Governor-elect David Crowley said Sunday he would sign legislation redrawing Wisconsin’s congressional districts once Democrats take control of the State Legislature in January.
“If the bill was to reach my desk, I will sign it,” Crowley told “UPFRONT” host Matt Smith Sunday.
Democrats gained majorities in both the Assembly and Senate in last week’s election, ending 16 years of Republican control of the Legislature. Crowley defeated Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany to succeed retiring Gov. Tony Evers, giving Democrats unified control of state government for the first time since the 2010 midterms.
Wisconsin has used Evers’ “People’s Commission” congressional map since the 2022 elections following a decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court to toss out the Republican Legislature’s map. The Court also selected Evers’ state legislative map, but was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in early 2023 as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
In spite of this, the day after liberals gained a majority on the Court that August, the justices accepted another case challenging the legislative map and overturned it in December 2023. Rather than risk an even worse partisan gerrymander drawn by the Court’s appointed experts, the Republican Legislature accepted Evers’ map in early 2024. It has been in place for the past two legislative elections.
Crowley did not specify whether he would also sign a redistricting of the legislative map, but his eagerness to replace electoral maps drawn by his own party suggests that he aims for a partisan gerrymander that draws more Republicans out of their congressional districts.
Under Evers’ map, Republican Reps Bryan Steil and Derrick Van Orden lost their re-election bids. Wisconsin’s congressional delegation is now evenly split with the newly-elected Rebecca Cooke and Mitchell Berman joining incumbent Democrats Gwen Moore and Mark Pocan. Republican Mike Alfonso won the race to replace Tiffany, who gave up his seat to run for governor. He joins returning Reps Glenn Grothman, Tony Wied, and Scott Fitzgerald in Wisconsin’s Republican congressional delegation.
