MADISON – Wisconsin voters will have the opportunity to reshape the state Legislature in November, when partisan control is up for grabs as well as leadership positions that decide which bills get to the floor.
As of June 1, the deadline to file paperwork to run or retire, 14 Republican lawmakers decided to leave the Legislature in 2026, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. No Democratic lawmakers filed paperwork to retire from public office altogether. Of those who did, all are seeking a higher office.
Overall, the only Democratic officeholder who filed paperwork to retire this year was Gov. Tony Evers.
Among the GOP lawmakers leaving their seats are the Legislature’s two most-powerful leaders: Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu.
The retirements come at a time when Democrats are within striking distance of winning a majority of seats in the state Senate for the first time in more than a decade, and recently redrawn electoral maps make the Assembly more within reach for Democrats than it has been in the same time period.
“Incumbents who are in tough races themselves or who think their majority is in trouble tend not to want to hang around, and they have a lot of good outside options − to go into private industry or something else,” Barry Burden, executive director of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Elections Research Center, said in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“In Wisconsin, it’s more Republicans stepping aside than Democrats. I think that’s an indicator that Republicans see their majorities, at least the sizes of them, in some jeopardy.”
That’s because of two factors: President Donald Trump’s declining job approval and new legislative boundaries that make more GOP seats more competitive than they have been since the last redistricting effort more than a decade ago.
In the state Senate, high-profile members of the GOP caucus have chosen to retire, including: LeMahieu, Van Wanggaard of Racine, Andre Jacque of New Franken, Rob Hutton of Brookfield, Jesse James of Thorp and Steve Nass of Whitewater.
Three of those incumbents represent some of the most competitive seats in the state Senate this cycle.
The news of the retirements gives Senate Republicans a tougher fight to keep their slim control of the chamber without incumbents in the key races. GOP lawmakers control the state Senate 18-15. Democrats would need to pick up two seats to take the Senate majority, five seats for the Assembly.
The battle comes a the state also has a wide-open race for governor with a large field of Democrats competing to face presumptive Republican nominee U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany.
Senate Democrats launched their push to take the majority last summer, long before any incumbents had announced plans to retire.
“Everyone agrees that the Wisconsin Senate is the most flippable chamber in the country,” Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, told the Journal Sentinel at the time.
Democrats target key Senate districts as chances to flip control
The State Senate Democratic Committee’s targeted districts include Senate District 17, held by Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green; Senate District 5, held by Hutton in the western suburbs of Milwaukee; Senate District 21, held by Wanggaard in the Racine area; and keeping Senate District 31, which is held by Democrat Jeff Smith of Brunswick.
Primary elections, where needed, will be on Aug. 11 and the general election is Nov. 3.
Republicans are still “feeling really good” heading into November, said Republican Party of Wisconsin spokeswoman Anika Rickard earlier this spring.
“We obviously have Tom Tiffany as the front leader for governor, which has been super helpful in just unifying the base, making sure everyone’s on the same page early, whereas obviously Democrats are still fighting amongst themselves for their governor primary, which won’t be handled until August,” Rickard said.
But in March, Vos warned at an event hosted by Wispolitics.com that Trump could be the biggest challenge for Republicans in the fall.
“The president’s style is super motivating for the 40-45% of the public who are with him on whatever he does,” Vos said. “The challenge that we have, then, is in order to win, we have to show that we get things done and we listen to the other side.”
Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Close of filing deadline launches battle for Wisconsin Legislature
Reporting by Molly Beck, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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