Robyn Vining Flips Senate Seat in Milwaukee Suburbs

Robyn Vining. Photo courtesy of the Office of Representative Robyn Vining.

State Rep. Robyn Vining defeated Republican Mike Roberts Tuesday in an important state Senate race for control of the Legislature.

Vining’s victory Tuesday marks the second time she has flipped a Republican district for Democrats. She was first elected to the state Assembly in 2018, defeating Republican Matt Adamczyk in a race for the seat left empty by former Republican state Sen. Dale Kooyenga.

State Senate District 5 has been held by Sen. Rob Hutton since 2022. Following the adoption of new legislative maps in 2023, state Senate District 5 was redrawn to exclude the village of New Berlin, the city of Pewaukee and central Waukesha County. The district also includes parts of Wauwatosa, West Allis and Brookfield.

Vining’s victory helped secure a Democratic trifecta in state government for the first time in decades after Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley‘s election as governor and Democratic successes in state Assembly races.

Vining, a small-business owner and Wauwatosa resident, was supported in her bid for the state Senate by an array of traditional Democratic Party boosters, including labor and public sector unions like the Wisconsin Education Association Council. She ran on a traditional Democratic platform focused on expanding health care access, increasing state support for small businesses, ending gun violence and increasing funding for public education.

Roberts is a physical therapist and founder of Wisconsin Orthopedic Physical Therapy in Wauwatosa. He is a first-time political candidate who ran on a moderate Republican platform that called for addressing voters’ affordability concerns by reducing government regulation and increasing law enforcement staffing, but also expressed support for expanding preventive care and the use of mental health and crisis response teams in law enforcement.

Democratic campaign committees outspent Republicans in the district. The state party and campaign committees controlled by minority leaders in the Assembly and the Senate spent a combined total of more than $918,000 to elect Vining. The Committee to Elect a Republican Senate, controlled by Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, and the state party spent just over $200,000.