushered in a new era. Democrats won big majorities in the House and Senate. They gained control of governorships and legislative chambers across the country, including in Wisconsin. 

Perhaps most dramatic was what didn’t happen. Menacing threats of armed federal agents at the polls melted away as Republicans crumbled. President Donald Trump accepted the results. So did Wisconsin’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany, who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election, but who conceded early and graciously this week.

Fear itself was vanquished on Tuesday. The dread of an authoritarian government poised to crush dissent with coercion and violence yielded to ordinary citizens voting, by the millions, to oust a self-dealing, out-of-touch party led by a malignant narcissist busy enriching himself at the people’s expense.

Just days before the election, voting rights groups in Wisconsin sent a letter to Attorney General Josh Kaul urging him to provide additional guidance to election workers in case federal agents showed up to seize ballots and tamper with election results.

Instead, voting went smoothly and the results, a massive rebuke to President Donald Trump and his party, now stand.

The lesson of the 2026 midterms was that regular people are not powerless in the face of this aggressive, anti-democratic regime. There is still time and hope left for our country. 

That, more than any particular surprise win, was the biggest thrill of the night.

In Wisconsin, Democrats took over both houses of the Legislature and David Crowley celebrated a convincing, historic win as the state’s first Black governor. Jan. 6 rallygoer and MAGA blowhard U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden was shown the door. The 2026 change election also swept away incumbent U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, who lost to Mitchell Berman in the 1st Congressional District. As Erik Gunn and Heather Asiyanbi report, Berman broke Steil’s four-term winning streak and Republican control of the district stretching back more than three decades, through the Paul Ryan era. 

Berman represented the mood of the country’s fed-up electorate. An emergency room nurse dismayed by seeing patients who could not afford health insurance, he took on the smooth-talking, well heeled Steil on his support for Medicaid cuts, tariffs and his record of coddling the very wealthy and corporations, voting in lock-step with President Donald Trump. Corruption and the abandonment of regular working people were the themes of the 1st District race and of the midterms generally. Not, as Republicans hoped, trans people, “woke” politics and a debate about the decorative aesthetics of the Cheesecake Factory.

It turned out people were too fed up to be distracted from their own very real struggles by these culture war topics. Nor were they dissuaded by the massive infusion of cash from billionaires Elon Musk, Dick and Elizabeth Uihlein and Diane Hendricks.

There will be plenty more struggle ahead. But it’s a good time to bask in the glow of the complete rout of fear, hate and division as our inevitable national political atmosphere. 

In Wisconsin, Democrats set an example for what it means to overcome division. Francesca Hong, after narrowly losing the primary on a progressive, democratic socialist platform, worked hard to help elect Crowley — despite the hard feelings among many of her supporters who felt he big-footed her by getting back in the race after dropping out and narrowly winning with Gov. Tony Evers’ endorsement.

Angela Lang, founder and director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities, told Isiah Holmes at Crowley’s joyful, raucous victory party that Crowley’s personal history — being evicted along with his parents, who struggled with poverty and addiction when he was a child — and his efforts as Milwaukee county executive to do right by people who have also struggled, moved her.  “I’ve always been nervous. Because sometimes Wisconsin doesn’t always do the right thing. But I always knew it was possible and I’m glad to know that the rest of Wisconsin felt it was possible, too,” she said.

So much is possible if the majority of us unite against the corrosive politics of the Trump era and look out for our shared interests.

This week, it became suddenly clear that a bad era is coming to an end, and a new era of possibility is dawning. 

WAUSAU — Wisconsin Republicans started the evening on Tuesday feeling optimistic. 

Attendees at Republican Tom Tiffany’s election night party in Wausau chatted while holding old fashioneds and napkins that declared: “You betcha we’re celebrating!” Tiffany arrived at the party around 7 p.m., taking pictures and shaking hands with attendees.

The celebratory vibe didn’t last long as a blue wave swept across the nation and Wisconsin Tuesday evening. Tiffany was defeated by Gov.-elect David Crowley. Democrats won control of the state Senate and Assembly, ousted Republican incumbent Treasurer John Leiber and defeated Jay Schroeder, the Republican candidate for secretary of state who ran on a promise  to take over elections in Wisconsin. 

Wisconsin Republicans’ inability to buck national trends was foreshadowed a couple of hours before polls closed when Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Brian Schimming told reporters that U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany had run a good campaign, but they were watching turnout. 

“We’re getting different signals around the state about turnout. We’re kind of watching that. I believe big turnout helps Republicans and helps Tom Tiffany,” Schimming said. Republicans have struggled in statewide races during years that President Donald Trump hasn’t been on the ballot as some of his supporters don’t turnout for midterm or spring elections. “I’m conscious of the fact that it’s an off year.” 

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, preliminary turnout was about 56% across the state and there was high turnout in the blue stronghold of Madison, which saw about 79% turnout, and Milwaukee, which saw nearly 71% turnout. 

A little before 10 p.m., Tiffany took the stage to concede Gov.-elect David Crowley, who will serve as Wisconsin’s first Black governor. He told reporters he had called Crowley beforehand and congratulated him. He said the night didn’t turn out as he’d hoped.

“I wanna congratulate David Crowley on his victory. While we have our differences, we both love this great state and I wish him and his family the very best as he prepares to serve as Wisconsin’s next governor.” 

When one attendee tried heckling Crowley, Tiffany shut it down, telling the crowd “We’re gonna be magnanimous.”

Asked what led to the loss, Tiffany did not mention President Donald Trump, instead blaming himself for not delivering the Republican message well enough. He also pointed to the price of gas and other high costs. 

“I mean, it’s clear voters have said, ‘You’re the party in power, and we’re gonna try something different,’” Tiffany said. “Now, there’s going to be a new party in power here, and they’ll have to deliver.” 

Tiffany and Republicans in the state Assembly and Senate tried to distance themselves from the unpopular president throughout their campaigns, but it was a difficult task, as Trump remained a constant in the campaign. As Democrats sought to tie their opponents to Trump, Trump highlighted his endorsement of Tiffany throughout the campaign, including on Election Day when Trump wrote in a post on X that Tiffany has “always been at my side.”

Over the course of the campaign, Trump’s popularity fell significantly across polls conducted by Marquette Law School. In October just ahead of Election Day, 61% of Wisconsinites said they disapproved of the job he was doing. 

Republican Treasurer John Leiber, who lost reelection by 4 points to Democrat Yee Leng Xiong, told WisPolitics that he doesn’t see a “future for the Republican Party with Trump in it.”

Two Republicans who serve in the state Legislature — and will now serve in the minority for the first time in their tenure — also pointed to the national environment. Republicans there will be disempowered for the first time in 16 years. They won just 15 seats in the Senate and 46 seats in the Assembly on Tuesday. 

Rep. Karen Hurd (R-Withee), who won reelection easily to her red district, told the Examiner that Republicans were conscious of how the federal government could affect Republican chances in the state. 

“What happens at the federal level has not just a trickle-down effect, but a flood effect on what’s happening in our state elections, and we knew that,” Hurd said. “We were doing our very best to say, ‘Separate us from the federal… We’re worried about schools and universities and roads. We don’t have anything to do with the war in Iran. We don’t have anything to do with the gas prices or with the price of eggs.” 

“It’s very hard for people to separate that,” she added.

Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) told the Examiner a little bit before Democrats declared victory in the state Senate that it was an “uphill battle going into this” and there were “a lot of national headwinds for Republicans.”  

Republicans will have to work to have an influence on Wisconsin policy from a disempowered position for the first time in over 16 years. 

Felzkowski noted that there are only two Republicans, Rep. Jeff Mursau and Rep. Dan Knodl, who have ever served in the minority.

“No one else has ever served in the minority, so this is a learning curve for all of us,” Felzkowski said. 

Felzkowski said Republicans in the Senate will choose their leadership this week and Assembly Republicans will choose theirs next week. Both leadership positions are open as Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Sen. Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) both decided against running for reelection. Vos wrote in a post on X reacting to the Democratic wins that he knows that over the next two years “Republicans will stand firmly with the taxpayers and job creators who built Wisconsin’s success.” 

“Conservatives will offer constructive alternatives, demand accountability, and make sure voters can see the difference between growing government and growing opportunity,” he said. “The next two years will test our resolve. They will also clarify the choice ahead.”

Both Felzkowski and Hurd said they look forward to working with Crowley in office. Felzkowski said she would work well with Crowley, noting they worked together on Act 12, a 2023 law that overhauled local government funding and allowed Milwaukee County to raise its sales tax. The law became a point of attack for Republicans during the campaign as they alleged Crowley would raise taxes as governor. 

However, Felzkowski also said that if Republicans had held control of the Legislature, they would have been able to keep Crowley in check. A Democratic-led Legislature, she said, will mean “the brakes are off.”

“We are gonna go so far left. Crowley himself came right out and said, when he beat Francesca Hong, my platform’s not much different to hers, and she’s a Democrat socialist so we’ll see what happens,” Felzkowski said. “I think it’s a sad day for Wisconsin.”

Democrats seized more power over state governments than the party has had in years after the party swept races up and down the ballot in Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Republicans have held a majority of state legislatures and governorships since 2010. But that reign appears over as Democrats swept a majority of governorships and state legislative chambers.

Tracking from the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee on Wednesday showed the party had flipped 12 chambers so far, winning the most chambers since 2008 and putting Democrats in control of more than half the nation’s state legislative chambers.

“With this sweep, Democrats have achieved their best performance since the Watergate scandal,” the committee, which works to elect Democrats at the state level, said in a news release Wednesday.

Unofficial results show Democrats will control the Arizona legislature for the first time in 60 years. Building off a historic sweep of statewide races, Democrats are poised to take control of the Texas House for the first time in over 20 years. In North Carolina, Democrats flipped several House seats held by influential, veteran Republicans to give the party control of the lower chamber for the first time since 2010.

“We have the power to make this state better,” state Rep. Robert Reives, who was introduced as the next House speaker, said Tuesday night.

Many legislative races had yet to be called by midday Wednesday. But the National Conference of State Legislatures said current results showed Democrats would secure new trifectas – control of both chambers and the governor’s office – in Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Democrats also broke Republican trifectas in Georgia, Iowa, Ohio and Texas.

Additionally, Democratic wins crushed GOP supermajorities in several states. In Florida, the loss of the Republican supermajority takes away the party’s power to override rules regarding procedure and debate and override the governor’s veto.

Democratic gains also ended supermajorities in the Indiana state House, the Kansas House, both of Missouri’s legislative chambers, the Ohio House, and the South Carolina House.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Republican State Leadership Committee, which works to elect Republicans at the state level, cited an “historically difficult political environment” facing the party.

“Democrats made state legislative races a national priority, pouring unprecedented resources into these contests because they understand the power state legislatures hold in shaping policy and building the pipeline for the next generation of leaders,” President Edith Jorge-Tuñón said in the statement. “In many key battleground states, the national political environment and the impact of top-of-the-ticket races significantly affected our candidates’ ability to defy historical trends.”

Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at khardy@stateline.org.

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Tuesday was a surprising, historic Election Day across the nation, though in Wisconsin it culminated a Democratic effort that progressed through fits and starts ever since Gov. Scott Walker smashed the power of public sector unions in 2011.

Here’s what we learned in Wisconsin:

The Walker Republican era of Wisconsin government is over.

As Brittany Carloni reports today, Democrats have waited 16 years for this moment.

A national Democratic tsunami helped Democrats flip eight Assembly seats and three Senate seats, giving them 53-46 Assembly and 18-15 Senate majorities.

A rising tide of opposition to President Donald Trump’s tumultuous second term clearly lifted all ships. Democrats flipped a legislative district between Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls that Trump won by 7 percentage points just two years ago. The Republican phalanx that retiring Assembly Speaker Robin Vos held together through the end of the Walker era and eight years of split government under Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has crumbled.

When the tea party movement swept Walker and Republicans into power in 2010, they controlled 60 Assembly seats and 19 Senate seats. They used that mandate to try to create a permanent Republican majority in the state, passing Act 10 to cripple public sector unions, enacting strict voter ID to make it harder for students and low-income people to vote and drawing some of the most gerrymandered legislative districts in the nation.

They passed conservative priorities, including a 20-week abortion ban, right-to-work, concealed carry of firearms, expansion of private school vouchers statewide, major tax cuts particularly for farmers and manufacturers and pro-business deregulatory measures. They even put the brakes on a Milwaukee-to-Madison rail line.

But Wisconsin is a purple state, and the great pendulum of purple state politics has now swung back to Democratic control. What Democrats do with that power will keep our reporters busy for years to come.

Voters want equality, but maybe not through shortcuts.

Voters more than doubled the number of elected Black governors in U.S. history, electing David Crowley in Wisconsin, Byron Donalds in Florida, Aaron Ford in Nevada and, in Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms, the first Black female governor in U.S. history.

Wisconsin now has elected its first Latino- and Hmong-American candidates statewide in Secretary of State-elect JoCasta Zamarripa and Treasurer-elect Yee Leng Xiong, who also becomes the first Hmong American elected to statewide office in U.S. history.

But voters also passed by a nearly 13-point margin a constitutional amendment that will prevent the state from giving scholarships to and designing government programs for specific minority groups and women, commonly referred to as diversity, equity and inclusion programs, or DEI. This was one of the few bright spots Tuesday for Republicans, who put three constitutional amendments on the ballot in the hopes of driving GOP turnout and circumventing Evers’ veto pen.

Opponents of the anti-DEI amendment, like the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, say the amendment was confusing. It asked voters to “prohibit governmental entities in the state from discriminating against, or granting preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public employment, public education, public contracting, or public administration?”

Who would be against prohibiting discrimination?

But Democrats have long argued that minority groups have continued to disproportionately face barriers because of the country’s dark history of institutionalized racial discrimination. Wisconsin is home to some of the biggest racial disparities in the country in terms of health, wealth and incarceration.

Like in 2008 when they voted for Barack Obama for president by large margins, Wisconsin voters affirmed they want to turn the page on racism. But, assuming voters knew what they were voting on, they may not be willing to prioritize equity in order to achieve racial equality.

The Republican redistricting argument was proven (again) to be false.

Democrats in all likelihood should have taken control of the Legislature in 2018 — if the state’s political maps had been drawn fairly in 2011.

Instead Republicans used their majority to draw maps in secret and tweaked them so that they could withstand a Democratic wave election like the one in 2018 when Evers defeated Walker and Democrats won all statewide offices. But Republicans maintained near super majorities in the Legislature at the time. Republicans then argued that they retained the Legislature because Democrats packed themselves into cities while Republican voters were spread out in rural and suburban areas.

But Democrats rallied to elect a liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which tossed out the gerrymandered maps, leading to the current maps that aren’t so wave-proof. In 2024, as Trump won statewide, Democrats flipped 14 legislative seats, setting up this year’s fait accompli.

History could repeat itself. If Democrats win the presidency in 2028 and pass unpopular legislation or give Republicans enough firepower to forge a Tea Party Movement Part II, Republicans could sweep back into power in 2030 just in time for the next round of actual decennial redistricting.

Bonus note: The midterm Republican gerrymandering exercise in states like Texas, Florida and North Carolina proved to be a giant dummymander. Bipartisan redistricting reform’s day may have finally come — unless Democrats haven’t learned a thing.

Billionaires don’t control the government. The people do.

Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany’s entire gubernatorial campaign was almost entirely fueled by three billionaires — the same ones who engineered the conservative takeover of the Wisconsin Supreme Court 20 years ago and the Republican wave of 2010 (remember the video of Diane Hendricks and Walker discussing his plan to “divide and conquer” Wisconsin with right-to-work legislation and Act 10?).

Elon Musk spent roughly a half-billion-with-a-B dollars on these midterm elections nationwide. Although, for the world’s first trillionaire, that’s like a U.S. household with the median net worth of about $200,000 spending $100 on this election. (Do the math. It’s crazy.)

But as Wisconsin showed in 2025, when the state shattered the national record for spending on a state Supreme Court election, including Musk’s legally dubious voter giveaway, money can’t buy you happiness or a guaranteed win on Election Day.

Four things we learned from Tuesday’s Democratic tsunami in Wisconsin is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Tuesday’s Democratic sweep of statewide offices included three notable firsts: Wisconsin’s first Black governor and first Latino and Hmong statewide elected officials.

Gov.-elect David Crowley, Secretary of State-elect JoCasta Zamarripa and Treasurer-elect Yee Leng Xiong, all Democrats, formed the most racially diverse party slate — alongside Lt. Gov.-elect Sarah Godlewski — in Wisconsin history. The trio occasionally acknowledged that detail on the campaign trail, but it didn’t feature front and center in their messaging this year.

Wisconsin has had some of the largest racial disparities in the nation in infant mortality, income, education outcomes and incarceration rates. More than a quarter of Black Wisconsinites lived below the poverty line in 2024 — a higher rate than in all but three states and Washington, D.C.; Latino and Asian Wisconsinites also experienced higher poverty rates than their white counterparts and the national average for Latino and Asian Americans, respectively.  

The gap between the share of Black and white Wisconsin students who graduate high school on schedule was the highest in the country between 2019 and 2024. Black children born in Wisconsin die in their infancy at roughly three times the rate of white children — a pattern public health experts say doesn’t map neatly to family income. Black Wisconsinites are roughly a third as likely as white Wisconsinites to own their homes, though gaps vary by city; and Black Wisconsinites’ incarceration rate was roughly 12 times higher than that of white Wisconsinites in 2022, a gap surpassed only in Vermont. 

In his victory speech in Milwaukee, Crowley alluded to the challenges the state’s Black residents have long faced.

“Because of you, a boy who grew up facing eviction will soon take residence in the governor’s residence,” Crowley said. “Tonight Wisconsin made history, and being your next governor is humbling in its own right. I don’t take any of this lightly. And I know exactly the shoulders that I stand on.”

Crowley became Milwaukee County’s first elected Black executive in 2020, though former Milwaukee Common Council President Marvin Pratt served in the role on an interim basis in 2011.. At  least one in five Milwaukee County residents have identified as Black since the 2000 census. That share rose to roughly one in four residents as of the 2024 American Community Survey, compared to roughly 6% of Wisconsin’s overall population.

Crowley attended Bay View High School with Cavalier Johnson, whom Milwaukee voters chose as their city’s first Black mayor in 2022.

Wisconsin’s first Black state lawmaker, Progressive Republican Lucian Palmer, likewise represented Milwaukee; he served in the Assembly for a single term from 1907 to 1909. Former Secretary of State Vel Phillips became Wisconsin’s first Black statewide elected official in 1978.

Witnessing history at the Crowley event wasn’t lost on Kenya Perry, 38, an east side Milwaukee resident.

“I think it’ll be great, not just for us minorities, but for everyone, because he not only represents us, but he’s representing everybody,” Perry said. “It doesn’t matter what color you are, what’s your background, what ethnicity or your religion or anything like that. He wants to come in and represent all people, not just one party.”

Zamarripa is also a lifelong Milwaukeean. She, too, is no stranger to firsts; Zamarripa became Wisconsin’s first Latina state lawmaker in 2010 and the first Latina member of Milwaukee’s Common Council in 2020. Roughly 20% of Milwaukee residents identified as Hispanic as of 2024, compared to about 8% of all Wisconsinites.

She told Wisconsin Watch on Monday that her race for secretary of state was also an opportunity to build out Latino voter outreach infrastructure.

“We’re the fastest-growing constituency in the great state of Wisconsin,” she said, not only in Milwaukee, but in manufacturing and agricultural hubs across the state. “Wherever there are midterm Latino voters, we mailed them a bilingual piece of mail,” she said, alongside partnerships with Spanish-language radio stations and ad buys in southeast Wisconsin and the Green Bay area. Roughly the same share of Kenosha and Racine County residents identified as Latino in 2024 — about 16% — as did 1 in 10 Brown County residents.

Zamarripa hopes Wisconsin Democrats will be able to “replicate” her campaign’s Latino voter outreach efforts, or perhaps even devote resources to recruiting Latino candidates for local and statewide offices. Among the communities on her mind: Arcadia in western Wisconsin’s Trempealeau County, the state’s only majority-Latino city as of 2024.

Voters in majority Latino precincts on Milwaukee’s South Side veered right in 2024, including 44-year-old Nextaly Rodriguez. He voted in his first-ever gubernatorial election at the Kosciusko Community Center polling site on Tuesday, choosing Crowley over Republican Tom Tiffany. “Just trying something new,” he said in Spanish. 

Jesus Mancilla made it to the community center less than a half-hour before polls closed. The 18-year-old spotted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on his block during a wave of immigration arrests in and around Milwaukee in June; his older brother convinced him to vote for his immigrant parents’ sake. He wasn’t the only first-time Latino voter at the polling site. “I saw a couple of my friends leave (just now),” he said. Mancilla hasn’t sorted out his political identity yet, but he chose Crowley in the governor’s race. 

Xiong is both Wisconsin’s and the nation’s first Hmong statewide elected officer. He hails from Marathon County, home to Wisconsin’s second-largest Hmong community. Roughly 1 in 10 Wausau residents identified as Hmong in 2024, more than in any other Wisconsin city.

Tens of thousands of Hmong refugees, including Xiong’s parents, settled in Wisconsin in the wake of the Vietnam War; last year marked the 50th anniversary of the first Hmong families’ arrival in the state. Hmong Wisconsinites now comprise sizable constituencies not only in Wausau, but also in Milwaukee, Sheboygan, Madison, Eau Claire and the Fox Valley. 

The Hmong written language is still relatively young, so Xiong leaned into person-to-person outreach, producing a series of Hmong-language get-out-the-vote videos, hosting bilingual campaign events and making phone calls to Hmong-speaking voters. 

Xiong isn’t sure his voter outreach efforts are easily replicable. “It comes with relationships,” he said, and cementing those relationships for future election cycles will require Democrats to maintain a presence in Wisconsin’s Hmong communities. 

When the dust of Tuesday’s blowout settles, he expects Hmong voters, and Asian voters more broadly, to have played pivotal roles in flipping the Wausau-based 85th Assembly District — a seat for which he ran two years ago, losing by four points — and seats in greater Green Bay and Menasha. 

As owner Sa Sor Lee opened the doors of Mortchee’s Carryout & Catering in Wausau on a windy Wednesday morning, she carried the joy and pride she had felt the night before at Yee Leng Xiong’s election party. Attendees watched Xiong’s vote total climb throughout the evening before the Associated Press called the race for him shortly after midnight.

Lee has known Xiong since he was 17 and mentored him through the H.M.O.N.G. Youth Program in Wausau, which stands for Helping Make Our Next Generation. She has watched him run for the local school board, the Marathon County Board and, ultimately, state treasurer. She also frequently contributed food to his campaigns.

Lee said Xiong’s victory means a lot to the Hmong community. “It means we can do a lot more than we think we can.”

“I’m so excited,” Lee added. “It’s not just him, but I think I felt like I am winning this election.”

Wisconsin Watch reporters Tom Kertscher and Brittany Carloni contributed to this report.

History made: Wisconsin elects first Black governor and first Latino and Hmong statewide officers is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Reporters fanned out across the state Tuesday — not only to document the results of a high-stakes election that will usher in a new balance of political power in Wisconsin, but also to capture how residents participated in the democratic process.

Sometimes, a photograph tells a story better than words.

Here is a selection of the best photography from Wisconsin Watch’s and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service’s Election Day coverage.

Wisconsin votes: Election Day in photos is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Marking the latest legislative runaround against gubernatorial veto power — quite literally — Wisconsin voters adopted two of three Republican-authored constitutional amendments in Tuesday’s election.

The amendments that passed ban government and public educational institutions from discriminating against or expressing preferential treatment for people based on race, ethnicity, nationality or sex — a measure expected to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs — and limit the governor’s use of the partial veto to raise taxes. A third amendment that would have prevented public officials from banning gatherings in places of worship during emergencies failed.

To amend the Wisconsin constitution, lawmakers must pass resolutions during two consecutive two-year legislative sessions before putting the questions to voters. GOP legislators have employed the strategy in recent years with measurable success. 

Even within a divided government split along party lines, voters nonetheless approved Republican-authored proposals that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers presumably would have vetoed or, in the case of religious gatherings, did veto.

Including Tuesday’s referendums, voters have now approved nine of 12 constitutional amendments during Evers’ eight years in office.

Conservative backers say the latest amendments “hold government accountable” while opponents say the amendments restrict efforts to improve conditions for underserved communities and limit the executive branch’s check on legislative power.

Prohibiting race- or sex-based discrimination

Chloe Braverman, a University of Wisconsin-Madison junior, expressed frustration with the amendment questions on the ballot, particularly one that bans preferential treatment in public education and in government hiring and contracting based upon race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.

Braverman said the authors framed the question “weirdly” and suggested Republicans worded it to persuade voters to greenlight the change. The amendment passed with 56.4% voting in favor and 43.6% against.

The measure targets initiatives aimed at increasing diversity and assisting marginalized groups, which the amendment’s authors have said obstruct values like fairness, equality and merit. Using categories like race and sex as a basis for righting historical wrongs, they say, is actually an attempt to rectify “past discrimination” with “more discrimination.”

“Old wounds cannot be healed by inflicting new ones,” said Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, one of the referendum’s architects.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which deemed unconstitutional the use of race in college admissions, helped motivate the Wisconsin amendment’s authors. 

After the proposed ballot measure passed along party lines earlier this year, interest groups sought voter support.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty launched a six-figure campaign to encourage voters to back the amendments. 

Opponents like the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin said they did the best they could with limited resources to explain the measures’ ramifications. League Executive Director Debra Cronmiller said the amendment could undo 60 years of civil rights progress for women and minorities.

“On its surface, it looks good,” Cronmiller said. “It’s trying to create equality, which means giving everybody the same thing. But in the United States, where we have had systemic discrimination since our inception, we need equity so we can provide people the resources that they need to have an equal opportunity for success.”

She likened the difference between equality and equity to giving all people a set of shoes. Giving everyone the same pair simply wouldn’t work. To fit all needs, people require different sizes.

“If the first time you’re reading the question is today, when you get to your polling place, you will be misled by the question,” Cronmiller said. “You will likely vote yes.”

Voters in at least six other states — Arizona, California, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Washington — enacted similar bans between 1996 and 2012. 

Wisconsin’s is essentially a “carbon copy” of the others, noted Sterling Knoche, an attorney with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s State Democracy Research Initiative.

The U.S. Supreme Court determined Michigan’s amendment was constitutional after it was challenged. That reinforces the sense that Wisconsin’s prohibition would likewise withstand judicial scrutiny.

The scope of the change depends on how lawmakers and courts interpret the words “preferential treatment” and “discrimination,” said Emily Lau, also an attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative. For instance, groups might be treated differently in a way that isn’t preferential or discriminatory, or if there is a justifiable government interest in doing so.

The playing field to resolve these issues will likely be the courtroom.

Even before voters approved Tuesday’s amendment, WILL began suing higher education institutions in Wisconsin over the existence of diversity scholarships and programs that serve underrepresented students.

“All laws must be colorblind to ensure the American Dream for all individuals; otherwise, America will devolve into a racialized society with some racial groups punishing others based on perceived historical grievances,” Dan Lennington, WILL’s vice president and deputy attorney, testified at a public hearing in support of the new amendment in 2025.

This year, WILL scored a victory before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which found an undergraduate financial aid program for minority students was unconstitutional. 

More recently, its attorneys filed a suit against the Wisconsin Higher Educational Aids Board in hopes of striking down a Wisconsin law that requires the Medical College of Wisconsin to “make every effort to ensure” minority students comprise at least 5% of the institution’s total enrollment to qualify for state funding. WILL claims this is a race-based admissions quota.

Beyond race- or sex-based hiring, promotion or admission preferences, the amendment could have a chilling effect on other forms of targeted outreach to underserved communities in ways not yet anticipated. 

But WILL has already highlighted other “racially discriminatory” programs that it believes the amendment would prohibit, including Wisconsin Department of Health Services grants to improve health outcomes among non-whites and non-Asians, equity training programs for teachers supervised by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and the city of Milwaukee’s Office of African American Affairs.

Wisconsin voters may come to find the bill’s intended outcomes fail to emerge.

Like Wisconsin voters, Californians amended their constitution in 1996 to prohibit “discrimination or preferential treatment by the state and other public entities.” 

But years of research following the change indicated that disparities in hiring, contracting and college admissions persisted, and even increased, especially among Latino Americans and women. Now the state is making its fifth legislative attempt to reduce the scope of the amendment in light of lingering educational achievement gaps. 

The California Legislature recently authorized a ballot proposition to be presented to Californians in 2028 that would exclude public education from the prohibition, with the sole exception of college admissions.

Narrowing the partial veto 

This isn’t the first time voters have chipped away at the Wisconsin governor’s partial veto, which affords the executive some of the most expansive powers to alter budgetary line items of any of the 44 states that allow the practice.

Wisconsin’s constitution enables the governor to approve a budget bill “in whole or in part,” and governors of both political parties have used it to great effect.

Following particularly contentious partial vetoes by Republican Tommy Thompson and Democrat Jim Doyle, the electorate twice amended the Wisconsin constitution to prevent similar actions. Governors can no longer create new words by striking individual letters or create a new sentence using two or more sentences.

More recently, former Republican Gov. Scott Walker used his partial veto in 2017 to bar school districts from raising taxes for energy efficiency projects from one year to 1,001 years.

Evers uncapped his partial veto pen in the 2023-25 budget to raise school revenue limits from a span of two years to 402 years. The veto authorized school districts to raise taxes, but didn’t directly do so. School boards get to decide whether to use their new authority. 

In response, Republicans advanced the question as a constitutional amendment, and voters narrowly approved it 50.7% to 49.3%. It doesn’t retroactively apply to Evers’ veto, but would prevent a similar veto from occurring again.

What distinguished Tuesday’s ballot referendum from the prior two concerning partial vetoes was not setting limits on the technical format a partial veto can take, Knoche said, but rather its underlying purpose — in this case anything that raises taxes or fees.

“This is another chapter in a long book on the governors creatively and expansively using their powers,” he said. Then their power gets “incrementally constrained by the Legislature that’s not happy with the increase.”

Democratic lawmakers who opposed the amendment observed that maintaining the governor’s authority to increase funding by partial veto enables the executive branch to intercede when the Legislature insufficiently invests in state priorities.

Banning bans on religious gatherings

On Election Day, Hannah Warren, a 36-year-old lifelong Kenoshan and school counselor, was most determined to weigh in on a constitutional amendment barring the government from banning religious gatherings or closing places of worship during states of emergency.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Wisconsin, the Evers administration’s “Safer at Home” order limited what businesses and activities could remain open in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. The order limited religious gatherings to fewer than 10 people.

Warren’s church in Bristol followed public health officials’ directives to temporarily halt in-person services. She is “a stickler for following the rules” and respected her pastor’s decision, but she watched friends drift away to other congregations “who weren’t following the government’s advice to a T.”

The Wisconsin Supreme Court later struck down the restrictions, while legislators also passed a bill that would have prevented public health agencies from preventing religious gatherings to control COVID-19. Evers vetoed the measure.

In retrospect, Warren believes the lockdown hurt her congregation. 

“I think it would be nice for the government not to have their hands in the innards of everyone’s day-to-day,” she said.

The majority of voters on Tuesday disagreed. It failed with 52% of voters opposed to 48% in favor.

The constitutional amendment would have expanded the restrictions on government authority even more than the original bill did by broadening it to cover any type of emergency.

At least 20 states have passed similar legislation, either protecting religious gatherings or places of worship during states of emergency, often defining religious services as an “essential service.”  

But State Democracy Research Initiative attorneys note that the proposed amendment didn’t include definitions for key terms like “places of worship” or what it means to “forbid gatherings” or “order the closure of.” That generates ambiguities, which set Wisconsin’s proposal apart from most other state reforms.

Tyler Hake, 29, came to the McFarland Municipal Center Tuesday evening to cast a ballot in favor of the amendment.

Hake declined to identify his partisan affiliation, but expressed concern over widespread political polarization in an era where a shared agreement over facts and truth feels elusive.

“It’s important that everyone has their opinions and is able to practice those things freely” without “forcing things upon other people,” he said. “As the country moves forward, it’d be nice if people were more on the same page.”

Two Republican constitutional amendments pass, one fails. Here’s what that means. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Democratic candidate Yee Leng Xiong was elected the next Wisconsin state treasurer Tuesday, edging out Republican incumbent John Leiber. 

With 98% of the votes counted, AP called the race at 12:40 a.m. Wednesday.  Xiong led with just under 52% of the vote to just over 48% for Leiber.

Leiber had been the only Republican to win statewide office, other than Sen. Ron Johnson, in Wisconsin’s 2022 election.

The state treasurer is a relatively low-visibility office, but is included in the Wisconsin Constitution. An amendment that would have eliminated the office failed in 2018.

Besides signing state checks (technically done by machine), the primary duty of the treasurer is serving with the secretary of state and the attorney general on the state Board of Commissioners of Public Lands.

In his reelection campaign, Leiber emphasized focusing on the job of treasurer as it was outlined in the state constitution and statutes. He prided himself on not expanding the duties of the office and instead simply focusing on the job of treasurer as it was outlined in the state constitution and statutes.

Xiong campaigned saying he would seek to act as a watchdog over state finances, serving as “an independent voice for taxpayers and to make sure Wisconsin’s money is managed responsibly, transparently, and in the public interest.”

He cited his experience as a member of the Marathon County Board as well as a local school board treasurer. 

A Wausau native and the son of Hmong refugees from Southeast Asia, Xiong is the first person of Hmong descent to hold statewide office in Wisconsin. 

Democrats won control of the Wisconsin Senate and Assembly Tuesday night, along with the governor’s race — cementing Democratic trifecta control of state government for the first time in over 16 years.

Democratic candidates won the majority of their targeted seats — claiming open seats and ousting longtime Republican incumbents. In the 99-seat state Assembly, Democrats will hold 53 seats and Republicans will hold 46. In the 33-seat state Senate, Democrats will hold 18 seats while Republicans will hold 15 seats. 

Democratic Senate Leader Dianne Hesselbein declared victory in a statement a little before 10 p.m.

“For two years we’ve said that the Wisconsin Senate was the most flippable chamber in the country, and tonight voters across the state proved that to be true,” Hesselbein said. “We’re grateful that Wisconsinites have placed their trust in Senate Democrats to deliver progress in our state; now it’s time to get to work cutting costs and building a stronger future for our hardworking men and women.”

Assembly Democrats declared victory a little after 11 p.m. Democratic Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said in a statement that she was proud of everyone who stepped up to run for the Assembly. 

“They understood that this would be hard, that they would have to knock on doors every single day, face millions of dollars in attack ads, have to take time away from their families, and potentially face threats or violence. But they did it anyway, because they understood that this was our best shot in decades — our shot to win the Democratic trifecta, our shot to set Wisconsin on a new path. Our candidates and our members believe the people of our state deserve better,” Neubauer said. “And Wisconsin does deserve better. With this trifecta, we will end decades of Republican obstruction and build great schools, help families feel financially secure and to save for retirement. We will hold big tech accountable, protect our rights and freedoms, and make Wisconsin a state where everyone can thrive.” 

Democrats have not held control of the state Senate or Assembly since 2010, but new legislative maps helped put the Legislature in play this year. The maps, which were passed by the Republican-led Legislature and signed by Gov. Tony Evers, were adopted in 2024 after Wisconsin’s previous legislative maps were found by the state Supreme Court to be an unconstitutional gerrymander.

In the 2024 election, Democrats flipped 10 Assembly seats, slashing the Republican majority from 64 seats to 54 seats and the state Senate went from a 22-seat Republican supermajority to an 18-seat Republican majority. The close margin increased Democrats’ influence on issues including the state budget over the last two years. 

Headed into the election, Democrats were optimistic about their chances of taking control. 

The Democratic-led Legislature will work alongside Democratic Governor-elect David Crowley, who defeated Republican Tom Tiffany. 

“We know that people will be counting on us to deliver, and we will deliver. Alongside Governor David Crowley and our Democratic colleagues in the Senate, we will show that government can be a force for good and that things can be different with Democrats in charge,” Neubauer said. “Tonight we celebrate, tomorrow we get to work.” 

Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin Devin Remiker said in a statement that voters had sent “a resounding message that they are tired of a broken political system, where politicians put billionaires, special interests, and their own self-interest ahead of working families.”

“They saw Republicans in the Legislature gerrymander themselves into power, block Governor Evers at every turn, and sit on their hands while costs went up. They saw three billionaires try to buy the governor’s office for Tom Tiffany. And they chose a different direction,” Remiker said. “Now it’s time to deliver. Governor-elect David Crowley, Lieutenant Governor-elect Sarah Godlewski, Senate Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein, and Assembly Democratic Leader Greta Neubauer will work together to lower costs, make healthcare more affordable and accessible, invest in our public schools, and build an economy that works for all Wisconsinites.” 

Here are the results in districts that were decisive in determining control:

• In Senate District 31, The Associated Press called the race for Sen Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick). He defeated a challenge from Republican Michele Magadance Skinner, an Eau Claire County board member to win another term in office. The district covers Eau Claire County and parts of Dunn, Trempealeau and Chippewa counties. With more than 95% reporting, Smith brought in 58% of the vote while Skinner brought in 42%. 
• In Senate District 5, state Rep. Robyn Vining (D-Wauwatosa) defeated Republican Mike Roberts, a businessman and healthcare professional from Pewaukee. The race for the seat, which covers Wauwatosa and other parts of Milwaukee County, was open after Sen. Rob Hutton opted not to run for reelection. With 94% reporting according to The Associated Press, Vining had brought in 57% of the vote and Roberts had brought in 43%. 
• In Senate District 21, Democrat Trevor Jung, the former Racine transit and mobility director, defeated Republican businessman Jim Croft. This southeast district that includes part of Racine and Milwaukee Counties was open due to Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) retiring. With 90% reporting, Jung had brought in 58% of the vote while Croft had brought in 42%.
• In Senate District 17, state Rep. Jenna Jacobson (D-Oregon) was leading state Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) a little before 11 p.m. With more than 95% reporting according to The Associated Press, Jacobson had brought in 53% of the vote and Marklein had brought in 47%. The district represents Iowa, Lafayette, Green, Crawford and Grant counties as well as parts of Dane County.
• In Assembly District 21, Democrat Daniel Bukiewicz, the mayor of Oak Creek, defeated Dylan Pfaffenbach, a Republican student at Carroll University. The race for the seat was open following the retirement of Rep. Jessie Rodriguez, a longtime Republican incumbent. With 84% reporting according to the Associated Press, Bukiewicz brought in 60% of the vote while Pfaffenbach brought in 40%.

• In Assembly District 30, incumbent Rep. Shannon Zimmerman (R-River Falls), who was first elected in 2016, lost his reelection bid to Democratic challenger Kevin Knoke, a veteran and educator from Hudson. Zimmerman was first elected in 2016 and served on the Joint Finance Committee. With more than 95% reporting according to the Associated Press, Knoke brought in 53% of the vote while Zimmerman brought in 47%. 
• In Assembly District 51, Rep. Todd Novak (R-Dodgeville) lost to Democratic challenger Ben Gruber, a conservation warden in Wisconsin who is member of AFSCME Local 1215. With 92% reporting according to the Associated Press, Gruber brought in 55% of the vote while Novak brought in 43%. 
• In Assembly District 53, Republican David Daniels lost to Democrat Becky Nichols, a former Menasha city council member. The race was open due to the retirement of incumbent Rep. Dean Kaufert (R-Neenah). With more than 95% reporting according to the Associated Press, Nichols brought in 55% of the vote while Daniels brought in 39%.
• In Assembly District 61, Rep. Bob Donovan (R-Greenfield) lost his reelection bid to Democratic challenger Ben Brist, an army veteran. With 88% reporting according to the Associated Press, Brist brought in 56% of the vote while Donovan brought in 44%. 
• In Assembly District 85, Rep. Patrick Snyder (R-Weston) lost his reelection bid to challenger Democrat John Kroll, a Marathon county board supervisor. Snyder, who was first elected in 2016, ran his campaign by emphasizing his work across the aisle. With more than 95% reporting according to the Associated Press, Kroll brought in 54% of the vote while Snyder brought in 46%.
• In Assembly District 88, Rep. Benjamin Franklin (R-De Pere) lost his reelection bid to Democrat Brandy Tollefson, a De Pere school board member. With more than 95% reporting according to the Associated Press, Tollefson brought in 54% of the vote while Franklin brought in 46%.
• In Assembly District 89, Rep. Ryan Spaude (D-Ashwaubenon) fended off a challenge from Republican challenger Bobby Lindsey, a retired law enforcement professional and a Marine Corps veteran.  With more than 95% reporting according to the Associated Press, Spaude brought in 56% of the vote while Lindsey brought in 44%.
• In Assembly District 92, Rep. Clint Moses (R-Menomonie) lost his bid for reelection to Democratic challenger Jeremiah Fredrickson, a fish farmer from Elk Mound. With more than 95% reporting according to the Associated Press, Fredrickson brought in 53% of the vote while Moses brought in 47%.
• In Assembly District 94, Democratic Rep. Steve Doyle defeated Republican challenger Keith Purnell, an Army veteran. Doyle was first elected to the Assembly during a May 2011 special election and has been reelected since. With more than 95% reporting according to the Associated Press, Doyle brought in 57% of the vote while Purnell brought in 43%.

Wisconsin voters approved two of the three constitutional amendments on the ballot on Tuesday. 

Over the last eight years, the Republican-controlled Legislature has frequently used the state’s constitutional amendment process to circumvent the veto pen of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Tuesday’s results give the Republicans a nine for 15 record in those efforts. 

Under state law, a proposal to amend the state Constitution must be passed in two consecutive legislative terms and then approved by the voters. 

Anti-equity 

Voters approved an amendment that will prohibit state and local governments from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to any groups based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public employment, public education, public contracting, or public administration. 

Of the three amendments on the ballot, this one passed the most easily, with voters approving the measure with 57% of the vote, as of 12:30 a.m.

The amendment is the product of Republican antagonism against diversity, equity and inclusion policies in recent years. GOP lawmakers have pointed to money spent by county governments on diversity programs as an expense that the amendment will put a stop to. 

Republicans have said government spending decisions should be based on merit instead of membership of a specific group. 

Opponents of the amendment argued that the state and federal constitutions already prohibit discrimination. They’ve also pointed to popular programs across state and local government that could now be considered illegal — including women’s health initiatives and childcare programs such as Head Start — and made the case that the government should be allowed to address disparities such as the high rate of Black maternal mortality in Wisconsin. 

Places of worship 

With a 52% margin, Wisconsin voters narrowly rejected a proposed amendment that would have prohibited the government from shutting down places of worship during a state of emergency. 

The proposal was introduced by Republican lawmakers angry that government orders during the COVID-19 pandemic closed churches across the state. Those closures sparked widespread protests from conservatives in the state. 

Opponents of the amendment had argued the state needs tools to protect public health in the event of an emergency. 

Partial veto 

Voters narrowly approved a constitutional amendment that will limit the governor’s partial veto authority, preventing its use to introduce new taxes or fees. The measure passed with 51% of the vote. 

The amendment was proposed after Gov. Tony Evers used his veto pen to change the 2023-25 biennial budget to allow schools to raise revenue limits by $325 per pupil per year for the next 400 years. Republicans across the state have frequently complained about the “400-year tax,” including Tom Tiffany, who made repealing the veto a major part of his run for governor. 

Governors of both parties have used the partial veto to extend provisions for hundreds of years. Republican Gov. Scott Walker used the power to extend a one-year moratorium on school referendum requests for energy efficiency projects, transforming it into a 1,000-year moratorium.

The partial veto authority of Wisconsin’s governor has been rolled back several times through the courts and the constitutional amendment process during the state’s history. Opponents of the amendment compared it to previous actions by Republican lawmakers to limit the authority of the governor after Evers, a Democrat, took office. 

Democrat Mitchell Berman defeated Republican U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District Tuesday night in a race to become the first Democrat in the seat in more than three decades. 

The Associated Press called the race for Berman at 11:48 p.m. With 95% of the ballots counted, Berman had more than 52% of the vote to Steil’s share of just under 48%.

Berman’s victory breaks Steil’s four-term winning streak that began with the incumbent’s first election in 2018 and a Republican winning streak for the 1st District seat that began with the 1994 election.

In his victory speech, Berman gave a nod to Wisconsin’s recent World Series championship team.

“I have to give a special shout out and a special thank you to the Milwaukee Brewers for reminding the entire country what Wisconsin can do when we set our minds to it,” he said.

Berman harkened to his job as a nurse and the themes of affordability and healthcare that have been central to his campaign, along with his message focusing on working-class representation in Congress.

“As an ER nurse, I’ve seen patients rationing their medication because they didn’t know they’d be able to afford their next refill. I’ve seen working families, including my own, do everything right and still get squeezed to the ground. And I came into this race to fight for them,” Berman said. “This is about working-class communities coming together to advocate for change.”

The 1st District, which stretches from Lake Michigan to South Central Wisconsin, has been on Democrats’ congressional wish list for most of the last three decades, but it has been out of reach that whole time despite periodic attempts to flip the seat. It covers Kenosha, Racine and most of Walworth counties along with the eastern half of Rock County and the southern third of Milwaukee County. 

Republican and former U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan easily won 10 terms. Steil, a corporate lawyer and former Ryan aide, embarked on a similar trajectory, winning by nine or 10 percentage points in 2024 and 2022 and even wider margins in his two previous elections. 

After Berman won a crowded Democratic primary in August, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added the district to its list of seats targeted to flip from Republican to Democrat. In the final weeks of the campaign, Berman’s campaign pointed to polling showing the two candidates tied or Berman slightly ahead. 

Steil entered the general election with a significant fundraising advantage. Federal campaign reports through Oct. 14 showed Steil had raised approximately $6.4 million, compared with about $2 million for Berman.

Berman, an emergency room nurse who worked for 11 years at the Veterans Administration, entered the race in August 2025, saying his experiences with patients who could not afford basic medical care had helped convince him to run.

Berman, a resident in the Racine County town of Raymond, had previously been involved in local government disputes, including organizing a recall effort against two Raymond School Board members and filing an open meetings lawsuit against the school district in 2024.

Despite Steil’s election track record, there were signs more than a year ago of voter discontent, when several hundred voters at a noisy listening session in Elkhorn frequently shouted him down while he sought to defend the sweeping Republican tax and spending bill that President Donald Trump signed into law in July 2025.

Berman accused Steil of abandoning commitments to protect Medicaid by supporting the 2025 bill, which included tax cuts that largely favored the wealthy and corporations and made cuts to Medicaid and other safety-net programs over the next decade.  Steil defended the legislation as a measure to lower taxes, strengthen border security and tighten Medicaid eligibility requirements.

Berman focused his campaign on rising costs, particularly in healthcare, and with a message that portrayed Steil as out of touch with the needs and concerns of voters in the district. He also criticized Steil for supporting tariffs that Trump imposed early in his second term, charging that they were contributing the rising prices for consumers. 

Steil campaigned on his legislative record, highlighting Republican tax cuts, efforts to strengthen election security and legislation aimed at restricting stock trading by members of Congress. Steil defended the 2025 law, which included a temporary break in federal income taxes on qualifying tips and overtime pay and expanding tax deductions for seniors.

He also highlighted his work as chairman of the House Administration Committee on legislation requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, and his Stop Insider Trading Act, which passed the House but stalled in the Senate.

The Berman campaign contrasted Steil’s stock trading proposal with tougher legislation that has stalled in Congress.

Berman talked about treating underinsured and uninsured patients during his emergency room shifts. He also highlighted connections between Steil donors in banking, crypto currency, industries involved in data center development and housing investment with his votes on bills that benefited those industries. 

Democrat Rebecca Cooke has defeated Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, notching a win in one of the Democratic party’s highest priority House districts. 

AP called the race at 11:48 p.m. with 90% of the vote counted. Cooke led Van Orden 52.4% to 45.8%.

Cooke, who lost in the Democratic primary for the seat in 2022 and narrowly lost to Van Orden in 2024, ran as a moderate — staking out a number of positions counter to progressive priorities — but benefited from the support of U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Bernie Sanders as well as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. 

Cooke’s seven point victory, at the time the race was called shortly before midnight, was driven by winning large margins in the district’s bigger cities of Eau Claire and La Crosse while keeping Van Orden’s margins small enough in the rest of the largely rural district. 

Cooke won by more than 20 points in both Eau Claire and La Crosse counties while keeping it close enough in the more rural counties — which had driven Trump’s wins in the state after the district voted for former President Barack Obama twice. Under a map in which Van Orden had to run up the score among rural voters, as of 11:45 p.m. on Tuesday evening, he was leading only a single county, Adams, by more than 20 points.

A former political consultant, Cooke has also previously run a non-profit, owned a small business and worked as a waitress. During the campaign, Van Orden had attempted to raise questions about Cooke’s authenticity while tying her to left-wing ideas, frequently referring to her as “commie Cooke.” 

But Van Orden, whose aggressive temperament and frequent scandals had made him a divisive figure among voters in the district, ran on embracing the first two years of President Donald Trump’s second term. He appeared at campaign events with more than a dozen high ranking Trump administration officials while defending his support of Trump’s tariffs and war in Iran, which voters in the district had blamed for increasing costs. 

The district has been hit hard by several of the Trump administration’s most unpopular policies. Hospitals have closed; farmers have struggled to keep up with rising diesel prices and the burden of tariffs and last winter Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities extended into western Wisconsin as far as Eau Claire.

At the only debate of the campaign in October, Cooke argued that she was the only candidate of the two who would actually put “America first.” 

Cooke’s win brings Democratic control back to the district, which voted for Trump three times but was represented by former Democratic Rep. Ron Kind from 1997 to 2023.

A former state Assembly member and current Milwaukee alder won the race for Wisconsin secretary of state Tuesday, becoming the first Latina elected to statewide office.

The AP called the race for JoCasta Zamarripa at 11:38 p.m. Tuesday. With 91% of the ballots counted, Zamarripa led with just over 50% of the vote. 

Republican candidate Jay Schroeder had just over 46%, and Pete Karas of the Green Party had just under 4%.

Zamarripa released a statement Tuesday thanking her supporters and vowing to “uphold our democracy, protect the right to vote, and keep partisan politics out of our everyday governing.”

The Wisconsin Secretary of State’s current duties include maintaining a variety of state records, affixing the state seal to acts of the governor, certifying certain documents for people going overseas, certifying the state’s votes for U.S. President and U.S. Senate, and sitting on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands.

The public lands board, which also includes the state treasurer and the state attorney general, makes loans for public projects to local governments and distributes the revenues from the public lands timber sales to public schools through the state’s common schools fund.

“I will do the real work this office demands for Wisconsin families, and I will be a voice for every community that has too often felt unseen,” Zamarripa said.

Schroeder, the Republican candidate, made his central campaign issue a call to return election administration to the secretary of state’s office more than 50 years after it had been transferred to an independent agency. He won the Republican primary in August with a platform that focused almost entirely on taking over the election process, which would require a change in state law.

On the weekend before Election Day, the race was roiled by an allegation that Schroeder had impersonated Karas’ campaign with text messages in support of the Green Party candidate. Karas filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Board Monday charging Schroeder with violating a state law against election misrepresentation.

Karas and Zamarripa both said the messages appeared to be aimed at pulling support from the Democratic candidate’s campaign — dividing voters who opposed Schroeder and in the process enabling the Republican to prevail.

Schroeder’s argument for bringing election administration back to the secretary of state’s office rests on claims about the elections commission’s operation and practices that current and former state elections officials and the other candidates have all rejected.

Schroeder was the Republican candidate for secretary of state in 2018 and also ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for the office in 2022. During that race, he indicated he would not have certified Wisconsin’s electoral votes for Joe Biden in 2020.

In an interview earlier this year he did not deny the earlier remark but distanced himself from it and said that he accepted Biden’s election as president that year.

Schroeder has campaigned as an “authentic MAGA activist” and a “MAGA aligned candidate on election integrity,” but in an interview also sought to downplay those characterizations.

WASHINGTON — In a stunning upset, Democrats ousted Republicans and flipped control of the U.S. Senate Tuesday night, effectively establishing a barricade for President Donald Trump’s agenda for the last two years of his term.

Democrats will now have the power to block many of Trump’s nominees, both executive and judicial, including if a spot opens on the U.S. Supreme Court bench.

The decisive rebuke of Trump became apparent just after 11:30 p.m. Eastern, when The Associated Press called the Iowa Senate race for Democrat Josh Turek, who clinched the open seat over Republican candidate Ashley Hinson.

By Wednesday morning, Democrats held 54 seats in the Senate, with results in Mississippi and Alaska still outstanding. Republicans were at 44. Seven of the Democratic seats, like Iowa, were flips from Republicans.

In Michigan, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed bested former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, the AP projected early Wednesday.

 

Voters increasingly grew dissatisfied as the midterms approached with high gas and diesel prices, and overall inflation, driven up by Trump’s stalled war in Iran and erratic tariff policies. The economic woes, which also include increasing food prices and skyrocketing healthcare costs, hung over Republican candidates as they campaigned in recent months.

As election results rolled in, Trump posted on Truth Social, “I’m going to become a Political Pundit, both good and bad, on the reasons these Candidates won and lost!”

During a live phone interview with Fox News early Wednesday, Trump chalked up the widespread losses to him not being on the ballot and to high gas prices.

“If I was on the ballot, they would have gotten out. Look, they got out for the rallies. You never saw rallies that big,” he told the Fox hosts.

When asked whether he thought the prolonged war in Iran factored into the results, he said, “I don’t think it’s the war.”

“I think it’s the gasoline prices. People agree with what I’m doing on Iran, but they really probably weren’t willing to do the short-term consequence of paying more for gasoline. And that you know, I understand that,” he said. 

He ended the relatively brief call by congratulating the Democrats.

“Well, I say this: congratulations to the Democrats. They did a good job. They’ve been looking for this one for 11 years, and they finally got it. But I don’t view it as a hit on me. I think we’ve done a, we’ve had the greatest two years in the history of the presidency in terms of the economy, in terms of all the things that we’ve done.”

Earlier in the evening a White House official said on background that Trump’s mood remained “defiant.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the results Tuesday night “a generational remake of the Senate map.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said his party will continue “to stop the worst impulses of Democrat extremism.”

In an early morning post on X, the South Dakota Republican touted Republicans’ “strong record of accomplishments,” citing closing the southern border and passing tax cuts, among other items.

“As we head into 2027, Senate Republicans will not stand idly by as the far-left, socialist wing of the Democrat Party attempts to unwind everything we’ve done,” he wrote.

Kansas shocker

A political earthquake rattled Kansas, where Democratic candidate Adam Hamilton sailed past incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, marking the first time Kansans have elected a Democrat in nearly a century.

Marshall, an OB-GYN, had released his closing argument Sunday in a brief video during which he defended his former medical practice for sending clients who carried unpaid balances to collection agencies. 

Speaking directly to the camera, Marshall said during the one-minute ad, “To ensure that 40,000 Kansans would still have access to care, we did have to keep the lights on. So we occasionally handed some accounts over to a collection agency, just like nearly every private medical practice does.” 

The issue had dogged Marshall’s campaign since the New York Times reported in September that the Kansas doctor had filed lawsuits against more than 700 patients with unpaid bills. Patients were arrested in 81 of the cases for missing court dates.

The patients filed a class action lawsuit against Marshall Thursday, Kansas Reflector reported.

 

In Iowa, Democratic state legislator Turek defeated Hinson, a GOP member of the U.S. House, to win the open Senate seat — delivering another massive setback for Republicans. 

Turek will now be the first Democratic senator to represent Iowa in more than a decade. 

The two-time Paralympic gold medalist and state representative received an early endorsement in July from former President Barack Obama. The two appeared in a campaign ad playing basketball. 

Iowa was Trump’s next-to-last in-person campaign stop on his whirlwind schedule to support midterm candidates in several reliably Republican states.

And in Michigan, El-Sayed kept the the Senate post for Democrats in an open race that the Cook Political Report shifted from “toss-up” to “lean Democrat” on Monday. 

In an unexpected move Sunday, El-Sayed’s primary opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens, endorsed Rogers, a former member of the U.S. House. Stevens told reporters in a joint press conference with Rogers Sunday she changed her mind because “we have to stand with country.”

“We can’t stand with hate, we can’t stand with Hasan Piker,” she said, referring to the far-left influential streamer and known Israel critic who appeared at El-Sayed’s primary campaign events.

The shake-up reportedly shocked many Democrats. 

Schumer called Stevens’ flip a “despicable betrayal” in a post on X Sunday.

The race has been among the ugliest of the 2026 midterm cycle. El-Sayed detractors have accused the former Detroit public health official of antisemitic statements.

Trump and other Republicans, including Rogers, have repeatedly hurled Islamophobic attacks at El-Sayed. Rogers described El-Sayed during an Oct. 26 campaign event as “the most radical extreme candidate in the country” and said he is “pretty close” to the nearly century-old political Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood, which El-Sayed denies.

Upsets all over the map

In another major upset, Dr. Annie Andrews, a Democrat, won the Senate race in South Carolina, defeating Republican Sen. Darline Graham. 

Graham had been appointed in July to serve out the remainder of her late brother Lindsey Graham’s term.

Andrews will be the first Democratic senator to represent South Carolina in more than 20 years.

Texas voters also delivered another staggering upset in electing Democrat James Talarico by a wide margin over Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The flip of deep red Texas to blue signified a major blow for Trump, who backed Paxton in the GOP primary over four-term Sen. John Cornyn.

Paxton, who has served as Texas attorney general since 2015, was impeached by the Texas House in May 2023 on charges of bribery, disregard of duties and several other articles of impeachment. The Texas Senate acquitted Paxton of all charges the following September.

Paxton was indicted on state fraud charges in 2015. He reached a $300,000 settlement deal to end the state probe in 2024.

Veteran Republican senator ousted

In an early-morning statement, longtime Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins conceded her Senate seat to a newcomer, Democrat Troy Jackson.

Collins called her nearly 30-year run in the Senate “the honor of my life.”

Jackson entered the race as a late candidate after the Democrats’ initial choice, Graham Platner, ended his campaign in July following multiple allegations of sexual assault.

Jackson was mobbed by national press at his final campaign stop in South Portland. He told reporters he’s very hopeful given “the amount of people turning out, the way things are going, the way people are talking.” 

“In the end, people want change and I think people see me as a change candidate, for what’s going on in this country, I feel really good about it, I really do.”

In North Carolina, in yet another upset that had been predicted in polling, Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper won the Senate race in the Tar Heel State, flipping the open seat held by retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis.

Cooper had faced GOP candidate Michael Whatley, who previously chaired the Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party. 

Tillis announced in June 2025 he would not seek reelection after Trump vowed to primary him because he voted “no” on the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the president’s major tax and spending cuts package.

In the Buckeye State, Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown won his Senate seat back, defeating incumbent GOP Sen. Jon Husted in another major upset for Republicans.

Brown spent 18 years in the Senate but lost his reelection bid in 2024 to Ohio Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno. 

Husted’s seat was formerly held by Vice President JD Vance before Vance was elected on the Republican presidential ticket with Trump in 2024. 

Trump and Vance headlined multiple rallies throughout Ohio in support of Husted. Trump’s campaign stops for Husted drew attention last month for his repeated remarks about Husted’s physical appearance, with a focus on his backside.

More races

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner retained his seat in Virginia, according to a race call by The Associated Press just after 7 p.m. Eastern. 

Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff also kept his Senate seat, the AP called shortly before 8 p.m. Eastern.  

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey also kept his Senate spot, the AP called, as did Democratic Sens. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Chris Coons of Delaware, Cory Booker of New Jersey, John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. 

Juliana Stratton, a Democrat, also won the Senate race in Illinois. 

In Minnesota, Peggy Flanagan, a Democrat, won her Senate bid, AP called early Wednesday. 

New Hampshire Democrat Chris Pappas won the Senate race there, keeping a seat that was held by Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the AP called. Pappas ran against Republican John Sununu. 

Republican seats

In Florida, incumbent Republican Sen. Ashley Moody pulled ahead of Democratic candidate Angie Nixon, according to an AP race call, after precincts in the Florida panhandle tallied results. 

The race between Moody and the progressive state representative was unexpectedly close in the Republican stronghold. Progressives flocked to Florida to stump for Nixon, including independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York City. Nixon’s platform was closely aligned with but not identical to the national Democratic Socialists of America.

West Virginia GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito won the Senate race in the Mountain State, AP called shortly before 9 p.m. Eastern. 

In another expected win for the GOP, Wyoming Republican U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman cruised to victory for a seat in the upper chamber.

Kentucky GOP U.S. Rep. Andy Barr won his Senate race in the Bluegrass State, AP called.  

In Oklahoma, Republican U.S. Rep. Kevin Hern won a Senate seat in the reliably red state.

In Arkansas, GOP Sen. Tom Cotton won his Senate race, AP called. 

Alabama GOP U.S. Rep. Barry Moore won his Senate bid in the ruby red state.  

In Tennessee, Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty won his Senate race. 

In South Dakota, GOP Sen. Mike Rounds won his Senate race, AP called early Wednesday. 

In Louisiana, GOP U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow won her Senate bid in the Pelican State.

In Idaho, Republican Sen. Jim Risch was reelected.

And in Nebraska, Republican Pete Ricketts prevailed over independent challenger Dan Osborn.

Ahead of Election Day, the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter had identified close contests in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Ohio and Texas. 

Trump’s Republican party vied to hold on to its narrow majority in the House and maintain control in the Senate, where the party currently holds 53 Senate seats. Tuesday’s results delivered Democrats the majority in the upper chamber.

In Alaska, which remained to be called Wednesday morning, former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola is up against incumbent GOP Sen. Dan S. Sullivan in Alaska. 

Trump’s Department of Justice preemptively sued the state’s election officials to try to block them from certifying the Senate election results if Dan S. Sullivan loses by a smaller margin than the number of votes cast for Dan J. Sullivan.

A federal judge in Alaska dismissed the case Sunday, citing the federal government’s failure to explain how it had the authority to bring the case.

Dan J. Sullivan’s candidacy was challenged earlier in the year in state court, and Alaska’s Supreme Court ruled in June he could remain on the ballot.

The Trump administration vowed to appeal.

The New York Times reported Oct. 28 that Democratic operatives recruited Dan J. Sullivan to be a spoiler candidate. States Newsroom has not independently verified the allegations. 

Peltola denied any knowledge of the alleged scheme, according to Alaska Beacon.

Jennifer Shutt , Jonathan Shorman and Eesha Pendharkar contributed to this report.

Republican U.S. Rep. Tony Wied defeated his Democratic challenger, former Green Bay school board member and U.S. Army veteran Rick Crosson in Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District. AP called the race at 10:01 p.m. with 72% of the vote counted. Wied won by a margin of 55.3% to 44.7% 

The Green Bay area district has been under Republican control since 2011, and this year it received less attention and investment from the national parties than Wisconsin’s more competitive 1st and 3rd CDs.

Two years ago, the seat was open after U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher left Congress. The campaign of Dr. Kristin Lyerly, an OB-GYN and an outspoken proponent of abortion rights, gained significant national attention. Lyerly lost to Wied by 15 points.

Wied, the former owner of gas stations in the Green Bay area, presented himself during his reelection campaign as a good-tempered representative who has worked to improve the lives of people in northeast Wisconsin through his constituent services. He has also been a reliable supporter of  President Donald Trump’s agenda in the House of Representatives. 

Wied acknowledged in an Oct. 22 debate that gas and diesel prices have risen because of the war Trump started in Iran, but said that “decisive action” in Iran was needed. He also defended his vote in favor of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cut billions in federal healthcare spending. He argued that the Affordable Care Act is responsible for pushing up medical costs and that he and other Republicans fought to bring federal money to rural hospitals. (The money sent to fund Wisconsin’s rural hospitals, but it’s far less than the shortfall they will face because of  the broader cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.)

As a member of the House Agriculture committee, Wied pointed to his work to get schools serving whole milk again and the passage of a 2026 farm bill by the House of Representatives as actions that he’s taken to help area farmers. 

Crosson accused Wied during the debate of avoiding his constituents by not holding any in-person town halls since he was elected. Wied responded that holding telephone town halls has helped him reach more constituents. He also said that holding town halls in person brings out a “left-wing mob.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that the campaign of Dr. Kristin Lyerly received significant national Democratic support. National Democratic party committees did not, however, put money into Lyerly’s 2024 campaign.

Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman prevailed over four challengers — one Democrat, one Green Party member,  and two independent candidates — to win another term in Wisconsin’s 6th Congressional District Tuesday.

The AP called the race at 9:35 p.m. for Grothman. With 81% of ballots counted, Grothman led with just almost 55% of the vote. Democrat Brad Smith, a management consultant, had just under 42% of the vote.

The 6th District covers Columbia, Marquette, Green Lake, Waushara, Fond du Lac, Manitowoc, Sheboygan and Ozaukee counties along with most of Winnebago County, the northern third of Dodge County and the southern sliver of Calumet County.

 Two independent candidates and a Green Party candidate each finished with less than 2%. 

 

 

Republican Michael Alfonso, 26,  the son-in-law of U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, won by a margin of 56.1% to 43.9% over Democrat Fred Clark, a conservationist and former state lawmaker, in the election for an open seat in Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District. 

AP called the race at 10:03 p.m. with 86% of the vote counted.

The district, which covers much of the northern part of Wisconsin, is currently represented by U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the 2026 Republican candidate for governor.

Alfonso, whose father-in-law previously represented the 7th CD, received President Donald Trump’s endorsement during the primary. 

During the campaign, Alfonso faced criticism over his lack of work experience. After he went to college, he worked for as a producer on Dan Bongino’s podcast in Florida for about a year. He said during the Republican primary that he has worked as an accountant for a church since moving back to Wisconsin.

The district has been represented by a Republican for the last 16 years. Prior to Tiffany and Duffy, the seat was held from 1969 to 2011 by Democrat Dave Obey, the longest serving U.S. House member in Wisconsin history.

Alfonso ran as a strong supporter of the construction of a new segment of the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline, which he said would create jobs in the district. He also advocated for cutting taxes and regulations, especially on homebuilding. 

Throughout the campaign, he tied himself closely to President Trump and embraced Trump’s efforts to eliminate the Department of Education. During a candidate debate, he criticized “these ridiculous public universities that do nothing but indoctrinate our students” and called for taking away funding from them and putting it towards trade schools.

This story has been updated.

In a historic victory Tuesday night, David Crowley was elected as Wisconsin’s first African American governor. Crowley, who became Milwaukee’s first Black county executive in 2020, defeated Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in a contentious race. 

The Associated Press called the race with 84% of the vote counted. Crowley had 53.6% of the vote to Tiffany’s 46.4%.

Tiffany conceded in the race at around 9:45 p.m. “While we have our differences, we both love this great state,” Tiffany said. “And I wish him and his family the very best.” One person in the crowd at Tiffany’s victory party started heckling Crowley. Tiffany responded: “We’re gonna be magnanimous tonight.”

Crowley’s election night watch party was held at the Landmark Credit Union Live venue in Milwaukee, beside the Fiserv Forum. Music played throughout the night and at one point, Crowley’s young niece played the violin for the crowd, performing a rendition of a Michael Jackson song.

The diverse and energetic crowd paid close attention to the vote tallies all night as Tiffany and Crowley vied for the lead. Much of the state seemed blanketed in Republican red on the big screens early in the evening. Finally, as votes from Milwaukee County and the areas around Dane County came in, Crowley jumped ahead.

Lt. Governor-elect Sarah Godlewski addressed the crowd first. “I just want you to take a look around this room because together we made history tonight,” she said to cheers. “And I have to tell you, after traveling 1600 miles across this state with David Crowley, and maybe stopping at one too many Kwik Trips, I could not be prouder to say we won!”

Crowley thanked his parents, wife, daughter, Gov. Tony Evers, and the staff who supported him during his campaign. He promised that as governor he will always listen to people’s perspectives, regardless of whether they are Republicans or Democrats. He said that affordable housing, healthcare, food and being able to build a future for yourself and your family are not partisan issues.

“Wisconsin isn’t a red state or a blue state, we never have been,” he said. “In a state this close, nobody gets to govern alone. When majorities are narrow there’s no room for show votes or shouting matches. There’s no time to waste on culture wars that make for great Instagram clips but lousy government. There’s only room for the work: Fixing the damn roads, funding the schools, keeping our community safe, and bringing down your monthly bills. In a state like ours, the voters keep everybody honest. And tonight, they told all of us in both parties: ‘We are sending you to Madison to get something done, now go do it.’ And I just want to say to Wisconsin: ‘Message received.'”

Angela Lang, director of Milwaukee BLOC — Black Leaders Organizing for Communities — joined the throng of celebrants at Crowley’s victory party in Milwaukee.

“I’m feeling energized,” she said. “I’m feeling emotional in the greatest way, I am feeling encouraged, and I am really sitting in the fact that we just elected our first Black governor.”

Lang said she was particularly moved by Crowley’s speech, in which he described his difficult childhood, as the son of parents who struggled with poverty and addiction and were repeatedly evicted from their homes. “It goes to show what this state is capable of,” she said. “So many times it has felt like there has been this ceiling on what Black folks, particularly Black folks who have gone through traumatic situations, have been able to overcome. And to know that we have somebody that has gone through the struggle, has gone through the trenches, and as he said, has gone from homelessness to the governor’s mansion, is amazing. And I’m still processing. I’m ecstatic, but it’s also still hitting me.”

“I don’t think I was shocked,” she added. “I’ve always been nervous. Because sometimes Wisconsin doesn’t always do the right thing. But I always knew it was possible and I’m glad to know that the rest of Wisconsin felt it was possible too.”

“It’s simply amazing,” said Pam Fendt, president of the  Milwaukee Area Labor Council. “Labor wanted a candidate who would listen to the working people of Wisconsin, and we got that with David Crowley.”

“We look forward to working with the new governor and getting change in our state laws so that more workers can organize,” she added.

Tuesday night concluded a dynamic campaign for Crowley. During the Democratic primary, Crowley initially dropped out due to low polling numbers and endorsed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez. 

Just days after Crowley endorsed Rodriguez, however, she also dropped out due to financial mismanagement within her campaign. This left state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), who ran as a democratic socialist, with a significant double digit lead over her remaining opponents. Crowley re-entered the race stating that many people, including Gov. Tony Evers, had urged him to run. 

After Crowley restarted his campaign, Evers — who had previously refrained from making an endorsement  — pitched Crowley as the only candidate capable of beating Tiffany. 

Crowley pushed back against claims that he re-entered the race because of Evers, or that he was the establishment candidate. He narrowly defeated Hong in the primary. 

The general election featured attack ads paid for by dark money groups that accused Crowley of raising sales and property taxes. Some ads urged viewers not to let Crowley make the rest of Wisconsin look like Milwaukee. 

Republicans tried to portray Crowley as a corrupt politician who funneled  money into a non-profit where his wife worked. Ads also focused on immigration, listing crimes committed  by non-citizens and re-played a clip of Crowley vowing to support immigrant communities by saying “I’m an accomplice.” 

Late in the race, an  ad originating from a GOP-linked group masquerading as a left-wing progressive outfit accused Crowley of being too pro-law enforcement, while other Republican attacks accused him of being soft on crime. 

Crowley focused on pitching his record of governing Milwaukee County. Pro-Crowley ads promised to make life more affordable and increase housing and slammed Tiffany as being more loyal to President Donald Trump than to Wisconsin. 

During the only candidate debate  in October, Crowley described Tiffany as in the pocket of the billionaires funding his campaign. Just three billionaires, Beloit resident Dianne Hendricks and Illinois residents Richard and Liz Uihlein contributed about 90% of the funds raised by the Tiffany campaign, directed to the Republican Party of Wisconsin and then transferred to the candidate.