ICYMI: The 2024 Wisconsin Legislature Voter Guide
Previewing every last race on the ballot in the Senate and Assembly. From The Recombobulation Area and Civic Media.
The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.
On Dec. 22, 2023, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Wisconsin’s state legislative maps. On Feb. 19, 2024, Gov. Tony Evers signed new maps into law. These new maps have brought about a whole new landscape to Wisconsin’s state legislative elections.
Previously, Wisconsin was under the thumb of one of the most egregiously gerrymandered maps anywhere in the nation. Republicans enjoyed an entrenched majority of 60 or more Assembly seats out of 99 in the chamber every year since the gerrymander was installed following redistricting in 2011, and currently have a two-thirds supermajority in the State Senate.
But now, with new, fairer maps, there are far more competitive races happening all over the state, in swingy communities like Oak Creek, Sheboygan, Hudson, Neenah, Greenfield, Wausau, De Pere, Ashwaubenon, Eau Claire, Menomonie and Onalaska.
Either party could realistically win the majority in the State Assembly this year, which hasn’t been the case in more than a decade.
In the State Senate, it will take two election cycles for the gerrymander to be unraveled, as state senators in Wisconsin serve four-year terms and only half of the chamber is up this year. For Democrats to have a chance to flip the Senate in 2026, however, they will need to make significant gains this year.
In the closing days of this race, state legislative elections forecasting site CNalysis, which we’ve used as part of our comprehensive preview series, shifted projections for several races in Democrats’ favor, showing just how up-for-grabs the Assembly in particular is in this year’s election. It’s going to come down to a few hundred votes in a handful of “toss-up” races.
These types of races can make a huge difference on your day-to-day life in Wisconsin. Just about every issue you might care about has a connection to the state legislature. Your votes in these races truly have the power to change the trajectory of the state.
So, at The Recombobulation Area and Civic Media, we’ve previewed every last race on the ballot in the Wisconsin State Legislature.
You can explore the full guide to every race at civicmedia.us/voter-guide.
Before you go to the polls, be sure to know what’s on your ballot. The best way to do that is by going to MyVote Wisconsin and clicking the tab that says, “What’s On My Ballot.” That will show you exactly what will appear on your ballot.
To find your legislator and see the races in your community, you can also go to Civic Media’s voter guide.
We’ve provided a lot of coverage of these elections, so we’re rounding it up here as a one-stop shop for you to find everything.
First, my column introducing this series, and commenting on the state of play. You can see that link below here at The Recombobulation Area, or find it at Civic Media.
Next, I provided a column to go along with previews for both the Senate and Assembly. Find both of those here.
Each full, extended edition of the preview is available at Civic Media.
Within each of those posts is a link to each individual district. You can also use the Civic Media voter guide to pull up the link to see the state of each race.
Many of these candidates have been on the Civic Media airwaves in recent months, and we’ve rounded up many of these appearances here.
Tomorrow night, as election results are reported, I will be focusing coverage on what’s happening in these state legislative races, in this landmark election, the first post-Gerrymander.
Be sure to stay tuned to The Recombobulation Area and Civic Media for more, and for live updates on election night, over at civicmedia.us/vote.
Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he became the Political Editor of Civic Media. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 18 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
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