In an election year filled with high-stakes races up and down the ballot, Wisconsin voters are likely not hearing much about the contests for secretary of state and state treasurer.
These smaller statewide offices have limited duties, which are written into Wisconsin’s constitution. In addition to the attorney general, the secretary of state and state treasurer lead one of the oldest state agencies, the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, which oversees school trust funds and timber management on 78,000 acres of land.
In Wisconsin, these positions lack the powers of officers with similar roles in other states. The Wisconsin secretary of state is responsible for keeping records of official acts from the governor’s office and the Legislature as well as maintaining the Great Seal of the State of Wisconsin, which is attached to official acts taken by the governor. That person does not oversee elections, unlike in 33 other states, where voters get to pick their top election official.
The state treasurer signs checks and oversees the promotion of Wisconsin’s unclaimed property program. Republicans tried to eliminate the position through a constitutional amendment in April 2018, an effort Wisconsin voters rejected.
At the heart of both races this year is debate over the scope of these statewide roles. In the secretary of state race, Republican Jay Schroeder and Democrat JoCasta Zamarripa are at odds over whether the secretary of state should have control over elections, which is not a function of the office.
Schroeder is running to end the Wisconsin Elections Commission and bring election administration under the control of the secretary of state. Zamarripa said she doesn’t believe the secretary of state needs to oversee elections and instead views the role as a platform that can protect voting rights. They also face Green Party candidate Pete Karas, who said the focus of his campaign is breaking the two-party system.
In the state treasurer race, Democratic challenger Yee Leng Xiong said he sees an opportunity for the role to have influence beyond its constitutional duties, while Republican incumbent John Leiber said he wants to provide continuity and direction for the office, not grow its responsibilities.
Should the secretary of state oversee elections?
The race for secretary of state is open this year after Sarah Godlewski, the current office holder, ran for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. Godlewski, who previously served as state treasurer, was appointed after former Democratic Secretary of State Doug La Follette resigned in 2023. La Follette was first elected in 1974, and after running for lieutenant governor in 1978 he served 40 consecutive years in office.
The focus of the 2026 contest has become a debate over what role the secretary of state should have in elections.
Schroeder, the Republican candidate, said he believes there is a lack of trust in elections and pointed to issues in Green Bay where the former clerk, who later resigned, sent duplicate ballots to voters earlier this year. He also referenced a misleading claim that there are more dead people on Wisconsin’s voter rolls than those alive. Wisconsin’s voter list includes both active registered voters and inactive ones, who may have been previously registered to vote and died or moved from the state. Only active registered voters can cast a ballot in Wisconsin elections.
If elected, Schroeder said he wants to disband the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the agency created by the Republican-led Legislature in 2016 that oversees election administration with the help of local governments. He also wants to place control of elections under the purview of the secretary of state. Both ideas are efforts that would take action from the Legislature and the governor to change existing laws.
Schroeder said his election would provide a “bully pulpit” to advocate for changes to elections. Schroeder won the GOP nomination in August with 47% support in a four-way contest, despite the Republican Party of Wisconsin endorsing one of his opponents.
“I’m running on this crystal-clear issue,” Schroeder said. “So if I get elected, I could go to whoever is the governor, whoever is in the Legislature and say, ‘Look, people. This is my platform. The people in the state of Wisconsin ratified it.’”
Zamarripa, the Democratic nominee and a Milwaukee City Council member, said she is “fearful” of Schroeder’s goals should he get control of the secretary of state’s office. She specifically pointed to Schroeder’s support of President Donald Trump and described Schroeder as an election denier for past comments questioning the results of the 2020 presidential election. Wisconsin Watch asked Schroeder about a 2021 press release from his prior secretary of state campaign in which he called for the state’s 2020 presidential electors “to be rescinded.” He said not enough research was done into the election results at the time, but that the issue was in the past.
Zamarripa, who served 10 years in the state Assembly, said she looked into how Wisconsin’s secretary of state could have a role in elections, but believes the Wisconsin Elections Commission is the best fit for the state at this time.
“Having worked with their leadership and knowing what my opponent’s goal is, I feel that the best thing I can do is make sure again that I’m using my soapbox to ensure that Wisconsinites feel safe and secure when they head to the polls,” she said. “And that they will head to the polls because they feel that safety and security and confidence.”
If she is elected, Zamarripa wants to support the existing duties of the secretary of state, including maintaining public records and constituent services. If Democrats win control of the governor’s office and the Legislature, she sees potential for the office to have more of a role in supporting small businesses across the state.
“I do think that my office, especially under my leadership, could play that role of some type of convener, some type of clearinghouse for immigrant entrepreneurs, all entrepreneurs, small business folks trying to make it in Wisconsin,” she said.
Zamarripa, who would be the first Latina elected to a statewide office, said she is inspired by the late Vel Phillips, a former Milwaukee council member who was the first woman and first Black person elected statewide when she won the secretary of state’s office in 1978.
Karas, a retired small business owner from Muskego, said his campaign could help break the state’s two-party system, which he said is unpopular among voters. An August Marquette University Law School Poll found a majority of registered voters said they had unfavorable views of the Democratic and Republican parties.
“Our campaign’s job is to educate them, to let them know that even if they’re Republican and afraid of the socialists, or they’re Democrats and afraid of the fascists, that this is a race where you can vote third party, and what you’re doing is voting to change the system,” Karas said.
Karas was elected as a Green Party candidate to the Racine City Council, where he served from 2003 through 2009. If elected, Karas said he would focus on digitizing records and serving on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands. Karas said he would additionally prohibit data centers and high-powered transmission lines on public lands under the board’s control.
Wisconsin hasn’t reelected a state treasurer in more than 20 years
The race for state treasurer features the one statewide office where Republicans have an incumbent on the ballot this November.
Leiber was elected in 2022 when he defeated his Democratic opponent by about 38,000 votes in a year in which voters reelected Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul and sent Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson back to Washington, D.C.
While Republicans have previously sought to eliminate the office, Leiber said the position has allowed him to provide a Republican perspective on various boards. It also has elevated his standing among Republicans.
Leiber said some of the accomplishments during his first term include supporting programs under the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, such as the municipal loan program that helps cash-strapped local governments. He also highlighted efforts to grow and protect the BCPL’s $1.6 billion common school fund, which distributes funds to public school libraries across the state.
If reelected, Leiber said he wants to keep those efforts from his first term moving forward. He also wants to provide more continuity to an office that has not had a multiterm state treasurer since Republican Jack C. Voight served from 1995 through 2007.
“We had a referendum that people said, ‘Nope, we want that office,’” Leiber said. “The question now is what is it going to do? What benefit can it bring to the people? And that’s really what I’ve been trying to focus on.”
The key difference between Leiber and his Democratic opponent is how they view the scope of the job. Leiber, who previously worked as a legislative staffer and a tax adviser in the Department of Revenue, said he does not see a need to expand the office beyond what is currently allowed.
“What I’m not going to do is talk about issues that have nothing to do with the state treasurer,” Leiber said. “I think it’s easy to spread yourself too thin, and it’s important to realize, or to know what you can actually get done with the Legislature.”
Xiong, a sitting Marathon County Commissioner and a D.C. Everest Area School Board member, said the written duties of the state treasurer should not prevent the person from using the platform to help Wisconsinites.
“It’s not the constitutional office powers that makes it an influential position,” Xiong said. “It’s what you do with that position that makes it influential.”
In addition to the state treasurer’s existing responsibilities, Xiong said he wants to make the role more of a fiscal watchdog who can perform state audits, provide transparency portals on how government dollars are spent and convene groups that can do things like boost financial literacy or help navigate retirement savings. Democratic control of the governor’s office and Legislature could provide flexibility to broaden what the state treasurer is allowed to do, Xiong said.
Xiong, of Weston, said his experience in local government and as the executive director of the nonprofit New Beginnings for Refugees in Wausau would translate well to serving as state treasurer. In those roles, he has managed budgets and built relationships to address challenges in north central Wisconsin, he said.
While he is the one statewide Democratic candidate taking on an incumbent Republican, Xiong believes he is able to engage Asian American voters who are excited by his campaign. Xiong is the son of Hmong refugees who fled Laos following the Vietnam War and would be Wisconsin’s first Asian American statewide elected official.
“If I was so lucky to be fortunate to be elected by Wisconsin, it would mark a new era for the Hmong community,” Xiong said.
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