(The Center Square) – Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature will have fewer votes, but they will stay in control in the new year.
Democrats flipped two Senate seats in Tuesday’s election.
Republican Joan Ballweg lost in her newly redrawn district in central Wisconsin, and Republican Duey Stroebel lost in his new district in the WOW counties.
Unofficial results say Democrat Sarah Keyeski beat Ballweg 51%-49%, or by about 2,000 votes.
Democrat Jodi Habush Sinykin won by an even smaller margin over Stroebel. The early vote count shows she won 50.8% to 49.3%, or by about 1,700 votes.
That race may turn out to be Wisconsin’s most expensive local race, with nearly $5 million spent.
Stroebel commented on the cost of the race Wednesday morning.
“Unfortunately, we came up a bit short. Despite our tireless work and dedication, the voters have decided to go in a different direction,” Stroebel said in a statement. “This was an unnecessarily negative race, with millions spent on dishonest ads that lied to voters about my record. I hope that my opponent serves as a representative of the people with much more integrity and honor than what she has shown on the campaign.”
Democrats made another Senate pick-up in the Green Bay-area. Democrat Jamie Wall won the new 30th Senate District. He beat Republican challenger Jim Rafter 52%-47%, or by about 5,000 votes.
Half of the Wisconsin Senate was on the ballot this fall, but every senator ran in new districts.
Gov. Tony Evers pushed through new legislative maps earlier this year.
Those maps changed the boundaries for most Senate and Assembly districts.
Republicans will maintain a majority in the Assembly by at least 50 votes.
As of early Wednesday morning, there were some votes left to count in a handful of Assembly races, so that majority could be as high as 54 seats in January.
The Associated Press declared GOP state Rep. Jessie Rodriguez, R-Oak Creek, as the winner in her tightly contested race.
State Rep. Bob Donovan, R-Greenfield, also won his tight race in Milwaukee’s south side and south suburbs.
The Republican wins set up at least two more years of divided government in Madison. Evers is a Democrat. He’s had a Republican legislature for each of his six years in office.
The new legislature will be sworn in in January.
