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Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce Fact Briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

Yes.

If the 2026 Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor seems large, 2018 certainly had it beat.

That year, 10 names were on the Democratic primary ballot, plus an 11th write-in candidate, according to results of the 2018 partisan primary kept by the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Two Republican candidates and two additional write-ins appeared on the 2018 GOP primary ballot. 

The Aug. 11, 2026, primary ballot includes seven Democrats and two Republicans.

In both years, a few candidates dropped out of the race, but their names remained on the ballot due to approval deadlines. 

As of July 14, that includes Democrats Missy Highes and David Crowley. So, only five of the Democrats on the Aug. 11 ballot are still campaigning.

In 2018, two higher-profile candidates had also dropped out by late June: Andy Gronik and Dana Wachs, though both appeared on the ballot.

This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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Hope Karnopp has reported on politics for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel since 2023. She covered the 2024 presidential campaigns in Wisconsin and was on the ground at the RNC and DNC. She previously was a Wisconsin Watch reporting intern. Hope is originally from Green Bay and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.