Freshman state Rep. Marisabel Cabrera, D-Milwaukee, beat back a primary challenge Tuesday. Meanwhile, three Dems in open deep blue seats all but guaranteed they’ll join the Assembly after the fall election. Cabrera won 62.3 percent of the vote over Christian Saldivar, a 30-year-old caregiver, according to unofficial returns posted by the Milwaukee Election Commission. Her win comes two years after she beat then-Rep. Josh Zepnick in a Dem primary. Cabrera will face Republican Veronica Diaz in November. In other Milwaukee-area primaries: *Milwaukee County Board Supv. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez edged JoAnna Bautch, a director at Citizen Action of Wisconsin and sister of

Four of five closely watched GOP primaries for open Republican seats turned into romps. The exception was the 29th AD, where Menomonie chiropractor Clint Moses eked out a win against fellow GOP candidates Neil Kline, who worked as an aide to former state Sen. Sheila Harsdorf, R-River Falls, and Ryan Sherley. With all 36 precincts reporting vote tallies, Moses held 38.1 percent of the votes, while Klein had 32.5 percent and Sherley had 29.4 percent. Moses now faces Dem John Calabrese in the general election. The winner will replace Rep. Rob Stafsholt, R-New Richmond, who left the seat to seek

Former DATCP Secretary Brad Pfaff is set to square off against former Republican Sen. Dan Kapanke after emerging from a three-way race for the Dem nomination in the 32nd SD. The Associated Press called the race just before 10:30 p.m with Pfaff garnering more than 60 percent of the vote with 84 percent of ballots tallied. “I have dedicated my life to ensuring Wisconsin’s farmers, workers and families have the resources and support they need to succeed,” Pfaff said in a statement. “I’m going to bring that same dedication to the State Senate in Madison and I am humbled to

State Reps. Melissa Sargent, D-Madison, and Joan Ballweg, R-Markesan, both cruised in through their primaries in their quests to jump from the Assembly to the state Senate. Sargent declared victory over Monona Grove School Board President Andrew McKinney just after 9 p.m., writing in an email that it was “truly an honor to be chosen” as the Dem candidate in the race to replace outgoing Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona. “Together, we have fought to lift up folks from all across Wisconsin, to move our state forward, and to plant the seeds so that future generations may thrive,” she said. “I

Kelda Roys and Julian Bradley appear to be in the driver’s seats to claim heavily partisan state Senate districts this fall. Roys, a former Assembly lawmaker and Dem gubernatorial candidate, appears set to replace Fred Risser in the Madison-based 26th SD after declaring victory in a Facebook Live video. “Thank you so, so very much for the trust that you’ve placed in me by voting for me,” she said in. “I will work every single day to be worthy of the opportunity you’ve provided me with.” With 80 of 82 precincts reporting results, Roys emerged from the seven-way Dem primary

Republican State Assembly incumbents Adam Neylon, John Nygren, Ken Skowronski, and Robert Brooks easily fended off primary challenges in Tuesday’s partisan primary. The four incumbents, who represent the 98th, 89th, 80th, and 60th assembly districts respectively, were all heavy favorites to advance out of Tuesday’s primary. Nygren, R-Marinette and the Joint Finance co-chair, easily defeated Marinette water advocate Andi Rich. He had 86 percent of the vote to Rich’s 14 percent in the 89th AD with 40 percent of the vote counted. Rich knocked Nygren over his work on PFAS contamination in the northeastern Wisconsin district, while Republicans painted her

Dem U.S. Rep. Ron Kind will meet Republican Derrick Van Orden, a retired Navy SEAL, in the general election for western Wisconsin’s 3rd CD this fall. Kind, who was first elected to the House in 1996, took 81 percent of the vote against little-known challenger Mark Neumann, a retired doctor. On the GOP side, Van Orden beat Jessi Ebben, a public relations professional from Eau Claire, with 66 percent of the vote. Republicans have targeted Kind after Donald Trump won his western Wisconsin district by 4.5 percentage points in 2016, when the Dem incumbent was unopposed. But Kind won reelection

State Sen. LaTonya Johnson told WisPolitics.com she is declaring victory in the race to retain her seat against Michelle Bryant, fellow Milwaukee Dem state Sen. Lena Taylor’s chief of staff. With all precincts reporting, Johnson won 80.4 percent of the vote. “I am so grateful and thankful for these results because this was clearly a race run out of retaliation,” Johnson said just before 9 p.m.  The Milwaukee Dem said she believed Bryant jumped into the 6th SD primary in retribution after Johnson replaced Taylor on the powerful Joint Finance Committee and chose to endorse longtime Mayor Tom Barrett over

There were no major issues with absentee ballots statewide, but counting in Milwaukee and Kenosha was going slower than expected, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Elections Commission said. The count in both southeastern Wisconsin cities should still finish tonight, Reid Magney said. The state saw an influx of absentee ballots for the August election. As of this morning, 554,340 absentee ballots had been returned by voters with more than 905,000 mailed out. The deadline to return them was 8 p.m. Tuesday. Milwaukee counts absentee ballots at a central location, and there was an issue with a machine that opens the