Freshman GOP Rep. Angie Sapik is opting out.
The Lake Nebagamon lawmaker voted for the maps that turned the swing seat she won in 2022 by 490 votes into a 61% Dem seat.
She doesn’t see a path to victory. So she’s not running this fall for the northern Wisconsin seat unless a “miracle happens and nobody signs up in the end and I change my mind at the very last second.”
Even then, she wouldn’t like her chances.
“I could run, but I’m going to lose,” she told WisPolitics this week.
She’s not alone in having to make some tough decisions with the new maps in place. Since Dem Gov. Tony Evers signed them last month, lawmakers — especially those who are paired with other incumbents — have started to make decisions on staying put in the seat they were drawn into or looking for another option. Freshman lawmakers such as Rep. Alex Joers, D-Middleton, decided to move. Joers moved into a different — but still very Dem-friendly district — after he was paired with Rep. Mike Bare, D-Verona.
Rep. Pat Snyder, R-Schofield, told WisPolitics this week he’s going to run for the 85th that he’s represented since his 2016 election after being drawn into the 87th AD. He made that decision though he’s the only incumbent in the new district, which is more Republican than his old seat. Snyder said he’s “going to get an apartment or something” to establish residency in the redrawn 85th that’s now a 52.6% GOP seat. The new 87th is a 64% GOP seat.
Meanwhile, Sen. Eric Wimberger says he’ll move to the redrawn 2nd SD and run for that seat this fall, setting up a possible primary with fellow Green Bay Republican Rob Cowles.
Under the new maps, both lawmakers were drawn into the 30th SD that Wimberger first won in 2020, and Cowles announced earlier this year he planned to move into the 2nd. That newly drawn 2nd district includes a stretch along Green Bay that includes Suamico and Oconto that Cowles represented under the previous maps after he was first elected to the Senate in a 1987 special election. It’s a 65.3% Republican seat.
And freshman GOP Rep. Bob Donovan, who won a suburban Milwaukee Assembly seat in 2022 after he ran unsuccessfully for Milwaukee mayor that spring, may be on the move again. He told WisPolitics he hasn’t made a final decision yet on his plans for this fall and will have an announcement April 9. He was drawn into a 60% Dem district with Rep. Daniel Riemer, D-Milwaukee, while there’s an open swing seat next door that includes communities such as Greendale, Greenfield and Hales Corners.
With so many moving pieces and the new maps, WisPoiltics has assembled webpages for the Assembly and Senate so you can track who’s in, who’s out and who’s on the move.
The profile of each Assembly and Senate seat was compiled through interviews, official announcements and campaign registration statements.
The window to circulate nomination papers opens April 15 with petitions due to the Elections Commission June 3.
Are we missing a candidate? Has someone already dropped out? Email us at staff@wispolitics.com to help us keep an accurate list of candidates as the Legislature heads toward the filing deadline.
See the Assembly map.
See the Senate map.
