(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Democrats are gearing up to elect their new state party chairman and other roles at this weekend’s convention in Wisconsin Dells.
Chairman Ben Wikler, in role since 2019, announced he wouldn’t seek another term after losing a bid for Democratic National Committee’s chairmanship in April.
Gunning for Wikler’s seat are former state party Executive Director Devin Remiker, 3rd Congressional District chairman and LaCrosse County party cochairman William Garcia, and Milwaukee-area communications operative Joe Zepecki.
The party’s choices this weekend will help shape their 2026 strategy in the swing state as they eye the governor’s seat, a state Supreme Court seat, the attorney general’s office, and several competitive congressional and state legislative seats.
“The great unfinished task is to win the legislative majorities and be able to deliver the chance in people’s lives that Democrats have been fighting for this entire time,” Wikler said in an interview with WisPolitics.
The chairman will be elected Sunday by way of ranked-choice ballot.
Notably, Remiker has received the most statewide endorsements, including from Wikler himself in a break from his former committed neutrality that bristled both Zepecki and Garcia.
“The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is widely considered to be the strongest state party in our country,” Wikler said in a statement. “Devin has been a huge part of how we built that strength.”
Wikler especially touted Remiker’s focus on local strength.
“Devin knows rural,” Wikler said. “And he knows urban, suburban, and small towns. He knows, in other words, Wisconsin.”
Remiker, like Zepecki and Garcia, has been campaigning on a plan to focus on the party’s local and statewide development with his “72 County Strategy.”
If he wins, Remiker pledges to “zero in on critical races for councils, school boards and county boards” in a way that’s unique to every county’s party.
He has received endorsements from Senate Minority Leader Sen. Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton; Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine; and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis.
However, Zepecki criticized Wikler’s break from neutrality by endorsing Remiker in a Facebook video May 20.
“Two things can be true at the same time: Ben and his team have strengthened our party, and Democrats have a ton of work to do,” Zepecki said in the video. “Our brand is busted, our communications and messaging aren’t landing, and organizing and infrastructure is too top-down, one-size-fits-all.”
Zepecki promised the party that he would deliver on “new leadership and a fresh perspective.”
Since 2016, Zepecki has run his communications company and assisted in several campaigns across the country.
Numerous state lawmakers and former party chairwoman Linda Honold as well as several county party chairs have endorsed Zepecki.
Garcia’s “Grow, Persist, Resist” platform has been focused on providing resources and support for county parties as well as maintaining the national focus on Wisconsin politics.
In La Crosse, he helped flip the 96th Assembly seat, which had been held by Republicans for nearly 40 years.
“We were able to flip that through hard work,” Garcia said in a statement first reported by Wisconsin Examiner. “That was because of the strong infrastructure that we built at the county. What I want to do is replicate that all across the state.”
While he wants to make Wisconsin Democrats’ voices heard nationally, Garcia seeks to ensure that county parties have a “bigger seat at the table” when it comes to messaging and decision-making.
“County parties are the experts in what is happening in their own communities, and we need to be listening to them in ways we’re not right now about the best way to really reach out and talk to voters in those areas,” Garcia said.
Garcia has been endorsed by Democrats local to him, including La Crosse mayor Shaundel Washington-Spivey and Rep. Tara Johnson, D-Town of Shelby.
Overall, Democrats are itching to win a trifecta in Madison with the governor’s seat, state Senate, and state Assembly in 2026.
“What we see right now in Wisconsin, I think, is a burgeoning blue wave that’s going to hit the state in 2026 with full force,” Wikler previously said.
While the new chairman would need to fill Wikler’s shoes quickly, especially given the record $200 million the party has raised under his leadership since 2019, Wikler said he doesn’t doubt the party will continue to work to “carry that trust forward” in future years.

(The Center Square) – Northwoods Congressman Tom Tiffany continues to say he’ll make a decision on running for governor later this summer, but he’s not wavering in his criticism of Gov. Tony Evers.
“I was elected by the people of the 7th Congressional District, they expect me to do my job for these two years,” Tiffany said in a radio interview Thursday. “And I intend to do that. But we need a new governor.”
Tiffany has said in the past that he may make an announcement by the end of the summer. He didn’t offer a time table during the radio interview.
Tiffany did have new criticism of Evers.
“When you look at somebody who encourages state employees to obstruct ICE,” he said referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “When you see a governor who cannot say ‘mother’ in his budget bill, who introduced a budget that is going to put us in deficit, where we’ll begin to look like Illinois and Minnesota. That’s a choice before the people of Wisconsin next year.”
There is only one declared candidate for governor in 2026.
Washington County Executive Josh Schoeman became the first Republican candidate when jumped into the race last month. Tiffany is on the short list for Republicans, as is businessman and veteran Bill Berrian.
Evers has not yet said if he intends to run for a third term.
The governor has said he will make that announcement after the state budget is complete.
If Evers does not run again, the Democratic short list includes Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, and Attorney General Josh Kaul.
Wisconsin voters have not reelected a governor to a third term since they reelected Tommy Thompson in 1994 and to a fourth term in 1998.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s top education official said Friday that the Joint Finance Committee’s budget changes fails Wisconsin students, educators and public schools.
The committee voted late Thursday evening to approve a $229 million investment in special education targeting mental health and sparsity aid, which is additional state funding provided to small, rural school districts that meet specific criteria based on enrollment and population density.
“The budget they approved raises your property taxes, doesn’t support students with disabilities and cuts youth mental health funding – all at a time when more kids than ever are struggling, and schools are stretched thin,” Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Jill Underly said in a statement. “This isn’t ‘right-sizing.’ It’s irresponsible. It puts politics ahead of kids and disregards educators and public schools when they need support the most.”
Thursday’s finance committee meeting also included tax cuts for retirees and residents in the second income tax bracket expected to save Wisconsinites up to $1.3 billion.
Underly was comparing the Republican majority committee’s proposal to that of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, a proposal that the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce recently said would be harmful to the state with increased taxes and state spending.
The group said that Evers’ budget proposal would increase spending by more than 20%.
“We’re entering this cycle with a $4 billion surplus, but Evers’ plan would leave us with a $4 billion deficit by the end of the 2027-29 budget,” WMC’s General Counsel and Director of Tax, Transportation & Legal Affairs, Evan Umpir said in a statement. “He proposed $3.3 billion in new taxes, including capping the Manufacturing & Ag Credit for manufacturers, and a new 9.8% millionaire tax bracket, modeled after Minnesota.”
Underly pointed to the school officials and parents who attended budget listening sessions and made calls or wrote letters asking for more funding for the state’s public schools, saying members of the committee did not listen.
“Our public schools desperately need and deserve funding that is flexible, spendable and predictable,” Underly said. “This budget fails to deliver on all three. Once again, those in power had an opportunity to do right by Wisconsin’s children – and once again, they turned their backs on them. Our kids, our teachers, and our communities deserve far better.”

(The Center Square) – St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran School won an appeal to receive $30,000 in scholarships through Wisconsin’s Special Needs Scholarship Program.
The Wisconsin Department of Instruction initially denied the school’s request for the school choice funding for three students but the scholarships were awarded after the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed a legal appeal of the ruling.
“DPI’s previously held position jeopardized critical funding for St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran School and their ability to help students in need,” associate counsel Lauren Greuel of the institute said in a statement, “WILL continues to assist choice schools receive the support owed to them by the Wisconsin state law.”
The special needs scholarship program helps to fund 3,000 students with disabilities that attend private schools in the state.
“Our school followed all protocols and procedures to receive this funding,” said St. Paul’s Lutheran School Principal Jill M. George. “It’s why we were shocked to learn DPI was holding onto over $30,000 in special needs scholarship funding. Without WILL’s involvement, we would have no idea where to go next.”

(The Center Square) – Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee greenlit $1.3 billion in tax cuts to the Wisconsin biennial budget Thursday night.
The income tax cuts would primarily benefit retirees as well as deduct 1% of the income tax of married-joint filers making between $38,000 and $67,000.
Committee cochairman Mark Born, Republican senator from Beaver Dam, said the tax cuts are a way to give back to people who have contributed to Wisconsin’s economy and incentivize them to stay in the state rather than move to other states with more generous tax laws.
“While we’ve done all these things to make it a great place to live, work, and raise a family, so I also want to make it a great place for all those people who worked hard for that to happen, to stay and watch their grandkids grow up,” Born said. “That’s the kind of impact this stuff can have.”
Under the adopted motion, retirees who are at least 67 years old would benefit from a tax exclusion for the first $24,000 of retirement income, or $48,000 for married-joint filers where both spouses are at least 67 years old.
The tax cuts for retirees and residents in the second income tax bracket would save Wisconsinites up to $1.3 billion, according to the motion’s estimate.
Additionally, another Republican motion would raise the tax deduction for child adoption fees from $5,000 to $15,000.
Republicans also voted to adopt a $229 million investment in special education targeting mental health and sparsity aid, which is additional state funding provided to small, rural school districts that meet specific criteria based on enrollment and population density.
Some Democrats on the committee seemed begrudged that the investments Republicans adopted were much less than those proposed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
“This is woefully small in terms of investment, and the governor’s budget would have helped the parents, the kids, the educators,” said Rep. Tip McGuire, D-Kenosha.
However, Republicans said their motions were much more realistic than those proposed by Evers.
Sen. Patrick Testin, R-Stevens Point, said just because Republicans propose lesser investments than Democrats does not mean Republicans are “cutting” programs or investments.
“This is what I always find fascinating about Madison math,” Testin said. “Any decrease to a proposed increase is considered a ‘cut’ by some of our colleagues. That’s not what we’re doing.
“Any conversations that these are cuts is just unrealistic. These are critical investments.”
All of the Republican-backed motions passed 12–4 on party lines.

(The Center Square) – A Wisconsin bill would eliminate the option of schools passing recurring operation referendum and would limit the length of time for a nonrecurring operational funding referenda to four years.
The bill’s sponsor told the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Education that the goal was to have school districts prove how the funding is improving the outcomes for students and not allow increased funding over a longer period of time that isn’t regularly approved by taxpayers.
“With declining enrollment levels, I question the necessity of these operating referendum,” said. Rep. Cindi Duchow, R-Delafield. “By eliminating the recurring referenda and limiting the nonrecurring referenda, I hope to foster fiscal responsibility in Wisconsin school districts.”
Duchow pointed to Milwaukee’s $252 million recurring referendum in 2024 that passed by less than 2,000 votes and permanently increased the taxes levied for the district.
“I wish I could tell you Milwaukee was an outlier but it’s emblematic of the state of referendums across the state of Wisconsin,” Duchow said.
Duchow said that, since 2015, $870 million in recurring referenda have been passed across the state.
Duchow said that approving long-term referenda can lead to a situation where those that move into a district are paying taxes for a referenda they didn’t vote to approve for long into the future at a time when attendance across Wisconsin is declining and schools are closing.
There were 67,000 graduating seniors in Wisconsin schools this year while there are 52,000 students in first grade, Duchow said, meaning that schools will have 22% less students in years to come.
She said that she believed that means that the financial reality for school districts amid that declining enrollment will change rapidly, so having long-term referenda that doesn’t change with the lower enrollment does not make sense.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin receives less in federal funding per capita than the average state, receiving $14,678 per person in the most recently available numbers from 2022 compared to an average $16,606 in the country, according to a new report from Wisconsin Policy Forum.
The report says the group took on the topic with the proposal of federal funding cuts.
Wisconsin residents and businesses paid in $71 billion in federal taxes during the 2022 fiscal year with $37 billion in federal individual income taxes, $25.4 billion in payroll taxes funding social insurance programs such as Social Security, and $6.7 billion in corporate income taxes.
Meanwhile, the state’s residents, businesses, nonprofits and local governments received nearly $86.5 billion in federal funds, more than $15 billion above the amount contributed.
That balance of payments amounted to $2,679 per Wisconsin resident, less than the overall U.S. average of $2,889.
“Federal spending still has an enormous effect in both Wisconsin and every other state,” the report said. “Admittedly, this impact may not be immediately and outwardly visible in some communities, especially smaller ones where the federal government has relatively few buildings or staff present. Yet its size and sweep are vast.”
Federal spending in Wisconsin was equal to 23.7% of total personal income in the state, a figure that includes wages, salaries, interest, dividends and transfer receipts paid from government assistance programs.
The federal programs discussed seeing funding cuts that could directly impact Wisconsin residents include Social Security, Medicare and SNAP along with cuts to the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services said that the state could potentially lose $314 million in SNAP benefits.
Wisconsin’s director of Medicaid has said that more than 60,000 people will lose health care coverage in the state if a proposed reconciliation package is not changed.

(The Center Square) – Bills that would require Wisconsin sheriffs to identify and report people illegally in the country to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement passed a committee vote after a contentious meeting Thursday.
Sheriffs would need to request a U.S. passport, ID, or other “proof of legal presence status” from individuals held in a county jail for an offense punishable as a felony.
Assembly Bill 24 and Senate Bill 57 aim to end “sanctuary counties” that refuse to follow federal immigration laws within the state. To enter America from another country, if not a U.S. citizen, a visa or some other travel authorization is required to be presented at a port of entry.
“Removing dangerous criminals from our streets should not be controversial,” bill coauthor and Assembly Speaker Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said in a statement to The Center Square.
“This bill is a continuation of a simple effort that if someone commits a crime, the sheriff runs their name to see if they’re here legally,” Vos said. “If not, the sheriff then cooperates with ICE to ensure they’re appropriately taken care of at the federal level.”
If signed into law, a sheriff’s failure to comply would result in their county’s shared revenue being defunded by 15% for the next year.
The committee meeting spurred an argument not just about the bills, but also about President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, protests in Los Angeles and compliance with federal law.
According to Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, a major problem is that the bills “ignore” the right to due process.
“If we are choosing to spend our resources and forcing our 72 sheriff departments in the state to suspend other activities and to turn over people who have not finished the due process to be guilty of felonies … we are setting a priority that is more important than frankly doing the other law enforcement activities that they’re doing,” Larson said.
Larson called ICE a “lawless organization,” saying Wisconsin’s law enforcement community doesn’t “want to be a part of Trump’s racist deportation army.”
The bills would only apply to individuals confined in jail while their charge or arrest is pending, not people already convicted of a felony, according to legislative council Margit Kelley.
Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, said the legislation would likely pass but be vetoed by Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, which committee chairman Sen. Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, conceded.
However, Kapenga nonetheless defended the bills as a common-sense standard for law enforcement.
“In this country we can all have our opinions and our feelings on if a law is right or not right, but if a law exists it is the duty of the government to carry out and enforce that law,” Kapenga said. “If we become a nation where we can just do what we want based on our feelings there will be no civil society, and that’s very concerning for me.”
The bills are set to be voted on by the full Senate and Assembly.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s CEOs are less worried about the state’s economy than what is going on nationally.
Wisconsin’s largest business group, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, this week released its Summer 2025 Employer Survey. And once again bosses in the state said they’re concerned about the national economy.
“Trade, the status of the federal budget reconciliation package, and unnerving geopolitics are unpredictable at best right now,” the business association’s Kurt Bauer said in the report. “So, it is no surprise that Wisconsin business leaders are concerned about how their business – and the broader economy – will fare in the months and years to come.”
The Employer Survey shows 36% of CEOs said “state of the national economy” was their biggest concern. Another 11% said it was “global economic conditions.”
When asked to rate Wisconsin’s economy, 20% of CEOs said the state’s economy was strong, and 68% said it was moderate. Just 12% of employers said Wisconsin’s economy was weak.
Just 13% of those same CEOs said the national economy was strong, while 67% ranked the national economy moderate, and 19% said the national economy was weak.
“Uncertainty always has an economic impact,” Bauer added.
Despite the uncertainty, 86% of survey respondents said their business was profitable in the last six months. The association said 92% predict they will be profitable through the end of the year.
While Bauer said there is concern among Wisconsin CEOs about the national economy, there’s not much concern about the direction of the country.
Seventy-five percent of the CEOs in the survey said the U.S. is headed in the right direction, compared to just 25% who say the country is on the wrong track.
It, however, is almost the opposite for the direction of Wisconsin. The survey says 63% of Wisconsin CEOs say the state is headed in the wrong direction, and just 37% say the state is on the right track.

(The Center Square) – Republican legislators are circulating a bill that would require the Wisconsin Elections Commission to hear complaints against itself of potential election-related violations.
The bill comes after the U.S. Department of Justice in a June 4 letter reprimanded the elections commission for not having established a hearing process for complaints against the commission, leaving complainants “without any recourse.”
The letter accused the commission of being in violation of the Help America Vote Act and threatened to pull federal funding from the state.
This bill would therefore “remedy WEC violations,” according to bill coauthor Chuck Wichgers, R-Muskego.
“This bill serves the public,” Wichgers said in a statement. “It paves a way for people to have complaints heard and to gain assurance that our elections are safe and secure.”
Wichgers said the legislation gives the public, through the commission, a clear process to employ when someone seeks redress in election matters.
Legislative Reference Bureau 3612 would require the commission to hear and resolve HAVA complaints, including those directed at the commission itself.
It would also establish mandatory timelines for hearings (30 days) and decisions (89 days) and ensure transparent, public hearings as well as a publication of complaint outcomes.
Complaint procedures would also have to be “uniform and nondiscriminatory,” as HAVA requires.
Ann Jacobs, a Democrat who chairs the commission, previously pushed back on the Justice Department’s accusation.
Jacobs said it would be a “conflict of interest” for the commission to decide which complaints against itself were legitimate.
“If somebody makes a complaint alleging that the commission has violated HAVA, and demands a hearing under that contention, then you wind up in what would be a very peculiar situation, where WEC sits as the adjudicative body,” Jacobs said in a statement first reported by Wisconsin Public Radio.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court had also previously agreed in a 2022 ruling that “it would be nonsensical to have WEC adjudicate a claim against itself.”
While the bill acknowledges the court’s ruling, if signed into law WEC would be required to create the system to hear complainants regardless.
The bill “fulfills the legislative duty for oversight of election integrity, and responds responsibly and urgently to the federal warning, ensuring Wisconsin remains eligible for federal support in maintaining secure and accessible elections,” Wichgers said.
LRB3612 has been circulated among Wichgers and Sen. André Jacque, R-New Franken, and is seeking cosponsors until Tuesday.

(The Center Square) – A proposed Wisconsin bill would start a grant program to send $30 million to Wisconsin schools for school security measures.
The bill would be an addition to the $100 million for the same purpose funded by Act 143 from 2017, which created the Wisconsin Office of School Safety and awarded the grants.
“I expect this new bill will cover all schools who didn’t get funding in the first round,” said Sen. Jesse James, R-Thorn.
Each school would be capped at $20,000 in expenditures in Senate Bill 41 for items such as reinforced doors, shatter-resistant glass, cameras and security training for staff.
“We need to make sure that Wisconsin schools have the necessary tools and resources needed to create and maintain a safe learning environment for all students,” James said.
An amendment to the bill removed the funding for the grants but the grants could be funded in future legislation.
James explained that the change had to be made related to ongoing lawsuits.
“That will come in the future,” James said. “The original appropriation was $30 million, so we’re estimating that will be the appropriation needed for this funding to get to our schools,” James said.

(The Center Square) – A recently closed mental health treatment center in the Chippewa Falls area could open and be restored to a 50-bed treatment facility if it receives support from Wisconsin legislators and Gov. Tony Evers.
Senate Bill 308 and its companion, Assembly Bill 304, would require $1 million in the state budget to help the nonprofit Lutheran Social Services purchase and renovate the Libertas Treatment Center.
The bills are on their way to be voted on in committee.
“Reopening this facility as a substance use treatment facility will help address the major void in our areas’ mental health services,” bill coauthor Rep. Clint Moses, R-Menomonie, said in a statement. “Without this service, our vulnerable community members facing substance addiction will need to leave their local support networks and travel across the state in hopes of finding a treatment center.”
The former L.E. Phillips Libertas Treatment Center was the region’s largest in-patient treatment center before closing last year.
LSS President and CEO Héctor Colon said the treatment center’s closure has “left the area in desperate need of health care services, and very specifically, mental health and addiction services,” in a statement first reported by Wisconsin Public Radio.
According to a statement by bill coauthors Moses and Sen. Jesse James, R-Thorp, the new treatment center would offer daily evidence-based treatment methods for addiction services.
Clients would participate in a variety of group activities and therapy sessions and would also be able to engage in GED classes, employment outside of the facility, and “other education.”
While the proposed 50-bed facility would only be available to treat men in need of recovery services, services for women would continue in LSS’ nearby 18-bed Affinity House facility in Eau Claire.
“Our top priority this session is investing in mental health and substance use disorder services and restoring access in northwest-central Wisconsin,” James said. “We’re proud to partner with LSS in a collaborative effort to reopen a much-needed facility in the Chippewa Valley, one that will benefit all of Wisconsin.”
At the bill’s public hearing Tuesday, Moses and James said they also made a request to the Joint Finance Committee to authorize the $1 million grant.
The item did not appear on the agenda for Thursday’s executive session at the time of publication.

(The Center Square) – There is a new push from one of Wisconsin’s small-government-reformers to get Republicans at the Capitol to agree with a portion of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ budget.
The Institute for Reforming Government on Wednesday launched a bid to lobby the Republican budget-writing Joint Committee on Finance to add two reforms to the state’s foster care system back into the budget.
One would erase Wisconsin’s law that blocks parents from reuniting with their children if they owe back child support. The other reform would save Social Security payments for children in foster care, as opposed to spending that money on their day-to-day care.
“There have to be ways that we can offer solutions, and ways to help these kids that is not growing government, not building up bureaucracy,” the policy network’s Chris Reader said in a radio interview.
Reader said work on the reforms has been ongoing for at least a year. His group managed to convince the state’s Department of Children and Families to include both in Evers’ proposed budget.
Republicans with majority to write the budget removed them.
“When the Finance Committee, a few weeks ago … deleted a whole bunch of items, and most of them we would agree with, they also took these out,” Reader said. “They took these out, probably as new items without fully understanding what they were. So the lobbying, right now, has to be on the budget committee.”
Reader said there is a price tag for both reforms, but said it’s small compared to Wisconsin’s $55 billion state budget. And there is a model that Wisconsin can follow.
Reader said “Wisconsin is one of just 12 states” that block family reunification over past-due child support.
“Money should not stop you from having a loving home as a child,” Reader added. “It doesn’t excuse what’s owed. The parents will still have to pay what’s owed, but bring the kids back home.”
Wisconsin lawmakers are crafting the next two-year state budget this month. They hope to have a final draft by the end of the month.