🥃 It’s Thursday evening… time to saunter into the main dining room with that  first beverage in hand, slide into a booth, and share what we know.

🚪 The candidates of summer and fall are spending their springtime knocking on doors, gathering signatures on nomination papers, and answering questions in county party offices, supporters’ homes, and even a few supper club annual dinners.

🚘 Party leaders are on the road. Assembly Democratic Leader Rep. Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) spent this week in several key districts in western and central Wisconsin, hoping to flip the chamber and perhaps become Speaker next year. I asked her about a new report showing how Republican incumbents in our state’s swing districts weren’t being very “swingy” when it comes to showing some independence and standing up for constituents back home.

🗣️ Don’t get me wrong: Republicans and Democrats vote the way they do for good reason, but you normally see legislators in closely divided districts try to style themselves as “mavericks” willing to vote against their party colleagues on a few issues that might be rewarded by independent voters back home. That has not been the case with Wisconsin’s GOP lawmakers facing tough races in November. 

“I think it’s going to be pretty difficult for these Republican Assembly members to go back to their districts and convince people that they care about women’s health,” she told me, “that they care about affordability or education with the kind of votes that they’ve taken over their careers in the Assembly.”

👉🏼 Read the specifics about their voting records in my story on our website.

Have a great weekend—and remember to stay up to date with our social media posts.

🫒 David Crowley joined civic and business leaders about the state to mark National Travel & Tourism Week. People from all over come to visit the city that some of us of a certain age still call “a great place on a Great Lake.” (Vintage tourism slogan!) Crowley noted that visitors spent more than $2.4 billion in Milwaukee County in 2024, generating over $242 million in state and local taxes and helping support 28,000 jobs by “showcasing everything that makes our community special.”

🫒 Francesca Hong gets serious bonus points for taking time to tell her supporters about this week’s 140th anniversary of the Bay View Massacre, when Gov. Jeremiah Rusk ordered the state militia to fire on thousands of striking workers and supporters (mostly Polish immigrants) at the Milwaukee Iron rolling mill in Bay View. The strikers demand? An 8-hour workday. At least seven people were killed in the strike-breaking assault. Hong mentioned the nurses, educators, Amazon workers and others still fighting for better working conditions. 

🫒 Joel Brennan recently called for an immediate 30-day gas tax holiday to ease some of the pain at the pump created by President Trump’s attack on Iran, “while we wait for Tom Tiffany and the GOP Congress to grow a spine and stand up for the people they were elected to serve.” The money for roadwork would be backfilled with part of the state’s $2.5 billion budget surplus. 

🫒 Kelda Roys participated in an event designed to bring attention to the harms being done to women by abortion bans and other attacks on reproductive freedom. She said the assault on women’s healthcare is part of a larger sustained attack on “our fundamental rights and freedoms in a time of authoritarianism and fascism.”

🫒 Mandela Barnes pledged he would take immediate action as governor to address Wisconsin’s gerrymandered congressional map. “We can’t fight with one arm tied behind our back,” Barnes said in a social media post. “A 50-50 state with a 6-2 delegation isn’t a fair map, and as governor, I’ll use every option available to me to protect our democracy.”

🫒 Missy Hughes released an outline of how, as governor, she would stand up to President Trump and his “sidekick” Tom Tiffany. Hughes said she would dispatch legal experts to protect voting rights who would guard against voter intimidation, empower the attorney general’s office to stop federal overreach, claw back money “stolen from you by illegal tariffs,” and more.

🫒 Sara Rodriguez highlighted a new report from the group Protect Our Care that spelled out the many ways that Republicans’ healthcare cuts are blowing holes in state budgets and jeopardizing care for more Americans. “Republicans found the money for billionaire tax breaks,” Rodriguez said. “They couldn’t find it for a kid’s inhaler. This is not a budget cut. That’s cruelty with a price tag.”

🥦 Tom Tiffany used the bulk of his social media posts on his favorite topic: stirring up fear and hatred of immigrants. We have a story from Jessica Simmons on our website about Tiffany’s attack on the fundamental Constitutional protection of birthright citizenship and how he would roll that back.

🖥️ In this video clip from UpNorthNews reporter Salina Heller, you can watch Rep. Angelina Cruz (D-Racine) bring up a very interesting point about the explosive growth of taxpayer-funded vouchers for families to send their kids to private schools in Wisconsin:

You’ve never been asked to vote on it.

🚸 In fact, the Legislature has never really given the whole voucher school scheme a standalone up-or-down vote. The creation and funding have almost always been wrapped inside of budget bills with lots of other matters that have to pass. 

Would we be paying for two parallel school systems in Wisconsin, with a cost approaching $1 billion a year, if we had been asked about it earlier? Should voters get a chance now through some kind of constitutional amendment or is it too late? 

Click the green box to answer over on our website. Leave us a comment and your first name and hometown for a chance to see it featured in this newsletter next week.

🎰 We asked whether so-called prediction markets (like Kalshi and Polymarket) are just another form of online gambling that should be regulated by state governments, as claimed by Attorney General Josh Kaul in a lawsuit — or are they legitimate futures markets that should be regulated by the federal government, as the Trump administration claims in a countersuit against Kaul?

More than 95% of the responses said it’s just another casino.

👉🏼 Peter in Cornucopia – “There’s a clear difference between an investment and a bet. These are betting sites.”

👉🏼 Adolph in Cottage Grove – “It’s gambling, except in cases when they use undisclosed information, then it becomes insider trading.”

👉🏼 But another reader understood the allure – “I am leary of the prediction markets and how they operate, however since the legislature keeps the thumb on prohibiting online sports books, what would one expect? I don’t partake in sports betting, but I do think it should be made available for those that enjoy the action.”

Thank you, as always, for some great table talk about a growing industry.

It has been about nine months since Gov. Tony Evers announced he would retire next year and not run for a third term in office. Since that time, around a dozen people have expressed interest in becoming Wisconsin’s next governor and we’ve spoken with many of them through UpNorthNews interviews, radio shows, and livestream conversations.

Keep an eye on our YouTube channel for a new playlist dedicated to videos about the candidates for governor, starting with a series of 15 to 20-minute interviews with the seven Democrats who first got into the race, as recorded in February through April 2026.

The candidates discussed a broad range of topics: healthcare coverage, online safety, making life more affordable in Wisconsin, their respective strengths, and the reasons they think they’d be the best nominee to take on Tom Tiffany this fall. 

Get past all the noise, bypass the political ads, and simply hear unfiltered conversations with the candidates hoping to earn your vote.

Saturday [May 9]

Sip and Sign with Dodge County Democrats: (Beaver Dam, 12:00 p.m.) Grab a drink with gubernatorial candidate Sara Rodriguez, state treasurer candidate Dylan Helmenstine, and Assembly candidate LaToya Bates — and sign their nomination petitions, if you like.

Outagamie Action Team Signature Gathering: (9:00 a.m.) Do you live in Kaukauna, Kimberly, Sherwood, or Little Chute? Join the Heart of the Valley Outagamie Action Team to knock on doors to collect nomination signatures for Alicia Saunders for Assembly District 4, Josh Kaul for Attorney General, and Sarah Godlewski for Lieutenant General.

Tuesday [May 12]

How to Have Difficult Conversations: (Green Bay, 6:00 p.m.) Is the political climate starting to get to you? Are you nervous and unsure how to talk to your uncle, sister, or childhood friend about the upcoming elections? You’re not alone! Join us to learn how to handle some of these tough conversations and how YOU can make a difference!

Send your events and announcements to State Organizing Coordinator Abigail Deatrick at abigail@couriernewsroom.com (at least one week before the event).

📱 Remember, you can stay up to date all day with all of our team’s work through our social media feeds, including Instagram and TikTok.

🏁 Thanks for reading our update.

Have a great weekend!