Wisconsin
In battleground Wisconsin, the 2026 elections are poised to bring a ‘changing of the guard’
A year and a half after Donald Trump’s victory in Wisconsin, Democrats are sensing a vibe shift that could reshape the balance of power in the critical battleground state.
In the last three months, seven state Republican lawmakers have announced their retirements — including the party leaders in the Assembly and the Senate — providing a boost to Democrats’ hopes they could win control of at least one legislative chamber for the first time in 16 years.
A massive fundraising advantage in next month’s open Wisconsin Supreme Court race has liberals feeling confident about further expanding their majority on a bench that up until a few years ago was long dominated by conservatives. Liberals are already even eyeing another seat next year, after a conservative justice said she wouldn’t run for re-election.
And Democrats are hoping another state Supreme Court victory would provide a jolt of momentum heading into a governor’s contest that will bring significant change no matter the result. A crowded field of Democratic candidates is vying to succeed Gov. Tony Evers and likely take on GOP front-runner Rep. Tom Tiffany in November.
“These retirements have largely confirmed what we had already thought, which is that we have an extraordinary opportunity this year in Wisconsin,” Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Devin Remiker said in an interview, referring to the GOP lawmakers who declined to run for re-election. “I think that a very potent disaster is brewing for Republicans, and it is my desire to capitalize on it by winning the Democratic trifecta.”
Recent polling underscores that the political winds are currently blowing in Democrats’ direction. A Marquette University Law School poll conducted in mid-March found that about half of Wisconsin Democrats said they were very enthusiastic about voting in the technically nonpartisan Supreme Court election in April, compared to a third of Republicans. And the survey showed that 56% of registered voters disapproved of Trump’s job performance. That’s the highest share from any of Marquette’s Wisconsin polls during the president’s two terms in office, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted.
The 2026 elections mark a continuation of Democrats’ efforts to unravel Republicans’ hold on state power that began in 2010, when the GOP had a trifecta. Over two terms in office, Republican Gov. Scott Walker, with majorities in the Legislature and on the Supreme Court, enacted a sweeping conservative agenda.
Since then, Democrats have gained control of the governorship and the Supreme Court, and now have their sights on maintaining their advantages there while making inroads in the Legislature this year, with more competitive maps in place. Most notable among the recent string of retirements was Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who had held the position since Walker first took office.
“There is certainly a changing of the guard. The top three people in the Capitol today are all not going to be there a year from now. It’s going to be a significant turnover in terms of who’s making decisions in that building come next year,” said Mark Graul, a Republican strategist in Wisconsin.
In addition to Vos, Wisconsin Senate President Devin LeMahieu, who has held the job since 2021, announced last week he would not seek another term. Of the seven retiring Republican lawmakers, all but one has served in the Legislature for at least a decade, and in many cases far longer.
The Republican lawmaker exodus is also inextricably linked with the liberals’ ascent on the state Supreme Court. Armed with their first majority on the high court in 15 years after an expensive and high-profile election in 2023, liberals quickly struck down the state’s legislative maps that heavily favored the GOP. Democrats then made substantial gains in both legislative chambers in the 2024 elections. This year, they would need to net two seats to control the state Senate and five seats to have a majority in the Assembly.
After retaining their majority in an even more expensive state Supreme Court race last year, liberals could put control of the bench out of reach for conservatives for at least the rest of the decade in less than two weeks.
The Democratic-backed Chris Taylor holds a clear fundraising and ad spending advantage over Republican-backed Maria Lazar in the race to fill a seat held by retiring conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley. The election has been much quieter than the last two court races in Wisconsin, with 46% of voters saying they were undecided in the new Marquette poll. But Taylor held a slight lead with 30% support, compared to 22% for Lazar.
Democrats have said they’re encouraged by early voting data in the race, even as turnout is down so far from last year’s election.
Meanwhile, the governor’s race is still taking shape. Of the eight Democratic candidates included in Marquette’s poll, only one, former lieutenant governor and Senate candidate Mandela Barnes had name identification above 50%. The primary will mark a generational shift for the party, as the leading candidates are all much younger than Evers, 74.
Wisconsin Republican Party spokesperson Anika Rickard rejected that the raft of GOP lawmaker retirements would fuel Democratic gains and expressed optimism around her party’s prospects in the Supreme Court and governor races, too.
“I don’t think their departures indicate anything when it comes to flipping the Senate or the Assembly. We’re very confident we’ll hold both of those,” she said. “The energy is still on our side, not with Democrats.”
Democrats and Democratic-backed candidates have won 18 of the last 23 statewide races in Wisconsin. But that hasn’t affected its swing state status. The last three presidential elections in Wisconsin, two of which Trump won, were decided by less than 1 point. Regardless of what happens in the state this year over the next seven months, it will once again be at the center of the 2028 map.
To that point, Graul said Democrats’ recent string of success is less about what they have accomplished and more about their ability to seize on anti-Trump sentiment, particularly when the president isn’t on the ballot.
“What’s shaping Wisconsin, in 2026, to be a good year for Democrats is what’s happening in Washington, not what is happening in Wisconsin,” he said.
Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield shares his biggest spring takeaway
Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield shared his biggest takeaway from the spring following the Badgers’ four-set win over Northern Illinois.
MADISON – Kelly Sheffield has coached All-Americans, national players of the year, national champions and future Olympians in his 13 years as Wisconsin volleyball coach.
So Sheffield’s unique praise of Decelise Champion – a star pin-hitter from Puerto Rico who committed to the Badgers last fall – carries a lot of weight.
“Her highest-end potential is certainly as high as about anybody we’ve ever brought in,” Sheffield said. “She’s got a lot of work to get to where she’s capable of, and that’s on us as coaches and on her to help reach those dreams and goals. But when you’re watching people around her age, she’s different.”
That work is beginning earlier than initially expected after Wisconsin announced that Champion will reclassify from the 2027 recruiting class and join the Badgers as a freshman for the 2026 season.
Champion – currently 16 years old and turning 17 in September – will arrive with a resume that includes experience on Puerto Rico’s senior national team and the elite Italian club Volleyro Casal de Pazzi. That’s all while being strong enough academically to earn a GED degree and the necessary NCAA waiver for a few missing core classes.
“What made it really a lot better is that all of her grades at the different schools she’s been at have been fantastic,” Sheffield said. “She’s an excellent student. Was crushing it at a really, really good academic school in Italy in her third language.”
The timing of the June 12 announcement accounted for the second-last open roster spot for the 2026 season, but Champion and UW’s efforts to make the reclassification possible go back much earlier than that.
“We’ve known she’s wanted to do this since February,” Sheffield said. “We told our team in February that was the plan. And then we didn’t let anybody know publicly until she was done with her season. She just didn’t want to be a distraction for her team.”
Badgers have even more competition at pins
Wisconsin already had plenty of competition at the pin-hitting positions before Champion’s move to the 2026 class.
Grace Egan had a major role on the 2025 Final Four team, and Eva Travis had an impressive spring after transferring from UC-Santa Barbara. Others include Grace Lopez, Madison Quest and the highly-touted freshman duo of Halle Thompson and Audrey Flanagan.
Even with the upcoming addition of one more pin-hitter – and one with such a high potential – UW did not lose any players in the spring transfer portal cycle. Even the idea of someone leaving seemed outlandish to Sheffield.
“If they’re just going to get up and leave because somebody came, I would say that that person is probably chicken s—,” Sheffield said.
Sheffield’s praise of Champion’s proposal obviously does not come with a guarantee of playing time either at the crowded pin-hitting positions.
“I would say, yeah, she does have a chance of being out on the court for us this year,” Sheffield said. “But we’ve also got some other really talented people that play the pins.”
The outside and right-side hitters already on UW’s spring roster will have at least one key advantage over Champion in her freshman season – time.
Egan, Lopez and Quest are returning players (although Egan and Lopez spent their spring recovering from injuries). Travis, Thompson and Flanagan all enrolled in time to spend the spring with the Badgers and impressed in UW’s spring matches.
Champion’s arrival, on the other hand, will follow her participation in an Olympic-qualifying event for Puerto Rico. Sheffield expects that to be Sept. 2, which is the day before fall classes begin and already after UW’s first four matches of the season.
“She’ll be drinking out of a fire hose early on, no doubt about it,” Sheffield said. “Even though she’s been playing with her senior national team this summer, it will be a lot of things coming at her in her secondary language at 16, so there’ll need to be some patience along the way.”
His advice to Champion when she was on campus earlier in June was to “be where your feet are.”
“When she’s with her national team – even though we will have started our preseason, playing matches – don’t worry about us here,” Sheffield said. “Be where your feet are. Be the best you can be for your team there. … Then when you get here, you’re not thinking about your national team.”
Champion’s NCAA eligibility clock starts earlier
Champion’s reclassification comes with the drawback of beginning her NCAA eligibility one year earlier in her volleyball career.
Had she stayed in the 2027 recruiting class, she theoretically would have begun her college career shortly before her 18th birthday and exhausted her eligibility at age 22. Instead, she will begin her college career shortly before her 17th birthday and likely exhaust her eligibility at age 21.
Those scenarios take into account the NCAA Division I Cabinet’s unanimous approval on June 23 of a new eligibility model that will give players five seasons of eligibility in five years. (That replaces the current system with four seasons, redshirts and other waivers.) The NCAA noted that its decision is not final, however, until the meeting concludes on June 24.
“We’re certainly excited to have her this year, but if you kind of think over the course of five years, it’s probably worse for us that she comes a year early,” Sheffield said. “You expect her to be better at 20 and 21 than what she is at 16 or 17. … It really wasn’t something that we were pushing for, but she was ready.”
Of course, volleyball at age 16 or 17 looks different for someone like Champion who has been competing against much older players as a senior national team member and studying halfway across the world from her hometown of Dorado, Puerto Rico.
“When you talk to her, she doesn’t come across as somebody who’s 16,” Sheffield said. “She’s very mature, very easy to talk to, very driven. She’s independent. … She’s had a lot more life experience than most people her age, and that certainly comes across when you’re around her.”
Wisconsin
Cult-classic filmed in central Wisconsin returns to big screen, with enhancements, this weekend
STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) – A giant spider isn’t actually invading central Wisconsin this weekend.
But an enhanced, big-screen version of the cult-classic 1975 film The Giant Spider Invasion is crawling back into local theaters — and it’s bringing some central Wisconsin nostalgia with it.
The movie was famously filmed in Merrill and Stevens Point, and the updated 2026 release adds enhancements designed for a modern theatrical experience.
What’s new in the 2026 enhanced version?
Executive Producer J.B. Thompson says the team took the original 1975 film and enhanced it for the big screen in 2026, giving audiences a refreshed way to experience a movie that’s long been a Wisconsin oddity — and a point of pride.
Actor and Producer Dan Davies is featured in newly filmed scenes created specifically for this updated release.
Stevens Point’s role in the original film
While much of the film is associated with Merrill, Stevens Point Mayor Mike Wiza says Point also played a major role in the production — another reason the film’s return matters to local history buffs and movie fans alike.
Why does this movie still capture attention 50 years later?
Whether it’s the over-the-top creature feature story, the uniquely Wisconsin filming locations, or the nostalgia of seeing familiar places on screen, the group says the film’s staying power is real — even five decades later.
Screenings this weekend
The enhanced version of The Giant Spider Invasion is set for local screenings this weekend in Central and North Central Wisconsin. To purchase tickets for showings in Stevens Point, Marshfield or Waupaca, click here.
Click here to download the WSAW news app or WSAW First Alert weather app.
Click here to submit a news tip or story idea.
Copyright 2026 WSAW. All rights reserved.
A Wisconsin man has been arrested in Colorado in connection with a fatal north suburban hit-and-run earlier this year that left a 50-year-old woman killed.
According to the Winthrop Harbor Police Department, Travis Kern, 35, of Pleasant Prairie, turned himself into police in Lakewood Colorado on an arrest warrant. Kern was charged with two felonies, police said, and remains in custody in Colorado pending extradition proceedings.
About 11:10 p.m. on February 26, a pedestrian was struck in the 1400 block of Sheridan Road in Winthrop Harbor by a driver of a vehicle heading northbound. The vehicle then fled the scene, police said.
The pedestrian, later identified as Shanna White, 50, of Waukegan, was transported to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead.
According to court documents, Kern’s next scheduled court date is set for July 22.
-
Los Angeles, Ca1 hour agoClue may identify SUV in Long Beach hit-and-run that left woman injured
-
Detroit, MI1 hour agoIlitch Companies creates gaming platform, expands beyond Detroit
-
San Francisco, CA2 hours agoFirst of its kind queer museum in San Francisco Chinatown amplifies Chinese LGBTQ artists
-
Dallas, TX2 hours agoThese children were sold for sex. Then the system failed them again
-
Miami, FL2 hours agoHard Rock Cafe lets Downtown Miami lease lapse after 30-plus years
-
Boston, MA2 hours agoFederal judge in Boston bars Trump from implementing proof of citizenship requirement to vote – The Boston Globe
-
Denver, CO2 hours agoDenver Broncos Foundation launches extension of ‘ALL IN. ALL COVERED.’ emphasizing youth football participation
-
Seattle, WA2 hours ago
Iran and Egypt to play in Seattle ‘Pride Match’ despite earlier complaints | The Jerusalem Post
