Wisconsin election: Democrats win control of State Legislature

Our political reporter, Jason Calvey. All right, Jason, the results of the state Senate and the state assembly make this Crowley win even bigger for Democrats. You know, we're looking back at the last two gubernatorial elections in Wisconsin. They were much closer than what we saw yesterday. I asked Craig Gilbert about this earlier. Now I want to ask you, what has changed here where we saw such a big margin last night of voters casting their ballots for Crowley? I mean, this is something we saw across the entire country. It was a bad, terrible, no good night for Republicans across the entire country. Voters say they were upset. They were very worried about the economy. Again and again, when we talked to voters, they said their number one issue was inflation, the cost of living. They also would say jobs, dollars, cents, property taxes, the cost of housing, the cost of utilities, the cost of groceries. That was the number one issue on the minds of voters. And they took it out on President Donald Trump, Republicans across the entire country, including in places like Texas, where you haven't seen a Democratic senator for more than 30 years now flipping to the. Democratic side, and we're seeing that at the state level here in Wisconsin, where Democrats get what is a major, major, major prize and will change politics, will change laws, will change policies here in Wisconsin. They have a trifecta of power in the state capitol. Speaking of that, Jason, we know that hadn't happened in what, at least 16 years, I believe. What does that say about the landscape of politics and voters in Wisconsin now that the state legislature goes to Democrats? Yeah. And so you've got that trifecta. So that's the first time Democrats have had full power since for 16 years. And what does that mean? It means think about all of the most controversial issues you can name any. issue under the sun that you might want to consider, whether it's guns or abortion or the environment or school funding. And the list goes on and on and includes things like marijuana on all of those issues where Republicans and Democrats have disagreed over the years. Now, Democrats will finally, after 16 years, have full power in Madison. The state Senate has flipped to Democratic power. The state assembly has flipped. to Democratic power, and they continue to hold the governor's office. That's the trifecta. So all those issues I just mentioned, they can now, once they take power in January of 2027, they can start implementing those law changes in Wisconsin on issues, like I mentioned, on marijuana. They want to see legalization of recreational and medicinal marijuana in Wisconsin. We are one of the few states, if you drive right down the border in Kenosha to Illinois, Marijuana is very accessible there for legal sales. We're going to see that in Wisconsin, no doubt, in the coming years. David Crowley, the governor-elect, said that he wanted to see legalization of marijuana as a way to bring more income into the state of Wisconsin. And we asked him again and again. He's proposing things like universal pre-K. Well, that's free kindergarten for people four years old, potentially three years old. Who's going to pay for it? That's a very high price tag. The governor-elect David Crowley had looked at and mentioned legalization of marijuana as one way to bring more money into the state of Wisconsin. I've got to ask you, too, Jason, you know, looking forward now, we've got it'll be here before we know it, although it feels like we just had one. The next presidential election will be here, my gosh, in just a couple of years. What do you what do you see as Republicans needing to do if they want to have any fighting chance? I got to tell you what, I talked with a number of people and been hearing from a number of sources on what happened last night. And I can tell you, Republicans are livid. There's a lot of blame game going around for Republicans right now about who's to blame for tremendous losses across the entire country. I mean, they lost right now, right now. Last count seven United States Senate seats in reliably Republican areas, for example, in Texas, which hasn't picked a Democratic senator in over 30 years in in places like Kansas, which it's been about 90 years since they elected a Democrat. I mean, this was a blue wave. Some are saying even a blue tsunami. It's going to be really hard for Republicans. They're going to have to do a lot of soul searching. I'm hearing that soul searching already. Where they're looking at what they need to do moving forward. I know they're talking about the war in Iran being very unpopular, the gas prices, things like that. So there's a possibility here, a change in direction for Republicans moving forward after tremendous losses last night, guys. All righty. Jason Calvi, our political expert, always on top of it for us. Jason, thank you so much.