Republicans maintain control of the Assembly

Republicans maintained control of the Assembly today despite new legislative lines that gave Dems more opportunities to flip the chamber than previous maps. 

As of early this morning, Republicans had secured the 50 seats they needed to maintain the majority, according to a WisPolitics check of unofficial returns.

Three GOP candidates also were leading their races with some communities yet to fully report their absentee ballot results. They were: state Reps. Jessie Rodriguez and Bob Donovan and former Rep. Dean Kaufert.

Also, Republican Ben Franklin had a lead of 221 votes with all precincts reporting in the open 88th AD.

If those four seats go for Republicans once final numbers are in, that would put their majority at 54-45 for the 2025-26 session. Under the old maps that were in place for the 2022 elections, they secured a 64-35 majority.

In key races:

• 21st AD, suburban Milwaukee, 53% Dem seat: Rodriguez had 55.4% of the vote with 55% of precincts in over Dem Milwaukee businessman David Marstellar.
• 61st AD, Milwaukee suburbs, 51% Dem seat: Donovan had 52.9% of the vote with 96% of precincts in over former League of Women Voters of Wisconsin Executive Director Lu Ann Bird.
• 89th AD, eastern Wisconsin, 51% Dem seat: Dem prosecutor Ryan Spaude beat GOP Brown County Board Chair Patrick Buckley with 51.4% of the vote and 99% of precincts in.
• 94th AD, La Crosse area, 50-50 seat: Rep. Steve Doyle, D-Onalaska, was on track to beat Republican Ryan Huebsch, son of former Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, in a rematch of their 2022 contest. With 99% of the vote in, Doyle was up 217 votes.
• 88th AD, Green Bay area, 50.5% GOP seat: Republican Ben Franklin, a small business owner and Air Force veteran, had 17,007 votes, compared to 16,786 for Brown County Dem Party Chair Christy Welch. 
• 30th AD, St. Croix County area, 51% GOP seat: Rep. Shannon Zimmerman, R-River Falls, defeated Dem Alison Page, a former nurse and past CEO of Western Wisconsin Health, with 54.3% of the vote with 99% reporting.
• 85th AD, Wausau area, 51% GOP seat: Rep. Pat Snyder, R-Schofield, defeated Dem Yee Leng Xiong, executive director of Wausau’s Hmong American Center, with 52.8% of the vote at 99% reporting.
• 53rd AD, Neenah-Menasha area, 52% Dem seat: Kaufert, also the former Neenah mayor, had 52.4% of the vote with 79% of precincts in over Dem Duane Shukoski, who worked at Kimberly-Clark for 37 years before retiring.
• 26th AD, Sheboygan Area, 51% Dem seat: Dem Joe Sheehan, a former teacher and superintendent, won the seat with 51.5% of the vote with 99% reporting after incumbent Rep. Amy Binsfeld, R-Sheboygan conceded.
• 51st AD, Dodgeville area, 54% Dem seat: Rep. Todd Novak, R-Dodgeville, clinched a victory over Dem Elizabeth Grabe, a real estate agent. Novak won reelection with 51.7% of the vote at 99% reporting. 
• 91st AD, Eau Claire area, 53% Dem seat: Rep. Jodi Emerson, D-Eau Claire, kept her seat, beating GOP Eau Claire County Supv. Michele Skinner. Emerson won with 51.6% of the vote and 99% of precincts reporting.
• 92nd AD, northwest Wisconsin, 52% GOP seat: Rep. Clint Moses, R-Menomonie, defeated former Dem Rep. Joe Plouff with 53.9% of the vote at 99% reporting.
• 96th AD, southern La Crosse, Vernon County; 56% Dem seat: Dem Tara Johnson, former La Crosse County Board chair, was on track to beat Rep. Loren Oldenburg, R-Viroqua, with 51% of the vote and 99% of precincts reporting.
• 43rd AD, southern Wisconsin, 55% Dem seat: Dem Whitewater Ald. Brienne Brown beat freshman Rep. Scott Johnson, R-Jefferson, with 51.3% of the vote and 99% of precincts reporting.

Republicans have controlled the Assembly since 1995 save for the 2009-10 session. The 64 seats they had at the start of this session was tied with 2017-18 for the largest GOP majority since Republicans had 67 seats in the 1957-58 session, when the chamber still had 100 seats.

But the new maps opened the door to Dems taking a legitimate run at the majority. Under the maps in place for the 2022 elections, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, won 64 of the state’s 99 Assembly districts as he won statewide by a single point. Had the new lines been in place two years ago, he would’ve won 51 seats.

The new maps also spurred record spending. WisPolitics tracked $54.9 million in 13 key Assembly races through last week, with the final price tag likely to climb higher.