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The second highest ranking Republican in the Wisconsin Assembly says it wasn’t just Gov. Tony Evers’ new maps that shrank the GOP majority.
Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August, R-Lake Geneva, on Wednesday said the maps, which were redrawn by Gov. Evers earlier this year, played a significant role in helping Democrats pick-up 10 seats.
Republicans started the last legislative session in 2023 with a 64-35 majority. They will start the new legislative session in January with a 54-45 majority.
August said the maps helped, but so did a mountain of cash.
“[We had] uphill battles against out-of-state cash from out-of-state billionaires,” August explained. “That's basically where all the money that the Assembly Democrats came from. Whereas we were focused on raising resources to be competitive right here in the state of Wisconsin.”
WisPolitics reported this week that spending in 13 competitive Assembly races was nearly $55 million.
Two of those races, the challenges to state Rep. Jessie Rodriguez, Oak-Creek, and state Rep. Bob Donovan, R-Greenfield, each saw about $1.5 million in spending.
August said Republicans did very well considering they “were up against that.”
But August said it wasn't just the governor’s maps and the cash. He also accused Democrats of lying to voters about what Republicans have done over the past few years, and what Republicans plan to do in the future.
“Just an unbelievable amount of lies. Terrible tactics by the Assembly Democrats. We point out Democrats’ records, or their positions on issues. Democrats make those up when it comes to attacking our candidates,” August explained. “It was some of the most untruthful and outright lies that I've ever seen in my 20 years of being involved in politics here in Wisconsin. And frankly the people running those campaigns should be ashamed of themselves in the way that they operated, in the way that they attacked good solid people. They may disagree with our candidates on these issues, but to put them through the vile lies and attacks that they did is very unbecoming, it's shameful, and it has no place in this state.”
August said Assembly Republicans will meet in the next few weeks to set their agenda for the new session and to elect their leaders.
The new legislature will be sworn-in on January 6th.
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