Laura Schulte
MADISON – Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he's looking forward to Republicans continuing to "set the agenda" in the Wisconsin Legislature, despite Democrats flipping seats to their control Tuesday.
In a news conference alongside Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August, Vos said Wednesday that Republicans would likely hold on to their majority with 54 seats in the 99-member body.
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That number is down from 64 in the last session, with Democrats winning in 10 districts. Democrats also made pickups in the state Senate to bring the GOP majority to 18-15, down from 22-10.
"Now we get the chance to set the agenda for the rest of the state with our colleagues in the state Senate," Vos said.
Democrats fell short of flipping the Assembly in the first election since the state's legislative districts were redrawn, but did manage to narrow the majority Republicans have held for more than a decade. All of the Assembly seats were up for election, many of them with new candidates in the newly drawn districts.
Vos, who is planning to run for speaker again this session, said Democrats only took seats where they gained advantages through redrawn maps Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signed into law.
"We were able to win maps drawn by a federal court, a state court, by the legislature and by the Democrats," he said. "So we have won under every scenario that's possible, Democrats have only made gains when they have gerrymandered districts."
August echoed his sentiment.
"I believe if you were to ask most people in the state of Wisconsin if Assembly Republicans would be standing here today at 54 seats, given everything we were up against ― including a gerrymandered map that the governor instilled using his liberal allies on the state Supreme Court — that most people wouldn't believe it," August said. "But we believed we could be here the entire time, and our candidates believed in it too."
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The Republican Legislature adopted the maps in place now, saying at the time that the boundaries proposed by Evers were more favorable to Republicans than other options being considered by the state Supreme Court should the decision have gone to them.
The new maps replaced those that were widely regarded as heavily gerrymandered in favor of Republicans and leading to wide majorities for the party lasting more than a decade.
"On what was a tough night for Democrats nationwide, we made key gains in the State Legislature last night — demonstrating the power of the Republican gerrymander that crushed democracy in our state for more than a decade and the strength of Democratic state legislative efforts," Democratic Party of Wisconsin chairman Ben Wikler said in a statement.
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Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer said in a statement said that things will change following the new Democratic members being elected.
"We have strong candidates from around the state joining the caucus. Fair maps have allowed voters to hold legislators accountable, and this will change how policy is written and what bills move through the legislature," she said. "I hope and expect that this shift will result in more collaboration and bipartisan work in the legislature, because that is what the people of Wisconsin have asked us to do."
In a call with reporters, Republican Party of Wisconsin chairman Brian Schimming said "Democrats spent the last couple weeks bragging about how they might be able to take over the state Assembly, and they didn't."
"Majorities matter in the Legislature. The Democrats don't have either of them," Schimming said. "The truth of the matter is they had their one moment when they had a huge turnout to take over this year, and they failed in both houses."
Schimming added the party is already looking forward to upcoming races for state Supreme Court, attorney general and governor. Liberals assumed the majority on the Supreme Court with the 2023 election of Justice Janet Protasiewicz.
The balance on the court is again up for grabs in 2025, with the retirement of liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley. Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford, favored by liberals, and Waukesha County Circuit Judge Brad Schimel so far are in the race. Schimel is the former Republican attorney general of Wisconsin.
In the Senate, Democrats picked up four key seats in districts they heavily targeted. Races in the Senate attracted high levels of spending, especially in the 8th District, where Democrat Jodi Habush Sinykin defeated Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Cedarburg. That race attracted more than $3 million in spending from the candidates, political parties and the campaigns.
Vos said according to estimations, there was an outsized amount of spending in Assembly races, as well. In the 21st District, covering a portion of the southern suburbs of Milwaukee, Rep. Jessie Rodriguez, R-Oak Creek, narrowly defeated the Democratic candidate David Marstellar in another high-spending race fueled by television advertising.
"We think that they probably spent between $3 and $4 million almost entirely on negative advertising, besmirching her record and lying about who she was and how she voted," he said.
In addition to the 8th, Democrats won in the 14th Senate District, where Sarah Keyeski defeated incumbent Republican Joan Ballweg; in the 30th Senate District where Democrat Jamie Wall defeated Republican Jim Rafter; and the 18th Senate District where Democrat Krisitin Alfheim defeated Republican Anthony Phillips.
Orientation for the new members of the Assembly will be held the week of December 9, and the new Legislature will begin its session in January.
Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com and on X at @SchulteLaura.
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