What Bay Area's new lawmakers aim to accomplish in office

A Democrat and a Republican both won regional races for the Legislature in the Nov. 3 election, but the two lawmakers now face starkly different futures in Madison.

Rep. Angela Stroud, D-Ashland, easily won a second term in the 73rd Assembly District, taking about 65% of the vote in a rematch with Republican Frank Kostka of Ashland, according to unofficial results. In the 25th Senate District, Republican Erik Severson, a physician and former two-term state representative from Polk County, defeated Democrat Charly Ray, a Bayfield County Board supervisor from the town of Bayview, 52.8% to 47.2%. The seat opened when Republican Sen. Romaine Quinn ran in the neighboring 23rd District after the latest redistricting.

When the Legislature convenes Jan. 4, 2027, Stroud will be part of Wisconsin’s first Democratic trifecta in 16 years. Democrats flipped both chambers Nov. 3, winning an 18-15 majority in the Senate and a 53-46 majority in the Assembly, while Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley kept the governor’s office in Democratic hands. Severson and his fellow Republicans will serve in the minority, with little control over the state’s agenda.

It is a mirror image of 2010, when Republicans, riding the Tea Party wave, won the governor’s office and majorities in both houses of the Legislature. Republicans held that single-party control until Democrat Tony Evers was elected governor in 2018 and kept control of the Legislature until this year’s election.

Now Republicans find themselves in the unfamiliar position of serving as the loyal opposition.

Severson said his own race unfolded almost exactly as he expected.

“I got out and knocked on about 12,000 doors, and our team knocked on about 20,000 doors. What I saw going into those doors and I told people this: ‘I don’t care what you are hearing nationally or what you are hearing in the state,’ I knew from talking with that many people that Republicans were getting out to vote,” he said. “I knew when Douglas County came in at 9:15 that I had won.”

Despite his win, Severson said it will be difficult to advance the agenda he campaigned on: lowering property taxes and reversing recent tax increases, cutting regulations on business, reforming education, and supporting law enforcement.

“I’m not going to be able to do the things that I had said, but that is exactly who I said I was and what I wanted to do, so I am not going to change and become a different person. I am going to continue to be the person that I told people that I am,” he said. “I am going to continue to fight for lower taxes, fighting to decrease regulation on businesses so that business can grow, so they can hire people and northwest Wisconsin becomes a place where people can live their lives and enjoy their lives. I will continue to fight for that. It will be hard to get it done with the people that we have in place.”

Still, Severson said he believes lawmakers can work across the aisle on many issues.

“What most people don’t realize is that most bills are passed unanimously, there are all sorts of things that are worked across the aisle, things that are very normal and just have to get done,” he said. “People generally only hear about the things that are contentious because they sell your newspapers. There are lots of opportunities. Hopefully we can work on these things, things that are good for Wisconsin, good for Wisconsin families, good for northwestern Wisconsin.”

Severson said he will represent the entire district regardless of how people voted. What that representation looks like remains to be seen, he said.

“I don’t get to set the agenda. My bills, my ideas are not going to be put into bills,” he said. “That is just the harsh reality of it. I understand that, how it works. It’s not going to be easy. They are going to do what they want to do, and I can only try to talk them out of it. It is going to be tough.”