Four Republicans & an Independent

Four Republicans are on the ballot Tuesday for Wisconsin's 1st Senate District, the seat Andre Jacque is giving up after a legislative career that goes back more than 15 years. The district runs through Door and Kewaunee counties, dips into Calumet and Manitowoc, and reaches far enough west that it touches the eastern edge of Green Bay itself. Jacque announced his exit back in April, and he wasn't shy about the reason. Raising seven kids on a legislator's salary gets expensive, and he said the math finally caught up with him. He's one of six Senate Republicans calling it quits this cycle.

Nic Cravillion has the inside track. He spent five years as Jacque's district director, and he's out front on fundraising too, with $75,911 raised and $62,264 in the bank, plus another $62,100 in personal loans on top of that. He's running on tax cuts and what his campaign calls "responsible spending."

Katie Baney, a De Pere mother, works as the managing director of government affairs at Delta Defense, a gun rights advocacy firm, and says she won't back any bill that touches the Second Amendment. She's raised nearly $47,000.

Barbara Bittner chairs the Calumet County GOP and is campaigning on property tax cuts and "parental rights." She trails the field financially, with about $17,000 raised.

Jacob VandenPlas, a veteran and farmer, founded a rehab farm that helps other veterans get into agriculture.

No Democrat filed for the seat, which leans solidly red. Whoever wins Tuesday moves on to face independent Mark Becker in November, a former Brown County Republican Party chairman who split from the GOP over Trump back in 2016. Becker's picked up an endorsement from ex-Congressman Adam Kinzinger, another Trump-era Republican defector, along with support from Democratic state Sen. Kristin Dassler-Alfheim of Appleton.

Photo by Nils Huenerfuerst / Unsplash