Republicans will still control both houses of the state Legislature after the 2024 general election, despite the loss of their electoral supermajority, following an election night that put new legislative maps to the test in Wisconsin.
With 99% of votes reporting across Wisconsin, Republicans will hold a 54-45 majority in the state Assembly and a 18-15 majority in the Senate.
Notably, Senate Republicans lost their supermajority, with Democrats picking up key wins in the eighth, 14th, 18th, 30th and 32nd Districts.
Assembly remains in Republican control
Four close races in Wisconsin have been called for Republicans, giving the Wisconsin GOP control of the Legislature once again.
In the 85th Assembly District, Incumbent Rep. Patrick Snyder, R-Schofield, was elected to his fifth term in the Legislature, defeating challenger Yee Leng Xiong, a Democrat who would have been the first Hmong lawmaker in Wisconsin history, by 5%.
In the past, Wausau has had a 52.6% Republican lean, and the district has been red since 2016 when Snyder was first elected to the Assembly. But the redrawing of legislative maps came after Gov. Tony Evers’ passed a proposal to redraw Wisconsin’s legislative maps on Feb. 19. The previous maps had been declared in a 4-3 decision as unconstitutional by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in late 2023.
Snyder had been drawn out of his previous district but rented an apartment in the new 85th District throughout the election and vowed to the media that he would move if victorious.
“Despite the best efforts of Governor Evers to gerrymander Rep. Snyder out of a community — by one block — that he has spent decades serving,” Snyder wrote in a press release following his victory. “Pat once again won reelection due to the faith the Wausau community put in him to be their voice in Madison.”
In the 92nd Assembly District, which represents the Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls area, Republican Clint Moses has defeated Democratic challenger Joe Plouff by an 8% margin and about 2,000 votes.
In the 88th and 94th Districts, however, the [races] were much closer, with just 200 votes separating candidates in each of the races. For the 94th District, which represents La Crosse and previously had a 53.6% Republican lean, Democratic incumbent Steve Doyle is expected to just barely eke out a win against Republican Ryan Huebsch in a rematch between the two after they faced off in 2022. Although the vote count currently stands at 100% reported, the margin of victory is close enough that a candidate may demand a recount.
"With the new districting and the redistricting, we knew that this was going to be a tight race," Huebsch said. "Probably one of the tightest in the entire state.”
In the new 88th Assembly District, Republican Benjamin Franklin will also likely beat Democrat Christy Welch by a similar margin to Doyle’s, also opening the door to a potential recount, though Welch has said she will not request one.
Franklin is a veteran and small business owner who grew up in Iowa but recently moved to Wisconsin, settling in De Pere which he will now represent in the State Assembly. Both he and Welch are newcomers to politics.
The two candidates are still separated by just over 200 votes.
Senate Republican majority remains, but Democrats pick up seats in key races
Democrats protected their single contested State Senate seat and picked up three others in the 2024 general election.
Multiple state Senate races were too close to call for most of the election night into the early morning, leading candidates to declare victory before any major outlets called the races in their favor.
Democrat Sarah Keyeski in District 14 declared victory at 12:22 a.m., but the race was not called in her favor by the Associated Press until 1:22 a.m. Democrat Jodi Habush Sinykin declared victory around 3 a.m. with 95% of the vote counted, but the race is still too close to call as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the AP.
Habush Sinykin is ahead in the 8th Senate District, which was previously two districts both represented by Republican state senators. Only one of those, Duey Strobel, ran against Habush Sinykin and lost by 2% of votes.
According to WisPolitics, the district voted 53% Republican in the 2020 election.
Keyeski won the 14th Senate District. She defeated Sen. Joan Ballweg, R-Markesan
, who had represented the district since 2020 but was drawn out when the new maps were instated. Ballweg moved back into the new 14th District in order to run for the seat.
“It is an honor to welcome Sarah Keyeski to the State Senate. Senate-elect Keyeski ran a successful campaign against a tough incumbent in one of the state’s most competitive districts,” Senate Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein said in a statement.
In the 30th Senate District, Democrat Jamie Wall won by less than 5,000 votes against Republican candidate Jim Rafter. The 30th District, which includes all of Green Bay and De Pere, combined three Republican incumbents when it was redrawn. None of those candidates decided to run for the new state Senate seat in a new district that voted more than 52% Democratic in the 2020 election.
The AP called the 18th Senate District race for Democrat Kristin Alfheim Wednesday afternoon.
The district Alfheim now represents is a new district created by the 2022 redistricting efforts. The 18th district runs from Oshkosh to Appleton along Lake Winnebago.
Sen. Brad Pfaff was the only state Senate Democrat up for reelection this year with a Republican challenger, but Pfaff managed to hang onto his seat in his redrawn district. Pfaff won with 53% of the vote, while Republican challenger Stacey Klein had 47% of the vote. According to WisPolitics, the district voted 54% Democratic in the 2020 election.
Though Democrats had no chance of flipping the state Senate in this election, the pick-up of three seats puts them in a position to possibly gain control of the state Senate when another set of seats comes up for election in 2026.
Annika Bereny is a Senior Staff Writer and the former Special Pages Editor for The Daily Cardinal. She is a History and Journalism major and has written in-depth campus news, specializing in protest policy, free speech and historical analysis. She has also written for state and city news. Follow her on Twitter at @annikabereny.
Gabriella Hartlaub is the former arts editor for The Daily Cardinal. She has also written state politics and campus news. She currently is a summer reporting intern with Raleigh News and Observer. Follow her on Twitter at @gabihartlaub.
