Taylor Swift performs at Soldier Field in Chicago on The Eras Tour on June 5, 2023 (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Ahead of Taylor Swift’s latest album being released Friday, Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) is proposing that Wisconsin exile practices in the ticket selling industry that disadvantage fans trying to attend shows and events.
The bill “Stop Wildly Inflated Fees and Ticketing Industry Exploitation” — yes, that really is SWIFTIE for short — would require sellers to disclose the total cost of ticket prices to potential buyers, put a cap on how much resellers can charge for tickets and prohibit ticket-buying bots that resellers use. Sen. Jamie Wall (D-Green Bay) and Rep. Jill Billings (D-La Crosse) are also coauthors on the bill.
The bill comes ahead of Swift releasing her 12th studio album — titled “The Life of a Showgirl” — on Friday.
Many states and lawmakers, including some of Wisconsin’s neighbors, started taking an interest in new laws to help regulate the live event ticket marketplace after Ticketmaster crashed during the initial sale of tickets to Swift’s The Eras Tour. Many of the mega pop star’s huge and dedicated fan base were down bad as secondary ticket prices for her tour soared, with some individual ticket prices rising to even more than $4,000.
The Michigan House passed a proposal in June that would curb bots for hoarding concert and event tickets. The Minnesota state government enacted legislation to help protect online ticket buyers in 2024.
“My daughters and I are Swifties. I would’ve loved to have taken them to see Taylor Swift live on the Eras Tour, but instead we saw the movie,” Roys said in a video with Style (Taylor’s Version) playing in the background and clips from the tour flashing on screen. “I didn’t even try to get tickets because I had heard the horror stories from so many friends of mine. This is not how it’s supposed to be. Live events should be for fans, not for profiteers.”
Roys is also seeking the Democratic nomination in the 2026 election for Wisconsin governor.
Several provisions in the bill seek to prevent fans from encountering a ticket hoax by barring resellers from listing tickets for resale before tickets have been put on sale, from putting tickets on sale if they don’t already own them and by capping secondary ticket sales, prohibiting a fee from exceeding 10% of the ticket’s initial price.
The bill also includes a provision to ensure ticket buyers can feel fearless when they make a purchase on the secondary market. Under it, resellers would be required to issue a full refund within 10 days of a request to a purchaser if a ticket is counterfeit, the event is canceled, the ticket doesn’t fit the description provided or the date or time of the event is moved.
Bots — devices or software that get around security measures or access control systems on a ticket selling platform to bypass purchasing limits — would also be prohibited under the bill from purchasing more than eight tickets for one event and circumventing the ticket queue, presale codes or waiting periods when a sale is going on.
“If you’re a fan, you deserve the chance to go see your favorite artist without being exploited by unscrupulous scalpers, by third-party bot farms that drive up prices and other practices that exploit fans and venues and artists,” Roys said. “All of us deserve to come together and share these wonderful live events without these kinds of consumer protection violations.”
Under the bill, violators would be subject to civil forfeitures of at least $15,000 for each day the violation occurs; $1,000 per ticket listed, advertised, sold or resold in violation of the provisions; and an amount equal to five times the total price of each ticket.
A person could also be subject to a civil forfeiture of at least $10,000 per ticket listed, advertised, sold or resold in violation of the provisions.
“We don't have a direct way to overrule what the Republican regime has done in the big, ugly bill,” Sen. Kelda Roys said. “We certainly can do everything we can in Wisconsin to make sure that the existing two independent clinics that provide abortion services are able to see as many patients as they possibly can." (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin paused abortion services Wednesday at its Madison, Milwaukee and Sheboygan locations due to the megabill signed by President Donald Trump in July. The law — officially titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act — included a provision that would take away federal funding from the organization if it continues providing abortion services.
The organization announced the pause last week, saying that it was looking to see as many patients as possible before the Oct. 1 deadline. Wisconsin is the first state in the country where Planned Parenthood has taken this step in response to the federal law.
In reaction, Democratic lawmakers called Wednesday morning for the state to reverse other restrictions on the books to help increase accessibility to the remaining independent abortion providers in the state.
“We’re sounding the alarm, but we’re also saying we can do something about this,” Rep. Lisa Subeck (D-Madison) said at a press conference. “We know that this is going to be a legal battle, and there will be other means by which Planned Parenthoods are fighting this change, but in the meantime, we cannot let Republicans block access for Wisconsin women to the care that they need.”
This is the second time that Planned Parenthood is halting abortion services in Wisconsin since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, ending federally protected abortion rights. The group stopped providing abortions from June 2022 until September 2023, when a Dane County court held that a 19th century state statute did not ban abortions. The Wisconsin Supreme Court also ruled in July that the same 19th century law was invalid and unenforceable and had effectively been repealed by other laws passed after it.
Planned Parenthood’s decision to pause services again leaves just two independent clinics that provide abortion care in Milwaukee. Abortion providers in neighboring Illinois have declared that they are prepared to provide services for Wisconsin women.
“We know that people in Wisconsin can go to other states that do not have these restrictions to access abortion care, but we think that that’s unacceptable, and that no matter who you are or where you’re from you deserve the freedom to get the health care that you need here in Wisconsin,” Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) said at the press conference.
The public health department for Madison and Dane County offered to help patients in need of services navigate their limited options.
“Losing Planned Parenthood clinics as an option for abortion care means the full spectrum of reproductive health care will become very difficult to access in Wisconsin,” said Public Health Supervisor Sarah Hughes. “We know this changing landscape can be confusing and overwhelming, that’s why our Nurse Navigators are standing by to help people understand all options around pregnancy and reproductive health care.”
Planned Parenthood has been able to use federal funds via Medicaid payments and Title X, a federally funded family planning program, to help provide services other than abortion care, including contraceptives, STI testing, pregnancy testing, and gynecological services to low-income and uninsured individuals. The Hyde Amendment has barred federal money from being used to fund abortion care across the country for decades.
The new federal law puts the other services that Planned Parenthood offers at risk by barring Medicaid payments for one year for organizations that received more than $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in fiscal year 2023 and primarily engage in family planning services and reproductive health and provide abortions.
“This was targeted directly at Planned Parenthood,” Subeck said.
“Let me be clear, Republicans in the federal and state governments will stop at nothing short of a full abortion ban,” she added.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its member organizations in Massachusetts and Utah filed a legal challenge in July, but an injunction that was blocking the law from taking effect was lifted in September.
Attorney General Josh Kaul has also joined with other state attorneys general on a legal motion that argues the provision “impermissibly and unconstitutionally targets Planned Parenthood health centers for their advocacy and their exercise of associational rights” and also that “Congress ran afoul of limits on its spending power” because of its ambiguity. It argues the provision “fails to adequately define the scope of providers who qualify as “prohibited entities”; fails to provide clear notice of the timing of its implementation; and constitutes a change that [states] could not have anticipated when joining Medicaid.”
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has said that ongoing litigation could change what the organization is allowed to do and that it will continue to monitor the legal landscape and will be prepared to act the moment it is able to resume care.
Roys and Subeck introduced legislation Wednesday to help the last two clinics in Milwaukee take in patients.
The Democratic bill would repeal several of the other restrictions on the books in Wisconsin, including a requirement that patients attend two appointments with the same physician 24 hours apart before receiving care, requirements that a patient have a physical exam and that a physician be physically present when medication is taken, and a requirement for an ultrasound. It would expand the number of providers allowed to provide abortion care from just physicians to physician assistants, nurse practitioners and advanced practice registered nurses.
The lawmakers said the bill would help the two independent Milwaukee clinics — Care for All Community Clinic and Affiliated Medical Services — reach as many patients as possible while Planned Parenthood no longer offers services by removing barriers to providing access.
“We don’t have a direct way to overrule what the Republican regime has done in the big, ugly bill,” Roys said. “We certainly can do everything we can in Wisconsin to make sure that the existing two independent clinics that provide abortion services are able to see as many patients as they possibly can and try to absorb some of the loss of service [provided by] Planned Parenthood, and open the door to make sure that patients in Wisconsin don’t suffer access restrictions that patients in other states don’t have to suffer.”
Roys said the purpose of the restrictions “has always been to make abortion as onerous and as difficult for people to access as possible. It has nothing to reduce the need for abortion.” By lifting the restrictions, she said, the bill could help “increase abortion access, despite the federal backdoor abortion ban.”
However, in a Republican-led Legislature, the bill is unlikely to move ahead.
Conservative groups and some Republican lawmakers celebrated the news of the pause in abortion services last week. Rep. Joy Goeben (R-Hobart) called the pause in services at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin a “hopeful moment” in a statement last week.
“Every heartbeat silenced by abortion was a life full of possibility,” Goeben said. “This pause means more of those lives may now have a chance.”
Goeben and 11 of her Republican colleagues recently introduced a bill that seeks to narrow the definition of abortion in Wisconsin. According to a bill summary, it would amend the definition of abortion to make an exception for “physician’s performance of a medical procedure or treatment designed or intended to prevent the death of a pregnant woman and not designed or intended to kill the unborn child, including an early induction or cesarean section performed due to a medical emergency or the removal of a dead embryo or dead fetus, or an ectopic, anembryonic, or molar pregnancy, which results in injury to or death of the woman’s unborn child when the physician makes reasonable medical efforts under the circumstances to preserve both the life of the woman and the life of her unborn child according to reasonable medical judgment and appropriate interventions for the gestational age of the child.”
“Democrats should be lining up to sign on to this bill,” Goeben said in a statement about the bill. “This is what liberals have been shouting about from the rooftops for decades. However, they continue to perpetuate the notion women are not going to get the care they need in a heart wrenching emergency situation.”
Physicians, Democratic lawmakers and others have spoken to concerns since the overturn of Roe v. Wade that restrictive state laws governing abortion would result in women not receiving adequate medical care, even when there is an emergency. ProPublica has reported on the preventable deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, both of whom were denied timely care due to confusion created by Georgia’s six-week abortion ban. It has also reported on two women in Texas, Josseli Barnica and Nevaeh Crain, who died under the state’s restrictive abortion ban after care was delayed for their miscarriages.
Roys said the bill is an example of Republicans trying to distance themselves from the impact of restrictive abortion policies.
“Republicans know that their abortion bans hurt women, and they kill women, and Americans are horrified to see women being arrested and jailed instead of taken to the hospital for treatment when they have a miscarriage. They are horrified to see pregnant people turned away from emergency rooms so that they can bleed out and almost die in Walmart parking lots… and now Republicans are desperately searching for a way to distance themselves from the terrible effects of the laws that they passed. And [to] simply say if you need to end your pregnancy, we’re going to call it something different than abortion is nonsense.”
Roys said the bill is “pernicious” because it would essentially tell providers to provide a C-section or induce labor rather than provide an abortion. Those procedures, she said, are “much more difficult, painful, and risky and invasive than doing an abortion.”
“It affects a woman’s future ability to birth and be pregnant the way that she wants to be, and it is incredibly cruel,” Roys said.
State Sen. Kelda Roys calls attention to the issue of child care funding during a June press conference alongside her Democratic colleagues. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Democratic state Sen. Kelda Roys of Madison said she will fight back against “extremists” as she launched her campaign for governor Monday morning.
Roys, 46, is now the fourth candidate to enter the open Democratic primary. She joins Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley as well as Mukwonago beer vendor Ryan Strnad.
“I’ve been protecting our freedoms when others didn’t even see the threat coming. That’s leadership. See the problem. Build the coalition, deliver results,” Roys said in her campaign announcement ad. “I’ve done it while raising five kids and running a small business, because when something matters, we find a way.”
Roys gave two reasons for why she is running for governor in an interview with the Wisconsin Examiner.
“I’m running because Wisconsin needs a governor who’s going to stand up to what the Republican regime is doing and protect Wisconsinites from the harms that they are causing us,” Roys said. “And also because this is a time of incredible opportunity for Wisconsin, and we need a governor who knows how to get things done, how to deliver meaningful change for families across the state.”
Promising to push back on the Trump administration, Roys said that means that “as people are losing their health care coverage because of the federal budget, as farmers don’t have the workforce to help harvest their crops, as small businesses are struggling with the high cost and uncertainty caused by Trump’s policies, I’m going to do everything in my power to help Wisconsinites thrive.”
Roys said the Democratic Party is struggling with low approval ratings because people aren’t seeing Democrats do enough to combat Trump.
“When I talk to folks all around the state, it’s because people are angry that Democrats don’t seem to be meeting this moment and ringing the alarm bells the way that we need to be right now,” Roys said.
Roys was elected to the Senate in 2020 and has served as one of four Democrats on the Joint Finance Committee, which is responsible for writing the state’s biennial budget, since 2023. Prior to this, she served two terms in the state Assembly, including one under former Gov. Jim Doyle and one under former Gov. Scott Walker.
Roys said her experience in the Legislature would help inform the way she would lead as governor.
“Much to my chagrin, when you look at the governors who have been effective at cementing their legacies into the law, it’s the governors that have come from the Legislature,” Roys said. “Tommy Thompson and Scott Walker are really the top examples that we have, because they understood how to work with the Legislature.”
Roys said the makeup of the state Legislature will not change her determination to get things done, though she is “bullish” in her belief that the state Senate will flip Democratic in 2026 and possibly the state Assembly, too.
“My feeling is that you’re never going to get anything done alone. You always are going to need a team, and the job of the governor is to build that so that you can make durable change, and I will continue to maintain a strong relationship with Republican and Democratic legislators,” Roys said. “As governor, I’m going to be always looking for opportunities to partner with the Legislature, to reach across the aisle, because this is a purple state.”
Roys said her history shows her ability to advance her priorities, even in a Republican Legislature, and that is what sets her apart from other Democratic candidates in the race.
One accomplishment, she noted, was her experience as a law student working with the Wisconsin Innocence Project to help pass Act 60, a criminal justice reform law aimed at helping prevent wrongful convictions, in a Legislature dominated by Republicans. Roys also noted the when she was executive director of NARAL Wisconsin, she advocated for the passage of the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Act, which requires Wisconsin hospital emergency rooms to provide medically accurate oral and written information regarding emergency contraception to victims of sexual assault and to dispense emergency contraception upon request.
Roys has been an outspoken advocate for reproductive rights during her service in the Legislature as well, calling for the repeal of the 1849 criminal law that ended abortion services in the state for a year and a half after Roe v. Wade was overturned, and the loosening of other abortion restrictions in the state.
Roys, who voted against the recent state budget, said she did so in part because of the lack of education funding. As governor, she said she would want to improve public education and ensure that “we’re not perpetually forcing our schools to go to their neighbors and ask them to raise their own property taxes just to keep the lights on and keep teachers in the classroom.”
Beyond funding, Roys laid out a couple of priorities for schools on her campaign website, including “using evidence-based learning, keeping smartphones out of the classroom, retaining high standards, engaging parents and community members as stakeholders and ensuring high quality professional development for educators.”
This is Roys’ second time running. She came in third in the Democratic primary in 2018, when Evers was first elected, behind Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin.
Wisconsin’s gubernatorial primaries are about 11 months away, scheduled for August 2026.
The Republican primary is still taking shape as well. Whitefish Bay manufacturer Bill Berrien and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann have officially entered the race. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany has said he will make a decision about entering the race by the end of the month.
Berrien said in a statement about Roys’ campaign launch that Wisconsinites were not going to “elect a career politician who views the governor’s mansion as another stepping stone in her career” and that voters had already rejected her “extreme, far-left policies and Medicare for All Agenda.”
“As governor, I’ll create prosperity for all through work because it doesn’t matter who the Democrats nominate, I will beat them,” Berrien said.
Roys said she hadn’t seen Berrien’s full statement, but it sounded “laughable.”
“I’ve actually spent more of my career in the private sector than in the public, but I still have way more experience than any of the Republicans thinking of running for governor,” Roys said.
In the six-year gap between her service in the Assembly and Senate, Roys founded Open Homes, an online real estate service, in 2013, as a way to “lower fees and make it easier for people to buy and sell their homes,” according to her campaign announcement. She first got her real estate license at 19 when she lived in New York City to help pay for college, according to the business website.
As for Berrien’s charge that she is “extreme,” Roys says, “there is no place for violence or violent rhetoric in our politics, but you have to look no further than the President that these Republicans support, who has unleashed an incredible amount of violent rhetoric that is meant to scare and intimidate Americans who disagree with him, and it’s not just his words, but it’s his actions.”
Roys noted Trump’s pardons of January 6th insurrectionists.
“I don’t know what you can call those pardons, if not a permission slip for violence,” Roys said. “I don’t want to hear one word from Republican candidates about extremism, until they denounce their own president and his contributions to the terrible situation that this country is in.”
Roys said the biggest challenge that Democrats face in competing statewide in 2026 is a group of “very, very well funded billionaires and right wing extremists that gerrymandered our state and have been trying to buy elections here for a generation.” She said she would work to combat that by “building a strong statewide grassroots campaign of people from across the political spectrum who want to see Wisconsin actually solve our problems and move forward again.”
A Wisconsin state senator who came in third in the Democratic primary for governor in 2018 is running again, saying in her campaign launch video that “extremists” like President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk are putting the nation’s democracy at risk.
Kelda Roys, an attorney and small business owner who represents the liberal capital city of Madison in the state Senate, launched her campaign on Monday.
“We are in the fight of our lives for our democracy and our kids’ future,” Roys says in her campaign launch video. It shows people protesting along with images of Trump and Musk.
The two other highest-profile announced Democratic candidates are Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. Several other Democrats are expected to join the race in coming days.
On the Republican side, Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann, 43, and suburban Milwaukee business owner Bill Berrien, 56, are the only announced candidates. Other Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany and state Senate President Mary Felzkowski, are considering running.
Roys, 46, served in the state Assembly from 2009 until 2013. Roys ran for an open congressional seat in 2012, but was defeated by a fellow state lawmaker, Mark Pocan, by 50 points. She was elected to the state Senate in 2020.
As a lawmaker, Roys has been an outspoken defender of abortion rights and for union rights. In her launch video, Roys highlights her opposition to then-Gov. Scott Walker’s law that effectively ended collective bargaining for public workers in 2011.
“With everything on the line, Wisconsin needs a governor who’s been training for this moment her whole career and knows how to deliver,” she said.
Roys said she would work to improve public schools, make health care more affordable and create quality jobs.
The race to replace Gov. Tony Evers, who is retiring after two terms, is open with no incumbent running for the first time since 2010. Roys lost to Evers in the 2018 gubernatorial primary, coming in third out of eight candidates behind him and Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup.This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.
Senate and Assembly Democratic lawmakers proposed their own package of education bills ahead of the floor session that would increase general aid for public schools by $325 per pupil, provide transparency on voucher school costs and provide free school meals to students. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Wisconsin Assembly Republicans passed a handful of bills Thursday on an array of issues. Democrats argued the measures won’t solve the problems facing Wisconsinites and unveiled their own proposals.
The Assembly floor session is the first since lawmakers broke for the summer after completing the state budget. The Senate does not plan to meet this month, and Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) told reporters during a press conference that it was a “shame” they wouldn’t. She said she has had conversations about meeting in October.
Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said Republicans’ agenda for Thursday was an example of “prioritizing culture wars” rather than “doing what’s right.”
Democrats’ education bills
Senate and Assembly Democratic lawmakers proposed their own package of education bills ahead of the floor session that would increase general aid for public schools by $325 per pupil, provide transparency on voucher school costs and provide free school meals to students.
“We would like to see our legislative Republican colleagues focus on the issues that are facing Wisconsinites — issues like cost of living, their public schools and their property taxes,” Neubauer said. “That’s why we’re bringing forward this package today, because we know from conversations with our constituents what they’re really concerned about.”
The Democrats’ education agenda contrasts with the plan announced by Assembly Republicans earlier this week. Republican proposals include encouraging consolidation of schools, calling on Gov. Tony Evers to opt into a federal school choice program, banning drones over schools and improving math education.
One Democratic bill would dedicate $325 in additional per pupil state aid to Wisconsin school districts. It would cost nearly $500 million for 2025-26 and nearly $700 million for 2026-27.
Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) called it the “bare minimum” that school districts need and said it would help school districts avoid raising property taxes.
“School districts will do better under this bill than current law,” Roys said. “We know every kid around the state deserves to go to a great school so that they can meet their potential, but to be clear, this bill is not everything that our kids need or deserve, not even close.”
Wisconsin’s most recent state budget did not give school districts any increase in per pupil general aid, despite calls from education advocates, Gov. Tony Evers and other Democrats to provide additional funding.
Republican lawmakers said they would not increase state aid after Evers used his partial veto power to extend a cap on the annual increase to limits on the revenue districts can raise from local taxpayer of $325 per pupil for the next 400 years. Without state funding, school districts only have the option of increasing property taxes to bring in the additional funds. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau projects that property taxes will increase by more than 7% on average over the next year.
Roys said the bill is a “test” to see if Republicans want to help keep property taxes stable, since providing no state aid to schools will drive those taxes up. She blamed Republicans for placing districts in a situation where they have to go to property taxpayers to keep up with costs.
Roys also knocked a Republican bill that would encourage school districts to explore consolidation and sharing services.
“They want to consolidate school districts. They want to close schools, and by the way, everything’s the governor’s fault. Give me a break,” Roys said. “They want to hold the line on property taxes? Prove it.”
The bill also includes an additional $31 million to ensure no school districts receive less state aid in 2025-26 than they received in 2024-25.
The Department of Public Instruction’s July 1 estimate found that 277 districts — or 65.8% — of school districts were going to receive less in general aid from the state in 2025.
Another bill seeks to provide greater transparency on the costs of voucher schools to districts by requiring property tax bills to include information about the cost. The bill would expand on a push that public school advocates are making at a local level after the city of Green Bay was able to add the information.
Rep. Deb Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay) said the bill would help inform residents who may be confused about where their tax dollars are going.
“We can say, time and time again, that the state is underfunding our local public schools. That is true. What they also don’t understand, and there’s a really simple fix, is how much of that money is leaving their district to go to other voucher schools. In some cases, millions and tens of millions of dollars… It is a simple fix. It is very straightforward,” Andraca said.
Requiring in-person work for state employees
AB 39 would require state employees to return to in-person work for at least 80% of their time — or four days a week for a full-time employee — starting this year. The bill passed 51-44 with all Democrats opposing it.
The bill initially required state agency employees to be in person the whole week, but an amendment dropped the minimum to four days.
Republican lawmakers have been calling for stricter limits on remote work for several years. The policies became normal for state employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nedweski said she isn’t “anti-telework,” but said remote work needs to be managed and measured. She said agencies haven’t provided data to show it is working. During the Assembly Committee on Government Oversight, Accountability and Transparency hearing on the bill, agency leaders said remote work policies have helped with recruitment and retention of employees.
“It’s time for state employees to return to the office and do the work that Wisconsin’s hard-working taxpayers are paying them to do to the best of their ability and in their most productive and efficient way,” Nedweski said. “We have a policy that allows for remote work agreements. We’re not saying the policy is ending, we’re saying, come back, have your performance evaluated and re-sign your remote work agreement.”
Rep. Mike Bare (D-Verona), the ranking member of the GOAT committee, pointed to the testimony they heard as he argued the bill wouldn’t help.
“A bill like this with a one-size-fits-all return to work policy will not make our state government better… Remote work policies were born from a crisis, and we all remember too well. They’ve become a success for our state government. We now have state workers dispersed all across the state. We’ve achieved savings by consolidating physical workspace. We’ve stayed competitive with the private market by appealing to how employees want to work and then what they expect from their work environment.”
Flag prohibition
AB 58 would prohibit flags, other than the United States flag, the state of Wisconsin flag and a few others on a list of exceptions, from being flown outside state and local buildings including the Wisconsin State Capitol. The bill passed 50-44, along party lines.
Rep. Jerry O’Connor, the author of the bill, argued that flags are part of the reason for increasing divisiveness, and even political violence. Wisconsin leaders condemned political violence during the session after the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday.
“It’s not the role of the government to pick the winners and losers on partisan and activist issues,” O’Connor said.
Some of the exceptions would include local government flags, those commemorating veterans, prisoners of war or missing in action, those recognizing a foreign nation for special purposes and a flag of a unit of firefighters, law enforcement officers or emergency medical technicians.
He said these exceptions are “simply recognizing those flags that are efficiently recognized by all levels of government.”
“We should have a shared outlook as to what we do as elected officials in this building here to promote unity and not division… I think we all could agree that those are the flags that represent all of us,” O’Connor said.
Rep. Chuck Wichgers (R-Muskego) spoke specifically about pride flags, which are a symbol of the LGBTQ+ community, when explaining his support of the legislation.
“You’re asking every Wisconsinite to sanction what that means,” Wichgers said in reference to the Progress Pride flag. The chevron portions of the flag include black and brown stripes to represent people of color who identify with the LGBTQ+ community as well as those living with HIV/AIDS. The light blue, pink and white stripes in the chevron represent transgender people.
“I can guarantee you when you ask the people that are in favor, they’re not going to know what that chevron means, so we’re endorsing, sanctioning something that is being flown above our flag that is probably divisive,” Wichgers said.
Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) said, however, that she views the bill as being divisive and as a violation of the First Amendment.
“I think as a body we should be promoting inclusiveness. It’s not just the more morally right thing to do. It also strengthens our communities, promotes mutual respect, and actually leads to more civic engagement,” Sinicki said. “These symbolic acts do matter. They matter to me, and they matter to the majority of people across Wisconsin.”
Prohibit health services funding for immigrants without legal status
AB 308, coauthored by Rep. Alex Dallman (R-Markesan), passed 50-44 along party lines. The bill would prohibit state, county, village, long-term care district and federal funds from being used to subsidize, reimburse or provide compensation for any health care services for a person not lawfully in the United States.
Dallman said at a press conference that the bill is meant to stop Wisconsin from expanding its Medicaid to cover immigrants without legal status. Wisconsin already doesn’t allow this.
“This is going to take a step forward to say that we are going to again keep these funds available for our citizens who are paying in all these dollars,” Dallman said.
Advocates expressed concerns to the Examiner earlier this week that the bill would lead to health service providers having to check everyone’s citizenship status before providing care.
Rep. Angela Stroud (D-Ashland) said the bill is “the kind of thing that makes people hate politics.”
“We don’t provide health care to undocumented immigrants. The reason we’re voting on this today is so that the majority party can go out and tell their voters that Democrats failed to stop giving health insurance to undocumented people, but we can’t stop something that isn’t happening. Why waste time and taxpayer money this way?” Stroud said. “If you don’t have affordable health care, they don’t want you to hold them accountable. Instead, they want you to blame someone else.”
According to a 2025 report from the The Center for Gun Violence Solutions and The Center for Suicide Prevention at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, gun-related suicides in the U.S. reached record highs in 2023 with 27,300 — or 58% — of all gun deaths being suicides; 90% of suicide attempts involving guns are fatal.(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Democratic lawmakers are proposing a way for Wisconsinites who are experiencing depression or suicidal ideation to voluntarily put themselves on a “do not buy” list that would block them from being able to purchase a handgun themselves.
Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) and Rep. Lee Snodgrass (D-Appleton) said in a cosponsorship memo that the bill would honor the Wisconsinites who have died by suicide including former Rep. Jonathan Brostoff, who killed himself in 2024.
“We all deserve to live free from the fear of gun violence — whether that be in public or in the comfort of our homes. Last year, many of us in the Capitol lost a dear friend in Jonathan Brostoff, and there are many more people around the state who died by suicide using a gun,” Roys said in a statement. “It is our hope that we can honor their memories by offering a helping hand to anyone who is struggling with thoughts of self-harm.”
The lawmakers said the bill is picking up on the work of Brostoff, who was an advocate for improving access to mental health services. During his time in the Legislature, Brostoff also served as a member of the 2019 Speakers’ Task Force on Suicide Prevention.
Lawmakers, many of whom served with him, honored him on the floor of the Legislature earlier this year.
After Brostoff’s death, Gov. Tony Evers called on lawmakers to pass a similar policy.
“A big part of preventing gun suicide is access to intervention: the time and space between the person and the firearm are crucial,” the lawmakers said in a memo.
According to a 2025 report from the The Center for Gun Violence Solutions and The Center for Suicide Prevention at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, gun-related suicides in the U.S. reached record highs in 2023 with 27,300 — or 58% — of all gun deaths being suicides; 90% of suicide attempts involving guns are fatal.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) would be required to maintain a list under the bill. The proposal would provide $150,000 in state funding to the Department of Justice for the purposes of maintaining the list.
A person would be able to request a prohibition for one year, five years with the first year being irrevocable or a 20-year period with the first year being irrevocable.
The prohibition could be removed if someone submitted a request to the DOJ outside of the irrevocable period. After receiving a request for the revocation of a prohibition, the DOJ would have to wait 48 hours to remove the person from the database.
Snodgrass said in a statement that people experiencing suicidal ideation need ways to protect themselves.
“A constituent came to me in a time of crisis, feeling helpless that when they hoped to add themselves to a ‘do not sell’ list, found there was no process and no such list,” Snodgrass said. “Thankfully, my constituent is thriving today and we are grateful for their advocacy on this issue to help save lives in the future.”
A “Do Not Sell” list — also known as a ‘Voluntary Prohibition of Handgun Purchases’ list — has been adopted in a handful of other states, including Washington, Utah and Virginia. Reporting from The Trace in 2024 found that within the six years only about 130 people had participated in the program.
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