Wisconsin News

3 Democrats vie for competitive Senate seat that could determine majority

August 7, 2026

Wisconsin Democrats’ efforts to flip control of the state Senate runs through just a handful of districts — and the most competitive of those will be in a newly-drawn district in southwest Wisconsin.

Democrats will need to flip two Senate seats, in addition to holding all of their own, if they want to take that chamber’s majority for the first full session in more than 15 years. It will be the second round of Senate elections since districts were redrawn in 2024, when Democrats flipped four Republican districts.

The 17th Senate District was redrawn from long and thin to something squatter and wider, in a way that could give Democrats an edge for the first time in many years.

The district always leaned gently Democratic when it came to statewide races, supporting Tammy Baldwin in her US Senate races and Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris in their presidential bids, according to political scientist Anthony Chergosky of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

But bucking that trend has been state Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, who has comfortably held the seat for a decade, and before that, represented the area in the Assembly.

This year, with new boundaries, Democrats are poised to give him a run for his money.

“The Democratic Party primary (in the 17^th) is particularly interesting because they’re going to be facing a Republican incumbent who has been successful at winning reelection and outperforming other Republicans on the ticket,” said Chergosky.

That prospect wouldn’t just get them one step closer to a majority in the Senate. It would also bump Marklein from his role chairing the Legislature’s powerful budget committee.

But first, one Democrat will have to get through a primary on Tuesday.

Long before Marklein officially announced he’d run for reelection, state Rep. Jenna Jacobson, D-Oregon, had thrown her hat into the ring. In July 2025, she announced she’d run for the seat, and immediately racked up support from the Democratic establishment. The Wisconsin State Senate Democratic Committee backed her, followed by the state’s largest teacher’s union, Emily’s List and the Wisconsin AFL-CIO.

But another Democrat was already in the race by then. Lisa White, a businesswoman from Potosi, will appear on the ballot next week, albeit with a much smaller war chest and limited statewide name recognition.

A third Democrat on the ballot is Corrine Hendrickson. A former childcare provider based in New Glarus, Hendrickson made a name for herself at the Capitol as an advocate for childcare funding. She also previously supported Jacobson in her 2024 race for the Assembly.

When announcing her bid, Hendrickson criticized the Democratic machine already backing one of her primary opponents, arguing the move went against the purpose of redrawing the state legislative maps to increase access to the ballot.

She was part of a coalition of activists who spoke out against the state budget signed last July, which many Democrats said didn’t sufficiently fund public education, childcare and other priorities. Jacobson voted against the budget.

That budget was authored by the GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee, which Marklein co-chairs. But it ultimately passed and was signed into law because of bipartisan negotiations with Democrats in the state Senate, and with Gov. Tony Evers.

Marklein has since used that budget in his own reelection bid. In ads, he has presented himself as a dealmaker willing to work across the aisle to get things done. He’s also pointed to a failed deal to spend the state surplus as another example. Marklein voted for the bipartisan bill, while all Senate Democrats, and some Senate Republicans, killed it on the floor.

Liberal groups have run their own ads to counter that bipartisan narrative.

Moderating his image is a sign of just how significant this seat is as Republicans attempt to defend their majority, said Chergosky.

“Now that Marklein is in a much more competitive district, he really has to make an effort to demonstrate to voters that he’s willing to work in a bipartisan manner, and I think really running that more moderate middle-of-the-road campaign,” he said.

Democrats have their eyes on four Senate districts, three of which have been long held by Republicans. Of those, the 17th is the only one where the Republican incumbent — Marklein — has stayed in the race.

Marklein’s local popularity will be tested by the new shape of the district. Where before it encompassed Grant, Lafayette and part of Green counties before winnowing through Iowa, Richland, Sauk and Juneau counties, it was redrawn to lose more conservative northern counties and pick up swathes of Dane and Crawford counties.