The Wisconsin State Senate passed bills that would restrict administrative rulemaking and that would place restrictions on health care for transgender youth. The bills are likely to be vetoed by Gov. Tony Evers.

Bills to restrict transgender youth headed to Evers

Democrats slammed five bills passed by Republicans that would restrict transgender children from receiving gender affirming care, from choosing the names and pronouns used for them in school and from participating on sports teams that align with their gender identity. Republicans said the bills are meant to protect children. Each bill passed 18-15 along party lines.

Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) said the bills are part of a larger effort to “legislate trans people out of public life.” He noted the Legislature’s emphasis on bills related to transgender people and said he felt a responsibility as a gay man to speak against them.

“Why are gay people and transgender people often lumped together politically? Why do we stand with each other? In large part because it is the same stereotypes. It is the same bias… and rigid ideas of male and female that have led to discrimination against gay people,” Spreitzer said.

Spreitzer said that even bringing the bills forward would do harm to transgender youth.

“It does harm to the mental health of our youth,” Spreitzer said. A 2024 survey by The Trevor Project found that 91% of LGBTQ+ young people in Wisconsin reported that recent politics negatively impacted their well-being. “What do they mean by recent politics? They mean bills like these as well as similar things coming down from the Trump administration.”

He added that he asked lawmakers to stop moving the bills forward during the committee process. “Yet forward they move, despite the Republican majority knowing full well that Gov. Evers will veto all five of these bills. They will not become law this session.”

Evers has vetoed similar bills several times over his seven years in office. Each time, he has promised to veto “any bill that makes Wisconsin a less safe, less inclusive, and less welcoming place for LGBTQ people and kids.”

Spreitzer said Senate and Assembly Democrats would sustain those vetoes if necessary.

One bill passed by the Senate is SB 405, which would create a civil cause of action against health care providers who perform gender transition procedures on someone under the age of 18 if they claim to be injured.

Spreitzer said SB 405 is a “blatant effort to threaten health care professionals with privileged litigation in the hopes that it will create a chilling effect and that they will stop providing gender affirming care.”

Sen. Melissa Ratcliff (D-Cottage Grove) made personal pleas, speaking to her own experience as the mother of a transgender child during the floor session. She said it would make life harder for transgender children and their families.

“It’s not about protecting children, it’s about controlling them,” Ratcliff said, adding that decisions about gender affirming care are deeply private and should only be made by families and doctors.

“Why are we not helping families instead of burdening them? Why are we attacking children instead of protecting them? Why are we prioritizing culture wars over real problems?” Ratcliff said. “It’s really pretty obvious you want to use kids as pawns in a cynical political crusade. It’s not your kids that you’re using. It’s my kid and other people’s kids being used as pawns. It’s really shameful.”

“Stop bullying trans kids, and stop bullying their families,” Ratcliff said. 

The Senate also concurred in AB 100 and AB 102, which would prohibit transgender students from being able to participate on sports teams that align with their gender identity at Wisconsin K-12 public and choice schools, University of Wisconsin campuses and technical colleges.

Sen. Rob Hutton (R-Brookfield), the lead author of the sports and the civil action bills, said he has met with the “transgender community” while working on the legislation and added that it “doesn’t matter who that is, doesn’t matter what their name is, but all that matters is I’ve been able to reach out.”

Hutton said his bills would help “protect fairness, safety and privacy” in girls’ and women’s sports. He said SB 405 would ensure that there is the “same level of support for those who realize now that the issue that they’re physically dealing with and mentally dealing with, that they were wronged and they believe there should be some accountability to the health care professional.”

The Senate also concurred in AB 103, which would require that school districts adopt policies to inform and get permission from parents before a student would be allowed to use names and pronouns that differ from their legal ones, and AB 104, which would prohibit health care professionals from providing medical gender affirming care for those under 18.

Ratcliff said the bills are part of a political strategy for Republican lawmakers.

“Last year, you weaponized trans kids for campaign points and you’re doing it again,” Ratcliff said. “In both cases, the cost is the same. Real children are being harmed. It didn’t work last year and it’s not going to work this year.”

Wisconsin has a slate of elections coming up this year including a state Supreme Court race in April as well as an open governor’s race and state legislative races that will determine control of the Senate and Assembly.

The only Republican gubernatorial candidate, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, kicked off his campaign by playing up culture war issues including promising to keep transgender girls off of girls’ sports teams. He has also recently released a campaign statement calling on the New Richmond School District to reverse its current policy and bar transgender girls from being able to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity.

Sen. Cory Tomczyk (R-Mosinee) accused Democratic lawmakers of  engaging in “political theater” and said anyone who allowed a minor to “make irreversible decisions is a catastrophic failure of parenting and society in general.”

All of the bills except SB 405 will now go to Evers for consideration.

GOP seeks to restrict administrative rules

Republican lawmakers introduced bills — packaged together as the “red tape reset” and supported by the conservative legal group Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) in May. The bills would increase legislative control over decisions made by executive agencies. Republicans have increased their efforts to limit and restrict agency rulemaking powers in the aftermath of state Supreme Court rulings that limited their ability to block rules.

SB 275 would limit scope statements, which are the first step in the rulemaking process, so they could only be used for one proposed rule. 

SB 276 would allow those who have challenged the validity of administrative rule to receive attorney fees and costs if a court declares a rule invalid. 

SB 277 would have all administrative rules sunset after seven years unless a rule is adopted again through an agency process.

SB 289 would require agencies to make cuts to offset the cost associated with new regulations.

Each bill passed 18-15 along party-lines. They will now go to the Assembly for consideration.

Democratic lawmakers did not speak on the bills during the floor session.

Megan Novak, the Americans For Prosperity Wisconsin state director, said in a statement that Wisconsin has been overregulated and that has restricted its economic growth.

“Between our excessive regulations and the misguided decision by our partisan Supreme Court that removed a necessary legislative check on the governor in the rulemaking process, Wisconsin businesses and families deserve regulatory relief,” Novak said. “These bills are a welcome step to get Wisconsin back on the right track.”

Grooming bill heads to Evers

The Senate concurred in a bill that would make “grooming” a felony crime in Wisconsin. 

The bill was introduced after a report from the CapTimes that found there were over 200 investigations into teacher licenses stemming from allegations of sexual misconduct or grooming from 2018 to 2023, though authors of the proposal say they have been working on the legislation for longer.

Sen. Jesse James (R-Thorp) told reporters ahead of the floor session that the bill would protect “our vulnerable population from supposed trusted adults who would do our kids harm.”

“I can’t bear to think of the many dangers my grandkids will face, however, with this bill, I can sleep just a little bit better,” James said, adding that the bill would act as a deterrent to tell people that “our kids are not targets.”

The bill would define grooming as “a course of conduct, pattern of behavior, or series of acts with the intention to condition, seduce, solicit, lure, or entice a child for the purpose of producing, distributing or possessing depictions of the child engaged in sexually explicit conduct.”

Under the bill, a person convicted of a grooming charge would be guilty of a Class G felony. The charge would increase to a Class F felony if the person is in a position of trust or authority, and to a Class E felony if the child has a disability and to a Class D felony if the violation involves two or more children. A convicted person would need to register as a sex offender.

The bill, which passed the Assembly 93-6 last month, will now go to Evers for consideration. 

Another bill that was introduced following the CapTimes report passed on a voice vote. SB 785 would require the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to maintain an online licensing portal that is searchable by the public at no cost. The portal would need to include information on license holders under investigation and the name of individuals who have had their licenses revoked.

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The Wisconsin State Capitol. Control of the state Assembly and Senate will be at stake in the 2026 November elections. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

It is still early in a significant election year for Wisconsin, but the story of its state legislative races is “beginning to emerge,” John Johnson, a research fellow in Marquette Law School’s Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education, told the Wisconsin Examiner in a recent interview. Among  the developments helping to shape it are recently announced retirements of two Senate Republicans and campaign finance reports that show a Democratic advantage in the Senate and a Republican advantage in the Assembly. 

State Senate retirements and fundraising 

Republicans currently hold an 18-seat majority in the 33-seat state Senate, where the 17 odd-numbered seats will be up for election this year. Democrats need to win two additional seats in the state Senate to flip control of the body.

Lawmakers have slowly started to announce their plans. On Monday, Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater), who has served in the Legislature since 1991 and is one of the most conservative lawmakers in the state Senate, announced he will not run for reelection. He said in a statement that the “time has come for a new fighter to take on the mission of preserving life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” for residents of Senate District 11. 

“It has been one of the greatest honors of my life to serve in the Wisconsin State Legislature representing the people of Southern Wisconsin,” Nass said. “I have always been bipartisan in my scorn of fiscal mismanagement and bureaucratic overreach regardless of whether the Republicans or Democrats were in charge, since the affliction of Big Government is a disease that infects both parties in Madison.”

His district leans Republican. The three Assembly districts within his are represented by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), Rep. Amanda Nedweski (R-Pleasant Prairie) and Rep. Tyler August (R-Walworth). 

Nass is the second Republican legislator to announce his  retirement in recent weeks. 

The State Senate Democratic Committee (SSDC), the fundraising arm of the caucus, said in a statement that his announcement “is yet another proof point that Republicans are expecting to lose control of the Senate in November” and are confronting the “reality of a Democratic majority.”

The SSDC has been laying the groundwork to flip the chamber over the last year, especially over the summer. In its recent campaign finance report, the SSDC reported raising $771,870 — more than two times what its Republican counterpart brought in — between July 1 and Dec. 31. According to the SSDC, that’s the most the committee has ever raised in a non-election year.

“Senate Democrats have the message, the fair maps, and the candidates to win a majority in November, and these fundraising numbers are proof of that,” the SSDC said in a statement. It ended the period with a $446,605 cash balance. 

The Committee to Elect a Republican Senate (CERS) reported raising $306,674 during the fundraising period. It spent $21,249, and ended the period with $728,682 cash-on-hand. 

The first Senate retirement announcement this year came from Sen. Rob Hutton (R-Brookfield), who represents Senate District 5. The district includes portions of Milwaukee County, encompassing West Allis and Wauwatosa, and Waukesha County, including Pewaukee, Brookfield and Elm Grove. 

Hutton’s exit is significant, Johnson says.

“That’s an essential target for Democrats to win if they want to take a majority of the state Senate,” Johnson said. “The Democrats have also recruited a quite strong challenger there.” 

Hutton said in a statement that the decision was “very difficult” but that “increasing personal and professional obligations have made it clear that stepping aside is the right decision at this time.” 

“I look forward to continuing to work hard in this final year and beyond to push for more needed reforms that streamline government, address affordability for families, support law enforcement and increase access to quality education, healthcare and economic opportunity for all Wisconsinites,” Hutton said. 

Hutton had reported raising $24,325 in his December campaign finance report, which included a $20,000 contribution from himself. 

The Democratic candidate running for Hutton’s seat, State Rep. Robyn Vining (D-Wauwatosa), who has served in the Assembly since 2019, raised $98,913 since her Senate campaign launched in July and had $114,471 cash-on-hand, according to her campaign finance report.

Vining raised $83,403 from individual contributions. The SSDC provided over $30,000 in in-kind contributions, including wages for campaign staff, consulting and printing. She is the only candidate in the race since Democrat Sarah Harrison, a Brookfield businesswoman, dropped her bid due in part to poor fundraising. 

Johnson said Vining is a strong candidate for Democrats because she is an Assembly incumbent, who has represented one-third of the state Senate district and has a proven track record of winning parts of the district.

Johnson tracks races across the state, but said “most of them don’t quite have the clarity of the 5th Senate District in terms of who the candidates will be.”

Incumbents Johnson said, have about a 4-point advantage in reelection races.

“A seat that would otherwise be like 50-50, you’d expect the incumbent to maybe get 52% in the last cycle,” Johnson said – resulting in a 52-48, 4-point win for the incumbent. “In 2024, it was worth a little bit more for Republicans than it was for Democrats.”

There are three other Senate districts considered targets.

Senate District 21 encompasses part of Racine County, including the northern part of the city, and part of Milwaukee County, including Franklin, Hales Corner, Greendale and Greenfield.

The incumbent, Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine), has served in the Senate for the last decade. He hasn’t announced yet whether he’ll run for reelection. 

After the recent retirement announcements of other Republican lawmakers the SSDC began pushing for Wanggaard’s  retirement: “Good news comes in three… C’mon @Vanwanggaard, you can do it!” the SSDC account posted on X. 

Johnson says that of all the Senate districts, SD 21 changed the most — meaning Wanggaard’s incumbency advantage is smaller than that of other incumbent candidates. 

“He has the fewest constituents who were previously represented by him and his district, which means that his incumbency advantage is worth less than it would be under his district as it previously existed,” Johnson said.

In recent campaign finance reports, Wanggaard reported raising $36,461 in the latter half of 2025 and having $46,319 in cash on-hand.

The Democratic challenger in the district is Trevor Jung, who is the city of Racine’s transit director. He reported raising $133,512 and ending the period with $129,265 in cash on-hand.

Another key district is Senate District 17, which encompasses Iowa, Lafayette, Green, Crawford and Grant counties as well as parts of Dane County and where longtime Republican incumbent Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) is outraising his SSDC-endorsed challenger.

Marklein, who is the co-chair of the powerful Joint Finance Committee and has served in the Senate since 2014, reported raising $194,137 during the recent campaign finance filing period, of which $148,549 came from individual contributions. He reported spending $23,441 and having $741,753 in cash on-hand.

Rep. Jenna Jacobson (D-Oregon), who was first elected to the Assembly in 2022, reported raising $118,243, spending $4,741 and having $113,888 in cash on-hand at the end of the period. 

There are also two other Democratic candidates running: Corrine Hendrickson, who raised $13,081, spent $10,021 and had $3,059 in cash on-hand, and Lisa White, who reported raising $12,202, spending $15,966 and having $2,764 in cash on-hand. 

Senate District 31 is also considered a key district for legislative control. There, Democrats are seeking to protect incumbent Sen. Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick), who has served in the Senate since 2018. The district represents the entirety of Eau Claire County and parts of Dunn, Trempealeau and Chippewa counties.

Smith faces a challenge from Sen. Jesse James (R-Thorp), who was elected to the Senate in 2022, moved to stay in his district when legislative maps were redrawn and recently moved back to the area that is now represented by Smith. Smith reported raising $86,123 during the latter part of the year and having $153,493 in cash on-hand. James reported raising $42,817 during the period. He spent $3,355 and has $61,234 in cash on-hand.

“I would say the edge is still to Jeff Smith in that race, but less so than if he were against someone who is a political unknown,” Johnson says. 

Johnson also says he thinks total spending in each contested Senate race this year could easily reach $1 million.

Assembly GOP bring in $4 million haul as Dem challengers start emerging

Republicans currently hold a 54-seat majority in the 99-seat state Assembly. Democratic lawmakers need to hold all of their current seats in the Assembly and pick up five additional seats to flip the Assembly. 

Johnson says Democrats have a path but only if they “run the table” of competitive races. 

“There are demonstrably enough voters in those [key] districts who will vote for a Democrat, so that’s the optimistic case for Assembly Democrats. The optimistic case for Assembly Republicans is that Assembly Republican candidates tend to be more popular than other kinds of Republicans, and so that’s what they’re going to be counting on,” Johnson said. 

The Republican Assembly Campaign Committee (RACC) outraised its Democratic counterpart, bringing in over $4 million during the most recent reporting period, with the majority of the total coming from two GOP megadonors. 

The committee reported raising a total of $4,210,809 and spending $42,351 and ending the year with $5,241,793 in cash on-hand. Billionaire donor Diane Hendricks gave over $1 million to the RACC in the latter half of 2026 and another billionaire, Elizabeth Uihlein, donated $3 million. 

The Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee (ADCC), the fundraising arm of the Assembly Democratic caucus, raised $1.44 million during the reporting period. According to the ADCC, the overall total it raised in 2025 — $1.78 million — is the most the committee has ever raised in an off-election year. 

The ADCC’s top donors included venture capitalist and LinkedIn cofounder Reid Garrett Hoffman, who gave $175,000, David Hall of Pewaukee, who gave $150,000, and Lynde Uihlein, who gave $100,000 (She also gave $100,000 to the SSDC).

Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said in a statement that the fundraising numbers show that “voters are fed up with the partisan games from Legislative Republicans and ready for change” and a Democratic trifecta is within reach. She said they are working to make investments, hire on-the-ground staff and invest in incumbents’ campaigns to set Democrats up for success this year. 

With all 99 seats up for election in the Assembly, the candidate fields are also still taking shape. 

Democrats are investing early in the districts they need to protect. State Rep. Steve Doyle (D-Onalaska) reported raising $1,007,842 and $1 million of that was contributed by the ADCC.

“Just kind of shocking,” Johnson said of Doyle’s campaign finance report. “But he’s the most vulnerable Democrat.”

Doyle was first elected to the Assembly during a May 2011 special election and has been reelected since. He won another term in office in 2024 by just 223 votes against the Republican candidate.

One key district to watch is Assembly District 51, where incumbent Rep. Todd Novak (R-Dodgeville) recently announced that he will run for reelection.

Johnson said Novak is a candidate who “really, punches above his weight as a Republican in that district.”

“There have been a lot of years that Democrats thought they could win it, and Democrats all across the rest of the ticket won in that district, but Novak keeps on winning there,” Johnson said, adding that Novak is “probably one of the most moderate Republicans in the Assembly.” 

According to his campaign finance reporting, Novak raised $22,475 during the period and had $29,934 in cash on-hand. The majority of the funds — $20,000 — came from a contribution made by the RACC on Dec. 31.

Novak highlighted his work with Democrats in his press release, including with Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, to secure permanent funding for the Office of School Safety and to secure mental health funding for the UW system. He said that in another term in office he would work to address “affordability, budget responsibly and reduce tax burden, improve healthcare access and costs, and continue supporting our schools.” 

“Working across the aisle for common sense solutions is how I’ve always approached governing. We’ve been able to accomplish a lot to help address affordability, reduce the tax burden, support education, and reduce healthcare costs,” Novak said in a statement.

Johnson says the thing that may tip elections in these close seats are candidates’ personal connections to voters.

“There’s not a lot of daylight between members of the same party on any election these days, but these seats are close enough… that even a little bit of daylight — even a little bit of a, well, I’m mad at the Republicans, but I know Todd Novak. Like, we go to the same events. I see him talk. I trust him personally’ — even if that’s just a few 100 people, that can be the difference,” Johnson says.

With the support of the ADCC behind him, Ben Gruber, a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Conservation Warden and President of AFSCME Local 1215, launched his campaign to challenge Novak last week. 

He criticized Novak and Marklein at his campaign launch, saying that Republican lawmakers’ decisions to not provide adequate funding to schools in the area have hurt the community. 

“I grew up here, and we’re raising our kids here. I want our kids to have the same opportunities we did growing up. The reality is because of incumbents like Todd Novak and Howard Marklein they don’t have those opportunities,” Gruber said when he announced his campaign. “In 2019 when my oldest daughter was ready to go to kindergarten, she was faced with a 90-plus minute bus ride to get to kindergarten twice a day because the incumbents defunded our public education in Wisconsin and our local elementary school closed in 2018.”

Gruber said he would advocate for working class families if elected to the Assembly. 

“We see the same story play out across this district every single day,” Gruber said. “Our communities are hurting. Schools are closing. Our ambulances are often unstaffed and our police departments are closing. We can do better for our communities.”

The ADCC has announced several other Democratic challengers in recent weeks including: 

• Marathon County Board Supervisor John Kroll is running for AD 85. The district is currently represented by Rep. Patrick Snyder (R-Weston) won the district with 53% of the vote in 2024. 
• Oak Creek Mayor Dan Bukiewicz launched a campaign for AD 21. The district is currently represented by Rep. Jessie Rodriguez (R-Oak Creek), who won the district with 51% of the vote in 2024.
• De Pere School Board Member Brandy Tollefson is running for AD 88. The district is currently represented by Rep. Benjamin Franklin (R-De Pere), who won the district by 220 votes in 2024. 

While Johnson said he thinks incumbency and fundraising will matter in the races, he said one of the biggest factors that will sway state legislative races will be a person who won’t be on the ballot at all.

“The most important thing will be, if the candidate has a D or an R after their name,” Johnson said. While candidates’ relationships with voters in their districts are important, many people don’t have that kind of personal contact and will be “making their mind up about …what they think about Donald Trump, and they’re going to go in and they’re going to vote based on that feeling, I’m confident.”

State legislative races will appear on voters ballots in November alongside an open race for governor, congressional races as well as other statewide and local races.

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