MADISON, Wis. — This November, Wisconsinites will have a chance to vote using fair legislative maps for the first time in over a decade and finally put a stop to the games that MAGA Republicans have been playing at the expense of our state. From the outskirts of Milwaukee to southwest Wisconsin and along the Minnesota border, Democrats like LuAnn Bird, Elizabeth Grabe, and Alison Page are running on a platform to expand access to affordable health care, restore reproductive freedoms, and bring down costs for working families.

See what Wisconsinites are reading about some of Wisconsin’s closest races below:

WPR on Yee Leng Xiong, Allison Page, and Ryan Spaude: “Xiong, 30, is the executive director of the nonprofit Hmong American Center in Wausau. He was first elected to the D.C. Everest School Board when he was 19. He’s served on the Marathon County Board since 2016. He said the experience has given him a view of what matters to voters locally. He’s knocked on more than 15,000 doors in the district this campaign, he said, and he thinks voters are looking for a change. […]

Zimmerman’s Democratic challenger is Alison Page, the former Western Wisconsin Health CEO. She said Wisconsin can draw in people from other states and boost the economy by providing what families need. ‘Young families need access to affordable housing. They need access to good childcare and daycare. They need and want access to really good public schools,’ she said. Page blames the state’s old gerrymandered maps for fostering the partisan divide. While speaking to volunteers, she said voters could elect a Democrat to represent the district for the first time in nearly 50 years. […]

There’s no incumbent in the new 89th Assembly District. The Democratic candidate is Ryan Spaude, a local prosecutor making his first run for office. Spaude is well aware of the divided nature of this district. President Joe Biden would have won this district in 2020 — former President Donald Trump would have carried it in 2016. He jokes that the district is as purple as some of the Minnesota Vikings jerseys in the crowd that day. ‘Ninety-nine seats in the state Assembly,’ Spaude said. ‘There’s about a dozen that are like mine that could go either way. These seats will determine who gets the majority.’”

UpNorthNews on LuAnn Bird: “A tragic accident set LuAnn Bird on a path of a life of advocacy and public service. She had only been married to her husband, Phil, for five years when he took one step backwards into an open stairwell in an under-construction house where he had been installing insulation. Phil, a Vietnam vet, owned an insulation company and was doing the work himself when he fell backward through the hole, broke his back, and severed his spinal cord. He was paralyzed. ‘We knew right away that nothing was going to come back—that this was going to be our life with Phil in a wheelchair,’ recalled Bird, who is now a candidate for the Wisconsin Legislature in Assembly District 61.”

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Robyn Vining: “Democratic state Rep. Robyn Vining of Wauwatosa will face Republican state Rep. Tom Michalski of Elm Grove Nov. 5 in the race for the redrawn 13th Assembly District. Voters in the district, which includes parts of Wauwatosa, Brookfield and Elm Grove, have the rare choice between two current lawmakers running against each other. Here’s what to know about the candidates and where they stand on issues.” 

UpNorthNews on Elizabeth Grabe: “When Elizabeth Grabe was first asked to run for the Wisconsin Legislature in the 51st Assembly District, her first thought was, “Why not?” “I don’t shy away from hard things. I’ve done all these really big things in life that most people would be like, ‘no, I don’t want to do that,’” she told UpNorthNews. As Grabe, the Democratic nominee, has campaigned throughout the district that covers all of Lafayette and Iowa counties and parts of Grant and Dane, she’s collected feedback from voters about longtime incumbent Rep. Todd Novak. While constituents tell Grabe that Novak makes a point of seeming to listen to them, he will turn around and vote in lockstep with other members of the Republican Party in the Assembly.”

The Cap Times on Jenna Jacobson: “A first-term legislator is seeking a second term in the state Assembly, going up against a Republican challenger in a new-look district in southwest Dane County. Assembly District 50 includes Oregon and Belleville, as well as all of Green County. It is currently represented by Rep. Jenna Jacobson, D-Oregon, who is running for re-election. She is facing Republican Richard Johnson, who is a light truck operator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. To learn more about this important race, the Cap Times sat down with the candidates for the 50th Assembly District to get a feel for their priorities and what they believe makes them the best fit to serve in the Assembly.” 

UpNorthNews on Christy Welch: “One of the biggest issues Christy Welch hears from voters while knocking on doors in her suburban Green Bay legislative district is high costs—on housing, groceries, and child care. But she’s enthusiastic about what she believes can be done to lower high costs for the district’s residents.”