The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that political parties can raise and spend as much as they want on campaigns. That will change the campaign finance landscape nationwide — but a little less so in Wisconsin, where state parties have been allowed to transfer unlimited money to campaigns for years.
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The Democratic primary for governor in Wisconsin has officially gone negative, with former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes attacking current Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, and Rodriguez responding in kind.
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The Wisconsin Capitol at night. (Isiah Holmes | Wisconsin Examiner)
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), the national organization responsible for helping elect Democrats to state legislatures, announced a slate of six Wisconsin Assembly and three Senate districts they plan to provide support for this session.
The new target seats belong to Republican incumbents facing Democratic challengers or are open due to Republican retirements.
“2026 presents a historic opportunity to fundamentally transform the balance of power in Wisconsin and take control of the legislature,” DLCC President Heather Williams said in a statement.
The organization consulted with the state Legislature’s Democratic caucuses to identify the races. According to the DLCC, the group will provide support and resources for data, research, polling, paid communication and direct voter contact for target seats. In addition, the organization also provides a direct link for fundraising for individual Democratic candidates who are featured on its website.
A first slate of target seats for the midterms was announced in April, comprised of incumbent Democrats running for another term in office in competitive districts including Reps. Joe Sheehan (D-Sheboygan), Ryan Spaude (D-Ashwaubenon), Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire), Steve Doyle (D-Onalaska) and Sen. Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick).
During the 2024 election cycle, the DLCC invested heavily in Wisconsin and six other states.
This year, the organization is hoping to build on that momentum and flip the Senate and Assembly and its first step is identifying target seats. The DLCC has not yet said how much it will spend in upcoming elections.
Democrats currently hold 45 of 99 Assembly seats and 15 of 33 Senate seats, meaning they need to flip at least five Assembly seats and at least two Senate seats to hold majorities next session.
“For over a decade, Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature have rigged their way to power and rubber-stamped Trump’s harmful agenda that’s raising costs, but now the tide is turning as Republicans retire in droves and Democrats build undeniable momentum,” Williams said.
There are a total of 27 states and 42 legislative chambers on the DLCC’s target list this year, though Wisconsin has been identified as one of its top priorities, given the potential to win Democratic majorities for the first time in 16 years and the success in the last election cycle when Democrats flipped 14 legislative seats. The success came after new legislative maps were adopted by the Republican-led Legislature and Gov. Tony Evers following a state Supreme Court decision that found the previous voting maps were an unconstitutional gerrymander.
There have been a number of Republican retirements in Wisconsin this year including both Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R- Rochester), Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) and Sens. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) and Rob Hutton (R-Brookfield), who both represent competitive districts.
Apart from the developments in Wisconsin, the DLCC is looking at Democratic wins in the off-election years as a positive sign for the midterms. According to the DLCC, Republicans failed to flip any state legislative seats in elections since President Donald Trump was elected to a second term in 2024. Since then, Democrats in off-year elections have flipped 30 legislative seats, allowing them to secure a supermajority in New Jersey and flipping 13 seats in Virginia’s state legislative bodies.
Williams said the DLCC would be with Wisconsin candidates “every step of the way until November.”
President Donald Trump's administration had another setback in its attempt to get unredacted voter registration data from Wisconsin. The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals denied its request to rush its case demanding sensitive data like driver license and partial social security numbers.
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An election worker processes mail-in ballots for the California state primary election at the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center on June 05, 2026, in City of Industry, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
A federal judge on Thursday blocked major portions of President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting voting by mail, finding he had exceeded his constitutional authority.
The decision halts, at least until a nearly certain appeal is heard, efforts by the U.S. Postal Service to require states to submit the names of likely mail voters before it delivers ballots. It also stops the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from compiling lists of voting-age citizens in each state.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an appointee of President Barack Obama in Massachusetts, is the first judge to block the March 31 executive order. State and local election officials have raised concerns that its requirements would inject chaos into preparations for the November midterm elections.
Talwani ruled that Trump had asserted too much control over elections in several parts of the order as he directed federal officials to quickly take actions that he argues are needed to prevent noncitizen voting, which rarely occurs.
“The Constitution does not grant the President any specific powers over elections,” Talwani wrote.
The executive order directed Postmaster General David Steiner to put forward a rule requiring states, at least 90 days before a federal election, notify the Postal Service whether they intended to allow ballots to be sent through the mail. States would then have to submit to USPS a list of voters planning to vote by mail at least 60 days before the election.
Talwani wrote that the Postal Service lacks any authorization by Congress to put forward binding regulations on mail-in voting. The Constitution, she wrote, “reserves the power to determine voter eligibility to the States alone.”
The executive order also required the Department of Homeland Security, with help from the Social Security Administration, to compile a list of voting-age U.S. citizens living in each state and then provide that information to state officials at least 60 days before each federal election. The order does not tell states how to use the data.
The list of citizens would be drawn from naturalization and Social Security records, according to the order. It would also include data from SAVE, a powerful computer program maintained by Homeland Security that verifies citizenship by checking names against information in federal databases.
The executive order pointed to no relevant constitutional or legal authority supporting the compilation of the citizenship lists, Talwani wrote. Trump “lacks any authority to compile voter lists for each State,” she wrote.
A day before the decision, Steiner told a U.S. Senate committee that a proposed Postal Service rule to implement the executive order would lead to non-delivery of ballots in states that don’t provide lists of anticipated mail voters — a position condemned by Democrats.
“Today’s decision is a very significant victory for free and fair elections and a defeat for Donald Trump’s vile efforts to make it harder for people to vote,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a statement.
“Once again, the courts have reaffirmed that Trump’s efforts to subvert the election are patently unconstitutional.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement that the Trump administration remains confident the executive order will be implemented by the November election.
“The entire Trump Administration will continue lawfully enacting the agenda President Trump was elected to enact – which includes the safety and security of American elections,” Jackson said.
Trump has suffered a series of setbacks in recent days in his efforts to influence the administration of state-run elections.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that the Department of Justice wasn’t entitled to state voter rolls. Senators also continues to rebuff the president’s attempts to pressure them into passing the SAVE America Act, which would require voters to show documents proving their citizenship.
Talwani’s decision came in a lawsuit brought by Democratic state attorneys general. It is the second major district court ruling over the executive order, after a judge in Washington, D.C., declined to stop the order because the Trump administration hadn’t taken enough action to implement it.
Under Thursday’s decision, federal officials must notify their employees within a week that sweeping portions of the executive order are void.
And on Monday, a judge blocked the use of SAVE to search for noncitizen voters.
The chairman of the Wisconsin Election Commission wants the Attorney General Josh Kaul to push for more than 100,000 absentee ballots from Milwaukee's 2020 election to be destroyed, after the FBI interviewed city officials and police. It comes after the FBI seized 2020 ballots in Georgia earlier this year amid President Donald Trump's repeated false claims the election was stolen.
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State Sen. Kelda Roys is taking her second shot at running for governor. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
State Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) wants voters to know that she has plans and bills.
In Wisconsin’s six-way Democratic contest for the gubernatorial nomination on August 11, Roys says, “It’s a big differentiator in this primary that I have by far the most experience in and around state government.”
“And I don’t just have bullet points that some consultant generated for me,” she adds.
Roys is taking her second shot at running for governor. She came third in the 2018 Democratic primary behind Gov. Tony Evers and Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin, with a campaign centered on abortion rights and an online ad that went viral in which she breastfed one of her children. This year she again faces a crowded primary field.
The five other candidates who will be on voters’ ballots are Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, and former head of Gov. Tony Evers’ Department of Administration Joel Brennan. Missy Huges, former head of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., dropped out Monday.
Roys is betting that the political experience she has gained since her last run can help her break through with primary voters.
In a March Marquette Law School poll, 18% of Wisconsin voters said they recognized her name and 1% of Wisconsin Democratic primary voters said they would vote for her, putting her behind five other candidates and tied with Hughes.
Roys doesn’t put much stock into those results.
“Polls are a reflection of who has spent money and the vast majority of people are not paying attention and will not start paying attention, much to my chagrin…until much later in the summer,” Roys said. In her December campaign finance report, Roys reported raising more than $355,000. The next reports aren’t due until July. “It’s important to be able to have the resources to reach voters and communicate with them when and where they pay attention,” she said.
Roys thinks Democratic voters will ultimately prioritize governing experience and detailed policy proposals in a crowded field and will go her way when they learn about her.
Roys came in third in a straw poll conducted by WisPolitics at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin convention — behind Rodriguez and Hong. Breaking into the top three was a marked improvement compared to her standing in previous polls.
Last week, Roys sought to build on the momentum, investing $500,000 in a statewide ad buy to try to swing voters her way.
In the ad, Roys pulls two of her children along with her on a bike ride through Madison, laying out her experience and talking about her plans for the state.
“For 25 years, I’ve worked to make Wisconsin better for my kids and yours. As a state senator, attorney and small business owner, I’ve delivered for Wisconsin,” Roys says in the ad. “As governor, I’ll protect our democracy from Donald Trump’s regime, lower costs and open the state healthcare plan so anyone can buyin and fully fund our schools. Let’s ride.”
Roys, an attorney who also runs an online real-estate brokerage platform and who previously served as the executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin, often highlights her experience outside government as part of her pitch to voters.
According to a press release, her ad will target Democratic primary voters across the state “based on robust polling and research identifying Roys’ target voters.” She is the second candidate to make a statewide ad buy after Brennan.
Roys, who first was elected to the Senate in 2020 and serves on the Joint Finance Committee, currently represents one of the bluest districts in the state. It includes downtown Madison, the UW–Madison campus and the near-west and east sides of the city.
During the 2025–26 legislative session, Roys authored 177 proposals. Those policy ideas have become the platform of her campaign.
Since joining the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee in 2023, Roys has been deeply involved in state budget debates, though her ability to advance legislation was limited in the Republican-controlled Legislature.
Roys told the Examiner in an interview in April that school funding would be the “defining fight of the next budget.”
She highlighted the legislative record of U.S. Rep Tom Tiffany, the Republican candidate who is running for governor with President Donald Trump’s endorsement. When he was first elected to the Wisconsin Legislature, she said, “He attacked public education and put in the most devastating cuts in the history of the state to public schools. Our kids have never recovered from that.”
Roys says that the state’s projected $2.5 billion budget surplus is money that has been “stolen” from public schools and their students. She, along with other Senate Democrats, voted against a $1.8 billion tax-cut and school-funding deal negotiated by Evers and Republican leaders that would have provided $300 million for special education, $300 rebate checks to taxpayers and property tax relief. She said sending out checks to people would be like setting the surplus on fire.
“This is a last-ditch, desperate attempt by Republicans to try to hold on to their dying power,” Roys said. “I can’t imagine why a Democratic governor would want to go along with that.”
Roys told the Examiner that “our kids getting shortchanged again” is the thing that would make her veto a state budget and that she wants the entire surplus put back into the public school system. She often ties her focus on education to her upbringing in rural Taylor County, where she grew up in a remodeled one-room schoolhouse and attended the local public school.
“It was never contemplated that we wouldn’t be going to public school. We got a great education,” Roys said. Attending one of her child’s parent-teacher conferences recently she said she was struck that “what my kids are getting is just not close to what I had: the class sizes, the learning opportunities. They’ve got one-to-one Chromebooks, but they have art once a week for a third of the year, music is once a week, gym is once a week. It’s not good.”
Her positions on education won her the endorsement of the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) in April. She called it the “most important endorsement that’s going to happen in this Democratic primary.”
“They have the most reach. They have the most resources. They have the moral authority, representing 70,000 educators and public school support professionals across the state of Wisconsin. And people in this state love their public schools,” Roys said, adding that she “earned it because of my policy positions, because of my plans for public education, and because I think they recognized that this election is in some ways existential for our public schools.”
Roys, with one of her five children sitting on her lap, answered questions and discussed prominent issues with a group of teachers at a bar in Muskellounge and Sporting Club in Madison on April 24.
Molly Grupe, a member of WEAC, said she was thrilled the WEAC board took action on the endorsement, saying that waiting too long can blunt the impact and now they can start organizing educators to get out the vote.
“So smart. So quick. So prepared. I mean, she just knows what she’s talking about,” Grupe said. “I just think Kelda is really poised to exercise power as a strong woman and a Democrat. We’ve never had a woman governor in the state, which is crazy.”
“We live in kind of a garbage political culture that values reality TV, aesthetics over competence and substantive knowledge, but I actually think that's pretty bad for a governor.
– Sen. Kelda Roys
Kelly Peggy Sullivan, the vice president of the Monona Grove Education Association who helped organize educators for the Friday event, said she was happy to bring people out to learn more about Roys’ campaign.
Sullivan said “funding cuts and voucher schools and de-professionalizing parts of our profession” has had an impact on schools, and that there needs to be a candidate who’s going to prioritize public education and make schools stronger for children.
“It’s very clear that she has some of the best understanding of what we’re dealing with on a day to day basis, and what we’ve kind of struggled with over the last 15 years with the Republicans in control,” Sullivan said.
Roys has said she wants to bring the state’s voucher program to a “responsible” end. She has said she has a three-step plan.
“I’m not calling for immediate elimination but we are spending nearly $700 million each year on unaccountable, discriminatory, non-transparent voucher programs that the evidence shows on balance perform no better than public schools.” Roys said.
The plan includes implementing additional accountability, transparency and nondiscrimination requirements for any private or charter school that receives public funds; no longer covering the costs for students enrolled in the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program; and then slowly ending the Milwaukee and Racine Parental Choice Programs over the span of about 20 years.
Roys said that under her plan students currently participating in the Milwaukee and Racine Parental Choice Programs and their siblings would be able to complete their education in the program, but additional students would not be able to enroll.
“These are kids who have already faced some significant challenges and it would be highly disruptive to just make them change schools…We know that having a stable school environment is important for them,” Roys said. “Over time, as these kids… graduate, you are gradually reducing the number of kids who are enrolling in voucher programs. At the same time, you’re increasing the capacity and the quality of the public schools, so that more and more Milwaukee parents will feel excited about their kids attending the public schools in their district.”
Roys added that any voucher school would have the option to convert to a public instrumentality charter school if they wanted to continue to receive public funds even as the voucher program ended.
Roys said understanding how state government is structured and funded is essential to advancing priorities including expanding healthcare and childcare access and reducing costs for families.
“We live in kind of a garbage political culture that values reality TV, aesthetics over competence and substantive knowledge, but I actually think that’s pretty bad for a governor,” Roys said.
Roys also served in the state Assembly, the last time Democrats held a trifecta in Wisconsin. Her legislative experience is shaping her plans for how she would approach the job as Wisconsin’s top executive, especially as Democrats are seeking to flip the Assembly and Senate this year.
Roys supports providing universal access to early childhood education by ensuring that no family pays more than 7% of their income for childcare. She says that can be done by expanding the Wisconsin Shares program to bring in more federal money and legalizing and taxing cannabis. She said the working title for her program is “get baked for babies.”
To help Wisconsinites struggling with high costs, Roys has said she wants to increase the minimum wage. She has co-authored legislation that would place the minimum wage, currently $7.25 an hour, at $15 an hour with a path to make it $20 by 2030. Another of Roys’ proposals, which she is hoping differentiates her from other candidates focused on expanding Medicaid and a public option, is opening up the state employee health insurance plan to allow private citizens and businesses to buy into coverage. She’s calling it “KeldaCare.”
Roys began circulating a cosponsorship memo for the idea in bill form as SB 1096 on Feb. 12. She announced the campaign platform the same day. A Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo on the bill warns that the plan could reduce the state’s “bargaining leverage” with health insurance companies and could “increase administrative complexity and increase premium volatility.”
Roys has said she would “restore” the top tax rate as governor so the state’s wealthiest pay more. In 2013, Wisconsin’s highest individual income tax rate was 7.75% before being reduced to 7.65% under Republican lawmakers.
“It’s not fair for working people and retirees and the middle class and young people just starting out to have to pay our fair share of taxes and the wealthiest among us don’t. It’s not fair for small businesses to bear the brunt of providing public services,” Roys said. “Meanwhile big multinational corporations, not only do they not pay their fair share… oftentimes, we’re shoveling money at them. We’re giving them huge tax credits.”
While Roys has positioned herself as a sharp critic of Republicans and the Trump administration, she said she would still work with lawmakers across the aisle as governor.
“I understand that as governor — this is no kings. So this is going to be an open discussion that I am going to have as we craft the budget together with public input and public oversight, and in conjunction with the Legislature who are governing partners,” Roys said.
Roys noted in an interview that she hasn’t always agreed with people in her own party. “I believe that my job is to do what I think is right to the best of my ability after listening to the people whom I represent, which I always consider to be the entire state of Wisconsin.” She ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012, losing to now-U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, and took a shot at becoming the Senate minority leader in 2023, losing to now-Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton).
Roys has sought to position herself as the firebrand candidate who will be able to take on the Trump administration. If she makes it through the primary, she’ll need to win in a purple state where statewide elections are often decided by a razor-thin margin of about 20,000 votes, including when Trump won the state in 2024.
Roys told the Examiner that her strong positions will help her in Wisconsin, not hurt.
“The most important thing right now is that we are in a really scary and pivotal moment for this country,” Roys said. During the campaign, Roys has confronted Tiffany’s support of Trump, including at one of his press conferences outside the state Capitol that she filmed and made into a campaign ad.
“People want a proven fighter. Someone new or inexperienced and a mealy-mouthed moderate is not going to cut it in this moment… If we have someone that isn’t capable of being aggressive and making Tom Tiffany accountable for his horrible record of hurting Wisconsinites… we’re not gonna win.”
Editor’s note: The Examiner is running periodic profiles of the contenders in the Aug. 11, 2026 gubernatorial primary as well as the candidates in the general election Nov. 3.
Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein, who similar to U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany drank from a glass of milk as she took questions, said Senate Democrats are targeting four seats to flip this year — two more than they need to win a majority. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hessenbein (D-Middleton) said legislative Democrats, who are seeking to win majorities for the first time in more than 15 years, are talking about their priorities for the next session including school funding and affordable housing.
Hesselbein said at an event hosted by WisPolitics on Tuesday that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), who is retiring, has had a “stranglehold” for a long time and that she hopes new leadership will lead to “new ideas and a real true willingness to work together to get things done for the state of Wisconsin.” Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) is not running for another term in office either.
Hesselbein said Senate Democrats are targeting four seats to flip this year — two more than they need to win a majority. Republicans currently hold 17 of the 33 Senate seats, and half are up for election this year in newly drawn districts.
The seats include Senate District 5, an open district currently represented by retiring Sen. Rob Hutton (R-Brookfield), Senate District 17, currently represented by incumbent Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green), Senate District 21, an open district currently represented by Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine), and Senate District 25, an open district currently represented by Sen. Romaine Quinn, who plans to run in a different district this year.
Hesselbein noted that in 2024 people said Senate Democrats were “too ambitious” in targeting five seats even with the new maps, yet they won all five in a year when President Donald Trump carried Wisconsin while Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin won a third term.
Hesselbein addressed the public falling-out between legislative Democrats and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers over a tax cut and school funding deal the governor reached with Republicans and most lawmakers refused to support.
Hesselbein said during the event that it was the “overall package” that made Senate Democrats vote against it and there were no political calculations involved. She said it was “unsustainable.”
Democrats will have more say in how the state’s $2.5 billion budget surplus is spent because of the deal’s failure.
Hesselbein confirmed that she was not involved in the negotiation process and it was hard to think about “hypotheticals” that would have made her caucus support the deal. This is not the first time Democratic votes have been needed in the Republican-majority Senate to pass a proposal because a handful of Republicans have opposed legislation.
After the deal failed, Evers said he was sure Hesselbein had “people wrapped around her finger by giving them jobs that they want” next legislative session. The majority leader gets to decide who gets which committee assignments in the Senate.
Sounding the same note as Evers in his unity address at the convention, Hesselbein said that Democrats are moving forward and that there are no hard feelings remaining after her caucus’ rejection of a Evers’ bill. She said her caucus is united in wanting to ensure the financial health of the state.
“Evers has done a good job for the state of Wisconsin,” she said.
“It’s been good,” Hesselbein said of the relationship between lawmakers and Evers.
On whether there could be another attempt to get a tax cut and spending deal passed, Hesselbein said “never say never” and that her “door is always open.” She added that no one has tried to contact her recently about the issue.
Hesselbein said some of the big priorities for a Democratic Senate include “funding K-12 education, doing something meaningful for childcare, making sure that no matter where you live in the state of Wisconsin that you can afford a home.” Other issues, she said, are healthcare and the environment.
Hesselbein said it would be a goal in the next state budget to fund schools so they can make financial plans while taking some of the burden off property taxpayers.
“People really care about their community schools,” Hesselbein said. “They are sick and tired of these school boards…having to go to referendum over and over because they want to keep the lights on. We have schools closing all over Wisconsin and that’s a big problem.”
Hesselbein called the funding formula “convoluted” and said that some Senate and Assembly Democrats recently started meeting to look at the state’s funding formula, including looking at how other states structure their funding. She said they want to bring in people from the Department of Public Instruction and Bob Lang of the Legislative Fiscal Bureau to help.
“Is there something else that other states do that makes more sense than what we’re doing and what does that look like?” Hesselbein said she wants to ask.
On specific questions about school funding, Hesselbein was noncommittal.
“It might be something that we can’t get right now… but we’re starting to look at that. We’re starting to think of those things right now to figure out what we can do to make it more sustainable and equitable.”
Hesselbein said declining enrollment is a challenge for schools, but a bigger problem is that the state isn’t adequately funding schools. She said the state “possibly” relies on property taxes too much to fund schools, adding “but how else do you come up with it?”
“That’s the kind of conversations we’re having right now to figure it out,” she said.
Hesselbein also did not commit to offering free school meals as the state of Minnesota has done.
“It’s pretty darn expensive. We’re not sure if we’re going to be able to get all the way there,” she said, adding that the caucus is trying to figure out “what do we want to get done and how do we get there.”
Hesselbein said Democrats are beginning conversations with developers and realtors about how to ensure that people can work and afford a home in Wisconsin.
“We’re just now starting those conversations now to figure out what we can do,” she said.
The Knowles-Nelson Conservation program is on track to sunset in June. Hesselbein said she is disappointed that Republicans and Democrats could not agree on a bill to reauthorize the program. She said there was only a “30-second” conversation about the popular land conservation program during the negotiations on the rejected tax rebate and school funding package.
“We absolutely need it. Knowles-Nelson has been around for so long and it’s worked so well making sure we have green spaces in the state of Wisconsin to enjoy,” Hesselbein said. “If Democrats are in charge and we have a Democratic trifecta, Knowles-Nelson will be back.”
Wisconsin will also have a new governor next year, who will help shape the state alongside new legislative leaders.
The seven Democrats who will appear on the August primary ballots include Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, state Sen. Kelda Roys, former Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. CEO Missy Hughes, former head of Gov. Tony Evers’ Department of Administration Joel Brennan and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes.
Hesselbein said it is “exciting” there are so many choices.
She added that she, like other Democrats, hasn’t made up her mind about who she will vote for in August. She said she also does not know whether she’ll endorse anyone in the primary for governor, noting that she has served with several of the candidates in the Legislature including Roys, Hong, Rodriguez, Crowley and Barnes. She also said she wants to hear them debate. A candidate debate is scheduled for July 28, hosted by WISN-12.
“They’re all really good people,” Hesselbein said.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany is running on the Republican side with the endorsement of President Donald Trump and the state party.
Hesselbein said having a competitive primary is a good thing, noting that Evers won a crowded primary in 2018 and went on to win two terms in office.
“I think it really lets the people of Wisconsin decide who they want to be supporting in the November election,” Hesselbein said. “I think it’s too bad that the Republicans put their thumb on the scale and Trump did in endorsing Tiffany early, I think it would’ve been better for them to have a robust primary as well.”
Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein said Tuesday that she’d be willing to revisit negotiations over spending the state surplus. But nobody has asked her about it.
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This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.
As three alleged planners of Wisconsin’s fake elector scheme pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 11 forgery-related criminal charges in Dane County court, the criminal charges against them are moving forward in a national legal and political landscape that looks dramatically different from the one in which they were filed.
When Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed the charges in June 2024, Joe Biden was president, Donald Trump was battling a criminal case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and state prosecutors in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, and Nevada were bringing criminal cases tied to the fake elector scheme.
That scheme arose in the aftermath of the 2020 election, when Trump allies tried to keep him in power despite his loss. Those allies, who became known as fake or false electors, attempted to cast electoral votes for Trump in multiple states he lost and submit those certificates to Congress.
Now, as the three defendants in the Wisconsin case await trial, the case enters what is expected to be a lengthy legal process. It will unfold as Trump has regained the presidency, and he and his allies are undertaking extensive efforts to rewrite what happened in the 2020 election.
Since returning to office, Trump has issued a federal pardon to those involved in the 2020 scheme, and his administration has sent the FBI to investigate the 2020 election in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
The federal criminal case against Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election has been dismissed. And, until recently, his administration had plans to allocate $1.8 billion to compensate people it claimed had been unfairly prosecuted by the federal government, raising questions about whether participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and those involved in the fake elector schemes could receive taxpayer funds.
Other state cases have also faltered. Georgia’s election interference case has been dismissed, though not before the prosecution secured some guilty pleas from Trump’s allies. Michigan’s false elector case has also been dismissed. Arizona’s remains unresolved after a major setback for the prosecution, and Nevada’s just resumed after its Supreme Court revived charges that a lower court had thrown out.
Kaul faced criticism for filing his charges so late — it was the last criminal case to be filed regarding the fake electors. But two years later, that timing has left Wisconsin’s as one of the last cases standing in the broader, mostly failed effort to prosecute Trump and his allies for their attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
“The direction of activity has completely flipped, from prosecuting the people who were disrupting the election or inhibiting the normal flow of events to now going after Trump’s adversaries,” said Barry Burden, a UW-Madison political science professor who founded the Elections Research Center.
The Trump administration’s new investigation into the 2020 election in Wisconsin and elsewhere, Burden said, “seems to be a targeted effort at people who were mostly upholding the law and trying to administer an election in a very difficult environment.”
Amid the federal government’s current activity, and nearly six years removed from the 2020 election, Burden said any guilty finding in the Wisconsin fake elector case would likely have a muted effect.
“If we wanted the public to believe that there were ramifications for that kind of unlawful behavior, it would have to happen quickly and publicly, and feel like it was an immediate response to what people had done after the 2020 election,” he said. “But that’s not where we are six years later.”
The Wisconsin criminal case is still in its preliminary stages. Although it was filed two years ago, a number of motions and an appeal have set the case back significantly.
The defendants — former Dane County Judge Jim Troupis, who was Trump’s Wisconsin campaign attorney in 2020; attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who advised Trump on legal matters; and former Trump aide Mike Roman — each face 11 felony charges for his part in allegedly guiding Wisconsin’s 10 fake electors to send documents to the U.S. Capitol falsely stating that Trump had won Wisconsin in the 2020 election.
All entered not-guilty pleas on Tuesday during a brief proceeding attended by a couple dozen people in attendance in the several pews in the back of the courtroom.
Chesebro and Roman appeared virtually. Troupis, who briefly worked in the same courthouse where he was arraigned, was there in person. He showed little emotion during the quick arraignment but smiled as he greeted supporters afterward. He told the press after the proceeding that he didn’t have anything to say.
The 10 false electors from 2020 aren’t defendants in the current case, but they separately settled a civil lawsuit in Wisconsin by acknowledging that Biden won the 2020 election and pledging not to violate election laws in the future.
Chesebro and Troupis separately reached a settlement in that case, turning over a trove of documents outlining their role in 2020 and agreeing not to participate in similar schemes in future elections.
Text messages and emails show that Chesebro was a primary architect behind the 2020 plan to have Wisconsin’s GOP electors attest that Trump won the state while Trump’s court challenges seeking to overturn the election were still ongoing. Troupis discussed that plan with the Trump campaign, and Roman helped craft the language of the documents Republicans planned to send to the Capitol from states that Biden won.
Troupis has since asked the federal government to reimburse him $3.2 million from the proposed $1.8 billion fund, saying his life has been a “nightmare” since he stepped up to represent Trump.
“My experience is a poster-child for what weaponization can do,” he wrote in a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, adding that “the entire legal system is at risk if compensation is not paid.”
Attorneys for Chesebro and Roman didn’t respond to requests for comment, and Troupis’ attorney declined to comment.
Burden said it is striking that the case is still ongoing nearly six years after the election, but he said the conduct at issue remains extraordinary.
“These were among the most serious challenges to elections we’ve seen in modern times,” Burden said.
“To think that there might be no ramifications of that really would be shocking,” he said, “and, I think, at odds with how the American criminal justice system has typically operated.”
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin’s free newsletter here.
Alleged Wisconsin fake elector accomplices plead not guilty as Trump seeks to rewrite 2020 election 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.
President Donald Trump's administration is continuing its effort to force the Wisconsin Elections Commission to turn over unredacted Wisconsin voter data after being rebuked by a federal judge last month.
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Seven Democrats made their case for how they’ll make Wisconsin more affordable and how they can beat Tiffany in November.
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An election worker processes mail-in ballots for the June 2, 2026 California state primary election at the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center on June 5, 2026 in City of Industry, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
California often takes days or even weeks to tally votes after its elections, a product of measures to protect voters and a deluge of mail ballots dropped off on Election Day. Incomplete vote totals reported in the hours after polls close don’t always reflect final results.
None of this is evidence of fraud. But President Donald Trump has spent more than a week baselessly alleging malfeasance in California’s June 2 primary election, in which votes were still being counted as of June 11, offering a window into how he may approach the November midterm elections.
Trump has claimed repeatedly, without evidence, that Democrats are stealing the election, even though the state is a party stronghold. California’s long count is a well-known feature of its elections, with election officials given about a month to process and tally all ballots.
Democrats and experts on elections aren’t surprised by Trump’s statements, saying he is turning to familiar tactics in an effort to discredit unfavorable results.
“Whenever they don’t like the outcome of an election, they spread lies about the election,” said David Becker, president and CEO of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research and a former attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice Voting Rights Section.
After the 2020 election, Trump allies mounted a legal campaign to overturn the president’s losses in key battleground states, citing nonexistent fraud. When that failed, GOP lawmakers raised objections certifying President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. Finally, Trump rallied a crowd of supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, that went on to storm the Capitol.
Trump continually cast the election as stolen during that period — a theme he’s returned to in hammering on California.
“The Dumocrats are at it again!” Trump wrote in a social media post on June 3. “They are trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS.”
The U.S. Department of Justice is following the president’s lead. The top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles has linked suspicions about California’s elections to the state’s refusal to turn over its unredacted voter roll, which includes sensitive personal data on residents.
The Justice Department has sued California and 29 other states to gain access to the data, which it plans to feed into a Department of Homeland Security computer program that can identify possible noncitizen voters. So far, no federal judge has agreed the DOJ is entitled to the information.
The voter roll lawsuits are part of a proactive campaign by the Trump administration to exert influence and control over the midterms before voting begins.
The president has signed an executive order restricting mail ballots that currently faces multiple lawsuits. And Trump wants Congress to require voters to show documents proving their citizenship, but the legislation has stalled in the Senate.
The stakes of the midterm elections are high for Trump and Republicans. Democrats retaking the House or the Senate or even both would mean the end of his legislative agenda and more aggressive oversight of the administration.
At the same time, Americans’ confidence in elections is declining. Two-thirds of U.S. adults say they are confident or very confident that their state or local government will conduct a fair and accurate election, down from 76% in October 2024, according to a March poll conducted by Marist University.
The 2026 House landscape — and Trump’s past comments — suggest he may direct his ire at additional states in November.
For instance, of the 18 House races that the nonpartisan Cook Political Report with Amy Walter categorizes as a “toss up”, three are in Pennsylvania, a swing state that Trump alleged was the site of election fraud in 2020 (he won the state in 2024).
California has its own “toss up” House race and an additional three only lean Democratic, meaning they remain competitive. After California, Texas and other states gerrymandered their congressional maps in recent months, control of the House could again run through California.
“It’s been pretty clear to all of us that Republicans are laying the groundwork to do anything, and they will say anything, to hold power,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, a California Democrat, said at a news conference on June 9.
States Newsroom asked the White House to provide evidence substantiating Trump’s fraud claims in California. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson responded with a statement that didn’t directly answer the question.
“Countless Americans share the same concerns as President Trump watching the way California conducts its elections, including taking weeks to deliver results,” the statement says in part.
California’s slow vote count dates back years and is driven by multiple factors. California, along with seven other states, sends mail ballots to all voters. In a statewide special election last year, nearly 89% of voters cast their ballot that way.
This creates a flood of ballots arriving at election offices in the days leading up to and on Election Day, along with large numbers of voters who drop off their ballots in person. Voter signatures must be checked on ballot envelopes, adding more behind-the-scenes work that slows down election workers.
Voters with an issue related to their ballot, such as a missing signature or signature mismatch, also have an opportunity to correct the problem. The process, called ballot curing, adds more time.
Additionally, California has a week-long grace period for ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but arrive late, creating a trickle of votes that come into election offices days after polls have closed.
The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to deliver an opinion soon that could strike down these grace periods nationwide, though such a decision could compound the ballot pileup on Election Day as voters move to get their ballots in sooner.
Evoking an image of a snake digesting a large meal, Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, likened the arrival of ballots on Election Day to “the thing in the python.” Her nonprofit group has long advocated for improvements to the state’s election process, including a faster count.
“While I am dismayed by the unfair criticism being placed on California, I’m more concerned about voter confidence being undermined, not just by those fraudulent claims but also by the long count itself,” Alexander said.
The demand to know the winners of races on election night has been fueled by modern media, as news services and TV networks declare race winners. But these calls are almost always based on incomplete vote totals, and often rely on mathematical analyses of whether enough votes remain uncounted for other candidates to have a realistic chance of winning.
Candidates are officially declared winners by canvassing boards and other election officials in the days and weeks following the election, depending on each state’s procedures. Often election night vote totals match the actual outcome of a race, but not always — a gap Trump is now exploiting to claim fraud.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in May sent a letter to election officials that almost appeared to anticipate the reaction to the June primary and called for quick and accurate vote tabulation.
“Time is of the essence in preventing election lies from taking hold,” Newsom wrote.
While California’s slow process is normal for the state, Trump allies have latched onto it — conflating the pace of the count with evidence of wrongdoing, even if they aren’t always as explicit as the president in accusing Democrats of trying to steal the election.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said during an exchange with a CNN reporter on Monday that while he wasn’t saying the election was rigged, it “stinks to high heaven.”
“Whether you can prove fraud or not, it does undermine voter integrity in the vote,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, said of the slow count at a news conference.
But Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, analogized the vote counting to a football game. The vote totals available on election night represent the score at half time — but the final score at the end of the game will be different.
“It doesn’t mean there’s fraud, it just means the game was completed,” Lieu told reporters. “That’s what we’re seeing right now, we’re completing the vote count. And then we’re going to see who wins and who loses.”
Two Democrats will compete in the August primary to challenge Republican state Treasurer John Leiber in November's election. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Two Democrats are running to challenge state Treasurer John Leiber, the only Republican who currently holds a constitutional office in Wisconsin, in November.
The Wisconsin State Constitution established the office of state treasurer, which is the state’s chief financial officer. The treasurer serves on the Wisconsin Investment Board, the Public Employee Trust Fund and the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands (BCPL). The BCPL also oversees the Common School Fund, which is the fund used to purchase library books and other instructional materials for schools and has grown into a $1.6 billion trust.
Leiber, first elected in 2022, is running for his second term in office this year. During his first campaign for the office, Leiber committed to not expanding the scope of the office’s responsibilities and has said he plans to continue that in another term.
“You can count on me to continue administering this office without growing government and without using it as a stepping stone to another office,” Leiber states on his campaign website.
Leiber’s commitment was a change from the previous treasurer, current Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski. Godlewski fought a Republican campaign to pass a constitutional amendment eliminating the office before she was elected and sought to expand its scope while she held it.
“As a fiscal conservative, I’m proud of my work safeguarding and growing our investments,” Leiber said in his reelection announcement. “The Common School Fund distributes money annually to K-12 school libraries for materials and technology. This is the only dedicated funding for school libraries statewide and my top priority is to ensure the fund continues to thrive in the future.”
Leiber was endorsed by the Republican Party of Wisconsin at its convention last month. He was brief in asking for the endorsement.
“I want to keep working for you. I know I can win. I did it four years ago and I want to keep working for every Republican,” Leiber said.
Yee Leng Xiong, a Marathon Co. supervisor and school board member, and Dylan Helmenstine, a Black Earth village board trustee and local school board member, are seeking the chance to oust Leiber. Voters will decide in the Aug. 11 primary which of them will advance to the general election.
“Most people don’t know what the State Treasurer does — and that’s exactly the problem,” Xiong said in his campaign announcement. “This office isn’t ceremonial. It’s a responsibility. The Treasurer helps oversee Wisconsin’s school trust funds, supports low-interest loans that help communities build infrastructure, and works to return unclaimed money to families. Wisconsin deserves a Treasurer who has actually managed public budgets and understands how every dollar affects real people.”
Xiong has served as a member of the Marathon County Board since 2016 and currently serves as the vice chair of the public safety committee and on the county’s health and human services committee and the board of health. Xiong also currently serves as treasurer of the DC Everest School Board.
Xiong lost a campaign for the state Assembly in 2024 against a longtime Republican incumbent.
If elected, Xiong would be the first Hmong American to serve in a statewide position in Wisconsin. He previously served as the executive director of the Hmong American Center.
According to his campaign website, Xiong’s priorities for the office include protecting and growing the school trust fund, strengthening efforts to return unclaimed property to Wisconsinites and promoting financial literacy programs.
Xiong has been endorsed by U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin as well as other Wisconsin Democrats including former Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton, state Reps. Christine Sinicki, Jodi Emerson, Lori Palmeri, Andrew Hysell, Tara Johnson and Brienne Brown.
Baldwin said in a statement that Xiong has spent his career “managing public dollars responsibly and delivering for the people he serves.”
“He brings real budget experience from the school board, the county board, and the nonprofit world, and he understands that the Treasurer’s job is to be an independent watchdog for Wisconsin taxpayers,” Baldwin said in a statement. “He’ll protect our school trust funds, return unclaimed money to families who earned it and bring accountability to an office that demands it.”
Helmenstine launched his campaign in November, saying that he’ll use the office to boost transparency, including for schools, and help people stay informed about the state laws and finances.
According to his campaign website, Helmenstine would seek to create a publicly available digital budget dashboard, work with other leaders to establish task forces to address healthcare costs, housing affordability, datacenter impacts and educational opportunities. He also said he wants to employ interns and fellows in the office to help them gain experience in government transparency and accountability. He said he views Godlewski’s time in office as “the gold standard” and wants to “carry on that mission to always be working to build a better future for working people in Wisconsin.”
Helmenstine supports local efforts to give taxpayers more information about how much of their tax bill goes to support the state’s school voucher program. Green Bay became the first municipality in the state to add the cost of private voucher schools as a line on residents’ property tax bills in 2025.
“Green Bay built the blueprint for how we can be transparent with taxpayers. People should know how much of our money is going towards public education and how much is going to private vouchers,” Helmenstine said in a statement. “We are already in a moment of crisis for school funding. With enrollment caps ending, Wisconsin schools are facing even more pressure. When the majority in the state legislature fails to act, statewide offices need to work with our local communities and fill the gap.”
Helmenstine, who grew up in Black Earth, serves as a village board trustee and also served on the Wisconsin Heights School Board. He was appointed in 2024 by Gov. Tony Evers to serve on the Teacher’s Retirement Board, which oversees the Employee Trust Funds and the State of Wisconsin Investment Board staff.
Helmenstine is endorsed by state Sen. Tim Carpenter, Rep. Alex Joers and Milwaukee Ald. Peter Burgelis, who is running for Congress.
A Republican running for Wisconsin's deep red 7th Congressional District has lost her attempt to keep two GOP challengers, including one endorsed by President Donald Trump, off the primary ballot in August.
The post Jessi Ebben fails to keep GOP, Democratic rivals off 7th Congressional District primary ballot appeared first on WPR.
Attorneys for Jim Troupis, who served as President Donald Trump's 2020 Wisconsin campaign lawyer, are arguing that Troupis cannot receive a fair trial in Madison. They're asking for his criminal trial to be moved out of Dane County.
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Ballot (Getty Images)
The Wisconsin Elections Commission met Tuesday to adjudicate more than a dozen challenges to the nominating signatures of candidates for the Legislature, U.S. Congress and Secretary of State.
During Tuesday’s more than three-hour meeting, the commission largely rejected the candidacy challenges and approved candidates’ efforts to place their names on the ballot. The challenge process gives opponents and political parties a chance to disqualify a candidate before any votes are even cast. Anyone is able to challenge a candidate’s nomination papers — usually on the grounds that the signatures are missing information, not collected from within the proper district, that the forms include errors or the candidate did not fully comply with the nomination requirements.
Because the challenge process represents a chance for candidates to reduce their competition, challenges are sometimes made to try to winnow out potential primary candidates or get an opposing party candidate off the November ballot.
Earlier this week, right-wing radio host Dan O’Donnell reported that in a “highly unusual move” the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee had filed challenges against two incumbent Assembly Democrats — Milwaukee Reps. Russell Goodwin and Sylvia Ortiz-Velez.
Both Goodwin and Ortiz-Velez have at times been at odds with the rest of the Assembly Democratic caucus. Goodwin voted with Republicans on anti-trans legislation while Ortiz-Velez has frequently clashed with Democratic leadership in the chamber.
The ADCC denied that it challenged Goodwin’s candidacy and records show that the challenge to his nominating papers came from his primary opponent Jordan Roman, who alleged that Goodwin’s papers included addresses that didn’t exist and forged signatures. The commission found that those allegations couldn’t be proven and approved Goodwin’s candidacy.
However Morgan Hess, the ADCC’s executive director, did file and then withdrew a challenge to Ortiz-Velez’s nominating papers, WEC records show.
Hess also filed challenges against Republican candidates in the suburban Milwaukee Assembly Districts 9 and 21 and in the Stevens Point area Assembly District 71. The only successful challenge was against Veronica Diaz, a Republican attempting to run in AD 21, who was disqualified from the ballot because 10 of her signatures came from people outside of the district and she didn’t file the proper paperwork declaring her candidacy and disclosing her financial information with the state Ethics Commission. Diaz’s papers were also challenged by her primary opponent Zach Pfaffenbach.
Challenges were also made in a number of congressional races.
In the 3rd Congressional District, where Democrats are seeking to unseat incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden in a closely contested race, the state Republican party filed a challenge against Rustin Provance, who is running for the seat as an independent.
The party argued that Provance should be disqualified because he used the state’s standard declaration of candidacy form, which includes a line in which candidates swear they’ve never been convicted of a felony — because state law prevents convicted felons from holding state or local office. There is no similar prohibition for federal candidates, and Provance has been convicted of a felony and has publicly referenced his conviction on his campaign materials.
In the challenge, the party argued that Provance had falsified his information by signing and filing the declaration with the non-felony conviction line included. WEC denied the challenge and granted Provance access to the ballot.
In the 6th Congressional District, Brian Norby, the chair of the Jefferson County Republican Party, filed a challenge against Democrat Elizabeth Anne Fitzgibbon — arguing that her invalid signatures included college students at UW-Oshkosh whose address was only listed as the residence hall they live in.
WEC denied the challenge on the grounds that those students’ mail can be delivered with just the dorm listed instead of a street address.
In the 8th Congressional District, the Republican Party of Brown County and Democratic primary candidate Rick Crosson filed challenges against Democratic candidate Mark Scheffler, arguing that Scheffler’s signatures were collected on the wrong forms and listed the wrong election date.
WEC denied the challenges and granted Scheffler access.
In the 2022 election, Democrats challenged the ballot access of Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels because of confusion over which municipality should be listed as his residence on the papers. Michels was allowed to get on the ballot.
In this year’s governor’s race, no official challenges were made against any candidate’s nominating papers. But left-wing political gadfly and Minocqua Brewing Company owner Kirk Bangstad was officially denied access to the ballot Tuesday after the commission voted to certify that he only turned in 1,504 of the required 2,000 valid signatures.
Bangstad’s initial nominating papers had a number of problems, including circulators omitting their municipality of residence and missing or incorrect dates. Bangstad filed 15 affidavits in an effort to correct his errors, but WEC did not agree that the errors were fixed.
This year, the only statewide race to see nomination challenges was the contest for Secretary of State. Challenges were made against Republicans Nathan Pollnow and Cindy Werner and Democrat Eileen Newcomer. Pollnow and Werner were approved but Newcomer was denied access to the ballot because her papers included a number of duplicated signatures.
WEC is scheduled to meet again Wednesday afternoon to consider more ballot challenges in races for which the incumbent is not seeking re-election but didn’t file a declaration of non-candidacy.
Hess, the ADCC’s director, filed a challenge against Jon Aleckson, a Republican running to replace Rep. Jenna Jacobson (D-Oregon) in south central Wisconsin’s Assembly District 50. In the race to fill Rep. Tom Tiffany’s open 7th Congressional District seat, Republican Jessi Ebben filed challenges against Republicans Michael Alonso and Kevin Hermening and Democrat Fred Clark.
WEC is scheduled to meet at 3 p.m. Wednesday.
The city and county of Milwaukee are seeking outside legal counsel to help with any federal actions related to the 2020 election.
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A group of retired judges asked the state's highest court to consider changing rules that govern when judges should step down from a case because of conflicts of interest.
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Barnes, an avid runner and biker, told the Examiner in an interview that politics is an “endurance sport” and that “sometimes you face setbacks” — adding that he faced setbacks every day in the Assembly and views his w loss to Johnson as another setback. There is too much on the line, however, to give up and stop working toward his goals, he said. Barnes speaks to a bike shop owner in Madison. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
At a forum hosted by the Madison West High School civics club, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes told students that he would be the strongest Democratic candidate for governor because of his previous statewide experience.
“This will be an incredibly competitive race. It already is. The general election is going to show up fast and furious,” Barnes said in April. “I am the only person who has ever competed at that level.”
Barnes was referring to his 2022 U.S. Senate race, which he lost to Sen. Ron Johnson by about one percentage point. Barnes is now seeking Wisconsin’s top executive office and arguing that nearly winning that Senate seat combined with his statewide experience has uniquely prepared him to take on U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, Republican candidate for governor endorsed by President Donald Trump.
Barnes entered the race in December and he’ll need to get through a crowded Democratic primary to make it onto the November ballot. It’s unlikely the rest of the Democratic candidates will drop out to clear the field for him as they did in the 2022 Senate race. Other Democratic candidates on the ballot include state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, former Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. CEO Missy Hughes, former head of Gov. Tony Evers’ Department of Administration Joel Brennan and State Sen. Kelda Roys.
Barnes, 39, grew up in Milwaukee the child of a public school teacher and an auto worker who was a member of United Auto Workers (UAW) union and worked third shift for decades. He first ran for office at 25, winning a seat in the state Assembly. He served two terms in the Legislature before launching a failed campaign for the state Senate.
“I felt that there weren’t enough people who understood what it meant to be born in our state’s poorest and nation’s most incarcerated ZIP code,” Barnes said of his motivation for seeking political office. He came back in 2018 to run for lieutenant governor, winning a spot on the ticket with Gov. Tony Evers in 2018. He served as the state’s first Black lieutenant governor before he challenged incumbent U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson.
Barnes, an avid runner and biker, told the Examiner in an interview that politics is an “endurance sport” and that “sometimes you face setbacks” — adding that he faced setbacks every day in the Assembly and views his loss to Johnson as another setback. There is too much on the line, however, to give up and stop working toward his goals, he said.
“In order for us to truly make Wisconsin the place that it can and should be — not just to catch up to our Midwest neighbors, but to lead this entire country in terms of progress — I have put in that work. I have put in that fight, and there’s nobody who’s put in their work in the advocacy space,” more than he has, Barnes said. “I see becoming governor as the best opportunity to continue that focus, to continue that work.”
Barnes has made it his campaign motto that he will do things the “Wisconsin Way” instead of the “Washington Way.” He criticizes Trump and his ally Tiffany as being “out of control.”
The Barnes campaign is focused on the rising cost of living for Wisconsin families.
“There is an affordability crisis that affects almost every household in this state, whether it’s healthcare, whether it’s groceries, whether it’s energy bills, or whether it’s housing, and it feels like there’s no sign of things letting up,” Barnes said. He added that voters are looking for leaders who understand those pressures firsthand.
Barnes spoke with the Examiner about two weeks after the failure of a bill negotiated by Wisconsin’s soon-to-retire Democratic governor and Republican legislative leaders who are also about to leave office that would have spent down the state’s $2.5 billion projected budget surplus to provide tax cuts to Wisconsinites and additional special education funding to schools. He expressed opposition to the deal, which most legislative Democrats along with a handful of Republicans rejected. He said policymakers need to “be more deliberate about negotiating big tasks.”
Over the last three years, Barnes has led Power to the Polls Wisconsin, a grassroots voting rights organization dedicated to mobilizing voters, combating voter suppression and advocating for underserved communities of color and working-class families. He also founded Forward Together Wisconsin, a clean energy nonprofit. He brings an organizing mindset to the legislative process.
“People shouldn’t feel like they’re rushed to get legislation passed… I think that there should be more public hearings,” he said, adding, “There’s not a whole lot of public input.”
Barnes said the projected surplus “didn’t just come out of nowhere; it’s because Republicans have withheld investments in our future.” He, like the Democrats who are hoping to win control of at least one chamber of the Legislature in the fall, would like the opportunity to reverse years of Republican budget policy without facing a looming budget deficit, which analysts predicted would result from the tax-cut and school funding deal.
“The answer to most of our problems is simple,” Barnes said. “It’s just a tax on billionaires, tax the wealthiest, tax large corporations that have every tax advantage at their disposal.”
“Ultimately, if a state like Wisconsin is a place that fully funds our schools, puts more support into higher education, tech schools, and university system, invests in public transportation,” he added, “that’s how you make the state a much more attractive place.”
Barnes said he would focus on closing tax loopholes that allow large corporations and wealthy individuals to reduce their tax burden. One example is Wisconsin’s manufacturing and agriculture tax credit, which provides a credit of 7.5% on income from eligible qualified production activities — reducing the effective corporate tax rate on qualifying income from 7.9% to about 0.4%.
Barnes wants to change it so “it benefits our family farmers, not these factory farms, corporate farms” and the “primary benefit also goes to Wisconsin very small businesses versus out-of-state corporations.”
He said he would not seek to raise income taxes on families making $400,000 or less, but those making more should pay more. He didn’t offer specifics, but said that the income tax brackets could change, mentioning Minnesota as an example. Wisconsin’s neighbor’s top income tax rate is currently 9.85%, while Wisconsin’s is 7.65%.
“I’m not saying we’re taxing people into poverty, right? That’s not the case. We’re not taxing people out of the state,” Barnes said. “We’re just looking for a little bit of parity.”
Barnes said that Wisconsin “shouldn’t be left behind anymore.”
Barnes has said he supports increasing state funding so it covers two-thirds of public school costs and has called for repealing Act 10 to restore collective bargaining rights for public employees, including teachers. He also backs increased investment in the University of Wisconsin system and technical colleges, though he has not outlined a specific number.
Barnes, if elected, will need to win support in the Legislature to advance his agenda. He said he is optimistic about Democrats’ chances of winning the majority, but he would be open to negotiating with anyone should he win office.
“I’m willing to play ball,” Barnes said, though that negotiation commitment would not extend to one of his top promises — Medicaid expansion. He has promised to veto any budget that doesn’t include it, even as candidates have argued over whether an expansion would be the best way to address costs in light of federal changes made by the Trump administration.
Barnes said an ultimatum would not inhibit his ability to negotiate with lawmakers because the issue shouldn’t be partisan.
“It is a politicized issue,” Barnes said, noting that Republican-led states including Louisiana have taken the expansion.
Republican lawmakers who hold the majority in the Legislature, have refused to expand Medicaid since 2010. Barnes said during the student forum that he finds it “very hard” to find common ground with Republicans because the party has become “essentially the Republican party of one person” and he doesn’t want to find himself “in a place where I am validating bad behavior.”
Barnes argues that his gubernatorial candidacy has the support he needs to win, although there was some public skepticism even before he entered the race. He was the subject of a New York Times article comparing his loss to Johnson in 2022 to former Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss in 2024. The Milwaukee Courier, a prominent Black-owned newspaper, urged him in an opinion piece not to enter the race.
Barnes said of the criticism that people have “gotta have something to write about.” Asked whether he needed to build back trust with Wisconsin Democrats ahead of running statewide again, he said he didn’t think it was about that.
“People know how much money was spent against me. People know that I was the most targeted Democrat in the entire country, the target of the largest anti-Democratic candidate super PAC in the country. People know what I was up against and the relationships I built over the course of that race. People know that I was counted out from the very beginning,” Barnes said. “People know how Republican billionaires are willing to spend big, and this is a moment for us to fight back against those corporate interests that have held Wisconsin back, and they’re ready to see this through.”
Barnes’ campaign finance report from December included a mix of donations from Wisconsin-based donors, including those who live in Milwaukee and Madison as well other towns and cities across the state, and many from other states including California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and Virginia as well as Washington D.C. Barnes also received a donation from the Long Run PAC, a group he launched to support progressive candidates. He has a goal to raise $50 million over the course of the campaign.
In the first half of the year, Barnes has also received a mix of endorsements from Wisconsin Democrats, including State Reps. Angelina Cruz and Amaad Rivera-Wagner and Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich and from national political players including California Sen. Adam Schiff, and most recently, the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, a leading environmental advocacy organization.
“No one in Wisconsin has done or will do more to tackle the climate crisis while lowering costs for working families than Mandela Barnes,” Jed Ober, managing director of Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, said in a statement.
Barnes has made reducing utility rates one of the key parts of his affordability platform. He says that he’ll seek to freeze rates as governor by appointing commissioners to the Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities and approves rates, who will do so. Utility experts have criticized the plan and said its unclear whether he could carry it out, though Barnes said that criticisms of that plan are being levied by “the industry itself.”
Barnes has said he would appoint commissioners who have a “demonstrated commitment” through a “thorough interview process” and they will need to have worked alongside the industry and have a “real deep understanding of how we can actually benefit the public to make sure that the PSC is doing its job to represent the public interest.” He added that he would like to increase staffing at the PSC as well.
Barnes said environmental policy will be a priority. He chaired a climate change task force as lieutenant governor that he noted produced a slate of policy solutions that were later introduced by Democratic lawmakers as a package of 18 bills.
The Senate race as well as his time serving as the state’s second-in-command helped him enter the race with the most name recognition, according to polling by Marquette Law School. On the other hand, Charles Franklin, the Marquette Law School poll director, looked at the track record of five statewide candidates, Republican and Democrat, who lost an election and ran again for statewide office. He found that name identification and previous campaign experience, including established donors, did not significantly improve the percentage of votes they got in the general election in their second statewide campaign. The last successful “second act” was the 1970s, he said.
Barnes is working to convince enough voters that he can overcome the historical pattern and is the best candidate to compete in November. He is reaching people in a variety of ways, including traveling the state to attend forums and county Democratic Party meetings, where he said he’s been glad to reconnect with people across the state whom he hasn’t seen in a while.
Through his @MandelaHQ account on X, Barnes has adopted a rapid-response social media style reminiscent of national campaign-style accounts like @KamalaHQ during the 2024 cycle. The account highlights poll results, including a recent one that showed Barnes winning in a matchup against Tiffany, targets Tiffany with humor and memes — one post featuring Tiffany at a farm joked that “cows can smell DC stink” — while also promoting policy proposals through short videos. In one video on banning AI-driven dynamic pricing and hidden fees, a group of children raise the price of lemonade after Barnes passes by on a run.
Barnes told students that one of the biggest misconceptions about him is that he doesn’t “get to be as funny” as he’d like.
“It’s tough because in politics, if you crack a joke or people aren’t able to translate sarcasm, like the story’s getting written the wrong way,” Barnes said. “I can’t be as funny as I want to be… sometimes my humor is a little dry. It’s not for everybody.”
Editor’s note: The Examiner is running periodic profiles of the contenders in the Aug. 11, 2026 gubernatorial primary as well as the candidates in the general election Nov. 3.
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