Update: Democrat Mitchell Berman defeated incumbent Republican Bryan Steil in the Nov. 3 general election.
Wisconsinites will vote for congressional candidates in the general election on Nov. 3, 2026.
All eight of Wisconsin's U.S. House seats are on the ballot. We compiled candidate information for four of those seats in WUWM's coverage area (Congressional Districts 1, 4, 5 and 6).
What do Wisconsin’s U.S. Congressional Representatives do?
The U.S. House of Representatives is made up of 435 representatives, and the number of representatives each state has is determined by population. Wisconsin is currently divided into eight congressional districts, each represented by a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. Representatives serve two-year terms and are considered for reelection every even year. During their term, representatives write and vote on laws that govern every state in the U.S. and decide how federal tax dollars are spent.
The House is the larger of Congress’ two legislative bodies, and has the sole authority to impeach federal officials and elect the president in the case of an Electoral College tie.
What’s at stake?
This election will help decide which party controls the U.S. Congress. If Democrats gain control of the House and add to their number of seats, it could provide more of a check to the second Trump administration. A Democratic majority could try to pass affordability and anti-corruption legislation. If Republicans retain control of the House, they would make it easier for the Trump-Vance administration to enact legislation. This could allow them to pass conservative legislation and ensure that liberal legislation — like a law legalizing abortion nationwide — is unable to be enacted.
1st Congressional District
The 1st Congressional District covers the Kenosha and Racine area in southeast Wisconsin, as well as Janesville and Elkhorn in south-central Wisconsin.
Under former district maps, the 1st Congressional District voted reliably Republican for the past 20 years. The seat is currently held by Janesville Republican Bryan Steil. Before Steil, it was held by former U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan.
The newly-drawn congressional district adds Democratic areas around Beloit and Janesville, as well as areas around the Milwaukee suburbs. The new district also loses a portion of Waukesha County, a Republican stronghold that has been a part of the 1st Congressional District since the early 1990s.
Incumbent Republican candidate Bryan Steil will face Democrat Mitchell Berman in the Nov. 3 general election. Berman beat Democrats Miguel Aranda and Lorenzo Santos in the Aug. 11 primary. Democrat Peter Burgelis dropped out the race on July 15 and offered his support for Berman.
Below are excerpts from WUWM's interviews with the candidates. They may be edited for length and clarity.
Meet the candidates
Mitchell Berman (Democrat)
This would be your first time in elected office. How would you prepare to be an effective congressmember right away?
Well, I think kind of relying on my background in healthcare. As you said, when you work in the emergency room, we have to make sure that we're ready to go when a patient comes in the door. When someone critical comes in, we don't have time to stand around. We need to get down to business. And that's what people here in our district and in southeastern Wisconsin need right now. They need somebody who's going to go to Washington and actually get things done.
I would say that my opponent talks about “there's more things to do and we have work to do” you know, he's been in Congress for now going on eight years and when is that work going to start? 'Cause people here are struggling, they're having a hard time putting food on the table. They know that they're not going to be able to afford to go to the doctor, because, again, we’re at a place in our country where the number one cause of bankruptcy is medical debt.
Working in the emergency room you have to be quick on your feet. You have to be a critical thinker. And you have to be able to work as part of a team. We work collaboratively with a multidisciplinary team to help make sure that we send patients out of our department in better condition than they came in as. And that's what we need right now in this district and in our country, is a representative who's gonna work to make people's tomorrow better than today.
People around the country, including in Wisconsin, are struggling with affordability. What would you do if elected to address the cost of living?
Yeah, I think the number one thing that I hear from folks when we're out holding events across the district, knocking doors, is that they're struggling to put food on the table. They're struggling to pay their rent. They don't know how they're going to afford that utility bill that just showed up. And I think that comes down to looking, like you said, at policies that Bryan Steil supported such as these blanket tariffs that are causing prices to be elevated at the stores for folks.
Bryan Steil voted to continue those eight times. He also voted to continue this war in Iran six times. Both of those things, I think, fall under Congress's constitutional authority. And I think the first thing that we can do when we get back control of Congress is to repeal these blanket tariffs, to help bring down costs for people at the stores, as well as vote for the War Powers Resolution and end this directionless war in Iran to help bringing gas prices down at the pump for folks.
Steil asserts that Medicaid changes like work requirements, removing undocumented immigrants from the healthcare program, and “rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse,” have saved Wisconsin $1 billion. You're an emergency room nurse who works with patients using Medicaid. How would you approach Medicaid funding and requirements if elected?
Yeah, I think we need to fully fund Medicaid. Looking at what they call the Big, Beautiful Bill, which I think is anything but, but it's going to make a trillion dollars' worth of cuts to Medicaid over the next 10 years. And that additional funding that my opponent talks about, that is what we call in the business “a band-aid on a bullet hole.” That is not going to come close to covering the losses in revenue that our facilities are going to see because of people who are underinsured and uninsured.
And we know what happens when folks show up to the emergency rooms without coverage. Those costs get shifted onto people who have insurance, so those who have great insurance through their employers are going see higher deductibles, higher premiums, and/or it's going to look like loss of services. So, when you show up to the doctor, when you show up in the emergency room, that procedure or that service that you may need to save your life may not be available. And so that's what this looks like. It ends up leading to worse outcomes for our patients.
One of the issues that's on a lot of people's minds is data centers. What would be your approach to data centers?
Yeah, that's a question that we get frequently when we're out talking to folks in the district. And my number one thing for data centers is make sure we have clear guardrails in place with some form of accountability if these corporations don't adhere to those guidelines. And I think once we have that in place, then we need to make sure that they're going to protect our air, our water, and our land, and also that they are not going to come in on the backs of taxpayers.
We need to make sure that these corporations are paying their own way. We shouldn't be giving them tax breaks. You know, my opponent, who's taken $300,000 from data center developers, has also voted to give them $70 billion in tax breaks. I think that's egregious, I think they could pay their own way, and I think the people here in Wisconsin also ought to have a say in whether or not these corporations, these data centers, come into their communities.
Mitchell Berman's campaign website
Bryan Steil (Republican, incumbent)
Gas prices, healthcare costs and grocery prices have gone up. You’ve said that you're trying to lower costs. How do you think that has worked so far, and what are your plans if you get reelected?
Steil: We've made progress, but there is unquestionably more work to do. In particular, we've reduced the tax burden on hardworking families, from reducing taxes on tips and overtime to reducing the tax burden on social security. We made permanent and expanded the child tax credit to make sure that people are having more money in their pocket and less going to Washington.
We've worked hard to unleash American energy. We actually produce more oil and natural gas in the United States than we consume. A lot of that burden is being placed by pressure, of course, from Western Europe and the unjust invasion by Russia of Ukraine. Making sure that we get to a conclusion, a peaceful resolution, not only in the Russia-Ukraine war, but as well as Iran, is absolutely essential.
Finally, we need to continue our work to expand and unleash American energy so that the energy that is being produced here is getting to the end user, so that there’s natural gas when people are heating their homes in the winter, or at the gas pump when people are filling up their car. And, so, we've done a lot. There's more work to do. And that's the task in front of us and why I'm asking people for two more years to continue this job.
You've argued that data centers bring vital economic growth, job creation, and tax revenue to Wisconsin communities, while advocating for strong local contracts and accountability to protect taxpayers from utility cost spikes. At the same time, 75% of respondents in the Marquette Poll feel that the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits, and 68% of them support a moratorium. What's your message to them?
Hardworking families should never bear the burden for data centers. Our communities need to have decision-making authority over whether or not these decisions, these facilities, are built in their area. This is a state and local decision that needs to be made at the state and local level. But there also needs to transparency in the decision-making process.
In the House, I voted for and helped pass the Ratepayer Protection Act to ensure data centers are paying their own way and are not shifting costs onto Wisconsin families. It passed the House in overwhelming numbers, 417-3. Frustratingly, it was filibustered and blocked by Democrats in the United States Senate. And, so, my hope is that we continue our work to make sure that hardworking families are not footing the bill for these types of developments, that local decision-makers have the information they need to be able to make the right decision for their own community.
The political climate in a midterm election often favors the party not in power. President Trump's got some low approval numbers right now. What are you doing to appeal to more moderate voters and even Democrats? Is there anything in your record that you would point to, for example?
In the state of Wisconsin, no election is ever taken for granted. You go out there, pound the pavement, speak directly to the voters about the issues that matter most. And that's exactly what I'm doing in this campaign. Going out and talking about the work we're doing to provide tax relief, not only to seniors, so there's no tax on social security, but to hardworking families in particular, by making permanent, expanding, for example, the child tax credit.
We passed not only through a committee I serve on, but through the House and signed into law, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing. That is a broadly bipartisan piece of legislation with key provisions in that that I worked and passed with Democrats across the aisle. No one party has a monopoly on good ideas. It's one of the reasons that I work with anybody to advance and get our country back on track. We've shown success in that in many areas. And I think that's work that we need to continue to build on as we look to turn the corner.
What federal funding do you think could most help Wisconsin going forward and in what priority areas?
Well, one of the things that I'm proud of is I spearheaded the effort to get a billion dollar increase in Medicaid reimbursement to the state of Wisconsin.
That's most significant, plus up in Medicaid reimbursements in our state's history. And, so, our work to make sure that we're protecting important programs to the Americans that they were designed for, while at the same time, working to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in the case of Medicaid, implementing work requirements for able-bodied childless adults. We need to do both things.
We need to make sure we're protecting essential programs for the Americans they were designed for, while at the same time rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse to protect taxpayers. We've made great progress on this, but that billion-dollar increase in Medicaid reimbursement to the state of Wisconsin is absolutely essential to make sure that families who depend on these essential programs are able to receive the benefits that they need.
Editor’s Note: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Democratic Governor Tony Evers denies Republican participation in the increased Medicaid reimbursement funding for Wisconsin.
Please list any notable endorsements you've received in this race:
Steil has been endorsed by the Log Cabin Republicans and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as well as the the Wisconsin Operating Engineers Local 139 Union and The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades Council 7.
Bryan Steil’s campaign website
Support for WUWM's Voter Guide is provided by Milwaukee Turners.
