The 2024 Wisconsin Senate election was held on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, at the Fall general election in Wisconsin, alongside the election for the State Assembly. Sixteen of the 33 seats in the Wisconsin Senate were up for election—the even-numbered districts. Before the election, 22 Senate seats were held by Republicans, 11 seats were held by Democrats. The primary election was held on August 13, 2024, and the filing deadline to appear on the ballot was June 3, 2024.
This was the first Wisconsin Senate election after the 2024 redistricting. Democrats won all five of the most competitive Senate races, flipping four Republican-held seats. Republicans maintained their majority, with Democrats breaking their two-thirds supermajority in the chamber.
After the elections, Republicans entered the 107th Wisconsin Legislature with 18 of 33 seats.
Background Redistricting This election was significantly affected by the legislative maps drawn as a result of the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in Clarke v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, which declared the previous legislative district map to be unconstitutional on December 22, 2023. The court was in the process of selecting a remedial plan, when the legislature chose to embrace the remedial map proposal from Governor Tony Evers. Evers signed the plan into law on February 19, 2024.
Under the new maps, Democrats were expected to gain seats in the Senate, but they were not expected to be able to win a majority because only even-numbered seats were up for election in 2024. Five of the sixteen seats up for election had no incumbents due to the shifting legislative boundaries. Both parties spent heavily on the competitive races in this cycle.
Democrats last won a majority of seats in the state senate in the 2012 recall elections, but they last seated a majority of seats in the session following the 2008 elections.
PFAS Legislation To combat the threat of PFAS contamination, the Wisconsin legislature included $125 million in the state budget. Despite this, Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) have refused to release the funds to be used by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR). On April 9, Evers vetoed a piece of legislation which would have created grants to fight pollution due to PFAS chemicals, in explaining his veto, Evers cited the restrictions the legislation would have placed on the DNR to prosecute polluters. Evers also continued calling for the release of the $125 million which was set aside in the budget for combatting PFAS contamination. In response to Evers' veto, JFC members said they would hold the funds hostage.
On April 16, Evers called the JFC to session, but its Republican members refused to attend, denying the committee a quorum to do business. In response to this inaction, Wisconsin Democrats launched a six-figures campaign called "No More Games" which served the purpose to pressure and target members of the Committee from competitive districts. Among their targets were Senate Republicans Joan Ballweg, Howard Marklein, Duey Stroebel, and Eric Wimberger, from the 14th, 17th, 20th and 30th districts respectively.
Results summary Party (majority caucus shading) TotalDemocraticRepublican Last election (2022) 5 12 17 Total after last election (2022) 11 22 33 Total before this election 11 22 33 Up for election 6 10 16 of which: Incumbent retiring 1 2 3 Vacated1 01 Open134 Unopposed 5 0 5 This election 10 6 16 Change from last election 4 4 Total after this election 15 18 33 Change in total 4 4 PartyCandidatesVotes%Democratic16861,27256.60%Republican11650,32842.74%Write-in–10,0490.66%Total1,521,649100.0%
Close races Seats where the margin of victory was under 10%: (gain) (gain)
(gain) (gain)
Outgoing incumbents Retiring Robert Cowles (R–Green Bay), representing district 2 since 1987, retired.
Seeking other office Melissa Agard (D–Madison), representing district 16 since 2021, retired to run for Dane County executive. Dan Knodl (R–Germantown), representing district 8 since 2023, ran for Wisconsin State Assembly in Wisconsin's 24th Assembly district.
Vacated Lena Taylor (D–Milwaukee), representing district 4 since 2005, resigned on January 26, 2024, after her appointment as a Wisconsin circuit court judge in Milwaukee County and was replaced by Dora Drake following a special election on July 30, 2024.
Lost re-election
Joan Ballweg (R–Markesan), representing district 14 since 2021, lost reelection to Sarah Keyeski (D–Lodi) Duey Stroebel (R–Saukville), representing the 20th district since 2017, lost reelection to Jodi Habush Sinykin (D–Whitefish Bay) in the 8th district
Special elections There was one special election scheduled in 2024 for the Wisconsin state Senate. Dist. Previous IncumbentThis ElectionSenatorPartyFirstelectedStatusCandidate(s)Results04 Lena TaylorDem.2004Incumbent resigned on January 26, 2024.New member elected on July 30, 2024. New member electedDemocratic hold
District 4
Incumbent Democrat Lena Taylor was appointed a judge to the Wisconsin circuit court. State representatives Dora Drake and LaKeshia Myers ran to succeed her. In the primary Drake defeated Myers by a wide margin. Drake was elected to finish Taylor's term unopposed.
Predictions SourceRankingAs ofCNalysis Solid ROctober 29, 2024 Sabato's Crystal Ball October 23, 2024
Race summary Dist. Incumbent This election Member Party Firstelected Status Candidates 02 Rep. 1987 Incumbent retiredNew member elected.Republican hold. 04 Dem. 2024 Incumbent re-elected. 06 Dem. 2016 Incumbent re-elected. 08 rowspan="2" Rep. 2023 Ran for the 24th state assembly district.Rep. 2015 Incumbent lost re-election.Democratic gain. 10 Rep. 2020 Incumbent re-elected. 12 Rep. 2020 Incumbent re-elected. 14 Rep. 2020 Incumbent lost reelection.New member elected.Democratic gain. 16 Dem. 2020 Incumbent retired.New member elected.Democratic hold. 18 None No incumbent.New member elected.Democratic gain. 20 Rep. 2016 Incumbent re-elected. 22 Dem. 1996 Incumbent re-elected. 24 Rep. 2016 Incumbent re-elected. 26 Dem. 2020 Incumbent re-elected. 28 Rep. 2020 Incumbent re-elected. 30 Rep. 2020 Ran for the 2nd districtNew member elected.Democratic gain. 32 Dem. 2020 Incumbent re-elected.
Detailed results
District 2 Incumbent Republican Robert Cowles, then the longest currently-serving Wisconsin legislator, declined to seek re-election. Following redistricting, fellow Republican Eric Wimberger decided to move to this district to avoid a competitive election in the 30th district. He avoided facing a primary against Cowles after the latter decided against seeking re-election. Wimberger defeated Democrat Kelly Peterson in the general election.
District 4
Incumbent Democrat Dora Drake ran for re-election unopposed. In the primary she defeated state representative LaKeshia Myers in a rematch from the special election primary earlier in 2024.
District 6 Incumbent Democrat La Tonya Johnson ran for re-election unopposed.
District 8
Incumbent Republican Dan Knodl declined to seek re-election after redistricting put fellow Republican Duey Stroebel into his district. Stroebel faced Democrat Jodi Habush Sinykin, who was a candidate for this district in a 2023 special election. This election was highly contested, with it becoming the most expensive senate race in the state in 2024. In years past, the 8th district was strongly Republican, voting for Republicans by double digit margins, but over time the Milwaukee suburbs and surrounding communities have become more liberal due to the election of Donald Trump in 2016, which saw the 8th district give Trump around 56% of the vote. In 2020 the district gave Donald Trump around 53% of the vote. In 2023, the district was won by Knodl with less than two points. Stroebel was defeated by Sinykin in the general election by a 1,800 vote margin.
District 10 Incmbent Republican Rob Stafsholt ran for re-election. He defeated Democrat Paul Hambleton, a former teacher and chair of the St. Croix county Democrats, in the general election.
District 12 Incumbent Republican Mary Felzkowski ran for re-election. She faced and defeated Democrat Andi Rich in the general election.
District 14 Incumbent Republican Joan Ballweg ran for re-election after being drawn out of this district due to redistricting. Democrat and mental health counselor Sarah Keyeski announced a campaign to face the state senator. Despite having initially announced a campaign against Republican representative Jon Plumer, Keyeski switched to a state senate bid following redistricting, which saw the 14th senate district redrawn, shedding most of its territory north of Columbia county and shifting further south and west, to include parts of Dane county, as well as all of Sauk and Richland counties. As part of her re-election campaign, Ballweg cast herself as a bipartisan legislator, citing a Legislative Reference Bureau memo showing she had cast the most votes with Democrats of any Republican legislator, as well as pieces of legislation she authored which had been signed by governors from both parties. Additionally, Ballweg had broken with her caucus to vote against a bill to regulate transgender students involvement in sports.
During her campaign, Keyeski cited her first-time candidacy and mental health background as supporting factors of her candidacy. On policy, she centered her message around abortion rights, and had criticized Ballweg for her record on the issue, as she had voted against exceptions for rape or incest as well as against reinforcing access to contraception and in-vitro fertilization. Additionally, Keyeski campaigned on addressing the causes of mental health issues, as well as funding education, rural development, and childcare, with a proposal to fund free universal school lunch. Ballweg's campaign also ran ads criticizing Keyeski for proposals to raise property taxes, while trying to tie her campaign to national Democrats on issues like immigration. The two candidates cited similar support for helping families, with Keyeski wanting to fund free school lunches for students, and Ballweg wanting to expand Badgercare. In the general election she was defeated by Democrat and mental health counselor Sarah Keyeski by a three-point margin.
District 16 Incumbent Democrat Melissa Agard declined to seek re-election, leaving the seat open. Following Agard's declaration, Democratic representatives Jimmy Anderson, Melissa Ratcliff, and Samba Baldeh; of the 47th, 46th, and 48th assembly districts respectively, all filed to succeed her. All three ran on similar platforms, including expanding Medicaid access and enshrining abortion rights. To differentiate themselves, the three emphasized their different experiences, voter coalitions, and endorsements; with Anderson emphasizing his fight for disability rights in the Wisconsin legislature, Ratcliff emphasizing her support for the LGBTQ+ community, and Baldeh cited his personal experiences as a black, Muslim immigrant to the United States. Ratcliff defeated Anderson and Baldeh by a wide margin and was unopposed in the general election.
District 18