State Democratic Leaders Back New House Districts

Wisconsin Congressional Map.

Wisconsin’s Democratic Party leaders will consider redrawing the state’s eight U.S. House districts if their party keeps the governor’s office and takes control of the Legislature in 2026 elections.

“Anyone can see the Congressional maps in Wisconsin are gerrymandered,” said Assembly Democratic Leader Greta Neubauer, who would be in line to be Assembly speaker if her party won control of that house of the Legislature in 2026.

In major statewide elections “this is a 50-50 state,” Neubauer noted in an interview, but “with six Republicans and two Democrats” in the U.S. House.

If Democrats control the executive and legislative branches of state government in 2027, she said, “We are certainly open to conversations about how we can get fair Congressional maps in Wisconsin. We understand that fair maps are essential to a fair democracy, so that option is on the table.”

Boundaries for Wisconsin’s U.S. House seats have been drawn every 10 years, based on Census Bureau reports. Republicans, who drew those district lines after Census counts in 2010 and 2020, have controlled five or six of the eight U.S. House seats for 14 years.

If Democrats redrew Congressional lines in 2027, they would be in place for 2028 and 2030 elections.

Current district lines will be in place for 2026 elections, when Democrats are targeting Third District Congressman Derrick Van Orden, a two-term Republican who got 51% of the vote last year. The Third District, which Democrat Ron Kind represented for 26 years until he retired in 2020, includes all or part of 18 western Wisconsin counties.

In 2026, “Control of the House runs through Wisconsin’s Third District,” said Sam Cornale, the Madison native who served as executive director of the Democratic National Committee until March, in an interview. Republicans control the House by 219-213 margin, with three vacancies.

Wisconsin’s other House Republicans — Bryan Steil, Scott Fitzgerald, Glenn Grothman, Tom Tiffany and first-termer Tony Wied — and Democrats Mark Pocan and Gwen Moore won easily in 2024. Steil, whose Second District is also on Democrats’ 2026 wish list, got 54% of the vote that year.

State Democratic Party Chair Devin Remiker also said a new Democratic governor and Democratic legislators “need to consider” redrawing the eight districts, if they control those two branches of state government in 2027. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is retiring.

“Right now we have gerrymandered Congressional maps,” Remiker said in an interview.

Remiker said calls for new U.S. House maps were “constrained” by conservative justices on the state Supreme Court until 2023, when voters elected Justice Janet Protasiewicz, whose campaign was helped and partially funded by the Democratic Party.

“I personally think that, if we have the opportunity to effect change, there should be another election without gerrymandered maps,” Remiker added.

However, the liberal-dominated state Supreme Court has refused to hear lawsuits challenging the eight U.S. House districts. The court’s last order, issued without comment in June, dismissed challenges filed by the Elias Law Group, which represents Democratic groups and candidates, and by voters represented by the Campaign Legal Center.

A lawsuit to overturn current House maps is pending in Dane County Circuit Court. Lawyers for Republicans don’t want the judge handling that case to rule on it, citing a motion pending before the state Supreme Court to dismiss that suit.

Referring to new U.S. House maps Texas Republicans recently enacted in the hope they will add five more U.S. House Republicans in 2026 elections, and efforts by Republicans in other state capitols to do the same, Remiker said, “If Republicans aren’t going to play fair, Democrats need to consider all options.”

“Unilateral disarmament doesn’t work,” Remiker added.

But Ben Wikler, the former state Democratic chair who is credited with raising $262 million for party causes over six years that included winning several major statewide elections, cautioned that it’s premature to talk about 2027.

Because of President Trump and his policies, Wikler said in an interview, “Right now, there’s a huge battle over whether there will be a democracy at all.”

For Wisconsin Democrats, Wikler added, “Job One is recruiting great candidates and building an infrastructure around the state…Fighting and winning those elections.”

Still, Wikler added, “It would be hard to look at our Congressional districts and conclude that they were drawn with the best interests of Wisconsin in mind.”

Steven Walters started covering the Capitol in 1988. Contact him at stevenscotwalters@gmail.com