For the first time in years, the northern shores of Lake Winnebago in Neenah and Menasha feature a competitive Assembly race. 

After retiring from his decades-long political career in 2021, former Neenah mayor and state Rep. Dean Kaufert is returning to politics in a bid to represent the 53rd Assembly District as a Republican. Challenging him is lifelong Neenah resident and Democrat Duane Shukoski, a political newcomer who previously worked as an environmental health manager at Kimberly Clark.

Current Rep. Mike Schraa was drawn out of the district and unsuccessfully ran in the 55th Assembly District Republican primary. Now, the competitive 53rd could become a deciding seat in Democrats’ quest to gain control in the Assembly.

Kaufert is running on a conservative platform supporting a referendum on a 14-week abortion ban, lowering taxes and continuing public funding to private voucher schools. Shukoski is running a progressive campaign to ensure abortion access, repeal anti-union legislation and expand Medicaid funding.

Redistricting

For more than a decade, Neenah has been represented in the Assembly by Republicans, sharing the 55th Assembly District with rural parts of Winnebago County. Neighboring Menasha, meanwhile, has consistently remained a Democratic stronghold, as it has shared the more urban 57th Assembly District with Appleton.

Since redistricting, the two Fox Valley cities have been grouped together in the 53rd Assembly District. Now, according to a Wisconsin Watch analysis, Democrats and Republicans in the district are separated by less than five points, ranking the 53rd Assembly District among the most competitive races in Wisconsin’s Legislature.

‘I’m not an extremist’

Kaufert has a lengthy resume — after starting his political career on the Neenah City Council in 1986, he won a bid to represent the 55th Assembly District in 1990 and remained there until 2015, after he was elected Neenah mayor.

His voting record includes opposing Medicaid expansion, favoring the repeal of iron mining restrictions and supporting anti-abortion measures. Kaufert received a 96.43% lifetime ranking from the American Conservative Union. 

But in an opening statement during an October candidate forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, Kaufert refrained from identifying as a conservative and emphasized bipartisanship. 

“I’m not an extremist on any issue,” Kaufert said. “This isn’t working, the partisan divide (in Madison). I’m a proven person that was well respected on both sides of the aisle.”

Kaufert did not make himself available for an interview for this story.

A progressive proposal

Shukoski, a lifelong Neenah resident, grew up under the state’s foster care system before working up the Kimberly Clark corporate ladder, starting as a union worker and eventually becoming environmental health manager. 

“I’m not a politician,” Shukoski said during the October candidate forum. “I’m a retired Kimberly Clark employee. I come from the working class and I care about the working class.”

When asked about his political ideology, Shukoski said that he “would lean more progressive.” He identified a strong social safety network during his youth as a large source of support, and he counted his background as a strong influence on his political positions.

“The fact that Winnebago County and the state took care of me has inspired me to run and to give back to my community,” Shukoski said.

Shukoski’s platform includes accepting federal funding to expand BadgerCare, to enshrine Roe v. Wade into the state’s constitution and to repeal 2011 Act 10, a law that crippled public sector unions in the state.

Cost of living

Some of Shukoski’s main focuses are poverty and the cost of living. In a statement on his campaign website, Shukoski said that he hopes to “ease the cost of living and make childcare more affordable.”

Shukoski also spoke about rising housing costs and homelessness, referencing his previous work as a volunteer for Pillars, an organization focused on providing housing and other resources to populations experiencing homelessness.

Kaufert had a different perspective on the cost of living.

“Things seem to be going a lot better than they used to, other than inflation,” Kaufert said. “Minimum wage is raised in this country, more people are working. Salaries are up.”

While unemployment rates have remained low and median household incomes have increased in recent years, Wisconsin’s minimum wage has remained at the federal level of $7.25 per hour since 2009.

Kaufert also spoke against implementing social welfare programs. “There’s no doubt that there’s a shortage of adequate quality affordable housing,” Kaufert said. “But rent control, things like that, aren’t the answer.”

Kaufert claimed individual financial choices are the cause of the problems for people experiencing poverty.

“You see people who don’t have the financial means to do the things that they should be doing, but they all got a 65-inch screen TV. They got cigarette butts on the front porch. They got a $1,000 cell phone,” he said. “I’m not willing to give a handout.”

Labor

Both Kaufert and Shukoski claim to support unions.

Kaufert, one of only four Republicans who voted against Act 10, said he has worked with unions in the past. “I know the leaders and we work well, and to be painted as an extremist just isn’t fair,” he said.

But Kaufert now defends Act 10, calling it “the best thing that ever happened to this state.” He spoke against the idea of repealing Act 10, saying that “to just come and say we’re going to overturn everything is not the right answer.”

Kaufert also received a lifetime score of 27% from the AFL-CIO in 2014, indicating that he voted against the union’s positions in the vast majority of votes. He has been endorsed by the National Federation of Independent Business and the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation.

Shukoski, on the other hand, has openly called to overturn Act 10, saying that it is one of the first things he hopes to achieve in office.

A former union member, Shukoski has received endorsements from several unions, including UAW and AFL-CIO. Shukoski spoke in favor of unions, saying that with stronger unions, “we’re all lifted up. The economy does better. Wages are better.” 

According to a 2023 Treasury Department report, unions “serve to strengthen the middle class and grow the economy at large.”

“I raised a family on union wages back in the ‘80s. You can’t do that today,” Shukoski said. “We need to strengthen our unions.”

Abortion

In a September Facebook post, Kaufert said that he would support a “statewide referendum on (the) 14-week abortion bill,” echoing AB 975, a Republican-backed bill that sought to ban abortions after 14 weeks.

In the post, Kaufert also said that he was pro-life and would support “exceptions for rape, incest or life of the mother” and “legislation for birth control to be sold over the counter by pharmacist(s).”

Kaufert has previously supported anti-abortion legislation, including 2013’s SB206, which forced those seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound and mandated that physicians provide a verbal description of the fetus.

Shukoski, who has been endorsed by the Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, said that he hopes to “enshrine Roe into the State Constitution.”

“It’s none of my business. It’s none of the government’s business for what women do in situations like that,” Shukoski said.

Education

Kaufert and Shukoski diverge further on education in Wisconsin.

Over a decade ago, Kaufert introduced legislation to give tax credits to parents who enroll students in private schools. Instead the state expanded the Milwaukee private school voucher program statewide. Kaufert said he would continue the expansion of school choice.

He also said Wisconsin’s public schools are adequately funded.

“Public school spending has increased every single year of the state budget,” Kaufert said. “To people that say public schools aren’t being funded adequately, public schools are.”

Public school spending has increased every year except in 2011, when Kaufert joined Republicans in passing a budget with an $834 million cut to Wisconsin’s K-12 budget. The lost funding to schools was offset by requiring teachers to contribute more to retirement and health insurance premiums. Between 2002 and 2020, Wisconsin’s public school system experienced the third-lowest school funding increase in the nation, and the state’s growing school voucher system continues to divert hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars toward private schools each year.

Nearly half of all Wisconsin school districts are seeking additional funding through referendums this year.

Shukoski, on the other hand, is critical of the voucher program and said that public education spending has to increase. 

“Schools in this district have closed. My elementary school has closed,” Shukoski said. “This is what happens when you defund or you underfund schools for 14 years.”

Shukoski, who was endorsed by the Wisconsin Education Association Council, also called for additional restrictions on the voucher program in a candidate survey put out by the League of Women Voters and the Fox Cities Advocates for Public Education, agreeing with calls to disclose voucher costs on taxpayer bills, reevaluate the need for the voucher program and charter schools, and develop accountability measures for private schools that would be similar to those of public schools.

Climate

On environmental issues, Kaufert said that “climate change probably exists.”

He also said that it “is more of a global problem than it is a Wisconsin problem,” adding that more has to be done federally and internationally to address the issue.

Kaufert received a 0% rating from the Sierra Club during the 2013-14 legislative session, indicating that he voted against the environmental group’s preferences in every identified issue that year. He also co-sponsored a Republican-led effort to weaken requirements for mining permits in the state in 2011.

Shukoski cited his environmental work at Kimberly Clark when speaking about climate change, saying in a statement on his campaign website that he had worked closely with the Department of Natural Resources and had helped improve environmental standards at several Kimberly Clark facilities.

Shukoski also called for increased funding in the event of future climate emergencies, citing recent disasters such as Hurricane Helene.

“We all know climate change is real,” Shukoski said. “When we fire our scientists and we don’t fund the DNR or underfund, that hurts the state.”

Shukoski has been endorsed by the Sierra Club.

Health care

Kaufert spoke against accepting increased federal funding for BadgerCare. He also warned that federal child care subsidies would be “one-time money” and that it could lead to increased tax costs.

Shukoski said that he would support programs to increase child care funding in the state, saying that “our working families need the help.” He also favors BadgerCare expansion, saying it would “improve healthcare access, support local hospitals, and prevent medical bankruptcies” in a statement on his campaign website.

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Wisconsin Watch is previewing legislative races in toss-up districts ahead of the Nov. 5 election by focusing on key issues for voters and what candidates say they will do to address them.  See more comprehensive information about the elections in our statewide voter guide.

Thanks to new legislative maps, a Sheboygan Democrat, Joe Sheehan, has a chance at winning a toss-up district that could help flip the Republican-controlled Assembly in November. Sheehan will face off against incumbent Rep. Amy Binsfeld in the 26th District where housing, child care and education are among key issues. 

The district now covers the entire city of Sheboygan, including the city’s UW-Green Bay branch campus. Voters in the majority blue city had no chance of electing a Democratic representative to the Assembly after Republicans redrew Wisconsin’s districts to secure a majority in 2011. Under those gerrymandered maps, Sheboygan was blatantly split in half, creating two districts that stretched into rural areas favoring Republicans. 

Under new legislative maps signed into law in February, the district is a toss-up with just under a 3-point Democratic lean, according to a Wisconsin Watch analysis of past voting patterns. 

Sheehan told Wisconsin Watch he likely wouldn’t have entered the race if it weren’t for the new maps. He spent 20 years as superintendent of the Sheboygan Area School District and later served as executive director of the Sheboygan County Economic Development Corp. before retiring. 

Mary Lynne Donohue, a Democrat who ran for the district in 2020 as a “sacrificial lamb,” told Wisconsin Watch that for years, left-leaning candidates almost never entered the race. 

“That’s one of the horrible characteristics of a gerrymander,” Donohue said. “People stop participating because they know they can’t win.” 

Donohue was one of the original plaintiffs in a federal redistricting case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court, challenging the Republican gerrymander of the state Assembly. The case was thrown out on a technical issue. In a more recent legal challenge, a liberal majority Wisconsin Supreme Court tossed out the state’s maps that were redrawn after the 2020 Census to still favor Republicans, leading to Republican lawmakers and the Democratic governor agreeing on the current maps.

Democratic energy in Sheboygan is extraordinarily high this election year, Donohue said.

Binsfeld was first elected in 2022. She currently represents the 27th District, but decided to run in this district after being drawn into the same district as longtime Rep. Paul Tittl, R-Manitowoc, in the new 25th. Binsfeld serves as chair of the Speaker’s Task Force on Truancy. She did not respond to Wisconsin Watch’s interview requests for this story. 

Sheehan has raised nearly $1 million more than Binsfeld, with the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee contributing more than $1 million of the $1.27 million his campaign has raised. The Republican Assembly Campaign Committee has contributed more than $220,000 to Binsfeld’s $330,000 fundraising total.

Housing 

Housing in Sheboygan has tightened, and the supply of all types of housing has not kept pace with household and employment growth. One recent study found that the city could be in need of more than 5,200 housing units over the next five years. 

Sheehan said the solution is to lower the cost of a new home for buyers while still allowing developers to make the best profit, which requires subsidies from the state. The state has the ability to incentivize the development of certain types of housing, such as workforce and entry-level housing, he said. If elected, he says he will consult with housing experts. 

He is not in favor of allowing municipalities to establish rent control, adding that this creates an artificial market that is not sustainable long term. 

In an interview with WisconsinEye, Binsfeld said that she is also against rent control and that housing is best dealt with at the local, private level. When asked if the state has any role to play, she added that the Legislature can provide some grants for specific housing projects to incentivize developers.

Child care 

Affordable and accessible child care has been a persistent issue across the state of Wisconsin, and cities like Sheboygan are no exception.

A Wisconsin Department of Children and Families child care supply and demand survey recently found that almost 60% of providers in Wisconsin have unused classroom capacity due to staff shortages. Providers report that if they were able to operate at full capacity, they could accept up to 33,000 more children. The state is losing hundreds of child care providers every year, according to DCF. 

The Economic Policy Institute found that a typical family in Wisconsin would have to spend a third of its income on child care for an infant and a 4-year-old. Based on 2016 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Department of Health and Human Services deemed child care affordable if it costs up to 7% of a family’s income.

The median hourly wage for a child care worker in Wisconsin is $13.78, according to May 2023 estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Binsfeld authored a bipartisan bill signed into law by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers this year, increasing Wisconsin’s child and dependent care tax credit. 

Along with her Republican colleagues, Binsfeld also helped author a slate of child care bills during the most recent legislative session. 

The GOP-backed package included bills that would have allowed parents to contribute $10,000 in pre-tax money to an account to pay for child care and established a new category of large family child care centers that could serve between four and 12 children.

Others would have lowered the minimum teaching age of assistant child care providers from 18 to 16 and increased the permitted ratio of children to workers in child care facilities. Providers and advocates argued these efforts would not help solve current challenges in the child care field.

 None of the proposals became law. 

Sheehan said those kinds of bills are not long-term solutions. He did not identify or express support for other types of child care policy, but said if elected, he would consult experts, parents and caregivers on the issue.

Education 

Sheboygan is one of 192 school districts that went or will go to referendum this year, which is almost half of all Wisconsin school districts. Many districts, including Sheboygan, have raised concerns that state aid has not kept up with inflation. In 2009, the state decoupled per-pupil revenue limits from inflation. Districts have had to manage tighter budgets ever since.

While Sheboygan’s public school district is set to go to a capital referendum in November, many districts are increasingly going to an operational referendum. Wisconsin’s per-pupil K-12 spending increased at a lower rate than every other state in the nation besides Indiana and Idaho between 2002 and 2020, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum.  

Last year, Binsfeld voted in favor of legislation that increased per-pupil revenue limits in public schools and increased tax funding for private voucher schools at the same time. It was passed as part of a compromise between Republican lawmakers and Evers.

Sheehan told Wisconsin Watch he would not have supported that bill, adding that it sets public schools further behind. He expressed concerns over the amount of state funding going toward private school vouchers compared with per-pupil state aid, a figure that doesn’t account for local property taxes. 

“We’ve always supported parochial schools. They do their job, they do it well. That’s a choice people make,” Sheehan said. “But to fund them, and not only fund them, but at a higher level, that’s just wrong.”

He said the state has fallen behind in public school funding over the last decade, “and that needs to change.” He added that recurring referendums are divisive to communities and school districts. 

When asked about K-12 education in a recent WisconsinEye interview, Binsfeld expressed support for school choice and said investing more money in special education will be a top priority for her if reelected.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

Sheboygan Democrat makes case in previously gerrymandered district 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.

Public education funding, child care affordability and tax cuts are key issues in the race for the 85th Assembly District — a toss-up district in north central Wisconsin that encompasses Wausau and Weston.

Rep. Patrick Snyder, R-Schofield, faces a challenge from Yee Leng Xiong, a school board and Marathon County Board member who also serves as executive director of the Hmong American Center.

Snyder has served in the Legislature since 2017. Prior to serving in the Assembly, he was a morning radio host for WSAU, and he served as outreach director for U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy. Snyder was drawn into the 87th Assembly District under new voting maps approved by lawmakers in February, moving him out of the 85th by a couple of blocks. If he wins, he said he and his wife plan to continue renting an apartment in the district.

The district is among the most closely divided in the state, according to a Wisconsin Watch analysis of recent voting patterns, and could be influential in determining which party controls the Assembly at the start of the next legislative session in January. Xiong has knocked on 7,000 doors in an area where Democrats are hoping not only to win an Assembly seat, but help Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin improve their margins in rural areas.

Here’s where both candidates stand on important issues in the district.

Education funding

In an interview with Wisconsin Watch, Xiong said the state needs to provide additional funding to public schools in the state.

“When we invest in our teachers, when we invest in public education, we’re investing in the future of our nation,” he said.

In particular, he said the state should fund programs that help recruit and retain teachers and provide additional dollars for students with special needs. 

He also said lawmakers “need to look at the funding formula (for public schools). We need to look at it, reevaluate and see if it’s actually still effective.” Xiong noted with concern that almost half of all Wisconsin school districts will have gone to referendum by the end of the year to pay for capital projects and operating expenses. 

“That means that something’s not working,” he said.

In the short term, Xiong said, the state could tap into its sizable budget surplus to provide some immediate aid, but he added that’s not a sustainable solution. Instead, the state needs to reconsider the funding formula as a whole and determine if additional revenue streams need to be considered in order to bring long-term financial relief to public schools.

During the most recent legislative session, Snyder supported a bill that increased funding for public K-12 schools by $1 billion. The funding was tied to $280 million in new funding for private voucher schools. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signed it.

Snyder did not respond to multiple interview requests for this story.

Child care affordability

The state should be doing more to address the shortage of child care providers in Wisconsin, and it should also be working to bring down the cost of child care, Xiong said.

In the immediate term, he said the state should be investing in Child Care Counts, a program created by Evers using federal COVID-19 funds to provide payments to child care providers on a regular basis to help keep their doors open. The program is credited with keeping thousands of child care facilities open during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

In October 2023, Evers extended the program through June 2025 using $170 million in federal funds. He has previously sought to include $340 million in the state budget to support the program, but that plan was scrapped by Republican lawmakers.

“Right now, the cost for child care is more expensive than tuition at (UW-Madison),” Xiong noted, a nod to a September 2023 Forward Analytics report that found that the average annual cost of infant child care in 2021 was $13,572. For the 2024-25 academic year, tuition at UW-Madison for a Wisconsin resident is $11,606.

He pointed to recent action from the Marathon County Board, which approved $200,000 to train 30 child care providers and open 240 additional child care slots in the county, as an example of a program the state should consider.

Snyder supported a slate of Republican-authored child care bills during the most recent legislative session. During the floor session, Democrats attached extending Child Care Counts as amendments to one of the bills. Snyder voted against the extension.

The GOP-backed package included bills that would have allowed parents to contribute $10,000 in pre-tax money to an account to pay for child care, created a $15 million loan program to help child care centers pay for renovations, established a new category of child care centers that could serve between four and 12 children, and increased the child-to-child-care-worker ratio allowed in some child care centers. None of the proposals became law.

Tax cuts

Lawmakers need to reduce taxes for middle class Wisconsin residents, Xiong said in an interview, criticizing Republicans for supporting a tax cut in the state’s most recent budget that would have largely benefited the state’s highest earners.

“We need to look into ensuring that what we’re doing is we’re supporting the middle class,” he said, noting that people should not have to worry “whether they can afford groceries this weekend, or whether they can afford the utilities.”

Snyder has supported significant tax cuts during his time in office. During the 2021-23 legislative session, he backed reducing the state’s third-highest tax bracket from 6.27% to 5.3% — a $2 billion cut. That rate covers income between $27,630 and $304,170 for single filers and between $36,840 and $405,550 for joint filers.

Snyder co-sponsored another plan that would have raised the annual amount of tax-exempt withdrawals from a retirement account from $5,000 to $75,000 for single Wisconsin residents age 65 and older and up to $150,000 for joint filers. It was vetoed by Evers, who said it would reduce revenue by $658 million in 2024-25 and $472 million in each subsequent fiscal year.

During the most recent budget cycle, Snyder backed a $3.5 billion income tax cut that would have focused its largest reductions on the state’s highest earners. The plan would have cut the top tax rate from 7.65% to 6.5% — a 15% reduction for high-earning joint filers who make $405,550 or more annually. It would have reduced the second-highest rate from 5.3% to 4.4%, a 17% decrease.

Evers vetoed those cuts from the budget but left in place reductions to the state’s bottom two brackets.

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Democrat looks to flip GOP Assembly seat in Wausau area 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.

According to the candidates running for Wisconsin’s 30th Senate District, some of the top issues this year for northeastern Wisconsin voters are rising living costs and politicians’ inability to get along with their colleagues across the aisle.

Both Jim Rafter, a Republican and Allouez village president, and Jamie Wall, a business consultant and third-time Democratic candidate, are wearing bipartisanship as a badge of honor in their respective campaigns. It’s a strategic move for both parties amid the state’s increasingly polarized political landscape, reflecting the competitive nature of a Senate district that covers Green Bay and some of its suburbs.

From calls for tax cuts to redistributing Wisconsin’s surplus among municipalities, the two candidates share positions on many issues. But they do differ on some issues — Wall more openly sides with Democrats in calls for increased abortion access and taking federal funds to expand Badgercare, whereas Rafter has been a more vocal proponent for the closure of Green Bay Correctional Institution.

Redistricting has removed rural northern parts of Oconto and Marinette counties from the 30th Senate District in favor of more urban settings in Allouez and Ashwaubenon south of Green Bay. The district now reflects the more densely populated and politically varied region of metropolitan Green Bay instead. In response to redistricting, current Sen. Eric Wimberger, a Republican, announced in March that he would run in the more rural 2nd Senate District instead.

While Wimberger won by a margin of nearly 10 points in 2020, the open seat now ranks as the state’s closest Senate race this year, according to a Wisconsin Watch analysis. 

Bipartisanship

Rafter, who has served on the Allouez board for 10 years, including eight years as president, said political polarization is one of the biggest issues in the state.

“Nothing’s getting done because people won’t talk to each other,” Rafter said. “I like to talk to people and get things done.”

Wall, a business consultant who is returning to the political sphere after two unsuccessful campaigns for Congress in 2006 and 2012, seems to agree, saying that his experience in the private sector will help him bring politicians together.

According to Wall, polarization is a decades-long problem, and constituents are tired of it.  “They’ve seen all the dysfunction and all the partisan fighting,” Wall said. “We’ll get more done for the people of the state if we’re willing to work together across party lines and compromise.”

In terms of compromise, both hope to leverage bipartisan support to divert more of Wisconsin’s $3 billion surplus toward local funding and tax cuts.

Rafter said his decade in Allouez politics has demonstrated a need to appropriate more funding toward local governments.

“In Allouez, we’re a very small community, and we have absorbed tremendous increases in costs of operations such as building roads and just maintaining our infrastructure,” Rafter said. “There’s lots that local communities need to be able to do, and that money would go a long way in helping.”

“I don’t believe state government should be sitting on that money,” Rafter said. “If it doesn’t come back to the local communities, it should go back to the residents.”

Wall, similarly, hopes to see legislators compromise in order to allocate the surplus.

“It’s a sign that how things work in Madison is kind of broken,” Wall said in a September interview with WisconsinEye. 

Budgeting the surplus, he said, should have the goal of “reducing health care costs … working to bring down the cost of housing for regular people, and providing a little bit of targeted tax relief for the people who need it the most.”

Taxes

One of Wall’s central campaign promises is a tax cut, enabled by the state’s current surplus, that he says will be directed toward working families. 

Wall also has attacked Rafter’s tax policies, criticizing him for supporting an increase in Brown County’s sales tax during his tenure as Allouez village president. Rafter advocated for the continuation of a 0.5% county sales tax during an Allouez village board meeting in 2022.

Rafter, however, views his past in a more practical light. 

“I’ve seen and read how much money that half percent sales tax has saved the taxpayers of Brown County in terms of debt reduction, in terms of being able to do more roads and more buildings,” Rafter said.

Rafter, who also said that he would support a bill to cut taxes in order to address the rising cost of living, defended his record on taxes in Allouez. “Our existing tax rate has remained relatively flat over the last nine years I’ve been on the board,” Rafter said. 

When asked whether or not he would oppose any future sales tax increases, Wall said he is “not a big fan of the sales tax.”

Abortion

On the issue of abortion, Wall is critical about past Republican attempts at restricting abortion access in the state. In a statement on his campaign website, he said he “supports preserving and expanding (reproductive health care) rights.”

Rafter said his position differs from anti-abortion Republicans like Wimberger. He said he hopes to reduce the amount of abortions through “education and guidance,” and that if elected, he would not enter with a steadfast position on the matter.

“As a community we need to come together and figure out what the right solution is. We need to protect the rights of women. We also have to make every effort to protect the rights of the unborn child,” Rafter said. “I hope that we can find a way to reduce the number of abortions in the state of Wisconsin.”

Green Bay Correctional Institution

Rafter takes a harder stance on the issue of Green Bay Correctional Institution, having become an outspoken advocate for its closure. The maximum-security prison, which has been plagued with dangerous living conditions in addition to problems relating to understaffing and overpopulation, is located in Allouez.

Wisconsin’s prison system as a whole, Rafter said, is riddled with problems. 

“Our criminal justice system just needs a lot of help … the system that has been built, from what I’m learning, is not working,” Rafter said. “There are an awful lot of people working in our Department of Corrections that deserve better. There are inmates who deserve better. There are families of the inmates who deserve better. And from a financial perspective, every taxpayer in the state of Wisconsin deserves better.”

Wall said that he agreed with other local politicians that GBCI needs to be closed, but he did not specify support for any specific proposals going forward.

When asked about GBCI, Wall said that he wanted to “have a bigger conversation about what the state prison system ought to look like.”

“I’d like to be a part of that conversation,” Wall said.

Health care

On the topic of health care, Wall backed taking federal funding to expand BadgerCare. He said it should be a no-brainer.

“We can start off by taking federal Medicaid expansion monies, which 40 other states have done,” Wall said. “We’re paying taxes for people’s health care in 40 other states and not benefiting as a result of that.”

Rafter was less certain on his position, saying that health care is an important issue but that he’s unsure as to what problems currently exist or what a good solution might be.

“Just accepting (federal) money isn’t the right answer,” Rafter said. “I don’t have an opinion except that we have to come together and figure it out.”

School funding

The two candidates have some disagreements on school funding. Schools across the state have turned to referendums to obtain funding, and Wisconsin is trailing nationally in percentage increases in school funding over the past decade.

Both candidates called for increased funding to K-12 schools. Rafter also voiced support for funding private voucher schools while Wall said that “public dollars ought to go to supporting public schools.”

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Control of the U.S. House of Representatives runs through a notoriously swingy region of western Wisconsin, where U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden faces a challenge from Rebecca Cooke. 

Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District covers much of the Driftless Area in southwestern and western Wisconsin bordering Iowa and Minnesota. The district includes small towns and rural areas, as well as the cities of Eau Claire, La Crosse and Stevens Point, each with University of Wisconsin System campuses.

As both candidates trade attacks, they are vying for support from a block of moderates whose votes are tied less to political party and more to decency and character.

“They are able to have their minds changed on a partisan level,” said Republican Brian Westrate, a lifelong resident of the district and treasurer of the state Republican Party. “They are not committed to a party. They are voting, generally speaking, for a person.”

This district is being targeted nationally as one of Democrats’ top flip opportunities, and Cooke’s campaign has been added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s competitive “Red to Blue” program after the DCCC abandoned the district in 2022.

Democrats see Van Orden as a prime target. In the months since her campaign began, Cooke has laid into her opponent’s character. Van Orden is a close ally of former President Donald Trump, who endorsed the freshman congressman in May. Even before he took office, his time in the public spotlight has been tainted by a number of controversies.

Van Orden attended Trump’s Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6, 2021, allegedly lost his temper over an LGBTQ+ book display in a Prairie du Chien library, drew criticism from his own party after cursing at a group of young Senate pages in the U.S. Capitol for taking photos, shouted “lies” over President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address and got into an altercation with a protester at the RNC this year. 

“Derrick Van Orden is known as this very polarizing figure,” UW-La Crosse political science professor Anthony Chergosky said in an interview with PBS. 

Van Orden’s campaign did not return numerous messages seeking an interview for this story. 

Van Orden refers to his opponent as “Rebecca Crook” online, accusing her of lying about being a political outsider. As originally reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Cooke previously worked as a finance director for four Democratic congressional races and has a Democratic political and fundraising consulting firm registered in her name.

Cooke’s campaign did not follow through with Wisconsin Watch’s numerous attempts to schedule an interview.

Where there’s an energized Democratic electorate for Vice President Kamala Harris, there’s a chance of lifting Democratic turnout and narrowing the margin by which down-ballot Democrats in Republican-leaning areas must outperform the top of the ticket, said Amy Walter, a political analyst and editor-in-chief of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

“In the 3rd District in particular, the hope is that Democrats are able to make this — much like a referendum on Trump — a referendum on the Republican incumbent Van Orden and the controversies surrounding him,” Walter said. 

The district 

This district has historically favored moderates like former Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, who held office for 26 years before retiring in 2022. That year, Van Orden beat Democratic state Sen. Brad Pfaff by four points. Before Kind, moderate Republican Steve Gunderson held the House seat for 16 years. 

The district twice voted for former Democratic President Barack Obama, then voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 as rural areas have trended further right.

“It’s hard for anyone to get too comfortable here because things can really change,” Chergosky said of the district in an interview with Wisconsin Watch. 

Because of that, Harris, Tim Walz, Trump and JD Vance have all campaigned in the western Wisconsin district this year. 

“Whoever wins western Wisconsin is going to win by less than three percentage points,” Westrate said. 

He described district voters as practical, common-sense, down-to-earth, salt-of-the-earth working folks and said that’s exactly what they look for in their candidates, especially at the local level. 

“I like folks who have a family, who have a mortgage, who have the things that define most of our lives,” Westrate told Wisconsin Watch. “We want to know that our candidates know what our life is like.” 

In 2022, Van Orden and Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson won the district, but Democratic Gov. Tony Evers won it too.

“It shows you that candidates matter in this district,” Chergosky said.

Christian Phelps, a Democrat running for an Assembly seat in western Wisconsin’s 93rd District, said Democratic energy in the region is high, especially after Republican lawmakers and Evers agreed on new legislative maps in February, ending more than a decade of partisan gerrymandering in the state.

“No voter was more disenfranchised than the rural progressive, and there’s a lot of progressive energy in rural Wisconsin,” Phelps told Wisconsin Watch.

Last year, the Cook Political Report moved Van Orden’s congressional seat from “Likely Republican” to “Lean Republican.”

Cooke’s success in the race will be closely tied to the turnout Harris gets in Wisconsin. The same can be said for Van Orden and the Trump ticket, Chergosky said. There appear to be far fewer ticket-splitting voters in the district who used to cast their ballot for a Republican presidential candidate and a Democratic representative like Kind, he said. 

Pfaff beat Cooke by 8 points in the district’s Democratic primary in 2022, but he ultimately lost to Van Orden. Wisconsin Democrats pointed fingers at the national party, blaming the DCCC for not investing in Pfaff’s race or putting the campaign on the committee’s “Red to Blue” priority list. The Democrat-aligned House Majority PAC also cut its ad reservations for Pfaff after losing confidence in the race.

“This time, you can already see the investments from the DCCC, so western Wisconsin is not being overlooked like it was in 2022,” state Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler told Wisconsin Watch, calling Van Orden a “weak link.” 

The DCCC recognizes its mistake and is much more involved this cycle, said William Garcia, Democratic chair of the 3rd Congressional District. 

“They are here in a way that they were not years ago. I think it’s because they saw two years ago that they had a winnable seat and didn’t help,” Garcia told Wisconsin Watch. “Also, they see that Derrick Van Orden is in an exceptionally vulnerable position.”

The candidates

Van Orden is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL who first ran in the district against Kind in 2020, when he lost by less than 3 points. Before running for office, he appeared in the 2012 film “Act of Valor,” authored a book and consulted with Fortune 500 companies. 

“Here in southwestern Wisconsin, honestly, we want to talk about policy,” Van Orden told a PBS Wisconsin reporter at a Trump rally in La Crosse in August. “We want to talk about issues. We really don’t want to talk about personality.” 

But the policy issues on his campaign website haven’t been updated since 2021. The page still mentions “getting our children back to school” after “the last year of imposed (COVID-19) restrictions.”

Former Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney — who endorsed Harris in Wisconsin this month — told a reporter she would not vote for Van Orden if she were a Wisconsin resident. Cheney has widely criticized Trump and other members of her party for the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. 

“It makes sense that someone who is new to office, their first attempt at reelection is a referendum on their behavior in office, and Van Orden’s behavior has been abysmal,” Garcia said. 

Much like Cooke, Van Orden brands himself as a political outsider. But the status may not hold up this election cycle given he is now a member of Congress. 

“Clearly both Cooke and Van Orden have the view that the political outsider brand will resonate with voters, and there’s certainly a logic to that,” Chergosky said. “Congress is not popular. The political outsider brand is a way for someone to distance themselves from the mess in D.C.”  

This has been a historically unproductive two years for the House, Chergosky said, having passed a much fewer number of substantive bills than previous sessions.  

“That means that any House incumbent is going to have a complicated task in front of them,” Chergosky said. “Standard playbook for a House incumbent is to tout their policymaking achievements, but what happens if there aren’t really any policymaking achievements?” 

The House passed four bills Van Orden sponsored, mostly relating to the armed services. Van Orden so far has the most moderate voting record of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation, according to Voteview. 

Hannah Testin, vice chair of the 3rd Congressional District GOP, said Van Orden “is somebody that voters in the 3rd District can really relate to.” 

“In this era, voters seem to be wanting change in Washington,” Testin told Wisconsin Watch. “I don’t think you see that change in Washington by electing a political consultant.” 

Cooke, who came out on top of a three-way Democratic primary this year, is a small business owner and nonprofit director from Eau Claire. She grew up on a dairy farm and was appointed by Evers to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. She advertises herself as a working-class political newcomer, writing on social media, “I work as a waitress while running for Congress to make ends meet.” 

“Like most folks in Wisconsin, I’m somewhere in the middle,” she said of her politics in a recent ad. 

But she criticized the bipartisan record of her main Democratic primary opponent, state Rep. Katrina Shankland, D-Stevens Point.

After media outlets and opponents called out her background in political fundraising, Cooke’s campaign downplayed the role as one of her “interests” that “paid the bills,” adding that while she has worked in politics, she is not a career politician. 

“I think that folks appreciate authenticity,” Westrate said. “Around here, they can handle a truth they don’t like. What they don’t want is to be lied to.” 

During her first run in 2022, Cooke shared that she worked in politics in her early 20s. 

Nevertheless, the criticism has delivered a blow to her political outsider status, especially given that she attacked Shankland for being a “career politician.” Shankland lost to Cooke by nearly 9 points after an unusually negative primary that prompted other Democrats like U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan to speak out in defense of Shankland. 

After Shankland released an ad pointing to Cooke’s lack of experience in public office, Cooke put out a request for help from political action committees. Shankland later called Cooke out for accepting dark money from moderate Democratic PACs attacking her in the race after Cooke’s campaign accused Shankland of voting with Republican lawmakers to block Medicaid expansion, which was misleading. 

Days after the primary, Cooke, Shankland and third Democratic primary candidate Eric Wilson “came together to showcase Democratic unity to defeat Derrick Van Orden.” 

Garcia said Cooke excels at talking to voters in the district one-on-one and spends time at dairy breakfasts “milling around with people.” 

“She is just incredible at this one-on-one politicking, and it’s something that Derrick Van Orden is not good at,” Garcia said. “He is kind of afraid of the public. He doesn’t like to mill around with people unless he knows they’re all Republicans. He doesn’t like to talk to the press unless he knows they are on his side, or at the very least, are very limited in the questions they can ask him.”

Testin mentioned some of Van Orden’s most recent campaign activities in the district, which were events hosted by local Republican parties, and said he recently knocked on doors with her husband, state Sen. Patrick Testin, R-Stevens Point. 

Chergosky said both candidates are strong fundraisers, but outside spending is going to significantly impact the race. 

Van Orden has raised just over $6 million to Cooke’s $4.5 million, according to September campaign finance reports compiled by OpenSecrets. Cooke’s campaign pulled in more than $2.75 million in the third quarter alone. 

A debate has not yet been scheduled and likely won’t be before Nov. 5. Cooke declined attempts to schedule a primary debate this summer, citing scheduling conflicts. Van Orden declined to debate Pfaff in 2022, accusing the media of being biased. 

The Farm Bill

Van Orden and his supporters most often tout his appointment to the House Committee on Agriculture, becoming the first member of Wisconsin’s delegation in almost a decade to be on the committee, and the first from the rural 3rd District to be on it since 2002. 

“I think when you have somebody who fights tooth and nail to get on a very important committee to his district, that speaks well for the effort of the individual,” Westrate said. 

“I don’t serve on the agriculture committee. I will actually rely on Derrick for a lot of advice on some of these more detailed and complex issues in terms of agriculture,” Sen. Johnson told Wisconsin Watch. “That’s a real credit to him.” 

The committee’s main piece of legislation is the bipartisan 2024 Farm Bill, which Van Orden said he and other lawmakers have spent “hundreds if not thousands of hours” working on. He added that it is “a remarkable piece of legislation that’s going to help everybody, from our smallest farmers all the way to the larger farms.”

But the bill that will establish food and farm policy for the next five years still hasn’t been signed into law and is more than a year behind schedule as lawmakers wrestle over how to pay for it. 

In May, Van Orden voted to advance the bill with billions in potential cuts to food assistance programs like SNAP, which assists over 700,000 Wisconsin residents as of March 2024, including about 78,000 people in the 3rd District.  

Still, Van Orden has touted provisions of the bill he says will help the 3rd District, including better compensating dairy farmers for their milk and providing whole milk products for children in school.

Cooke’s campaign site says she would restructure the Farm Bill to focus more on agriculture and the farming community “versus the bulky package it has become.”

Pharmaceutical, manufacturing and big agriculture interest groups spent over $400 million lobbying on the Farm Bill. 

Cooke wrote on social media: “We need a Farm Bill that delivers for family farms in communities across Wisconsin, not one built around subsidizing agricultural conglomerates and prioritizing corporate profits.”

Last year, Wisconsin Farmers Union President Darin Von Ruden criticized Van Orden for “choosing big corporations” over small dairy farms in the state. 

“Despite raising these concerns with Van Orden’s office, he hasn’t included amendments to help small farms in the Farm Bill and hasn’t stood up to the big corporations who are using the current policies to put family farms out of business,” Von Ruden wrote in an op-ed. 

Von Ruden told Wisconsin Watch he was happy to see that Van Orden got the position on the committee, but his “lack of agricultural knowledge” does nothing to help Wisconsin’s industry. 

Abortion

Abortion is likely a top issue for voters in the district, according to Chergosky. While leaning Republican, the district still voted for Evers in 2022 after he ran a successful campaign against Republican Tim Michels focused largely on reproductive freedom. Liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz also won the district in her successful 2022 campaign centered on state abortion rights. 

“Reproductive rights is what is bringing people out and getting people motivated to knock on doors and volunteer and canvas,” Garcia said of voters in western Wisconsin. 

Chergosky said it’s obvious Cooke sees opportunity on the issue of abortion in this race, calling Van Orden an extremist and highlighting concerns over a national abortion ban in campaign ads. 

“I really have a very, very difficult time trying to justify abortion under any circumstance,” Van Orden said in a radio interview with WSAU Feedback in 2020, adding that seeking an abortion after instances of rape or incest is only “compounding the evil.”

But this year he wrote on social media: “I made my position crystal clear last April. This is a state issue. Period.” 

Cooke supports codifying abortion rights into law. She says she will fight to keep western Wisconsin’s two Planned Parenthoods open and federally funded and advocate against the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding, including Medicare and Medicaid, from being used for abortions. Her site also says she will support federal programs that improve access to family planning services.

“I know Democrats want to turn this into a referendum on abortion, but what the Dobbs decision has done is turn that decision back over to the states,” Johnson said, referring to the court decision that overruled Roe vs. Wade. “An individual member of Congress’ view on this is basically irrelevant to the debate.” 

Immigration

Van Orden has consistently attacked Cooke on immigration, criticizing her for not speaking out about a case he has widely circulated, in which Prairie du Chien police reported that a man tied to a Venezuelan criminal organization sexually assaulted a woman and attacked her daughter in September. 

But Van Orden has made false claims that police in Madison arrested the suspect “for a series of violent crimes” but released him because it is a “sanctuary city.” The city police department and Dane County Sheriff’s Office confirmed he was never in their custody.

Cooke said in an ad that if elected, she will “stand up to Democrats to fight for a secure border,” but includes no specific policy priorities on her campaign site. 

Van Orden, while a staunch opponent of southern border policy under President Joe Biden’s administration, also has not proposed or identified policy solutions. 

More than 10,000 undocumented immigrant workers perform an estimated 70% of the labor on Wisconsin dairy farms, according to an April 2023 survey by the School for Workers at UW-Madison.

Rural health care

Access to rural health care is another important issue to the district as the region had two hospital and 19 clinic closures earlier this year, leaving thousands without local options for care. 

Health care systems have pointed to low staffing, insufficient Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, higher health care costs and a declining number of patients on private health insurance.

Soon after the closures, Van Orden called for state and federal resources, introducing legislation to extend telehealth services in rural health clinics and other health centers. This year, he also helped secure $600,000 in federal funds for Gundersen Health System in La Crosse for emergency equipment to improve access to ambulance services in surrounding rural areas. 

“Enforcing price transparency on hospitals and doctors offices will allow everyone, with or without insurance, to shop around and find services in their budget,” Van Orden wrote in a recent op-ed. 

Cooke’s campaign site lists health care as her top priority and says she would take steps to expand Medicare to cover vision, dental and hearing, annually lower the age that seniors can start receiving Medicare benefits, address antitrust issues in the health care system, provide more tax credits to lower premiums, and ensure affordable access to prescription drugs with prices negotiated through Medicare.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

A ‘referendum’ on Derrick Van Orden: House race highlights intense politicization of western 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.

Wisconsin Watch is previewing legislative races in toss-up districts ahead of the Nov. 5 election by focusing on key issues for voters and what candidates say they will do to address them.  

Housing and child care affordability, abortion rights and public school funding are key issues in the race for the 61st Assembly District — a toss-up district encompassing portions of southwestern Milwaukee as well as Greendale, Hales Corners and parts of Greenfield.

The race is a rematch from 2022, pitting incumbent Rep. Bob Donovan, R-Greenfield, a longtime GOP office-holder in the Milwaukee area, against Democrat LuAnn Bird, a former executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin. Donovan won the 2022 contest by just 525 votes. 

The partisan makeup of the district is an almost identical split between Republicans and Democrats, according to a Wisconsin Watch analysis of recent voting patterns.

The district is one of 15 that Democrats are targeting this cycle, with hopes of flipping control of the Assembly for the first time in more than a decade after the Wisconsin Supreme Court last year threw out the state’s Republican-gerrymandered maps.

Here’s where both candidates stand on important issues in the district.

Housing and child care affordability

Bird said a top priority to address burdensome costs facing Wisconsin families is to make child care more affordable. 

“It doesn’t make sense when you have to spend half your salary on child care,” Bird said in an interview. She said she supports Gov. Tony Evers’ Child Care Counts program, which provides payments to child care providers on a regular basis to help keep their doors open. The program is credited with keeping thousands of child care facilities open during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

In October 2023, Evers extended the program through June 2025 using $170 million in federal funds. He has previously sought to include $340 million in the state budget to support the program, but that plan was scrapped by Republican lawmakers.

Bird said she would support an extension of the program. “If we want to strengthen our economy, we’ve got to make it affordable to go to work for everybody,” she said.

Bird also expressed support for tossing a state law that prevents local governments from implementing rent control programs.

“We could let local governments have more control over their communities,” she said. Giving local officials additional control could help address rent hikes that have been seen in many Wisconsin communities, she said.

Donovan supported a package of Republican-authored child care bills during the most recent legislative session. During the floor session, Democrats attached extending Child Care Counts as amendments to one of the bills. Donovan voted against the extension.

Donovan did not respond to interview requests for this story.

The GOP-backed package included bills that would have allowed parents to contribute $10,000 in pre-tax money to an account to pay for child care, created a $15 million loan program to help child care centers pay for renovations, established a new category of child care centers that could serve between four and 12 children, and increased the child-to-child-care-worker ratio allowed in some child care centers. None of the proposals became law.

Abortion rights

Bird and Donovan offer starkly different views on what Wisconsin’s abortion laws should look like.

“The government should have no say in the decision,” Bird told Wisconsin Watch. “Women should be able to make their decisions without government interference.”

She criticized many of the state’s existing laws that make accessing the procedure more cumbersome, such as requiring women to wait 24 hours after an initial appointment and requiring physicians to perform an ultrasound before having an abortion.

The waiting period, in particular, disproportionately affects low-income women, Bird said, given that they likely have to take time off of work to access abortion care.

“Women should be able to choose if and when and how to start a family,” she added. “No politician can know what’s going on in a woman’s life who’s in that situation.”

Donovan joined all 62 of his Republican colleagues in the Assembly in June 2023 in voting against repealing Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban. Democrats attached the repeal provision to the state budget, forcing GOP lawmakers to vote on the issue. The 1849 law, which had been unenforceable because of Roe vs. Wade, was believed at the time to outlaw most abortions in the state. The 19th-century statute contains a vaguely defined exception for an abortion that is determined to be medically necessary to save the mother’s life, but does not make exceptions for cases of rape, incest or the mother’s health.

In January 2024, Donovan voted in favor of legislation that narrowly passed that sought to ban abortions — besides those for medical emergencies — after 14 weeks of pregnancy. Under current law abortion is prohibited after 20 weeks. That bill included a provision that would have required the 14-week ban to be approved via referendum before it took effect.

“I struggled with this legislation here before us today,” Donovan said during debate on the Assembly floor. “But I am supporting it because I believe, if enacted, it will help reduce the loss of life.”

“I am pro-life and I am Catholic,” he added. “And I believe that abortion is the taking of a human being.”

“There are objective truths in this life. And one of those objective truths is any abortion is the taking of a human life,” he said.

Public school funding

Bird said “absolutely the state should be doing more for public education.”

“I think the state should concentrate on making sure that our schools, the public schools, are well funded and producing the kind of education that we want,” Bird said in an interview. She also expressed concerns about lawmakers directing more funds toward private voucher schools, as they did in the most recent budget, when they tied $1 billion in public K-12 school funding to an additional $280 million in voucher school funding.

Bird, who has served on two school boards in Wisconsin, said she would bring her understanding of how public school funding works to the Legislature and be a “champion for what we need to do for public education.”

Donovan voted in favor of the deal that boosted funding for both public schools and voucher programs.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

Democrat seeks to flip GOP seat in Milwaukee-area rematch 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.

Wisconsin Watch is previewing legislative races in toss-up districts ahead of the Nov. 5 election by focusing on key issues for voters and what candidates say they will do to address them.  

Rural health care access, affordable child care and public education are among key issues for western Wisconsin voters in the toss-up 92nd Assembly District where Republican Rep. Clint Moses will face a Democratic challenger who is no stranger to the state Assembly. 

Former state Rep. Joe Plouff held office from 1997 to 2005, representing the area he is running in now — 20 years later.

The district covers parts of Chippewa and Dunn counties and includes the cities of Chippewa Falls and Menomonie, as well as parts of Eau Claire. Small villages like Elk Mound and Lake Hallie also fall within its boundaries.

First elected in 2020, Moses, 48, chairs the Assembly Committee on Health, Aging and Long-Term Care. He also serves on the Assembly agriculture and rural development committees. He is a farmer, chiropractor and former Menomonie School Board member.

Plouff, a 74-year-old Army veteran, was previously a member of the Menomonie City Council and Dunn County Board of Supervisors. He is a retired teacher. 

He narrowly beat Caden Berg in the district’s Aug. 13 Democratic primary. Berg is now Plouff’s campaign manager. 

Plouff said in an interview with the Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce that he came out of retirement because he “fears for” what he sees in the Legislature. 

“I come from a time when we actually could work together,” Plouff said. “We used to go out with people from the opposite party, and we would enjoy a meal together …That has collapsed in the 20 years I’ve been gone.” 

Moses pushed back, saying lawmakers from both parties still work together to get things done.  

“That actually still happens,” Moses told Wisconsin Watch. “I regularly will have breakfast or lunch with one of my Democrat colleagues.” 

A Wisconsin Watch analysis of past voting patterns suggests the district is now a toss-up after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signed new legislative maps earlier this year. The race is one to watch as Republicans defend their Assembly majority.

Moses has far outraised Plouff, with the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee contributing nearly $167,000 to his campaign. Plouff has raised just over $70,000 so far this year with about a third coming from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, according to campaign finance records.

Rural health care 

Access to rural health care is a key issue in this district. Two hospitals and 19 clinics in Eau Claire and across the Chippewa Valley closed this year, leaving thousands without local options for care.

Moses and other western Wisconsin lawmakers acted quickly after the closures, authoring bills to reallocate $15 million left over from the 2021-23 state budget to Eau Claire and Chippewa County for emergency room services.

Evers used partial vetoes to allow the emergency funds to be used for other health care services across the region besides just hospital emergency departments. Moses said $15 million only made a dent compared to what is needed, and after expanding the scope of the funds, the $15 million was “diluted.”

Moses said he submitted budget requests during both of his sessions for Medicaid reimbursement increases for all providers, and he plans to put in those same requests again if reelected. But he said he is not in favor of fully expanding Medicaid because it will not solve the problem. 

Plouff disagreed, stressing that expansion is essential.

In 2023 Moses co-authored a bill that proposed stricter reapplication processes for Medicaid and would have required DHS to review participant eligibility every six months. In 2022, he co-authored legislation making anyone who refuses a job offer ineligible for Medicaid. Evers vetoed the bill.

“We are not trying to kick people off that are truly needy,” Moses said in 2023. “This bill simply prevents fraud in our state and helps get the needy the services that they need.”

Wisconsin is one of 10 states — the only in the Midwest — that has not yet expanded Medicaid. A survey published in 2022 found that 70% of Wisconsin voters support fully expanding BadgerCare. The Marquette Law School Poll has similarly found 60% or greater support for accepting Medicaid expansion.

Moses hopes to expand apprenticeship programs in Wisconsin, allowing hospitals to take on and attract more potential providers, especially in rural areas. He authored a bipartisan bill signed into law this year that created crisis urgent care and observation centers that provide immediate service to patients experiencing mental health and substance abuse emergencies, the first of which will be located in western Wisconsin where there is a lack of nearby mental health facilities. 

Public education 

The Menomonie area school district went to referendum this spring, asking the district’s property taxpayers for $4.2 million to exceed its levy limit and keep up with operating expenses after citing “inequitable revenue limits and inadequate funding from the state.” It failed overwhelmingly, leaving the district to navigate a multimillion-dollar budget deficit.

District administrator Joe Zydowsky told WQOW that cuts could include a reduction in programming, services and staff, as well as increased class sizes and the possibility of closing schools. 

Menomonie is one of 192 school districts that went or will go to referendum this year, which is almost half of all Wisconsin school districts. Many districts have raised concerns that state aid has not kept up with inflation. In 2009, the state Legislature decoupled per-pupil revenue limits from inflation. School districts have had to manage tighter budgets ever since.

Moses told Wisconsin Watch the state has not kept up in funding, and he is in favor of tying revenue limits to inflation again. Among the residents and property taxpayers in the district, pushing to referendum is far less popular than increasing state aid to schools, he said. 

“If we changed the levy limits, they wouldn’t have to be doing that,” Moses said. “If we did something to tie it more to inflation, I would be very much in favor of that.” 

In 2023, Moses voted in favor of legislation that increased per-pupil revenue limits in public schools and increased tax funding for private voucher schools at the same time. It was passed as part of a compromise between Republican lawmakers and Evers.

Plouff raised concerns about the amount of money taxpayers are fronting for the private school voucher system in Menomonie. He said the per-pupil funding model for public education hasn’t been adjusted consistently, and it’s time to make changes. 

“I don’t know off the top of my head what that might be,” Plouff said. 

Child care 

Affordable and accessible child care has been a persistent issue across the state of Wisconsin, and places like Eau Claire are no exception. 

A Wisconsin Department of Children and Families child care supply and demand survey recently found that almost 60% of providers in Wisconsin have unused classroom capacity due to staff shortages. Providers report that if they were able to operate at full capacity, they could accept up to 33,000 more children. The state is losing hundreds of child care providers every year, according to DCF. 

Child care deserts exist across 70% of rural Wisconsin, according to a 2021 report from the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association. The Economic Policy Institute found that a typical family in Wisconsin would have to spend a third of its income on child care for an infant and a 4-year-old. 

Based on 2016 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Department of Health and Human Services deemed child care affordable if it costs up to 7% of a family’s income.

The median hourly wage for a child care worker in Wisconsin is $13.78, according to May 2023 estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Moses said more needs to be done to encourage people to enter the child care field and make it financially rewarding for them, such as tax credits, benefits, health insurance and a living wage. 

He co-authored a bipartisan bill signed by Evers earlier this year that increased the state child care tax credit. 

Last year, Moses joined his Republican colleagues in voting for measures that would have lowered the minimum teaching age of assistant child care providers from 18 to 16 and increased the permitted ratio of children to workers in child care facilities. Providers and advocates say these efforts would not help current challenges in the child care field.

“I think the biggest problem is we have this ‘one size fits all’ for child care,” Moses told Wisconsin Watch. “I think we also need to look at some of the other options that are out there, like maybe supporting family members — grandma, grandpa.” 

“The answer is not always throwing more money at it. Throwing more money at it gets you more inflation,” Moses said in 2023 in defense of a Republican-authored bill on child care, which he called a “low-cost solution.” 

Plouff had a different take. 

“He’s right, you can’t always throw money at this,” he said. “But at the same time, when you have money in your pocket and you see a problem, you can find a solution. And if that solution costs money, you spend that money.” 

Plouff said he would use tax money to temporarily subsidize child care, adding that providers positively contribute to the economy and it is important to raise the value of the job. Unlike Moses, he is concerned about grandparents and family members having to be caretakers due to a lack of child care accessibility. 

“I’m hearing from people that the parents and the grandparents are now becoming the child care providers,” Plouff said. “They almost have to. Their kids need help.” 

Marijuana legalization 

Wisconsin continues to stand out among Midwest states as one of few that haven’t legalized medicinal or recreational marijuana. 

Statewide polling from the Marquette University Law School showed in January that 83% of respondents supported medical marijuana legalization, and 63% supported full legalization.

Last year, the Wisconsin Policy Forum estimated that more than half of all Wisconsin residents above the age of 21 live within a 75-minute drive from a marijuana dispensary in surrounding states. This estimate was before neighboring Minnesota legalized recreational use.

In 2022, marijuana sales to those residing in Wisconsin generated over $36 million in sales tax revenue for Illinois, according to the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

Approximately $165 million in annual sales tax revenue was projected under Evers’ full marijuana legalization plan that the Legislature’s GOP-controlled budget committee rejected in 2023. 

In a district so close to the border of Minnesota, Moses said this issue is raised frequently. He supports medicinal marijuana legalization, but “would like to see how that goes first.” 

He is hesitant to support recreational legalization due to safety concerns, particularly marijuana potentially being laced with fentanyl. If the Legislature agrees on legalization, he said lawmakers must ensure the supply will be safe. 

Plouff said it is an embarrassment that the state hasn’t yet taken action to legalize medicinal marijuana. He said he would support recreational legalization “under controls,” preferably with professionals who can guide the consumer on safe use of the drug. 

“I believe it’s time for Wisconsin to get into it,” Plouff said, noting the revenue and tax benefits.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

Former lawmaker returns 20 years later to challenge GOP incumbent 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.

Wisconsin Watch is previewing legislative races in toss-up districts ahead of the Nov. 5 election by focusing on key issues for voters and what candidates say they will do to address them.  

Rural health care access, affordable child care and public education are key issues for western Wisconsin voters in the toss-up 30th Assembly District where Democratic candidate Alison Page will seek to unseat incumbent Rep. Shannon Zimmerman in November. 

This district covers parts of St. Croix and Pierce counties. It includes the cities of Hudson and River Falls, as well as the village of North Hudson. It also contains the UW-River Falls campus and Willow River State Park.

A Wisconsin Watch analysis of past voting patterns suggests the district is now a toss-up after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signed new legislative maps earlier this year. 

Zimmerman, 52, has represented the district since 2017. He co-chairs the Joint Committee on Information Policy and Technology. He is also part of the powerful Joint Finance Committee, which oversees the state budget. He is the founder of a language translation company and owns a small business. 

Zimmerman did not respond to Wisconsin Watch’s repeated requests for an interview. 

Page, 68, spent her career as a nurse and later as CEO of Western Wisconsin Health. She is a River Falls school board member and served on the Workforce Development Board of Western Wisconsin. In 2022, Page ran against Republican Rep. Warren Petryk in the old 93rd Assembly District, where she lost by more than 5,000 votes. 

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee — a national group — recently announced that Page and the 30th Assembly District are on its target list “to build Democratic power across Wisconsin” and “shift the balance of power in the Legislature for the first time in over a decade.”

“Instead of taking my agenda from the powers that be in the Republican Legislature or the Democratic Legislature, I would take my agenda from the people of this region,” Page said when asked what sets her apart from her opponent.

In a recent interview with the Western Wisconsin Journal, Zimmerman said he brings a “practical, common-sense approach.”

“I will be called too moderate for the Republicans, and not in favor with the Democrats,” Zimmerman said. “That’s probably right where you want to be because I think that’s where you get things done.”

In the last legislative session, there were 437 instances of not voting in the Assembly, according to the Legislative Reference Bureau. If distributed evenly among all 99 members, that would amount to four or five instances per member. Zimmerman had 38 instances of not voting. He was granted a leave of absence for four floor sessions during which lawmakers voted on multiple bills. He told Wisconsin Watch his absence was due to a health issue.

Rural health care 

Access to rural health care is a key issue in western Wisconsin. Two hospitals and 19 clinics in the region closed this year, leaving thousands without local options for care.

Page said the solution requires the state to work with the federal government. 

Medicaid expansion, which Republicans in the Legislature have blocked, could help by allowing people earning more than the federal poverty level to access government-funded health care and bringing more money into the state, Page said. Wisconsin is one of 10 states — the only one in the Midwest — that has not yet expanded Medicaid. 

“If I could wave a magic wand and do good things for health care, I would build health care into the public school system, so that every child would have a health care check-up, and provide basic preventative health care counseling, including mental health care,” Page said. 

During the last legislative session, Zimmerman co-authored a bill that would establish a certification process and grant program for crisis urgent care and observation facilities, which treat mental health and substance use disorders.

Zimmerman has opposed efforts to expand Medicaid. In 2023, he was part of the GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee that voted to remove Medicaid expansion funding from Evers’ budget proposal.

“We’re literally to the point now where the federal government is trying to buy Wisconsin into greater government dependence,” Zimmerman said of Medicaid expansion in 2021, according to WPR. “That’s absurd.”

A survey published in 2022 found that 70% of Wisconsin voters support fully expanding BadgerCare. The Marquette Law School Poll has similarly found 60% or greater support for accepting Medicaid expansion.

In 2017, Zimmerman responded to questions from the Republican Eagle and said he supported “adding provisions to the budget that established matching grant programs for rural clinics and hospitals that train advanced practice clinicians and allied health professionals.” 

Education 

The Hudson School District recently estimated it would experience a budget deficit of $7.5 million by the 2028-29 school year due to declining enrollment and frozen revenue limits. Now the district will go to operational referendum in November to exceed its revenue cap by $5 million on a recurring basis, asking property taxpayers to pay for its operations, maintenance and staffing costs.

This fall, 120 school districts in Wisconsin are holding referendums, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Many districts, including Hudson, have raised concerns that state aid increases have not kept up with inflation.

Page said the state needs to “step back,” look at other states and determine what the best, most fair way to fund public education is. The solution could be a blend of both state aid and referendums, but what’s happening now is not working, she said. 

“If the state is underfunding — so they’re not keeping pace — and you’re going to referendum for operating revenue, then you’re gradually transitioning the cost of public education from the general fund onto the real estate taxpayer, and that is not a good idea,” Page said.

She believes public education is handled most efficiently — “with the best product at the lowest cost” — through one unified public school system.  

“Siphoning off money to support schools that are not the public school system — I don’t think makes sense for the state for the long run,” Page said. 

But she doesn’t have anything against private schools and parents wanting their children to be privately educated.

“Access to a free, excellent education is a right of every child in the state,” Page said. “Access to a private education that may be part of a spiritual organization is not a right.” 

Under the current per-pupil funding model, school districts across the state, including Hudson, need to close and consolidate due to declining enrollment, Zimmerman said in a recent interview.

In 2023, legislation that increased per-pupil revenue limits in public schools and increased tax funding for private voucher schools at the same time passed as part of a compromise between Republican lawmakers and Evers. Zimmerman was on a leave of absence and did not vote on the bill.

In 2024, he voted in favor of a bill that would have repealed reductions of state aid paid to school districts under Wisconsin’s private school voucher programs — allowing funding to come directly from the state rather than from reductions in public school districts’ funds.

Child care 

Affordable and accessible child care has been a persistent issue across the state of Wisconsin, and places like Hudson in the 30th Assembly District are no exception. The state is losing hundreds of child care providers every year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. 

Child care deserts exist across 70% of rural Wisconsin, according to a 2021 report from the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association. The Economic Policy Institute found that a typical family in Wisconsin would have to spend a third of its income on child care for an infant and a 4-year-old. 

Based on 2016 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Department of Health and Human Services deemed child care affordable if it costs up to 7% of a family’s income.

Page said she would consider multiple solutions, such as supporting those who enter or want to enter the child care field, incorporating child care into the K-12 public school system and working with community religious organizations to provide child care.  

In 2023, the Joint Finance Committee voted to end funding for the Child Care Counts program — a pandemic-era subsidy program. Zimmerman was not present for that vote. 

Last year, Zimmerman joined his Republican colleagues in voting for measures that would have lowered the minimum teaching age of assistant child care providers from 18 to 16 and increased the permitted ratio of children to workers in child care facilities. Providers and advocates say these efforts would not help current challenges in the child care field. 

Income tax reciprocity 

Tax reciprocity between states is an agreement that allows people who commute to work across state lines to pay taxes in the state where they reside. It is especially important to western Wisconsin residents near the Wisconsin-Minnesota border who travel across state lines for work. 

This year, Zimmerman authored a bill signed into law by Evers that will begin the process of reestablishing income tax reciprocity between the two states, which was discontinued in 2009.

Page would support income tax reciprocity and said it’s an important issue she frequently hears from constituents in the 30th Assembly District.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

GOP incumbent faces Democratic challenger in western Wisconsin toss-up district 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.

Wisconsin Watch is previewing legislative races in toss-up districts ahead of the Nov. 5 election by focusing on key issues for voters and what candidates say they will do to address them.  

Abortion access, tax cuts and education funding are central issues in the race for Wisconsin Senate District 8 — a GOP-leaning toss-up district between Milwaukee and Port Washington that could help decide who controls the state Senate in the coming years.

The contest pits incumbent Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville, against environmental attorney and small business owner Jodi Habush Sinykin, a Democrat from Milwaukee. Stroebel has served in the Legislature since May 2011 and sits on its powerful budget-writing committee. Habush Sinykin previously ran for the state Senate in a special election in April 2023. She was narrowly defeated by Sen. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown.

The race is one of five Senate districts Democrats are targeting this cycle — hoping to tee themselves up to win a Senate majority in 2026 — and it’s one of only two flip opportunities in a district with a Republican incumbent, according to a Wisconsin Watch analysis of past voting patterns.

Still more than six weeks out from Election Day, groups on both sides are already running attack ads — an unusually early development for a state legislative race. New Wisconsin Majority is running a commercial attacking Stroebel’s opposition to abortion. Meanwhile, the Republican State Leadership Committee is running an ad blaming Democrats for increased costs that seeks to tie Habush Sinykin to Democratic lawmakers.

Here’s where both candidates stand on key issues in their district.

Abortion access

Habush Sinykin and Stroebel offer starkly different perspectives on what the state’s abortion laws should look like, according to an interview with the former and the latter’s work in the Legislature. Stroebel did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.

“Wisconsin’s abortion laws should very much reflect, as in any democracy, including Wisconsin’s democracy, the will of the people and the values of our people,” Habush Sinykin told Wisconsin Watch in an interview, pointing to polling from Marquette Law School that suggests between 60% and 70% of Wisconsin residents believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

New polling from the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation also found that just shy of 80% of Wisconsin residents are against criminalizing the procedure before fetal viability in the state. That includes 57% of Republicans and 93% of Democrats. Criminalizing abortion was defined in the survey as “prison time or fines for the doctor or the woman.”

Habush Sinykin said reproductive freedom and health care access are the top issues she is hearing from voters when knocking on doors, especially from women. Voters have expressed concerns about restrictive abortion laws preventing them from accessing the health care providers they need, she said, with many doctors deciding not to practice in Wisconsin because of the state’s 1849 ban, which is currently unenforceable after a court order.

“To make women have to leave Wisconsin, or make us uncertain about the health care we can receive, it is just not OK,” Habush Sinykin said.

Stroebel joined all 21 of his Republican colleagues in the state Senate in June 2023 in voting against repealing Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban. Democrats attached the repeal provision to the state budget, forcing GOP lawmakers to vote on the issue. The 1849 law, which had been unenforceable because of Roe vs. Wade, was believed at the time to outlaw most abortions in the state. The 19th-century statute contains a vaguely defined exception for an abortion that is determined to be medically necessary to save the mother’s life, but does not make exceptions for cases of rape, incest or the mother’s health.

In April 2020, Stroebel introduced a constitutional amendment that would have guaranteed a fetus at every stage of development a “right to life.” During his Senate race in 2020, Stroebel was endorsed by Pro-Life Wisconsin, an organization that supports “candidates who recognize the personhood of the preborn baby and hold the principled and compassionate no-exceptions pro-life position.”

Taxes

Both candidates support cutting taxes, but largely for different groups.

“Strategic and intelligent tax cuts make sense for Wisconsin,” Habush Sinykin said.

As a business owner — she and her husband own a Janesville manufacturing company that produces paint rollers and other products — she said she has seen firsthand the “connection between our tax system and the ability to attract a strong workforce in Wisconsin.”

“We need Wisconsin to be able to keep and attract young families and a workforce,” Habush Sinykin said. She supports cutting taxes for middle class families while “ensuring that the highest earners pay their fair share,” according to her campaign policy platform.

“I very much think that we have to be competitive, not just in our region, but with the rest of the country, because that’s who we’re competing against,” she said.

Habush Sinykin said she would like to reduce taxes on Wisconsin seniors and retirees.

Too many people living on fixed incomes leave for other states with more favorable tax systems, Habush Sinykin said. She added that “Wisconsin can do far more to dissuade them from leaving the state.”

She declined to endorse a GOP-authored bill from the most recent legislative session that would have made retirement income for certain Wisconsin residents tax-free, but did say the proposal “certainly sounds to be a step in the right direction.” Habush Sinykin said she’d need to see the long-term financial implications for the state before endorsing any tax cut plan.

That plan would have raised the annual amount of tax-exempt withdrawals from a retirement account from $5,000 to $75,000 for single Wisconsin residents age 65 and older and up to $150,000 for joint filers. It was vetoed by Gov. Tony Evers, who said it would reduce revenue by $658 million in 2024-25 and $472 million in each subsequent fiscal year. Stroebel voted in favor of the legislation.

Stroebel has been a proponent of cutting taxes during his time in the Legislature. During the 2021-23 legislative session, he voted for reducing the state’s third-highest tax bracket from 6.27% to 5.3%, a $2 billion cut. That rate covers income between $27,630 and $304,170 for single filers and between $36,840 and $405,550 for joint filers.

During the most recent legislative session, Stroebel supported a number of tax cut provisions. He co-sponsored legislation that would have implemented a flat income tax system in Wisconsin by reducing income taxes for all filers to 3.25%. That proposal did not receive a vote in either the Senate or the Assembly.

Instead, during the most recent budget cycle, Stroebel backed a $3.5 billion income tax cut that would have focused its largest reductions on the state’s highest earners. The plan would have cut the top tax rate from 7.65% to 6.5% — a 15% reduction for high-earning joint filers who make $405,550 or more annually. It would have reduced the second-highest rate from 5.3% to 4.4%, a 17% decrease.

Evers vetoed those cuts from the budget but left in place reductions to the state’s bottom two brackets.

School funding

Habush Sinykin told Wisconsin Watch the state needs to be spending more on its public K-12 schools, noting that more and more districts around the state are turning to referendums to “maintain the quality and caliber of education that we have always been able to achieve in Wisconsin.”

U.S. Census Bureau data show that in 2022, Wisconsin’s per pupil spending was 7.21% lower than the national average. Wisconsin’s spending on schools ranked 25th among the 50 states in 2022, according to the data. That’s a drop from 11th in 2002 and 21st in 2012.

The state should kick in more for K-12 schools, Habush Sinykin said, to help address teacher shortages, reduce class sizes and improve education.

During the most recent legislative session, Stroebel sponsored a bill that increased funding for public K-12 schools by $1 billion. The funding was tied to $280 million in new funding for private voucher schools. Evers signed it.

The legislation helped close “the funding gap for private schools participating in the parental choice programs and gives parents more opportunities to decide which school best fits their child’s needs,” Stroebel said in a statement after the bill passed. “Wisconsin is making great strides towards establishing funding parity for all K-12 students with the passage of this piece of legislation.”

Editor’s note: This story was corrected to reflect that this district is one of two flip opportunities for Democrats in a Senate district with a Republican incumbent.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

Democrat seeks to flip GOP suburban Milwaukee seat with focus on abortion rights, tax cuts 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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Wisconsin voters will once again be central in determining who wins the White House in November. The presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will likely be determined based on the outcome of the election in Wisconsin and a handful of other states. Given the state’s importance, be prepared for a flood of television ads from both sides and a flurry of visits from the candidates and their running mates.

What to know

The presidential race was turned upside down in July when Democratic President Joe Biden announced that he would drop out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor.

Biden’s decision came on the heels of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where GOP delegates once again nominated former President Donald Trump as their candidate. During their time in Wisconsin, Republicans had an air of invincibility to them — largely rooted in Biden’s disastrous debate performance on June 27.

The momentum then seemed to shift. Harris’ candidacy was met with a wave of energy that translated to eye-popping fundraising and Wisconsin Democrats surging past their Republican neighbors in enthusiasm. Now, Harris leads in polling aggregates both nationally and here in Wisconsin.

Following a head-to-head debate between Harris and Trump in Philadelphia, the campaigns are entering the final sprint to Election Day. Both candidates and their running mates — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for Harris and U.S. Sen. JD Vance for Trump — are bouncing from battleground state to battleground state, stopping along the way to raise the funds needed to flood television markets in swing states with television ads.

In the weeks leading up to Election Day, expect the airwaves to be inundated with ads, regular knocks on your front door from canvassers and a wave of visits from the candidates and their surrogates.

Related coverage

More information on Wisconsin election races

President of the United States 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.

Wisconsin Watch is previewing legislative races in toss-up districts ahead of the Nov. 5 election by focusing on key issues for voters and what candidates say they will do to address them.  

Education funding, health care access and housing affordability are key issues in the 94th Assembly District — a toss-up district in the La Crosse area that could help Republicans hold on to their Assembly majority if they can defeat a longtime Democratic incumbent.

The race pits seven-term Democratic Rep. Steve Doyle — once named the most bipartisan Assembly member — against GOP challenger Ryan Huebsch in a rematch from 2022.

Located in western Wisconsin, the district covers parts of La Crosse and Trempealeau counties, including small villages like Ettrick, Holmen and West Salem. It also includes the cities of Galesville and Onalaska and part of the city of La Crosse. 

A Wisconsin Watch analysis of past voting patterns suggests the district is now a toss-up. 

Under the old legislative maps in 2022, Doyle beat Huebsch by fewer than 800 votes. It was the most expensive Assembly race that year, with Doyle spending $1.14 million, Huebsch spending $551,000 and outside groups spending almost $400,000, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which tracks campaign spending.

But the 66-year-old incumbent still feels confident he can win. While the district looks a little different, he said it includes the “same general kind of folks” he has represented.

In 2020, the Legislative Reference Bureau found that Doyle — a La Crosse County Board member, attorney and former UW-La Crosse instructor — co-authored the most bipartisan bills during his time in office. 

His 29-year-old Republican challenger claims he will bring “fresh energy and common-sense ideas” to the Assembly. Huebsch was previously a legislative aide and campaign manager to three Republican state senators. He is now executive director of the Wisconsin Conservative Energy Forum. 

Huebsch is endorsed by the La Crosse County sheriff, Wisconsin Right to Life and the National Rifle Association. His father previously represented the 94th District for 16 years, including a term as Assembly speaker, and served in Gov. Scott Walker’s Cabinet.

Huebsch did not respond to Wisconsin Watch’s interview requests for this story.  

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently reported on several offensive social media posts Huebsch made when he was a teenager — one including an ethnic slur. He has since apologized and taken the posts down.

Doyle declined to comment on the discovery of Huebsch’s posts, but added people shouldn’t base their vote solely on that. Their choice should instead be based upon who they think could do a better job in office, he said.

With control of the Assembly on the line for both Democrats and Republicans, this race is being heavily targeted by both parties. Doyle has raised more than $600,000 so far this year, most of which came from the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee. Huebsch has raised nearly $120,000 in that time, most of which came from the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee.

Education

Due to declining enrollment largely caused by declining birth rates, the La Crosse School District is facing a multimillion-dollar budget deficit. Fewer students mean shrinking state funding, and the Board of Education proposed a $53.5 million referendum to close and consolidate several schools in order to cut costs. 

Doyle said a housing shortage in La Crosse is also contributing to declining enrollment. Superintendent Aaron Engel agreed, adding that the area around the school district where housing for families with school-aged children can be built is limited and landlocked. 

Private school vouchers and open enrollment have also had a smaller impact on the school district’s declining enrollment, Engel said. 

Last year Doyle co-authored a bill that would have allowed public schools with failed referendums to benefit from the state’s increased revenue limits. That year, he also voted against a bill — passed as part of a compromise between Republican lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers — that increased revenue ceilings for public schools and increased tax funding for private voucher schools at the same time. 

Doyle said that education should be decided locally but funded by the state and that pushing funding to referendum is the worst way to solve budget deficits. All schools need revenue and assistance from the state, and heavy costs shouldn’t be placed on property taxpayers, Doyle said. 

On education, Huebsch supports expanding private school voucher programs and is concerned about children in public schools being taught “the latest educational fad or social justice cause.” His campaign website says he will support policies that give parents oversight on how school funds are spent. 

Child care 

On the issue of child care accessibility, Doyle supports the Wisconsin Shares child care subsidy program, tax credits for child care workers and the Child Care Counts program, which has subsidized child care providers with hundreds of millions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief funds. 

“We can solve a little bit of the problem at the county level, but it really is more of a state issue,” Doyle told Wisconsin Watch. “We have to make it worthwhile for people to go into and to stay in that profession.” 

In 2023, Doyle co-authored a bill that would have created a new child care payment program in addition to the Wisconsin Shares program. It also would have established grants for facilities that provide child care to their employees.

La Crosse County has lost more than 350 child care facilities in the last two decades, and hundreds more have closed across the state. 

Huebsch’s campaign site does not mention plans for child care but states he will vote to lower taxes on individuals.

Health care

The western Wisconsin region is experiencing a shortage of accessible health care in rural areas. Two hospitals and 19 clinics in the area closed this year, leaving thousands without local options for care. 

Doyle said this is just the beginning of rural hospital closures in the state, and Medicaid expansion is “an absolute necessity” but is only part of the solution. The state needs to create financial incentives for doctors to come to and stay at rural hospitals, Doyle said. 

In 2023, Doyle co-sponsored a bill that would have used federal funds to expand BadgerCare, the state’s Medicaid program for low-income adults and families.

Huebsch’s campaign site states he “will support policies that give each of us the opportunity to get the health care we deserve.” 

Housing

La Crosse, like many other parts of Wisconsin, is experiencing an affordable housing shortage.

Doyle said the state is best positioned to deal with workforce housing shortages in Wisconsin by offering incentives to developers to build that kind of housing. In 2023, he co-authored three bills signed into law that incentivize affordable housing projects in the state. 

“If we improve the availability of workforce housing, A: We’re helping people find housing they can afford. B: We’re helping our schools with their declining enrollment. C: We’re putting property on the tax rolls that is going to help balance local budgets,” Doyle said. “It’s a win, win win scenario.”

This year, Doyle authored a bill that would have allowed the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority to offer loans and grants to housing cooperatives for infrastructure improvements. 

Huebsch’s campaign site mentions the price of housing is going up, but doesn’t mention specific plans for affordable housing.

“He will vote to lower the tax burden on each of us and support policies that will encourage investment in jobs and our communities,” Huebsch’s website says.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

Longtime incumbent faces familiar opponent in La Crosse area rematch 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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THE DISTRICT

THE NUTSHELL

Rep. Barb Dittrich, R-Oconomowoc, does not have a general election opponent. She was first elected in 2018 in a different district, but moved into the 99th after the recent redistricting. Dittrich supports private school vouchers, wants restrictions on transgender students playing on women’s sports teams and authored “Kayleigh’s Law” which received bipartisan support and offers victims the chance to be granted lifetime restraining orders against their assailants.

PRIMARY RESULTS

Dittrich won the Republican primary by a comfortable margin and does not face a general election opponent.

READ MORE

Waukesha Freeman: Race for 99th Assembly District ramps up

Assembly stories

Assembly District 99 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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THE DISTRICT

THE NUTSHELL

Rep. Cindi Duchow, R-Delafield, squares off against Democrat Beth Leonard in the Nov. 5 election. Duchow is favored to win due to the partisan composition of the district. Duchow, who has represented the 99th Assembly District since 2015 but was moved into the 97th District after redistricting, is now seeking re-election to cut taxes for retirees and provide government accountability. She serves on the Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety, as well as the Committees on Education, Financial Institutions and Insurance. Leonard does not have any website with listed policy and goals for her campaign.

PRIMARY RESULTS

Both Duchow and Leonard advanced without an opponent.

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Oconomowoc Enterprise: Duchow announces re-election bid for 97th Assembly District

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Assembly District 97 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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THE DISTRICT

THE NUTSHELL

Jim Piwowarczyk, of Hubertus, a former law enforcement officer and a co-founder of conservative news site Wisconsin Right Now, faces Democrat Del Schmechel. Piwowarczyk is campaigning on eliminating the state’s income tax and improving public safety. The district heavily favors the Republican candidate.

PRIMARY RESULTS

Piwowarczyk won the Republican primary by a comfortable margin and will face Schmechel who was uncontested.

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Washington County Daily News: Pridemore announces candidacy for new 98th Assembly District seat

Washington County Daily News: Piwowarczyk announces bid for Assembly District 98 seat

Washington County Daily News: Piwowarczyk and Pridemore to face off for Assembly District 98 seat

Assembly stories

Assembly District 98 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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THE DISTRICT

THE NUTSHELL

Incumbent Rep. Loren Oldenburg, R-Viroqua, faces Tara Johnson of La Crosse. Last year, Oldenburg and other Republicans sponsored an “Iowa-style” redistricting bill, which would have allowed the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau to draw the new maps. Johnson is the former La Crosse County Board chair. Johnson is favored after redistricting shifted the district to be more heavily Democratic.

PRIMARY RESULTS

Johnson soundly won the Democratic primary and will face Oldenberg who was uncontested.

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News8000: Viroqua businessman Steve Campbell intends to bring rural common sense to flip 96th Assembly District

Assembly stories

Assembly District 96 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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THE DISTRICT

THE NUTSHELL

Incumbent Rep. Jill Billings, D-La Crosse, faces a challenge from Republican Cedric Schnitzler in the Nov. 5 election. Billings is favored to win due to the partisan composition of the district. Billings served on the La Crosse County Board for eight years before assuming legislative office in 2011. She has focused on supporting paid family medical leave, Medicaid expansion and environmental protection in La Crosse. She supported Gov. Tony Evers’ funding increases for K-12 public schools and child care. Schnitzler is a lifelong Monroe County resident, raised by his mom, a factory worker, and his dad, a roofer. He has served on the county board for 30 years and is now the Monroe County Board chair. He emphasizes tax cuts for working families, environmental protection and rural broadband expansion.

PRIMARY RESULTS

Both Billings and Schnitzler advanced without an opponent.

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Assembly stories

Assembly District 95 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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THE DISTRICT

THE NUTSHELL

Incumbent Rep. Steve Doyle, D-Onalaska, faces a rematch against Republican Ryan Huebsch, of Onalaska, in the Nov. 5 election. Huebsch lost to Doyle by only 756 votes in 2022. Doyle has represented the 94th District since 2011. He has served on several bipartisan legislative task forces, including one on suicide prevention. Huebsch is endorsed by the La Crosse County sheriff, Wisconsin Right to Life, the NRA and multiple state senators and representatives. His father, Mike Huebsch, previously represented the 94th District for 16 years, served as Assembly speaker and served in Gov. Scott Walker’s cabinet. The district is one to watch as Democrats try to win an Assembly majority.

PRIMARY RESULTS

Both Doyle and Huebsch advanced without an opponent setting up a rematch of the 2022 contest.

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News8000: 94th Assembly District potentially significant in November election

La Crosse Tribune: Onalaska Republican Ryan Huebsch will again seek to unseat Rep. Steve Doyle in 94th Assembly District

Assembly stories

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THE DISTRICT

THE NUTSHELL

Rep. Warren Petryk, R-Town of Washington, decided to retire after serving in the Assembly for over a decade. Christian Phelps of Eau Claire faces James Rolbiecki of Eau Claire. Phelps is a local nonprofit organizer, journalist and education advocate. Rolbiecki works in real estate, but grew up working at his family’s small business. He says he wants to use his entrepreneurial skills to improve the district. Phelps is favored to win after redistricting changed the partisan composition of the district.

PRIMARY RESULTS

Phelps narrowly won the Democratic primary and will face Rolbiecki in the general election.

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WQOW: 93rd Assembly District draws competition; retiring incumbent reflects on service

Assembly stories

Assembly District 93 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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THE DISTRICT

THE NUTSHELL

Incumbent Rep. Clint Moses, R-Menomonie, faces former Rep. Joseph Plouff, D-Menomonie. First elected in 2020, Moses chairs the Assembly Committee on Health, Aging and Long-Term Care. He also serves on the Assembly Agriculture Committee. Plouff served in the Assembly between 1997 and 2005. He’s running again to curb gun violence, protect the environment and “make Wisconsin work for the people.” The race is one to watch as Republicans defend their Assembly majority.

PRIMARY RESULTS

Plouff eked out a win in the Democratic primary and will face Moses in the general election.

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WQOW: Former lawmaker Joe Plouff announces candidacy for 92nd District

WEAU: Caden Berg announces run for the Wisconsin Democratic Party Nomination for the 92nd Assembly District

Assembly stories

Assembly District 92 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.

U.S. Senate | U.S. House | State Senate | Assembly | Constitutional amendments

THE DISTRICT

THE NUTSHELL

Rep. Kristina Shelton, D-Green Bay, chose not to seek reelection. Democrat Amaad Rivera-Wagner, the Green Bay mayor’s chief of staff, is running against Republican Jessica Henderson. Rivera-Wagner serves as the co-chair of the Greater Green Bay Chamber’s Diversity and Inclusion Task Force and is targeting mental health, working families and safer streets as his campaign’s platform. Henderson has a social media page, but it includes no information about her campaign. Rivera-Wagner is favored to win due to the partisan composition of the district.

PRIMARY RESULTS

Both Rivera-Wagner and Henderson advanced without an opponent.

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Green Bay Press Gazette: Green Bay mayor’s chief of staff announces run for 90th Assembly District seat

Assembly stories

Assembly District 90 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.