By SCOTT BAUER

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Talk to any Wisconsin Democrat about their hopes for 2026 and it’s not long before the T-word comes up.

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No, not Trump.

Trifecta.

Democrats think new district boundaries in the Senate and Assembly ordered by the liberal-controlled state Supreme Court, an open race for governor and a favorable midterm election cycle this year may allow them to take back total control in the Statehouse for the first time in 16 years.

That would be a dramatic shift in a perennial battleground state that served as a focal point for the nation’s conservative movement in the 2010s, when Wisconsin slashed taxes, reduced the power of labor unions and started requiring voters to show identification at the polls.

Republicans acknowledge that Democrats have a clear shot at running the table, which would allow them to expand Medicaid, increase funding for public schools and restore collective bargaining for public workers.

“It’s a difficult time in national politics,” Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer told The Associated Press, “but we’re hopeful about the future and have been working for many years to be in a position where a Democratic trifecta is possible in Wisconsin and our state is able to go in a new direction.”

Wisconsin once had a ‘Cheesehead Revolution’

Republicans solidified political control in the state in 2010, when they gained majorities in the state legislature and Scott Walker was elected governor.

The ascendance began what became known as the “Cheesehead Revolution,” with Wisconsin natives Reince Priebus leading the Republican National Committee from 2011 to 2017 and Paul Ryan becoming U.S. House speaker from 2015 to 2019.

Walker championed conservative policies in the state, helped by state legislative maps that tilted the playing field in Republicans’ favor. He was briefly seen as a frontrunner to be the party’s presidential candidate, but he bowed out of the race before any primary votes were cast as Donald Trump bulldozed his way to the 2016 nomination.

FILE – This photo combination shows: from left, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus speaks in National Harbor, Md., March 4, 2016, House Speaker Paul Ryan speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 23, 2016. and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks in Eureka, Ill., Sept. 10, 2015. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster J. Scott Applewhite Seth Perlman)

Now Republicans could see their work undone.

“If there’s a Democratic trifecta, Republicans in Wisconsin have to be ready for all kinds of things that they fought for for decades to be long gone,” said Brian Reisinger, who worked on one of Walker’s campaigns.

Democratic candidates for governor are optimistic about their party’s chances.

“Let’s finally get a blue trifecta in Wisconsin in 2026!” Mandela Barnes, one of the leading Democratic candidates and a former lieutenant governor and 2022 U.S. Senate candidate, said in a December fundraising plea.

Current Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, another leading candidate, struck a similar chord in a social media post.

“Wisconsin has a real shot at a Democratic trifecta next year,” she posted on X. “Let’s go win it.”

Democrats look to bounce back after Trump win

Wisconsin remains a fiercely contested battleground state, and Trump won there in 2016 and 2024. However, Democrats hope that a strong showing this year will give them momentum before the 2028 presidential race. Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson’s term is also up that year.

Reisinger, who has also worked for Johnson, said “the reality is that the electorate is going to remain evenly divided for a long time.” Right now the governor, Tony Evers, is a Democrat, but Republicans have a majority in the Assembly and Senate.

Liberals are also voicing concerns about winning back the Statehouse.

“A lot of the ingredients for success are there, but there’s no guarantees,” said strategist Melissa Baldauff, who formerly worked for Evers. “It’s not going to be just the nature of things lining up for this to be a good year for Democrats. That doesn’t guarantee anything. It takes a lot of hard work, it takes good candidates.”

Fundraising sheds light on open governor’s race

Liberals have already gained a majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and are looking to increase their hold in an April election. In another sign of Democratic momentum, the liberal candidate this week reported raising 10 times as much as her Republican-backed opponent: $2 million versus $200,000.

The November race for governor is open for the first time since 2010 after Evers decided against seeking a third term. Democrats have never held the Wisconsin governor’s office for more than eight years in a row.

FILE -In this photo combination Sara Rodriguez, lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin, speaks during the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago and Wisconsin U.S. Senate candidate Mandela Barnes speaks at a rally Oct. 29, 2022, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, Morry Gash)

The crowded field on the Democratic side features Barnes and Rodriguez, plus two current lawmakers, the top elected official in Milwaukee County, the former state economic development director and Evers’ former top aide.

Barnes, who lost the 2020 Senate race to Republican Sen. Ron Johnson by just under 27,000 votes, is seen by many to be the frontrunner. Barnes reported Thursday that he had raised $555,000 in his first 29 days as a candidate.

Rodriguez, the first candidate to get into the race in July, reported Thursday that she raised $650,000 for the year.

Presumptive Republican frontrunner U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a staunch supporter of Trump, said he has raised more than $2 million since getting in to the race in September.

He faces Josh Schoemann, the Washington County executive, in the Republican primary. Schoemann, who is far less known and has a smaller base of support than Tiffany, raised $1 million last year.

Democrats hope to flip Legislature

The November election is the first where all the legislative seats are under district boundary lines in new maps ordered by the state Supreme Court to replace more Republican-friendly ones.

Democrats need to flip two seats in the Senate and five in the Assembly to take the majority.

Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, whose job it is to recruit and support candidates to maintain the majority, expressed confidence even if it’s a year when there is “wind at our face.” He also faulted Democrats for spending too much time focused on “anti-Trumpism” and not what they would do if elected.

“Their issues are all focusing on fighting what Donald Trump is delivering on,” Vos said.

Longtime Wisconsin liberal activist Scot Ross encouraged Democrats to put forward a plan for “real substantial change to get people excited.”

“Trifecta isn’t a strategy and it’s not a message,” he said. “I love that Dems in Wisconsin want to talk aggressively about getting power, but people have to believe you will use that power to actually make your lives better.”

A Minnesota Republican state lawmaker is seeking an impeachment of Democratic Gov. Tim Walz.

Rep. Mike Wiener, R-Long Prairie, posted the impending four articles of impeachment to Facebook earlier week. Wiener said after working for about two months on the effort, the articles were drafted by the Minnesota House Research Department.

The overarching theme is fraud that has reached estimates of $9 billion, according to federal prosecutors. The articles of impeachment accuse Walz of concealing it, allowing it and failing to stop it once it all came to light. Wiener said he has the support of 10 GOP lawmakers.

Wiener said he introduced the articles before the start of the Minnesota legislative session on Feb. 17 to give himself time to convince more lawmakers, on both sides of the aisle, to come to his side, saying this should not be a partisan issue.

Wiener represents District 5B, which includes the cities of Wadena and Long Prairie, and parts of Cass, Morrison, Todd and Wadena counties.

He said he owes this to the taxpayers even though Walz is not running for a third term.

“I owe it to them to hold our politicians responsible for this waste, fraud and abuse. I take this serious. It doesn’t matter what side of the aisle this was on,” Wiener said. “We are supposed to be stewards of the taxpayer dollar, whether we’re running for office or not, is irrelevant. I would like to see some restitution. I would like to see some checks coming back to the taxpayers.”

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With the state House still locked at 67 Republicans and 67 Democrats, Wiener would have to have bipartisan support to get a majority to pass his articles. If passed by the House, it would go to the Minnesota Senate, where it would require a two-thirds vote to remove Walz.

In a statement provided to WDAY, a spokesperson from the governor’s office said, “These legislators are apparently trying to capitalize on the president’s vow for ‘retribution’ against the state. Respected career attorneys have resigned over the DOJ’s behavior. The federal government is attempting to pull billions from their constituents. It is shameful that this is how they’re choosing to spend their time, and we urge them to get serious.”

By JULIE CARR SMYTH

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A top ICE official resigned her job on Thursday in hopes of ousting the longest-serving woman in Congress, Democrat Marcy Kaptur, this fall.

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In a video launching her campaign for Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, former ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said she had stopped more illegal immigration in her less than a year on the job than Kaptur had in her 43 years in Washington.

“In Washington, hypocrisy, excuses and failure can earn you a lifetime job,” she said. “But on my family farm, that would have put us out of business.”

The announcement comes as President Donald Trump is determined to maintain Republicans’ threadbare House majority this fall, so he can avoid a repeat of his first presidency, when Democrats won control of the chamber in midterm elections and went on to impeach him twice. His actions have included candidate recruitment and efforts to pressure states to redraw their congressional lines.

Sheahan, 28, a native of tiny Curtice, Ohio, near the shores of Lake Erie, labeled herself “a Trump conservative.” Before Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tapped her for the ICE position in March, Sheahan served as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and as Noem’s aide when she was governor of South Dakota.

In a resignation letter posted on the social media platform X, Sheahan thanked Noem and Trump for their “steadfast commitment” to the immigration agency and expressed pride in what ICE has accomplished.

In a statement Thursday, the Kaptur campaign said, “Voters are tired of the self-dealing corruption and culture of lawlessness they’ve seen over the last year. They want a leader focused on affordability and real results, and Marcy Kaptur consistently works across the aisle to deliver both.”

The 79-year-old incumbent is accustomed to steep challenges in a Lake Erie-hugging district centered on Toledo, which has been drawn and redrawn to increasingly favor the state’s ruling Republicans. A bipartisan map approved last year resulted in boundaries that give Republicans a nearly 11-point advantage over Democrats for her seat, up from a roughly 9.5-point advantage in 2024.

FILE – U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, is interviewed Dec. 9, 2022, in Toledo, Ohio. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

In that year, Kaptur defeated Republican state Rep. Derek Merrin by such a close margin that The Associated Press did not call the race until official results were entered, more than two weeks after the election. The final result was 48.3% to 47.6%.

The Kaptur campaign’s statement hinted at the possibility of another “messy primary” — like the one in 2024 — shaping up among Republicans seeking the chance to take her on in November.

Sheahan is the seventh Republican to announce a bid for the GOP nomination, a field that also includes Merrin. Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, considered a potentially top contender to defeat Kaptur, was removed as a contender last week when he was named Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s running mate.

David Gedert, a Toledo-area entrepreneur who The Blade of Toledo has reported is better known on stage as drag queen Sugar Vermonte, is running as a Libertarian.

A 44-year-old man who admitted to groping a teenager at a community pool in a Hugo housing development last summer has been put on probation for four years.

Jeremy John Miller (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

Jeremy John Miller, of Hugo, was sentenced Wednesday in Washington County District Court after pleading guilty to fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct of a minor in connection with the July 28 incident in the Water’s Edge housing development.

A second count against Miller involving another teenager was dismissed at sentencing as part of a plea deal he reached with prosecutors. His sentence includes a stay of imposition, which means the felony conviction will be considered a misdemeanor if he successfully completes probation.

According to the criminal complaint, a 14-year-old girl told deputies July 28 that a man approached her at the pool in the 15000 block of Farnham Avenue North and made comments about wanting a girlfriend. Shortly afterward he swam underwater toward her and groped her. When she kicked to get away from him, he followed her and grabbed her foot.

The girl said she got out of the pool and told him to stop doing what he was doing. She said he responded that he was trying to get his daughter, who was also in the pool.

Video footage at the pool showed Miller then approached the girl and, as she tried to back away and told him to stop, he grabbed her and threw her into the water.

A 13-year-old boy at the pool that day said the man also came up to him from behind and “bear hugged” him, running his hands down the boy’s body and grabbing his crotch, the complaint read.

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