Skip to content Skip to footer

GOP Efforts to Curb Wisconsin Dem. Governor’s Powers Soundly Rejected by Voters

The two constitutional amendments to impede the Democratic governor were opposed by nearly 6 in 10 voters in the state.

A resident casts their ballot in the state's primary election at a polling location on April 2, 2024, in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

In a primary election held in the state on Tuesday, two constitutional ballot questions in Wisconsin seeking to restrict the powers of the governor were quashed by voters, with many likely viewing them as attempted power grabs by legislative Republicans to impede Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’s work in the executive branch.

The GOP currently has a near-veto-proof majority in both houses of the Wisconsin state legislature, which has thwarted many of Evers’s proposals, including multiple legislative sessions he has called for regarding reproductive rights, gun regulation, and other issues. But as governor, Evers has the ability to use funds sent to the state by the federal government in more expansive ways, a power that Republicans said needed an additional “check,” despite most states in the U.S. operating in a similar fashion and party leaders having no problems with it when Republican Gov. Scott Walker was in office.

To successfully enact a constitutional amendment in the state, the legislature has to pass a measure in two separate but concurrent sessions, after which voters in the state must also approve it. Republicans did so regarding Evers’s powers as governor, pushing forward two measures that would restrict the legislature from granting any governor in the future the ability to have discretion over federal funds, as well as denying the governor from using legislative-granted powers that already exist.

Republican lawmakers passed these measures in response to Evers using federal funding to address the COVID-19 pandemic in the state. While those lawmakers have been critical of the way he did it, Wisconsinites have given the twice-elected Evers positive marks for his response to the pandemic, and he still enjoys a 51 percent approval rating right now, according to recent polling.

Voters on Tuesday largely rejected both amendment proposals, with nearly 6 in 10 voters in both races opposing them.

A coalition of 16 voting rights groups, alongside the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, campaigned against the measures, noting that they were attempts by Republican legislators to seize more power from the governor, similar to actions they took during a “lame duck” period after Evers was first elected in 2018. The amendments could also have far-reaching consequences, including the slowing down of the distribution of federal funds relating to future disaster relief.

The defeat of the two measures marks just the second time since 1996 that amendments proposed by the legislature weren’t backed by voters.

“Republican politicians in Madison pushed these amendments because they recognized their grip on power was waning with new, fair maps, and they were desperate to cement their extreme agenda into Wisconsin’s Constitution,” state Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler said, referring to the state Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down political maps drawn by Republicans as illegal gerrymanders.

The amendments would have made state government “more difficult, more bureaucratic and less responsive to the needs of Wisconsinites,” said Debra Cronmiller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin.

The outcome of the ballot measure races in Wisconsin on Tuesday — held during an August primary election when it was expected that turnout would be low — could be a bellwether for the 2024 presidential election in the swing state. Indeed, an aggregate of polling data compiled by FiveThirtyEight indicates that Vice President Kamala Harris currently leads former President Donald Trump in the Badger state by an average of 3.2 points, with a recent New York Times/Siena College poll showing her lead was up by as much as 6 points among likely voters.

As it has been in past elections, turnout will be key to determining who will ultimately win the state’s 10 Electoral College votes in November. In Tuesday’s election, the liberal-leaning Dane County, which helps tip Wisconsin toward Democrats in statewide races that are close when voter participation is high, saw 45 percent turnout, a record for the county on an August primary election date.

Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn

Dear Truthout Community,

If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.

We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.

Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.

There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.

After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?

It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.

We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.

We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.

Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We’re presently working to find 1500 new monthly donors to Truthout before the end of the year.

We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.

With love, rage, and solidarity,

Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy