Republicans kept control of the state Assembly Tuesday, largely because veterans like five-term Republican Todd Novak, of Dodgeville, held off their Democratic challengers.
Republicans were poised to claim about 55 seats in the 99-member Assembly, depending on four races where no winner had been declared, as of Wednesday morning. Assembly Democrats held 34 Assembly seats last session, but gained seats Tuesday.
Gains by Assembly Democrats mean Republicans will not have the two-thirds majority required to override vetoes by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
Senate Republicans kept control of that chamber Tuesday, but their margin was uncertain because two races — in Milwaukee’s northern suburbs and in the Appleton area — were not decided as of Wednesday morning. Before Tuesday, Senate Republicans controlled that chamber by a 22 to 11 margin.
Although Democrats hoped having part of Dane County in the new Assembly District 51 would give Elizabeth Grabe the best chance in 12 years to beat Novak, unofficial returns had Novak winning by a 52% to 48% margin. Those totals gave Novak 17,682 votes; Grabe, 16,522.
Grabe was a first-time candidate who agreed to run after seeing numbers that, due to the state’s recent redistricting, suggested Democrats could win District 51. Although she got 66% of the vote in Dane County’s part of the district, which included her hometown of Mount Horeb, Novak’s margins in Lafayette County, where he got 66% of the vote, and in part of Grant County, offset Grabe’s Dane County win.
“I did the typical ‘Todd race,’” Novak said in an interview Wednesday. After five Assembly races, “I’ve got a brand.”
“We had a helluva ground game,” he added, explaining that in the last weeks of the campaign he and five campaign workers visited voters’ homes, some of them up to three times.
Novak said he was surprised that Democrats “went so hard” on him on the issue of women’s reproductive rights, running ads calling his position on abortion “extreme.” “What they did on abortion actually helped me,” added Novak. “They way overplayed abortion.”
Novak said some pro-choice voters were so angry at Grabe’s campaign ads misrepresenting his views on abortion that they promised to vote for him for the first time. “I have always been for exceptions” for rape, incest and life of the woman, Novak said Wednesday. He said Grabe’s campaign attacked him for his vote to hold a statewide referendum on a proposed ban on the procedure after 14 weeks of pregnancy.
Instead, Novak said District 51 voters were more interested in “the economy” and how to pay for public schools, since all 14 school districts in the district asked voters to approve referendums that would raise their property taxes Tuesday.
Novak said his campaign “had to define” Grabe as an outsider, since she lived in Miami Beach, Florida, before returning home in 2005 to oversee her family’s farm. A recorded interview Grabe gave as part of the Democracy Day project of Isthmus and WORT-FM included “bizarre” statements that his campaign used against her, Novak added.
Novak said his 2025-26 goals in the Assembly will be school-finance reform, increasing state aid for special education programs, and making sure the state Department of Justice’s Office of School Safety, which is funded only through June, remains through mid-2027.
In a statement Wednesday, Grabe congratulated Novak, noted the “many miles” in the new district and thanked residents “who genuinely care about the Driftless area.”
“The results tonight were not what we wanted, but there is still more work to be done,” Grabe added.
Despite Grabe’s loss, women won several Madison-area seats in the Legislature Tuesday. That included Democratic Rep. Jenna Jacobson, of Oregon, who won re-election in the 50th District.
In an upset, Democrat and first-time candidate Sarah Keyeski, of Lodi, defeated veteran Republican Sen. Joan Ballweg, of Markesan, in the 14th Senate District that includes areas north of Dane County.
In campaign ads, Keyeski focused on what she said was Ballweg’s opposition to women’s reproductive choices, including abortion. Keyeski, a counselor, also cited her husband’s throat cancer fight to criticize Ballweg on rural health care issues.
Though Jodi Habush Sinykin declared victory against Republican incumbent Duey Stroebel for Wisconsin’s Senate District 8 seat, the race had not been called by news organizations as of 1 p.m. Wednesday.
First-time women Democrats who won Assembly seats Tuesday were Renuka Mayadev, of Madison, in the 77th District; Maureen McCarville, of DeForest, in the 42nd District; Karen DeSanto, of Baraboo, in the 40th District; Joan Fitzgerald, of Fort Atkinson, in the 46th District; and Brienne Brown, of Whitewater, in the 43rd District.
Women will hold four Senate seats that include all or part of Dane County. Keyeski will join Democratic Sen. Kelda Roys, of Madison, who won her second four-year term without opposition, and Democratic Rep. Melissa Ratcliff, of Cottage Grove, who won her first term Tuesday with no opponent.
They will join Senate Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein, of Middleton.
Four incumbent Democratic Assembly members from Dane County were unopposed on Tuesday: Francesca Hong, Shelia Stubbs and Lisa Subeck, all of Madison, and Alex Joers, of Waunakee.
Two other Dane County Democrats were unopposed in their bids for a first Assembly term: Mayadev and Randy Udell, of Fitchburg.
In other Madison-area Assembly races, Democratic Rep. Mike Bare, of Verona, won a second term in the 80th District, and Democrat Andrew Hysell, of Sun Prairie, won a first term in the 48th District.
