Matthew Norman
Tony Evers (left) and Mandela Barnes declared victory at around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Tom Powell had a feeling. A former Dane County Board supervisor, Madison Common Council member and legislative aide to state Rep. Terese Berceau, he’s been in rooms with people who are about to lose elections. This wasn’t going to be one of them. “You can feel the buzz,” Powell said Tuesday night during Democrat Tony Evers’ watch party at the Orpheum Theater. “Right now I’m cautiously optimistic. But in 10 minutes, I don’t know.”
Powell’s gut was right. The mild-mannered state schools superintendent claimed victory at around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday after spending hours locked in a dead heat with Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Alongside running mate Mandela Barnes — who will become the state’s first African-American lieutenant governor — Evers addressed hundreds of ecstatic supporters after the Associated Press called the race. “It’s time for change, folks,” Evers told the cheering crowd. “The voters have spoken.”
Walker, however, has not conceded. “We need the official canvass and for military ballots to be counted before any decision can be made,” Walker senior advisor Brian Reisinger said in a statement. “Thousands of ballots were damaged and had to be recreated. Until there is a comparison of the original ballots to the recreated ballots, there is no way to judge their validity.”
Earlier in the evening, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch told supporters to prepare for a “long, drawn-out recount.” But a state law signed by Walker last year will likely prevent that from happening. The new rules — tightened in response to 2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s demand for a recount after Donald Trump won the Wisconsin — only allow candidates to request a recount if they lost by 1 percent or less. Evers won by 1.4 percent.
“It’s hard to justify [Stein’s] recount to the taxpayers when [Trump] won by over 22k votes,” Walker wrote on Facebook in 2016. Unofficial results put Evers ahead of Walker by about 29,000 votes.
One of the most-watched races of the midterms, Wisconsin’s gubernatorial contest had national significance, with Evers’ victory giving Democrats a much-needed boost in an area that was essential for Trump’s victory in 2016. For the state, the shift in leadership ends an eight-year period of Republican dominance that pushed the once-progressive state to the right.
Walker, who was swept into office as part of the tea party wave in 2010, vaulted into national prominence in 2011 with his passage of Act 10, which eliminated collective bargaining for public employees. Since then he has styled himself as a “bold reformer,” overseeing a host of deeply conservative policies such as expanding private school vouchers, placing restrictions on welfare, limiting access to abortion and reproductive care and instituting “right to work” laws aimed at weakening private-sector unions.
Evers, a former teacher and school administrator first elected state superintendent of public instruction in 2009, positioned himself as an even-keeled problem-solver and an answer to the divisiveness that has marred Walker’s eight years in office. During the campaign, Evers focused on increasing public education funding by $1.4 billion, expanding access to affordable health care and fixing the state’s deteriorating roads.
“I will be focused on solving problems, not picking political fights, I will never make promises I cannot keep and I will always work for you,” Evers said.
State Rep. Sondy Pope (D-Mount Horeb) emphasized the importance of Evers’ victory. Even though Wisconsin Republicans maintained control of the state Legislature (and in the case of the Senate, strengthened their hold), winning the governorship gives Democrats a seat at the bargaining table. “I’m 68 and could retire, but I’m too stubborn to quit, because I care so deeply about K-12 education,” Pope said earlier in the evening. “If Tony wins, that turns on the lights.”
Aasha Dobbs, a teacher at Hawthorne Elementary School, said teachers were “fired up about Evers” and his plan to boost education funding by $1.4 billion after years of budget cuts under Walker. When asked about Walker’s attempt to brand himself as “the education governor,” Dobbs rolled her eyes. “Morale is low at a lot of schools,” she said. “Stuff just keeps getting taken away from us.”
Excitement at Evers’ party started to build shortly before midnight when news broke that Milwaukee County — a Democratic stronghold — had more than 45,000 uncounted absentee ballots. Supporters crowded around the stage, occasionally bursting into spontaneous chants of “Tony! Tony!”
There were still hundreds in the theater by the time Evers declared victory, and the late hour had little effect on their enthusiasm.
As Evers took the stage, Jodi Vander Molen could barely contain her joy — and her disbelief. “I can’t believe this is actually happening,” she said repeatedly as people around her embraced and posed for photos. “This is a great day for Wisconsin — it’s a return to the progressive, good and kind Wisconsin that I love,” she said. “It’s great to see it again.”
Editor's note: This article originally listed state Rep. Sondy Pope's district as being in Madison. Her district is southwest of Madison, including Mount Horeb, New Glarus and parts of Verona and Fitchburg.
