The Wisconsin general election will be held Nov. 3, including elections for state governor, the representative for Wisconsin’s District 1 (which includes Beloit and Janesville), the Wisconsin State Assembly’s 45th District, and two Rock County positions, all of which Beloit College students who live on campus and are U.S. citizens will be eligible to vote for. Three referendum questions will also be on the ballot, including one intended to pass a measure that would ban DEI initiatives statewide.
These elections have the potential to challenge or reaffirm Congress’ Republican majority, which it has held since 2022. The referendum questions will give voters a chance to directly influence state policy, allowing them to determine whether or not proposed amendments become law.
The candidates for Wisconsin governor are Democrat David Crowley and Republican Tom Tiffany. The current governor, Tony Evers, is not running for another term, according to NBC News. Crowley is currently the county executive of Milwaukee County. Tiffany currently serves in the House of Representatives for Wisconsin’s District 7.
Crowley’s campaign platform includes protections for Wisconsin tenants, creating accessible healthcare and affordable housing, investment in renewable energy infrastructure, and regulations for AI data centers, according to his campaign website. Tiffany’s platform includes lowering property and income taxes, reducing utility prices by using nuclear energy, prohibiting “entities affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party” from buying property in Wisconsin, cracking down on sanctuary cities, and signing “legislation prohibiting sex-change surgeries for minors,” according to his campaign website.
The candidates running to be representatives of Wisconsin District 1 — meaning they will represent the state at the federal level, as members of the House of Representatives — are Republican Bryan Steil, who currently holds the office, and Democrat Mitchell Berman.
Steil supports reducing government involvement in the economy, ensuring elections “are free, fair, and secure,” defending Second Amendment rights and national security, protecting programs for retirees such as Social Security and Medicare, and keeping education decisions local, according to his campaign website. Berman supports abortion rights, creating a public insurance option to incentivize insurance companies to lower their prices, ending “corruption in Washington” through acts like overturning Citizens United v. FEC (a landmark Supreme Court ruling which prevented certain restrictions on corporate donations), and raising the federal minimum wage, according to his campaign website.
According to MultiState Elections, the candidates for representative of District 45 in the Wisconsin State Assembly are the office’s incumbent, Clinton Anderson — a Democrat who has held the position for three terms — and Jocelyn Jordan’27, a student at Beloit College who is running as a Republican.
In addition to these candidates, the ballot will include three referendum questions. They will be enacted as official amendments to the state’s constitution if approved by a majority of Wisconsin voters.
The first will ask voters whether the Wisconsin governor should be prohibited from “creating or increasing or authorizing the creation or increase of any tax or fee” using the partial veto. The partial veto allows Wisconsin governors to selectively approve budget-related bills, giving them authority to pick which parts go into law and which parts do not. Currently, partial vetoes can be overridden by a two-thirds vote in the legislature.
“Legislators introduced the partial veto amendment in response to Governor Tony Evers’s ‘400-year veto,’ which struck words, digits, and dashes to allow localities to raise increased school funding through the 2425 school year, instead of just through 2025,” according to the State Democracy Research Initiative.
The second will ask voters whether the state government should be prohibited from closing places of worship or disallowing religious gatherings, even in states of emergency — including public health emergencies.
The third amendment on the referendum ostensibly targets government discrimination. The resolution outlining it emphasizes the restoration of “fairness” and “equality” in Wisconsin’s government. Testimonies included alongside it highlight Wisconsin programs that give “preferential treatment” to individuals on the basis of race, sex, etc. as targets of the bill.
Dan Lennington, president of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, wrote a testimony in support of the bill, where he described it as dismantling DEI programs. “This amendment would also ban government-sponsored preferential treatment based on race: affirmative action, racial quotas or goals, racial balancing, and race-conscious programs under the label of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) (or more recently, ‘Inclusion and Belonging’).”
The question as it will appear on the referendum does not explicitly reference DEI initiatives, only discrimination. It describes the amendment as prohibiting “governmental entities in the state from discriminating against, or granting preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public employment, public education, public contracting, or public administration.”
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a spokesperson for David Crowley’s campaign said Crowley plans to vote “no” on all of the referendum questions, while Tom Tiffany said he intends to vote in favor of all three.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the League of Women Voters both criticized the ambiguous phrasing of question 3, encouraging state residents to vote against the bill. The LWV notes that both federal policy and the state of Wisconsin already make discrimination illegal. “While framed as promoting equality, this amendment would reduce Wisconsin’s capacity to address long-standing disparities,” a statement on its website says.
The Rock County positions available for vote are county sheriff and clerk of circuit court. Each only has one candidate on the ballot: Democrat Amanda Nelson is running for the clerk of circuit court position and Democrat Curtis Fell is running for the position of sheriff. Both are incumbents, according to the Rock County website.
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