Wisconsin
Meet the candidates running for Wisconsin’s 69th Assembly District seat
Republican Karen Hurd, Democrat Roger Halls and Independent Joshua Kelly are running in the Nov. 5 election to represent Wisconsin’s 69th Assembly District.
The 69th Assembly District will elect a new representative as Republican Karen Hurd, Democrat Roger Halls and Independent Joshua Kelly compete for votes in the Nov. 5 general election.
The 69th Assembly District covers the cities of Medford, Neillsville, Abbotsford and Colby and the village Weston. The district lost the cities of Marshfield and Black River Falls and portions of Marathon and Jackson counties following the 2023 redistricting process.
Wisconsin State Assembly representatives serve two-year terms. Republican Donna Rozar has represented the district in two terms since 2021 but filed for noncandidacy as her residence is no longer in the district.
To learn more about registering to vote and to find your polling place, visit the My Vote Wisconsin website.
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin asked each of the candidates to address important issues in the district and why they are running for the position.
Roger Halls
Residence: Stanley
Age: 45
Occupation and education: I work in information technology for a medium-sized business. I have some college experience and currently attend Fox Valley Technical College for cyber security
Relevant experience: I sat on the City Council of Stanley for six years. I served four years active duty in the U.S. Army. I strongly believe in giving back to the community by working with Children’s Miracle Network, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwestern Wisconsin, and Wisconsin Father’s for Children and Families.
Campaign website/Facebook page: hallsforwi.com and Halls for Wisconsin on Facebook
Karen Hurd
Residence: Town of Withee
Age: 66
Occupation and education: Nutritionist. Truman State University, Kirksville, Missouri, bachelor’s degree in Spanish, May 1980; Huntington’s College of Health Sciences, Knoxville, Kentucky, diploma of comprehensive nutrition, May 1994 and reaffirmed through testing September 2014; University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, certificate in Grant Writing and Management, June 2007; University of Saint Joseph, West Hartford, Connecticut, master’s degree in biochemistry, December 2017; The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., Master of Public Health degree, August 2024.
Relevant experience: Representative to the Wisconsin State Assembly 68th District, elected in 2022 and currently serving. Village of Fall Creek Trustee from 2021-2024.
Campaign website: www.karenhurdforassembly.com
Joshua Kelly
Residence: Greenwood
Age: 42
Occupation and education: Stainless pipefitter, computer information systems
Relevant experience: I have no relevant experience besides being a voter myself. That being said, with my business I work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Farm Service Agency and work hand in hand with other state agencies.
Why are you running for office?
Halls: As a father of three girls, and with family in the LGBTQ+ community, I believe their rights are being stripped away. With the Dobbs decision and 24 anti-LGBTQ bills brought up, I want those communities and my family to know they have people fighting for them. I would also like to see our communities flourish and our small businesses succeed, to do that, we need to expand child care, fully fund our schools, expand education, expand on rural broadband, and keep health care in our rural communities. All of these areas are either under attack, not appropriately funded or just ignored.
Hurd: To serve the people of Wisconsin by lowering taxes, prohibiting illegal immigrants from invading our country, making government smaller, giving local control back to the towns, villages and cities, making government fiscally responsible, reducing regulations, bringing down inflation and fixing the economy. I have seen the need for proven conservative leadership in our government.
Kelly: I would never let anyone do for me what I cannot do for myself, and if no one is going to fix these issues then I will just run and do what needs to be done myself.
What makes you the better candidate in this race?
Halls: I moved to Stanley after leaving the Army as a decorated two-tour Afghanistan/Iraq veteran with a Bronze Star. I’ve seen many places, but Wisconsin has always been my favorite. I want my home to thrive and succeed. I realize not everyone has the same story, life experiences and beliefs, but that is what makes us special. All I want is for people to have a happy, fulfilling life and even if that is currently out of reach for many Wisconsinites, I hope to change that. I will bring my open mind, empathy, compassion and humanity to the Wisconsin Assembly.
Hurd: My experience in local and state government, my work experience as a small business owner, as well as the time I spent in the U.S. Army. My ability to communicate both with constituents so that I might represent their thoughts on issues as well as fellow lawmakers in accomplishing my constituents’ desires.
Kelly: I am from where I run from and did not have to change my residency or change where I vote to do so just because I thought I might have a better chance of winning. I feel that I have the best interests in mind for my community. I feel that I am a good representation of the people who live here and would work tirelessly. Move heaven and earth to get done what is needed to get done. For the people and by the people.
What is the most pressing issue facing Wisconsin, and how would you address it?
Halls: There are many pressing issues facing Wisconsin today. From price gouging in almost every market, rural and mental health, education costs, cost of living, child care and many more. With farmers at the very heart of Wisconsin, I think the biggest issue is our chemical contamination, PFAS or forever chemicals. Cancer is more prevalent in areas of high contamination, and plant and animal contamination or death is more frequent. A healthy Wisconsin is more prosperous. There are companies that knew their product was dangerous and continued to push it for profit; they should be footing the bill for cleaning it up.
Hurd: The economy. Lowering taxes is one of the best ways to help the economy. The less taxes a person pays allows them more money to spend as they choose. That money will be spent on purchasing products or services, which then creates more demand for the product or service, which then stimulates the business to supply that demand, which means the business can grow − and compensate employees more/hire additional employees to facilitate that growth, which then gives those employees more money in their pocket so that they can purchase products or services − and the circle repeats thereby creating a healthy economy.
Kelly: The most pressing issue facing Wisconsin is the economy, and what I would do is lay the groundwork for a whole new industry in Wisconsin. One that brings new wealth to our state and our dying small towns. I would make all cannabis sold in the state of Wisconsin grown in the state of Wisconsin. I would mandate that it was grown in municipalities of less than 7,500 people. Unionize the whole industry and put a negative 2% tax on anything sold out of state. Anything sold here must be made here by Wisconsin-owned companies.
What are residents telling you are their most important issues, and how would you address them?
Halls: This varies from community to community. All have grocery prices in the top 5. During COVID-19, supply lines got shut down. Demand was still high, but supply was low, so prices went up. Most supply lines have fully recovered, but prices have not gone down. Prices are still almost 21% higher than they were at the start of the pandemic; that is not how supply and demand work, that is how greed works. I would support legislation to stop price gouging and raise the minimum wage in Wisconsin.
Hurd: The economy, inflation, illegal immigration and high crime. These issues have to be addressed by lowering taxes, stopping illegal immigration and being tougher on crime.
Kelly: Residents are telling me about a wide array of issues that concern them from child care to lack of action in our government. What I would do to address these issues is to work both sides of the aisle. Get people to come together and work on what really needs to be done by compromise. Though we may be divided on how to solve problems. We should not be divided on the fact they still need to be solved, and if we cannot have a common discourse then we have all lost.
Residents of central Wisconsin are seeing increasing costs in necessary and everyday expenses such as housing, child care, groceries, health care and transportation. If elected, what will you do to help residents who are struggling to make ends meet?
Halls: I will work to expand affordable housing initiatives, promote zoning reforms and offer incentives for developers to build more affordable homes and apartments in central Wisconsin. I will advocate for increased state funding for child care subsidies and support the expansion of child care centers to make care more accessible and affordable for working families. I will push for Medicaid expansion and work to lower prescription drug costs, making health care more affordable and accessible for everyone. I will support policies that reduce price gouging on food and essential goods, including subsidies for local agriculture and supporting small businesses to keep costs down.
Hurd: Lower taxes. See answer above for how lowering taxes helps. Also, reducing government spending reduces inflation.
Kelly: I would like to bring good-paying jobs to our state, in the form of the cannabis industry. With no more than a 5% sales tax. Take .2% off the top and send it straight to the schools. Then take 2% and give it directly to the local municipalities from were it was grown or manufactured. A 2% portion would go to the state and the last .8% would go into a fund that would be distributed monthly to the people of Wisconsin. Anyone who makes less then $70,000 a year, with the people on the lower end receiving more than the top end on a bell curve model.
As costs have increased for individuals, so have the costs for our local units of government. Our local schools and technical colleges, municipalities and counties are limited in how much local tax levies can be raised. These limits were set decades ago and adjustments to them are rare and inadequate for matching increases in cost of living and inflation. If elected, what would you do at the state level to reduce the burden on local residents who have to consider levy limit referendums for school districts, public safety workers or large transportation projects so frequently in elections?
Halls: We can tie levy limits to inflation, allowing municipalities, counties and school districts to increase revenue as costs rise, reducing frequent referendums. Push for more funding for public education, transportation and public safety. Restoring support can ease the burden on taxpayers while maintaining essential services. Advocate for local control, allowing communities to decide their tax and spending without excessive state restrictions, ensuring resources are directed where they are most needed. Addressing these issues at the state level, we can reduce the reliance on levy limit referendums, help local governments better manage rising costs and ease the financial pressure on residents.
Hurd: In this last budget, we dramatically helped by increasing the shared revenue for all municipalities in the state. We also provided the municipalities with more general transportation aid (except for the towns as Governor Evers vetoed that increase using his partial veto power). We also made available $150 million for agricultural road improvement as well as continuing to fund the Local Road Improvement Program. We raised the per student cap by $325 per child for each year of the budget as well as increased funding substantially for categorical spending by schools. We will continue to work on funding for our roads, our municipalities and the students of Wisconsin.
Kelly: My answer for the last question addressed this.
Erik Pfantz covers local government and education in central Wisconsin for USA TODAY NETWORK – Wisconsin and values his background as a rural Wisconsinite. Contact him at epfantz@gannett.com.
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Matthew Jacobson found his calling in middle school history class.
As a sixth grader at St. John Vianney Catholic School in Brookfield, he voluntarily completed additional research projects and jumped at the chance to present to his classmates. He never saw the extra assignments as work — he was having fun. When Jacobson’s teacher told him he’d make a great educator himself, he set his sights on the profession. In high school, he participated in Elmbrook School District’s future teachers program and planned to enroll in university for his teaching degree.
But life had other plans. Several weeks before his high school graduation, Jacobson was forced to move out on his own. He picked up a cooking job to “pay the bills and survive.” The gig didn’t leave extra money or time for college.
“I didn’t really know how to get back into college and go meet my dream,” Jacobson said.
Two years later, he heard about a novel apprenticeship program, where future teachers earn money working in schools as they obtain their education and certifications.
“I was like, ‘That’s my way back in,’” he said.
State officials launched the program in 2024 to ease the educator shortage by offering students an alternative route to the profession — one where they don’t have to put their careers on pause while racking up student debt. Jacobson is one of the first eight teacher apprentices.
Today, Jacobson has returned to Elmbrook to serve as a classroom aide. In two years, he’ll have the proper training for the district to hire him as an elementary or middle school teacher.
But as participants reach the program’s halfway point, its future beyond this initial “pilot” phase is unclear — raising questions about whether apprenticeships will become a viable solution to Wisconsin’s struggle to find and keep educators.
While the route has been life-changing for students like Jacobson, program leaders are having trouble enticing school districts to take on more apprentices. Enrollment has ground to a halt; the two technical colleges involved don’t have any new students signed up to begin in the fall.
Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development officials say whether the program continues or grows depends on if districts get on board and sponsor trainees to join up. But district leaders say a major hurdle is the cost — a key appeal of an apprenticeship is the employer paying them for the time they spend learning, but many public schools are already strapped for cash. Some want more funding tied to the program.
“(It’s) stalling a little bit,” said Trent Sorensen, a Fox Valley Technical College dean. “We don’t have any (students) coming in for the fall. … There’s plenty of time, but it’s not taking off like it did in other states, and it’s simply because of the funding.”
A new way to train teachers
Wisconsin schools struggle to find enough teachers needed to lead classrooms — a problem largely fueled by poor retention and new workers moving to other states after graduating.
In 2024, Congress came through with some assistance: $570,000 in federal funds earmarked for establishing a teacher apprenticeship program in Wisconsin.
Officials from DWD, the Department of Public Instruction, the Wisconsin Technical College System, and two universities teamed up to debut the pilot in January 2024. They praised the “earn-while-you-learn” approach to establishing a pipeline of workers: Districts could guarantee they’d have future teachers, while also filling lower-skilled jobs in the meantime.
Typically, aspiring teachers work a shorter classroom internship while studying for their bachelor’s degree and then complete a semester of student teaching after graduating. The apprenticeship is “taking that entire approach and flipping it on its head,” said Nick Abbott, senior program and policy analyst at the Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards — creating a potentially more accessible path to the profession.
“Traditional educator preparation programs can be expensive, as they often require unpaid student teaching, which might not be feasible for low-income students, nontraditional students or individuals looking to change careers,” Gov. Tony Evers said when the program launched. “The new teacher apprenticeship pilot program will help address issues in turnover and retention, reduce barriers and encourage young people to enter the field.”
Apprenticeships are becoming more common in Wisconsin in fields ranging from plumbing to nursing. Participation has hit record highs for the last four years. These gigs are far more common for hands-on jobs in the skilled trades than fields like education and health care, but that’s changing with initiatives like the teacher apprenticeship program.
Here’s how it works: A school district hires an apprentice, who enrolls at Fox Valley Technical College or Waukesha County Technical College for two years to complete a Foundations of Teacher Education associate’s degree. When finished, the student transfers to Lakeland University or the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater at Rock County to finish a bachelor’s degree.
Throughout those roughly four years of schooling, the apprentice works inside the classroom as an assistant for 32 hours each week and spends eight hours a week learning at college. The school district the person works for pays an hourly wage for those 40 total hours. When apprentices finish the training, they’re qualified to work as a classroom teacher.
“Nothing prepares you for doing this job, other than doing the job,” Jacobson said. “Being at a school working with kids is easily 10 times more important than any of the classes I’ve taken, and I get way better experience and much more value out of just doing it and learning through failure.”
As a way of incentivizing the program during its infancy, the eight students get half of their tuition costs reimbursed with federal grant funds.
Four districts participate in the pilot: Wauwatosa, Greendale, Elmbrook and Appleton. The districts are not required to pay for the remainder of the apprentice’s tuition — Elmbrook, a relativelywealthy district, was the only one that did.
State leaders also hope the apprenticeships might help with teacher retention. Teachers will start with four years of classroom management experience already under their belt, far more than usual.Plus, other teachers mentor them on the job. That essentially eliminates the difficult experience of being a first-year teacher, said Appleton Area School District Chief Human Resources Officer Julie King.
“Managing a classroom and the curriculum and all the demands of the job is very overwhelming after having maybe 18 weeks of student teaching experience,” King said. “To learn alongside a professional that has been in the career, knows all the ins and outs, has skill sets and strategies to work with students – to have that benefit of working alongside somebody like that for four years, you’re much, much better prepared.”
Given these promises, teacher apprenticeships have recently exploded nationwide — 45 states have brought programs online in the last few years. They vary widely in their funding approaches and in the costs to districts and students. States have often looked to Tennessee, the country’s first program, as a standout model. The state’s program, launched in 2020, now helps fund 600 new teacher trainees annually at no cost to the apprentices.
Enticing schools a challenge
In his Foundations of Reading class last fall, Jacobson learned about phonological and phonemic awareness, or the ability to recognize distinct parts of a word — a key skill for learning how to read. Using what he learned, he started running his own reading support group for students needing extra help.
“The second you learn something, I don’t have to wait two years before I actually apply that knowledge to my job,” Jacobson said. “No, I’m applying it that same day or the next day, which then makes it stick a lot more.”
The program gets high marks from trainees and schools. So why aren’t more signing up?
Money. Both school districts and apprentices are struggling to afford it.
The four districts that already have apprentices are waiting until their current students graduate to decide whether to add more, Abbott said.
“I want to stress that the apprenticeship model itself remains available to all school employers in the state who wish to adopt it,” Abbott said. “It comes down to finding partners.”
But getting more of Wisconsin’s 400-plus districts to bite has been difficult.
Sorensen, the Fox Valley Tech dean, said the college isn’t seeing interest from districts because many are contending with too-tight budgets. School leaders have long argued the state’s funding system hasn’t kept up with rising costs, which, as Wisconsin Watch recently reported, has resulted in a recent wave of school closures, layoffs and budget cuts.
That’s made it hard for districts to pay for the hours when trainees are in college, and not working in the classroom.
“It’s challenging for school districts to be able to build in that release time. We did hear that, and that’s really understandable,” said Dena Constantineau, Waukesha County Tech’s associate dean of education and human services. “I mean, they really rely on their people, and so they need them in the classroom.”
Even with the discount from the federal grant, tuition can be costly. For example, the average annual tuition costs at least $5,900 for the technical college portion and about $6,000 for UW-Whitewater at Rock County. That means the leftover cost to apprentices could still be upwards of $12,000.
Plus, the federal funds that helped launch the pilot run out next March, so there could be even less tuition assistance for future apprentices.
The Appleton Area School District would love to put more students into the program, “if there was funding” to entice participants, King said. The district couldn’t afford to give students more tuition assistance, which hampered participation.
“The unknown for us moving forward is there is no state funding. If there’s other opportunities for that tuition relief for the individual, that’s really what entices people to engage in that program,” King said.
“The question on the future really is, ‘Where is the funding and the structures going to be in the future to make sure that it’s a viable option moving forward?’” King said. “‘That it reduces the financial barrier? That it’s accessible?’”
Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus. Find her on Instagram and Twitter, or send her an email at mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org.
MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – The Wisconsin Department of Transportation Division of Motor Vehicles announced on Thursday it revoked the licenses for eight wholesale dealers throughout Wisconsin.
The DMV Dealer and Agent Section determined that the dealers violated state law when they failed to maintain a dealer bond.
The following dealers had their licenses revoked:
Located at 101 Skyline Drive #1 Arlington:
- Alpha Motorworks Inc.
- Slick One Auto Sales LLC.
Located at 1645 North Spring Street #210 in Beaver Dam:
- Point B Auto LLC
- Aurum Lane Auto Group LLC
- Turbo Motor Vehicles LLC
Located at N5876 US Highway #12 in Elkhorn:
- Empire General Motors Inc.
- Culture Motorsports LLC
Located at 6830 West Villard Avenue #170 in Milwaukee
The decision to revoke these licenses was confirmed by hearing examiner on April 17.
Following a 30-day appeal period, the revocations became final on May 17.
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Copyright 2026 WMTV. All rights reserved.
The Wisconsin Badgers were extremely well represented at the most recent UA Next Camp.
In total, seven future Badgers competed at the May 24 UA Next Camp in Chicago, IL.
Shockingly, two of the seven recruits in attendance aren’t Wisconsin natives. Knowing how well represented Luke Fickell’s class of 2027 is with in-state talent, it was great to see the likes of quarterback Jack Sorgi (Indiana) and defensive lineman David Hill (Illinois) make the trip to Chicago.
The complete list of Wisconsin players who were at the camp can be found below:
- QB Jack Sorgi
- EDGE Isaac Miller
- IOL Hunter and Reece Mallinger
- DL David Hill
- OT Cole Reiter
- OT Ethan McIntosh
Of those seven, Reiter is the team’s highest-ranked recruit.
Notable absences included:
- Four-star running back Kingston Allen
- Four-star tight end Korz Loken
Nonetheless, Wisconsin received a ton of praise from Billy Tucker, the director of the UA All-America game.
Currently, they still have the No. 17-ranked class of 2027, according to 247Sports.
Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion.
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