There are still Republican majorities in the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate for the new two-year legislative session. However, after new maps took effect following the November election, 14 seats flipped to Democrats. How will this affect the tenor, tone and ultimately the legislation coming out of Madison?
To hear about how bipartisanship is going in the State Legislature these days, consider the responses to Gov. Tony Evers’ State of the State address last Wednesday. Democrats celebrated the speech, saying it took a firm stance on investment in schools, kids and working families.
But GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos had this reaction: "It was chock full of liberal wishes, empty promises and a whole lot of things that are not going to happen in Wisconsin," Vos said.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, another Republican, Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August, said he's “not sure what planet the governor is living on.”
There has been an increasingly partisan divide since the 2010 elections—when Republicans took control of the Legislature (and governor's office until 2018). Republicans have pushed forth their agenda with Democrats fighting at every turn.
At the same time, legislators from the two sides, along with Gov. Evers, came together on several big ticket items during the 2023-2025 session, including a bill to improve shared revenue for local governments, a big education package for K-12 schools, and a Brewer's stadium bill.
But after redistricting in 2020, under a Democratic governor and a liberal majority in the state supreme court, new maps corrected some of the partisan gerrymandering Republicans adopted in 2011.
"It’s a different legislative body than I served on two years ago," says Jessie Rodriguez, a Republican representative from Oak Creek who serves on the powerful Joint Finance Committee, which handles laws related to spending, such as the Wisconsin budget.
Rodriguez says she's interested in working across the aisle on a postpartum bill, which would allow mothers who are in on Medicaid to be able to stay on state insurance for up to a year, instead of 60 days. At this point in the session, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has said he's not on board with that. She's also attempting to amass bipartisan support for a bill that would consolidate school choice programs in Wisconsin.
Rodriguez notes there are 23 new members in the Assembly’s Democratic caucus. And eight new Republicans. Ten Assembly seats flipped from Republican to Democratic control.
"It’s kind of like starting school—either first grade or sixth grade—where you know some people, but there are a lot of people you don’t," says Rodriguez. "So, you’re getting to know everyone and seeing if there's any ways that you can connect and things that you can work on together."
Rodriguez says legislators are piecing together what they heard while door-knocking this past fall, including concerns about the economic pinch and public safety issues like reckless driving.
"I know that those are some overarching themes that most people in the caucus have said that they have heard from their constituents," she says.
Greta Neubauer, a Democratic state representative from Racine and the Assembly Minority Leader, says Democrats and Republicans have been knocking on the same doors over the past six months.
"We heard a lot about how people are struggling to afford housing—whether that’s buying a home or their rent—groceries, of course child care [and] drug prices," says Neubauer.
Neubauer says Democrats, who remain in the minority, are interested in helping working families, tax cuts that aren't for the wealthiest in Wisconsin, investing in public education, and addressing PFAS contamination.
Neubauer says they're likely to face continued GOP opposition on many of these goals, but says there’s cause for Democratic optimism.
"We have Republican incumbents who just ran in elections that they barely won—in some cases, right, a few hundred to a few thousand votes," she says. "My hope and expectation is that those members will go to their leadership and say, ‘Listen, I really need to see investment in education. My district is going to referendum again. We do not want to raise our local property taxes.’"
Many new legislators—as well as ones who have been in office for decades— are crossing paths. It will be up to them to lend an open ear to the other side.
Wisconsin voters will have the opportunity to evaluate their performance in 2026, during the next elections for the full Assembly and half of the state Senate.
