Democrats secured control of both the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate in Tuesday’s election, flipping the chambers for the first time in years and pairing the majorities with a Democratic governor.
In the Assembly, Democrats won all eight of their targeted seats, producing a 53-46 majority. Republicans entered the night with a 54-45 edge. The result marks the first Democratic majority in the lower chamber since the 2009-10 session and only the second period of control since Republicans took the chamber in the 1994 wave election, according to reporting by JR Ross of State Affairs Pro.
The Senate also flipped. Democrats gained three Republican-held seats while holding their own, producing an 18-15 majority. The chamber had been under Republican control since 2010.
Together with the governor’s race, the legislative results give Democrats unified control of state government. Outgoing Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester congratulated the winners on the trifecta. He said Republicans would continue to protect Wisconsin’s workforce, communities, and tradition of common-sense governance while preparing for future elections in which voters choose balance and results over one-party control. “The next two years will test our resolve. They will also clarify the choice ahead. We are ready for both,” Vos said in a social media post.
The new legislature will be seated in January. Under the current calendar, members of both chambers take the oath at the start of the 2027-28 session.
These outcomes followed the second election cycle under legislative maps enacted in 2024 after a state Supreme Court ruling that previous districts were unconstitutional. Democrats had already picked up seats under the new maps in 2024. The 2026 results extended those gains in both chambers, according to election analyses.
With both chambers now under Democratic control for the first time in more than a decade and a half, attention turns to organization and the agenda that will emerge once the new majorities take office in January. Republican leaders have indicated they will monitor the session and prepare for subsequent elections.
