Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said the quiet part out loud Thursday: Democrats in the State Legislature don’t actually want to ban partisan gerrymandering after all.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said Thursday that he “heard through the grapevine” that Democrats in the State Legislature will not take up his push for a constitutional amendment banning partisan gerrymandering, inadvertently proving that Democrats are relying on the left-wing Wisconsin Supreme Court to consistently rule in favor of their overtly gerrymandered congressional and state legislative maps.
“Have you been getting pushback from Democrats on this [gerrymandering amendment]?” a reporter asked Evers following Thursday’s WisPolitics luncheon in Madison.
“Through the grapevine, yeah,” Evers answered. “I know they want to have an advantage [in redistricting]. Everybody does.”
A reporter then followed up by asking Evers whether he could elaborate “on what you’ve heard through the grapevine about Democrats opposing” the gerrymandering amendment?
“No,” Evers answered with a smile.
Democrats in Wisconsin have complained about partisan gerrymandering for more than a decade, particularly regarding maps drawn by Republicans after the 2010 census that resulted in sustained GOP majorities in the state Legislature and a 6-2 advantage in the state’s congressional delegation despite competitive statewide vote shares.
Since 2011, Democratic voters, organizations, and officials have filed multiple lawsuits arguing that legislative and congressional districts pack Democratic voters into fewer seats while cracking others to dilute their influence, violating equal protection and other state constitutional provisions. Challenges persisted through the 2020s, including suits in 2023, 2025, and beyond targeting congressional maps as unconstitutional gerrymanders.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority struck down Republican-drawn legislative maps in 2023, leading to adoption of maps proposed by Evers, but congressional maps have faced ongoing litigation with mixed results, including court denials in 2024 and 2025 and referrals to three-judge panels in late 2025.
Republicans proposed legislation in 2023 to adopt an “Iowa-style” redistricting process, where the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau would draw initial maps for legislative approval with limited partisan amendments, aiming to reduce political influence in map-drawing.
Evers and Democratic legislative leaders rejected the proposal. Legislative Democrats voted against the bill despite some prior endorsements of Iowa-model concepts by Evers and others in earlier years. The measure passed the Republican-controlled Assembly but stalled without further advancement.
