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How Wisconsin’s close elections shape — and are shaped by — national politics
Many political observers see Wisconsin’s gubernatorial contest as a proxy war between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden. “If November is a referendum on Biden, Republicans win. If it’s a referendum on Trump, Democrats win,” said JR Ross, editor of WisPolitics, quoting the conventional wisdom expressed by political consultants of both parties during […]
How Trumpy are we, Wisconsin?
Like a summer storm, Donald Trump blew through the Wisconsin Republican primary, propelling his chosen candidate, construction company owner Tim Michels, to victory over the establishment-picked former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch. At a rally in Waukesha for Michels last Friday, Trump not only attacked Kleefisch, whom he called “the handpicked candidate of a failed establishment,” […]
Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor make their final pitch
The two candidates in Wisconsin’s Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, which takes place Tuesday, Aug. 9, both say re-electing Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is their top priority. “For us, it’s all about making sure that Gov. Evers gets re-elected,” says Peng Her, founder and CEO of the Hmong Institute, who served on Evers’ 2018 transition […]
Saying goodbye to Sarah Godlewski
It was a bittersweet moment on Friday when State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski ended her U.S. Senate campaign. It was a week of rapid realignment, with Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson dropping out and backing Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes on Monday and Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry following suit on Wednesday. With Democrats consolidating behind Barnes, […]
Tammy Baldwin’s big moment
Leave it to U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) to begin building bipartisan consensus on a bill to protect same-sex marriage, just as the Jan. 6 committee hearings are exposing how political polarization is ripping our nation apart. Baldwin is keeping her head down, doing what she does best — pursuing an earnest policy goal and, […]
Gov. Tony Evers criticizes Republicans for school cuts, ‘using our kids as political pawns’
At the annual Wisconsin Public Education Network Summer Summit, held this year in Eau Claire, Gov. Tony Evers praised assembled public school advocates Thursday, as well as state schools superintendent Jill Underly for fighting against school budget cuts and resisting rightwing culture-war ideas he called “radical.” Evers accused Republican legislators of failing to adequately fund […]
Tim Michels’ troubles expose Republican hypocrisy on immigration
Tim Michels, the construction company owner and Donald Trump’s favorite Republican candidate for governor in Wisconsin, has been having a hard time squaring his past and present views on immigration. Michels is taking fire from his main GOP rival after Dan Bice reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that a group led by Michels fought […]
Robin Vos penalized in open records case
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has been ordered to search for and turn over records relating to the partisan investigation of the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin. Vos must also pay statutory fees and attorneys’ costs associated with the case, according to an order issued Friday by Dane County Circuit Court Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn. “In this […]
Three years of digging up the truth in the Badger State
The Wisconsin Examiner turns three years old today, and our work is more important than ever. When we launched in July of 2019, in the midst of the budget battle between Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and the Republican leaders of the state Legislature, we declared our intention to keep an eye on the Capitol, where […]
Baldwin introduces ‘right to travel’ bill to protect abortion access for Wisconsin women
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin joined Sens Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Patty Murray (D-WA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) among other Senate Democrats on a bill to protect women’s constitutional right to travel across state lines to receive abortion care. The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act of 2022 “would make it crystal […]
Wisconsin at the center of the Jan. 6 conspiracy
On the eve of the next Jan. 6 House committee hearing, which begins at noon Central Time on Tuesday, the Defend Democracy Project, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting efforts to undermine elections, held a virtual press briefing focused on Wisconsin’s central role in the plot to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Norman […]
The rightwing assault hits close to home
It’s pretty hard not to take it personally when the highest court in the land erases your humanity. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has rolled back a woman’s right to choose whether to have an abortion, the power of the state reaches right through us, deciding what happens inside our bodies. What we think […]