State Senate Democratic Committee: ICYMI: Sen. Patrick Testin expects Democrats to flip the 5th district

MADISON, WI — EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!: Senate Democrats and Senator Patrick Testin agree Robyn Vining is going to win the 5th. 

Republican Senator Pat Testin on Robyn Vining winning Wisconsin’s 5th Senate District: 

• “…’on paper, one of the toughest ones for us to hold,’ Sen. Patrick Testin, R-Stevens Point, told the Journal Sentinel.”
• “”It’s still going to be an uphill battle in that seat,’ Testin said.” 
• “The district ‘started moving in the wrong direction [for Republicans], even going back to 2018,’ Testin said” 
• “”A lot of it is the the suburbs and places like Wauwatosa and Brookfield that once were bedrocks for conservative voters that, since Donald Trump took the Oval Office back in 2016, we’ve seen those areas of the state sort of move in a a different direction,’ Testin said.”

Read more on Robyn Vining flipping the 5th district:  

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Democrats target a ‘flippable’ Senate seat in the Milwaukee suburbs

• “If Wisconsin’s state Senate is the “most flippable” legislative chamber in the country, the 5th District has been presented as its “most flippable” seat since Democratslaunched their campaign efforts more than a year ago.”
• “State Rep. Robyn Vining, D-Wauwatosa, was one of the first two Democratic candidates to announce Senate bids with the party’s backing last summer for the second set of elections on new, more competitive legislative maps. Democratspicked up four seats in 2024 despite the party’s presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, losing at the top the ticket.”
• “‘The path to the Democratic majority, the path to fully funding our public schools, the path to fighting back against gun violence with meaningful reforms, the path to quality, affordable health care and mental healthcare and childcare runs straight through the 5th Senate District,’ Vining told supporterswhen she announced her campaign last summer.”
• “’We’re feeling cautiously optimistic,’ Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.”
• “The 5th Senate District encompasses communities west of Milwaukee running from Pewaukee through Brookfield, into Wauwatosa and West Allis.”
• “It broke for Harris over Republican President Donald Trump by 5.9 points in the fall 2024 election, for liberal state Supreme Court Justice Susan Crawford by 13.5 points in the spring of that year and for liberal Justice Chris Taylor by 17.8 points in spring 2026.”
• “Vining, a photographer and former pastor, made her entrance to the Assembly by flipping a district. She narrowly defeated her Republican opponent in 2018 in a traditionally GOP district once held by former Gov. Scott Walker.”
• “’I have always run campaigns on shared values,’ Vining told the Journal Sentinel.”
• “Her campaign messaging includes merchandise and signs with the slogan ‘Love Wins,’ which she first wrote on a sign she carried protesting Walker’s Act 10 legislation at the state Capitol in 2011 as ‘a rejection of ‘divide and conquer’ politics.’”
• “‘Divide and conquer’ politics is bad for human beings. It’s bad for our mental health. It’s bad for our relationships, communities, neighborhoods,’ she said.”
• “‘A lot of it is the suburbs and places like Wauwatosa and Brookfield that once were bedrocks for conservative voters that, since Donald Trump took the Oval Office back in 2016, we’ve seen those areas of the state sort of move in a different direction,’ Testin said.” 
• “’I would say over the last two months, it has shifted from being people concerned about affordability, as we’ve been hearing since June, to really, people being afraid that they’re not going to be able to afford to survive,’ Vining said, adding that the concern especially permeates among older voters on fixed incomes.” 
• “Elected officials need to offer a ‘swift and comprehensive response’ to those concerns, Vining said. While some things, like gas prices, are largely dictated by national policies, Vining said lawmakers need to boost general school aids and adjust shared revenue for local governments to manage property tax increases. Lawmakers should also quickly enact new regulations on data centers, she said, to ensure energy costs aren’t shifted onto ratepayers.”
• “After seven years in the Assembly, Vining sees a few new opportunities in the Senate: for one, contributing to a Democratic majority if they pick up the two seats needed to secure it. Vining said she would like to chair a legislative committee and hold hearings on bills that haven’t received them under Republican leadership, including offering a BadgerCare public option.”
• “The Democratic lawmaker said she would also hold quarterly meetings with the lawmakers representing the Assembly districts within the 5th, ‘getting to know our district together and building relationships and figuring out where we have common ground that serves the common good.’”
• “Asked about her accomplishments in office, Vining quickly pointed to bills signed into law by Gov. Tony Evers this year, bills that extend postpartum Medicaid coverage for mothers and require insurance to cover additional cancer screenings for women with dense breast tissue.”
• “Both had appeared fated to die in the Assembly but were dramatically revivedafter a public, vocal push by Democrats and a behind-the-scenes effort by a group of determined Republicans.”
• “’I’m proud that we didn’t take no for an answer, and that we fought with everything we had, and we won,’ Vining said.”
• “She also touted Democratic efforts while in the minority to shift policy conversations toward their priorities in areas including childcare, special education and mental health funding.”