State Rep. Jenna Jacobson, D-Oregon, won a three-way Dem primary to face GOP state Sen. Howard Marklein in one of the marquee races this fall.

With 74% of the vote in, Jacobson was at 59% of the vote, while former New Glarus childcare provider Corrine Hendrickson was at 23% and Potosi businesswoman Lisa White was at 17.9%.

The 17th SD in southwestern Wisconsin is seen as one of four races that will likely determine control of the state Senate, and Senate Dem leadership had gotten behind Jacobson to face Marklein, the co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee from Spring Green. That includes the State Senate Democratic Committee transferring $275,000 to Jacobson, who won her Assembly seat in 2022.

Other primaries in three Assembly seats are expected to be closely contested for control of that chamber.

*In the 21st AD, Oak Creek Mayor Daniel Bukiewicz defeated David Liners, a retired pastor and former executive director of WISDOM Wisconsin, a faith-based social justice advocacy organization. The Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee endorsed Bukiewicz shortly after he announced his campaign for the suburban Milwaukee seat now represented by Rep. Jesse Rodriguez, R-Oak Creek, who decided not to seek reelection. Bukiewicz took 56.7% of the vote.

*John Belanger, a former Sheboygan alderman, took 63.6% of the vote in a three-way primary to face freshman Rep. Joe Sheehan, D-Sheboygan. Belanger raised $17,095 through the pre-primary period, while Tyler Schneekloth raised $957 and Brotz raised nothing.

*Ben Brist won the Dem primary in the 61st AD even after a GOP-aligned group spent more than he did trying to elevate Lawanda Chambers, the Milwaukee CEO and founder of Life Wellness & Counseling Services, in the Dem primary. Brist, an Army vet who now lives in Greenfield, won 44.1% of the vote, while Chambers pulled 37.6% and Brian Bock, a member of the Greenfield Board of Education, received 18.2%. The GOP-aligned Jobs First Coalition Political Fund spent $25,151 opposing Brist as not “one of us” and labeling him a carpetbagger. It noted he voted in Madison 21 times between 2013 and 2025. Brist’s campaign says he used his parents’ address in Madison to vote while he was at West Point and on active duty, which ended in 2024. He continued to vote from that address while working to finish his master’s degree and moved to the district over the winter. Brist will now face Rep. Bob Donovan, R-Greenfield.