In the 2022 midterms, the rightwing depended on gerrymandered maps and voter suppression laws upheld by rightwing state legislative majorities to help secure power in Wisconsin.

With help from our network and Vote Save America, our goal for 2022 in Wisconsin was to prevent a supermajority in the Wisconsin Assembly to preserve Governor Tony Evers’ veto power.

By providing support down the stretch, we prevented a rightwing supermajority in the Assembly with an extreme anti-democracy agenda by just 1,249 voters.

Special Elections

In April, there was a special election that presented the opportunity to break the Wisconsin Senate supermajority. The stakes were high — in a district that Trump won by five points, the rightwing candidate actually campaigned on the idea that the Senate supermajority could impeach judges, Cabinet Members, or even a Justice from the State Supreme Court.

The States Project supported the challenger who ran to protect democracy — and the race came down to 1,296 votes in a race where more than 75,000 were cast. After a closer than expected election, he backtracked on impeaching State Supreme Court Justices, a huge win considering that the rightwing lost their majority in the Wisconsin State Supreme Court.

• Even in 2022, Republican lawmakers continued attempts to decertify the rightful 2020 Presidential election results, with election deniers running for state legislative seats and more pro-democracy Republicans, including Majority Leader Jim Steineke, resigning from office.
• The States Project and our partners at Vote Save America teamed up to prevent a supermajority in the Wisconsin Assembly. 
• The rightwing needed five seats, and they only gained three — we helped to stop them from getting to the supermajority threshold and protected Governor Evers’ veto. 

• The States Project’s 2020 electoral work in Wisconsin helped relieve the pressures of an expanding field and enabled the minority in the Assembly to gain their largest number of seats since the gerrymander was enacted after the 2010 Tea Party wave.
• We had two narrow losses, with candidates we supported losing by margins under 6 percent.