VERNON COUNTY, Wis. – After months of listening to candidates, Democratic voters in Vernon County had their eye on two contested primary races Tuesday night as multiple candidates were narrowed to one in the 96th assembly race, and the 3rd Congressional District.
Former La Crosse County Board Chair Tara Johnson defeated Viroqua businessperson Steve Campbell for the chance to run against Republican incumbent Loren Oldenburg in November. And Rebecca Cooke, a small business owner defeats State Rep. Katrina Shankland from Stevens Point and Eric Wilson from Eau Claire, and now moves on to take on Republican incumbent Congressman Derrick Van Orden.
In the race for the 96th Johnson defeated Campbell, who was a first time candidate, 75 percent (6,391) to 25 percent (2,226), but the race in the 3rd Congressional District was a bit closer with Cooke defeating Shankland 50 percent (42,220) to about 41 percent (34,763). Wilson came in third with about 6,600 votes, or almost eight percent. At one point during the evening Shankland was within about 1,000 votes of Cooke but then the margin widened again as the evening wore on. (Complete vote counts listed below)
Both of the candidates in the 96th made complimentary comments about one another following the primary and seemed ready to unify in their effort of unseat Oldenburg in a district that was redrawn with the legislative maps, and is suddenly more blue than red. Some estimates show the district went from about 57 percent Republican to about 56 percent Democrat.
In the 3rd Congressional race Shankland and Cooke also made positive statements after what became a more contentious race than expected.
Rebecca Cooke’s statement on social media:
We did it. Incredibly grateful to everyone who supported me in my campaign and the broad coalition of working people who came together throughout #WI03. I want to thank Katrina Shankland and Eric Wilson for their leadership and strong campaigns they ran. I look forward to all coming together as we work to defeat Derrick Van Orden.
Katrina Shankland’s statement on social media:
From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who has been a part of our campaign! From our dedicated volunteers to voters, endorsers to grassroots donors, I appreciate your help and support so much. I’m proud of the race we ran and the historic coalition of labor unions and organizations committed to our democracy, seniors, youth, and environment we built to defeat Radical Derrick Van Orden. This campaign has always been about protecting our democracy and restoring our freedoms, and I’m committed to continuing our work together to help flip our district blue and elect Democrats up and down the ticket, from Kamala Harris to Tammy Baldwin and Rebecca Cooke. I’m looking forward to seeing many of you at the unity rallies and across the 3rd as we continue this fight for our freedoms — forward!
Turnout was high statewide and in Western Wisconsin. As we reported here turnout statewide hit a 60 year record at around 26 percent. Turnout seemed to be higher on the Democratic side, perhaps because the contested race in the 96th Assembly and the 3rd Congressional were in the Democratic Party. In the 3rd Congressional district there were about 23,000 more Democratic voters than in 2022, an increase of 37 percent.
The city of Madison, a Democratic stronghold, had 45 percent turnout — the highest for a fall partisan turnout in at least 40 years, the farthest back the clerk’s office has records.
Just over 1.2 million voters cast their ballots on each of the proposed amendments, which were the only statewide issues on the ballot open to all voters regardless of party. That comes to just over 26 percent of the voting-age population, which is around 4.7 million voters.
That is the highest turnout for an August primary in a presidential year since 1964, when nearly 28 percent of the voting-age population cast ballots, based on Wisconsin Elections Commission records. It’s just below the 27 percent turnout from the midterm 2022 partisan primary. That year turnout was driven by a competitive Republican primary for governor and Democratic race for Senate.
Vote totals from Vernon County
Statewide the referendum questions were defeated fairly easily with the no votes hitting about 57 percent. In Vernon County they failed by an even higher margin at about 64 percent.
Vote totals for La Crosse County
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