Who Is Yee Leng Xiong, Democrats’ Pick For State Treasurer?
The Marathon County official and former Hmong American Center director will take on Republican John Leiber this fall.
The Wisconsin State Capitol reflected in the glass windows of Park Bank on the Capitol Square in Madison. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)
Yee Leng Xiong. (Campaign photo)
Yee Leng Xiong, a Marathon County school board treasurer and county board member, will face Republican State Treasurer John Leiber in November in the only race for a statewide office held by a member of the Republican party.
With 90% of ballots counted, Xiong had 57% of the votes cast in the Democratic primary for the office Tuesday. Dylan Ray Helmenstine, of Black Earth in western Dane County, had just under 43%. The Associated Press called the race for Xiong at 9:18 p.m.
Xiong is the treasurer of the DC Everest School District board in Marathon County and a member of the Marathon County Board. He is the former executive director of the Hmong American Center.
Xiong was endorsed by Sen. Tammy Baldwin and several other Wisconsin Democrats, including former Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton and state Reps. Christine Sinicki, Jodi Emerson, Lori Palmeri, Andrew Hysell, Tara Johnson and Brienne Brown.
Helmenstine is a former Medicaid health care rate analyst in the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and a member of several local boards and commissions in Black Earth, including the village board and the Wisconsin Heights School District board.
The Legislature has moved much of the state treasurer’s duties to other agencies that are under the control of the governor. In 2018, voters rejected an amendment that would have removed the office as an elected position under the Wisconsin Constitution.
The state treasurer is the state’s chief financial officer and signs state checks. The officeholder is a statutory member of the Public Employee Trust Fund, which oversees the state’s public pension and benefit programs, and serves on the state Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, along with the secretary of state and the attorney general.
The commissioners manage revenues from the sale of state-owned timber. The board distributes the proceeds to the Common School Fund, which purchases books and media for public school libraries and funds certain public works projects.
Leiber was the only statewide Republican candidate to win in the 2022 November election, when Gov. Tony Evers and other Democratic state office holders won reelection.
Democrats choose Marathon County Hmong leader to run for state treasurer was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.
