Wisconsin voters are deciding a Democratic gubernatorial primary on Tuesday that will choose the party’s nominee to succeed outgoing two-term Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. The winner is likely to face Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in November, in a race that could help determine who controls state government next year.
David Crowley is among the four active candidates still running. He briefly dropped out in July, then returned after winning Evers’ endorsement, a comeback that gave the race a sharper edge as voters went searching for a clearer signal in a crowded field.
Francesca Hong entered the race in 2025 as a self-described wild card. Joel Brennan and Kelda Roys are also still in the Democratic primary field. Sara Rodriguez exited because of campaign finance woes, while Mandela Barnes suspended his bid the same day the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that state Democratic officials had reviewed past allegations against him of inappropriate behavior toward young adult women. The Barnes campaign denied there were any such allegations. Missy Hughes dropped out in June. Their names remain on the ballot anyway, leaving voters to sort through a field that is smaller than the paperwork suggests.
Tiffany faces minimal opposition for the Republican nomination and has President Donald Trump’s endorsement. As of July 27, he had raised $13.3 million overall and had about $5 million in the bank. Hong and Crowley had each raised slightly more than $1 million and had less than $500,000 in their campaign coffers. That financial gap matters because Wisconsin is one of the country’s closest battlegrounds, and a well-funded fall campaign could matter in a state where the general election may decide whether either party has complete control over state government.
The map still favors both sides in different ways. Wisconsin has a 64-year streak of electing new governors from the opposite party of the departing governor, a pattern that would point Republicans’ way this time. But midterm elections often punish the president’s party, which would help Democrats. That pull in opposite directions is part of what makes the primary so important today: the Democratic nominee will not just inherit Evers’ seat, but step into a state where about half of Wisconsin’s 33 state Senate seats and all 99 state Assembly seats are up in 2026, with Republicans holding slight majorities in both chambers. A liberal-leaning state Supreme Court struck down Wisconsin’s heavily gerrymandered legislative maps in 2023 and ordered them redrawn ahead of the next elections, adding another layer of uncertainty to the fall.
The next answer comes from the ballot count, but the stakes are already clear: the Democratic winner will emerge with a real chance to challenge Tiffany in November and with the burden of proving that Wisconsin’s old governor’s pattern can be broken on a night when the state is once again being watched as a national battleground.
