Tuesday saw the worst possible outcome for Wisconsin Republicans in a long time. But this party’s case should not depend on one night’s returns. The Wisconsin Republican Party and its candidates did great work this cycle, and that work will pay off for years in 2026.
Start with the door operation. On October 23, Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin knocked its one millionth door, capping a push its volunteers started in February and kept up “in every kind of weather.” Two days later, the Tiffany campaign hit one million doors of its own. That’s two million doors between the two operations, with more than a week left on the clock. Our own Elizabeth Wolnik walked some of those blocks, and what a million doors taught her is simple: people still open the door, still talk, and still want to be heard instead of carpet-bombed with TV ads.
Two million door knocks didn’t disappear when the results came in. Neither did the relationships behind them.
That ground game was matched by a party that refused to concede territory. Republicans put a candidate on the ballot in 97 of 99 Assembly districts, 15 of 17 state Senate seats up this year, and seven of eight congressional districts. That’s a party that understands having local candidates helps up the ballot as much as a statewide candidate can help down ballot.
An encouraging part of that map was Milwaukee. This year four Black Republicans were on the November ballot for the Assembly in Milwaukee County. Dr. Shandowlyon Reaves, an educator with more than 30 years in classrooms and communities, ran in the 11th District, and Milwaukee native Yasmine Outlaw took on Ryan Clancy in the 19th. As our Deborah Prinze put it, two Black Republican women were challenging Milwaukee’s political status quo. Next door, Charlene Abughrin and Alciro Deacon demanded accountability in the 17th and 16th. Abughrin is a mother of six whose lawsuit, her campaign says, forced Milwaukee Public Schools to follow the state’s school resource officer law. Deacon is a minister who has carried the Republican banner on the North Side since 2020.
None of that happened by accident. The state party keeps a Black Community Center on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and a Hispanic Community Center on West Greenfield Avenue. After 2024, Chairman Brian Schimming made clear the old habit of closing those offices after Election Day was over for good. That promise means more this week than ever because this is exactly the moment Republicans used to pack up and leave. In May, the Hispanic center hosted the party’s annual Cinco de Mayo celebration, a tradition Mexican American members asked for, with former Milwaukee police chief Alfonso Morales speaking. Left-wing activists protested out front. Republicans held the party anyway. On the South Side, Angel Sanchez and Sam Guerrero ran in the 8th and 9th Assembly Districts, and Guerrero, a UPS supervisor raised by a single mom who worked nights as a nurse, told a story many Milwaukee families recognize.
The bench got deeper outside the city, too. In Waukesha’s open 82nd District, Bryson Reyes, a former Army infantry officer who now works in manufacturing, ran on affordability, public safety, and getting Madison out of the way of employers. I sat down with him during the campaign. He is exactly the kind of candidate this party should keep recruiting.
On campus, the Wisconsin College Republicans raised more than $1 million in 2025 after raising less than five figures in each of the 2020, 2022, and 2024 cycles. Schimming spent the spring on campuses from St. Norbert to UW-Whitewater, making the case to Gen Z. Those students aren’t going anywhere.
The money followed the energy. The state GOP brought in more than $57 million in 2026, more than double what Democrats raised. Tiffany raised nearly $50 million after January 1. Republicans accounted for $117.5 million of the $166 million spent in the most expensive governor’s race in state history. People don’t invest like that in a party they think is finished. While the Democrats, led by David Crowley, campaigned against the billionaires funding Tiffany’s campaign, this was the first cycle where the GOP played by the same rules as the Democrat Party.
Then there was unity, which Wisconsin Republicans have not always been good at. Four years ago we tore into each other in primaries for governor and attorney general. This time Tiffany had the nomination to himself. At the state convention in May, Sen. Ron Johnson told the party faithful, “We have no room for division. We have no room for this circular firing squad.” For once, the party listened. Milwaukee County Republicans spent the fall telling voters to bank your vote early and then come help win. The state party pushed the same early voting message statewide. Remember Johnson’s words this week. A tough night is exactly when the circular firing squad likes to reload. Don’t let it.
Finally, Republicans in the Legislature handed voters three chances to lock conservative principles into the constitution. Even on a night like Tuesday, voters didn’t walk away from them. Question 3, banning government preferences based on race or sex in hiring, school admissions, and contracting, passed with 56% in the same election that swept Democrats into the Capitol. Question 1, which would stop a governor from creating or raising a tax with his veto pen so we never see another 400-year veto, also passed. Question 2, barring government from shutting churches during an emergency the way it did during COVID, came up short at 48%, which means the fight to protect worship isn’t over. Those questions were on every ballot in Wisconsin because Republicans put them there. Voters who threw out Republican candidates still backed a Republican idea, and that’s a party setting the agenda, not chasing it.
So here’s my case. A party that knocked over two million doors, contested nearly every seat, recruited veterans, Black, Hispanic, and Gen Z candidates, competed in neighborhoods Democrats have taken for granted for decades, reached out to Hispanic families, built a youth operation from scratch, and committed to keeping its community centers open after the votes are counted is not a party in decline. One rough night doesn’t change that. Learning from losing is how you win again.
The results didn’t go our way this time. The foundation is still there, and the next campaign gets to build on it. Be bullish because the future of the Wisconsin GOP looks a whole lot brighter than the leftist pundits and election results will let you believe.
