Wisconsin has elected its first Black governor — and its first Latino and Hmong statewide elected officials.

Governor-elect David Crowley, Secretary of State-elect JoCasta Zamarripa and Treasurer-elect Yee Leng Xiong, all Democrats, will form the most racially diverse party slate in Wisconsin history, alongside Lt. Gov.-elect Sarah Godlewski.

Following Crowley’s early victory, the Associated Press declared Zamarripa the winner over Republican Jay Schroeder at 11:38 p.m. Tuesday. It declared that Xiong defeated incumbent John S. Leiber at 12:40 a.m. Wednesday.

The secretary of state is Wisconsin’s official record keeper, responsible for maintaining records of enrolled laws, resolutions, official acts, fees, positions and appointments. The office also maintains the state seal and affixes it to official acts taken by the governor.

The treasurer signs checks and oversees the promotion of Wisconsin’s unclaimed property program. The treasurer is also one of three members of the state’s Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, along with the attorney general and the secretary of state.

Emergency room nurse Mitchell Berman declared victory Tuesday night, unseating incumbent Republican Bryan Steil in the race to represent Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District. 

“Tonight proves that when working people stand together, we can make a difference. As the son of a roofer and a foundry worker, a first-generation college graduate, and ER nurse, I’m honored to stand before you as your next Congressman,” Berman, a Democrat, said in a statement. 

The southeastern district became an unexpected battleground as Democrats capitalize on a shifting political environment. Steil, who represented the district since 2019, significantly outraised Berman. 

Only ketchup bottles occupied most of the tables at the Route 20 Bar and Grill by the time Steil arrived Tuesday night.

Among the supporters who remained to the bitter end: Kenosha Sheriff David Zoerner, who ran unopposed this year. 

“For the last eight years, it’s been my absolute honor to be your voice in Congress,” Steil told his audience. “Tonight was not our night.”

He called Berman to concede shortly before taking the stage.

Democrat Rebecca Cooke defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden in western Wisconsin on Tuesday as Democrats were projected to win control of Congress by a wide margin.

Eleanor Powell, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor, said Democratic control of Congress will create a new dynamic for the rest of Donald Trump’s term. 

“We’re going to see a pretty different dynamic in the rest of President Trump’s term,” Powell said. “We’re also likely to see a fair bit more congressional oversight of what the executive branch has been doing.”

Wisconsin’s 1st and 3rd congressional districts were both among the targets of national Democrats seeking to flip Republican-held seats, with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee including both races in its “Red to Blue” program. The program provides selected candidates with additional financial and campaign resources. 

Cooke was on pace to beat Van Orden by about 7 percentage points in a rematch in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District. Van Orden has faced multiple controversies and remained closely aligned with Trump throughout his campaign. 

The district was represented by moderate Democrat Ron Kind for more than two decades before Van Orden was elected in 2022. Cooke previously challenged Van Orden in 2024 and lost by 3 percentage points.

U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil was trailing ER nurse Mitchell Berman in the 1st Congressional District as of 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Wisconsin voters have approved a constitutional amendment that bans government and public educational institutions from discriminating against or expressing preferential treatment for people based on race, ethnicity, nationality or sex — a measure expected to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The measure targets initiatives aimed at increasing diversity and assisting marginalized groups, which the amendment’s authors have said obstruct values like fairness, equality and merit. Using categories like race and sex as a basis for righting historical wrongs, they say, is actually an attempt to rectify “past discrimination” with “more discrimination.”

“Old wounds cannot be healed by inflicting new ones,” said Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, one of the referendum’s architects.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which deemed unconstitutional the use of race in college admissions, helped motivate the Wisconsin amendment’s authors. 

After the proposed ballot measure passed along party lines earlier this year, interest groups sought voter support.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty launched a six-figure campaign to encourage voters to back the amendment. 

Opponents like the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin said they did the best they could with limited resources to explain the measure’s ramifications. League Executive Director Debra Cronmiller said the amendment could undo 60 years of civil rights progress for women and minorities.

“On its surface, it looks good,” Cronmiller said. “It’s trying to create equality, which means giving everybody the same thing. But in the United States, where we have had systemic discrimination since our inception, we need equity so we can provide people the resources that they need to have an equal opportunity for success.”

She likened the difference between equality and equity to giving all people a set of shoes. Giving everyone the same pair simply wouldn’t work. To fit all needs, people require different sizes.

“If the first time you’re reading the question is today, when you get to your polling place, you will be misled by the question,” Cronmiller said. “You will likely vote yes.”

Voters in at least six other states — Arizona, California, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Washington — enacted similar bans between 1996 and 2012.

Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, who has built a record suing the Trump administration, won a third term as Wisconsin’s top lawyer Tuesday.

Kaul defeated Republican Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney for the second time after the two squared off in 2022. Kaul became attorney general after defeating another Republican, then-incumbent Brad Schimel, in 2018.

Read the full story here, and see live results here.

Democrats will retain control of the governor’s office in Wisconsin.

David Crowley will be the state’s first Black governor.

Crowley took the stage shortly after 10 p.m. to give his victory speech to the tune of “Narco,” the rousing song played each time Milwaukee Brewer William Contreras, the 2026 World Series most valuable player, comes to bat.

“To the people of Wisconsin, tonight is for all of you,” Crowley said in a victory speech. “Because of you, a boy growing up facing eviction will now live in the governor’s residence.”

“Tonight, Wisconsin made history, and being your next governor is humbling in its own right,” Crowley continued. “I don’t take any of this lightly. And I know exactly the shoulders that I stand on. And I want to say thank you for placing your faith in me. That’s ultimately what voting is, a tremendous act of faith. Not faith in one person or a party. But faith in the idea that elections matter. That the right leadership can make a difference in people’s lives.”

Republican Tom Tiffany conceded the race just before 9:45 p.m.

“Tonight was not the outcome we had hoped for, but I am incredibly grateful for the support, encouragement, and trust so many Wisconsinites placed in our campaign,” Tiffany told a crowd of supporters in Wausau. “I want to congratulate David Crowley on his victory. While we have our differences, we both love this great state, and I wish him and his family the very best as he prepares to serve as Wisconsin’s next governor.”

Brittany Carloni contributed reporting.

Wisconsin’s major races are still too close to call as of 9:30 p.m., but national outlets are projecting Democrats will win the U.S. House of Representatives and are on their way to flipping the U.S. Senate.

In a sign of a mounting Democratic tsunami, Democrat Annie Andrews was projected to win the South Carolina Senate seat that opened up when Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham died earlier this year. President Donald Trump backed Graham’s sister Darline Graham. Democrats also flipped the Senate seat in North Carolina with former Gov. Roy Cooper winning the seat being vacated by Sen. Thom Tillis.

With about 60% of the vote counted in Wisconsin, Democrat David Crowley was leading Republican Tom Tiffany. Decision Desk HQ has called the race for Crowley, who is leading the vote count by nearly 10 points. Wisconsin Watch follows the Associated Press race calls.

Democrat Rebecca Cooke held a smaller lead over U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden in western Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, and U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil was neck-and-neck with challenger Mitchell Berman in southeast Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District.

I spoke with Alexander Shur of Votebeat about how Milwaukee election officials are counting and tabulating nearly 60,000 absentee ballots at the city’s Central Count.

Compared with past elections, the process has been running smoothly, despite a few minor human and machine hiccups.

The watch party for David Crowley, the Democratic nominee for governor, is at Landmark Credit Union Live, a concert venue across the street from Fiserv Forum, home of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Crowley, a Milwaukee native, would be Wisconsin’s first Black governor if he defeats Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is holding his watch party in Wausau. By 8:30 p.m., national news outlets had already declared victories for the first Black governors of Georgia and Florida, only the fourth and fifth elected Black governors in U.S. history.

Potentially witnessing history at the Crowley event wasn’t lost on Kenya Perry, 38, an east side Milwaukee resident.

“I think it’ll be great, not just for us minorities, but for everyone, because he not only represents us, but he’s representing everybody,” Perry said. “It doesn’t matter what color you are, what’s your background, what ethnicity or your religion or anything like that. He wants to come in and represent all people, not just one party.”

Crowley became the first Black and youngest elected Milwaukee County executive in 2020.

The Crowley party started at 7 p.m. By 8:30 p.m., no one had taken the microphone to speak. Many guests were on the venue’s upper level, away from the stage and news media.

As clerks continue counting ballots, Tom Tiffany kicked off his election night watch party at the Hilton Garden Inn in Wausau. Here are some scenes captured by photojournalist Drake White-Bergey.

While you’re waiting for the results to trickle in, check out this story from Chesnie Wardell, Alex Klaus and Jonathan Aguilar of the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. They reported today from a polling place at COA Youth & Family Centers, where gubernatorial candidate David Crowley grew up.

Read the story here.

Nextaly Rodriguez voted in his first gubernatorial election on Tuesday at the Kosciuszko Community Center on Milwaukee’s South Side. The 44-year-old naturalized citizen —  born in Guatemala — voted for President Donald Trump two years ago. He flipped partisan allegiances this year, citing the Crowley campaign’s Spanish-language outreach efforts. “Just trying something new,” he said in Spanish. “Politics don’t interest me a lot.”

Michael Hernandez, 30, a software developer in Racine who works from home, says he’s experienced increasingly frequent power outages in recent years. He’s frustrated with local opposition stalling grid infrastructure projects. “When it comes to infrastructure,” he said, “I’m very much a believer in the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” He identifies as “left-leaning,” in part because he believes Republicans’ policy solutions more often have unintended consequences.

Richard Singapori, 70, owns a 24-unit hotel in Kenosha. His monthly electrical bills this winter averaged more than $3,500. “That didn’t used to happen,” he said. The lifelong Republican said he voted for Democrats at the state and local level for the first time in at least 20 years on Tuesday.

At the Hilton Garden Inn in Wausau, where Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany is hosting his election night party, Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Brian Schimming said he was proud of the congressman’s gubernatorial campaign and Wisconsin GOP organizing efforts ahead of the midterms. Schimming said he was aware of the political environment this year not favoring Republicans, but is watching turnout across the state.

“We’re getting different signals around the state about turnout all over the state, which is not strange to anyone. So we’re kind of watching that,” Schimming told reporters. “I believe that big turnout helps Republicans, and I think helps Tom Tiffany, and so I’m hoping for a big turnout today.”

Schimming also dismissed a question about the three GOP megadonors who donated millions to the state Republican Party, which through a decade-old Republican change in state campaign finance law then donated millions to Tiffany’s campaign.

“I’m proud of the fact, frankly, that Wisconsin-based folks or folks who have businesses in Wisconsin are willing to, you know, help us raise funds to run campaigns,” Schimming said.

Roughly 2,000 people voted at the Mount Pleasant village hall by 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon — “nothing crazy,” said poll worker Kathy Wyatt, but roughly on par with the 2022 election.

Microsoft completed its first data center in Mount Pleasant in June and is building a second nearby. In October, the village’s Plan Commission unanimously recommended approval of an amended plan for a separate expansion featuring seven additional data center buildings — two fewer than originally proposed, but with more total square footage.

Despite the high-profile hubbub about those developments, many voters report the debate is too new to shape their votes at the state or federal level. “Down the road, I’m definitely going to watch the issue,” said Rachel Kinch, 57, who voted at Cesar E. Chavez Community Center in Racine on Tuesday afternoon.

In the Kenosha County race for sheriff, incumbent David Zoerner is running against write-in Democrat Gary Roberts.

Voter Lorrie Sailor, an Alabama-born Navy veteran, left the sheriff section on her ballot blank this year because she believes the position should be nonpartisan. “Certain things shouldn’t be political because when you’re saying that you’re taking care of everybody, it’s a lie when you’re not,” she said.

Sailor’s decision doesn’t reflect disinterest, she said. She became invested in local politics in part because of shootings by law enforcement officers, even before the August 2020 shooting of Jacob Blake.

“Years before it happened, I would say that we were gonna be on national news,” she said. Sailor doesn’t believe much has improved since the unrest six years ago. “Kenosha could easily be back in the limelight,” she added.

Mark Miller, a mental health counselor originally from Illinois, left the sheriff section blank for the same reason. The 2020 unrest only amplified tensions in Kenosha, he said, and fueled his daughter’s political awakening. “She knew one of the people that (Kyle Rittenhouse) shot,” he said.

Miller, a longtime gun owner and Second Amendment supporter, says the deepening of partisan hostilities since Donald Trump first took office in 2016 leaves him worried about political violence. He already carries openly, and he’s considering arming himself further if Republicans win this year. He sees little space for Black gun owners like himself in Wisconsin’s Second Amendment activism sphere.

The events of 2020 also still loom large for some conservative Kenosha voters. Recently retired teacher Greg Schneider sees reminders whenever he drives through the city. “I look where most of it took place and see that we have new neighborhoods, new buildings, because they burnt the other ones down,” he said.

Schneider worries those traces of the unrest are lost on younger voters. “People have short memories,” he said.

Curious about the accuracy of some of the attacks made in the Wisconsin governor’s race? Here are two suggestions:

• Read our roundup of 16 Fact Briefs on statements about David Crowley and Tom Tiffany.
• Watch our video on some of the Briefs, presented quiz-show style.

The Bayview Community Center in downtown Madison is usually a lively place, and Election Day is no exception. At lunchtime on Tuesday, people streamed in for the center’s free lunch, a knitting club meetup, a food pantry stocking session — and voting. Tom Wilson, the polling site’s chief inspector, said turnout appears on track to match or surpass the 2024 presidential election, with 414 in-person and absentee ballots counted by 1:30. The ward has just under 1,200 registered voters.

Voting has gone smoothly all day, Wilson said, except when a wet ballot jammed one of the tabulator machines. The city quickly sent someone to fix it.

Wilson credited election volunteers and community center staff with making the day a success. “All of our poll workers have been great, and everybody’s been showing up and working hard,” Wilson said. “It’s really great to see all these different pieces of the community working together to allow people to come out here to vote.”

UW-Madison student and Omega Psi Phi fraternity President Rashaad Delgado was among the voters at the polling place. He voted for Democrats. 

“I really don’t respect the current administration right now, and I don’t respect the current leader,” Delgado said, adding that President Trump’s rhetoric and immigration crackdown have affected members of his family. “It shouldn’t be continuing any further.”

Originally from South Central Los Angeles, Delgado, 21, has voted since turning 18. As a first-generation college student and the son of immigrants, he sees it as his duty.

“So many people before me have literally fought tooth and nail to be able to vote,” Delgado said, pointing to challenges like segregation and poll taxes. “Now that it’s so easy, why wouldn’t we vote?”

Delgado recently organized a voter registration event at his fraternity. He’s been glad to see so many students, including freshmen, passionate about casting their votes.

“Everybody’s just talking about voting,” Delgado said. “It’s a great thing to see people young like myself wanting to go out there and vote.”

While some people accuse his generation of not being hardworking, Delgado thinks he and his peers have what the country needs.

“I really do see us as being the change and being the voice,” Delgado said. “I feel like we’re a lot more educated, and we’re not ones to just sit down and…have other people tell us what to do.”

Green Bay officials have had to bring additional ballots to three polling locations amid high in-person turnout.

As of 2:30 p.m., 9,600 voters have visited the polls.

“We’re sitting at a very good turnout at this point. Everyone I’ve talked to has had very good turnout,” Green Bay Clerk Stacy Menke said. 

Meanwhile, 10,011 absentee ballots have been returned, with the city halfway through processing the absentee ballots at central count.  That’s on par with the last election,  which meant there were “a lot of eligible voters that were left on the table,” Menke said. 

“My message to them today was to come out.”

Donalea Dinsmore, chief inspector at the polling location at Madison’s Pinney Library, said nearly 40% of registered voters in this east side Madison ward cast absentee ballots. Her team has been counting them as they’re delivered.

“The clerk’s office has done a really diligent job of making sure that every absentee counts, and so there’s been checks along the way that everything makes it to the polling location,” Dinsmore said.

Last year, law firm Law Forward sued the city and former clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl over the failure to count 193 absentee ballots in the 2024 presidential election.