Most winners of the April 7 spring election haven’t been sworn into office yet.

But candidates for the Nov. 3 election have been campaigning even before the filing deadline for the spring election.

The Nov. 3 election will feature all 99 Assembly seats, including the 49th Assembly District now represented by Rep. Travis Tranel (R–Town of Hazel Green) and the 51st Assembly District now represented by Rep. Todd Novak (R–Dodgeville). Odd-numbered state Senate seats are also up for election, including the 17th Senate District seat now held by Sen. Howard Marklein (R–Spring Green).

In some cases, early campaigning has been the result of changes in the state’s Senate and Assembly districts. The 17th Senate District, which formerly ran roughly from Monroe north into central Wisconsin, now runs from Crawford County south to Grant County and east to southwestern Dane County.

Marklein made official what he announced at the 2025 Grant County Republican Party canvass — that he is running for reelection in the 17th Senate District.

“I am proud of everything we have accomplished together to make Wisconsin a great place to live, work, and raise a family,” said Marklein in a news release. “Southwestern Wisconsin has a strong voice in the State Capitol and I am excited to continue our work in the next session.

“I am running again to keep investing in our shared priorities, protect Wisconsin’s checkbook, continue working across the aisle to solve problems, and move Wisconsin forward.”

Marklein, a retired Certified Public Accountant and retired Certified Fraud Examiner, was elected to the 50th Assembly District in 2010. He then announced he was running for the 17th Senate District before Sen. Dale Schultz (R–Richland Center), who had represented the district since 1991, announced whether or not he was running for reelection. Schultz retired, Marklein won the election, and Marklein was reelected in 2018 and 2022.

Marklein is co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, which writes the state budget every two years.

At least three Democrats are running against Marklein, including one of his legislative colleagues, Rep. Jenna Jacobson (D–Oregon), who announced she was running for the Senate seat in July.

Jacobson served on the Oregon Village Board, where she said she noticed “we would get either unfunded mandates from the state or our local control was taken away — we would try to do something and they’d say this law is passed; you can no longer … and we kept bumping into this feeling of, well, this is what our community really needs but we can’t do that because the state has suddenly decided that they don’t want a community to make those decisions anymore, or our budget is continually strained because we’re being asked to do more and more things but they’re not giving us any funding to get those things accomplished.”

Jacobson said having three children in school taught her “how we have been not funding our schools” including no longer increasing per-student state aid for inflation. “We’ve been falling farther and farther behind as far as funding our community schools.”

She said the 17th has had more school funding referendums than any other Senate district. “People are already being squeezed funding-wise with the cost of groceries, with the cost of child care, with the cost of health care, and they’re kind of reaching this breaking point, but yet we all want to make sure our kids have a quality public education — so figuring out how we at the state can be supporting our schools in a way that isn’t going to continually reaching back to the property taxpayers and asking them to do more.”

Two other candidates appeared at a UW–Platteville College Democrats forum Thursday night.

Potosi native Lisa White is a business owner and former registered nurse. She is the former president of the Potosi–Tennyson Chamber of Commerce and was involved in the Potosi Brewery revitalization project.

“I feel like I’ve been called to step and use all these skills I’ve learned in my life to preserve our way of life,” she said, specifically adding, “our rural schools are under siege” due to “funding gaps and revenue strains. … I will fight like hell — together we can — to get the resources we need.”

Corinne Hendrickson of New Glarus is a former child care provider who said when she announced last September she closed Corrine’s Little Explorers “due to a continued loss of funding for rural childcare.”

Hendrickson said her number one issue is campaign finance reform to reduce the influence of large donors in politics.

“We can change the system so people like Lisa and myself can run and win,” she said.

Hendrickson said the funding system for education means “we are turning against our neighbors … and it’s on purpose.”

Hendrickson believes the state should not only fund K–12 education but postsecondary education up to age 20, including free technical college.

To get more funding without increasing property taxes she said the state needs to “go outside of the box” and find funding sources in ways that for instance states with large levels of tourism tax.

The Nov. 3 election will be for governor, attorney general, secretary of state and state treasurer, plus all eight House of Representatives seats and three constitutional amendment referendums.

With Democratic Gov. Tony Evers not running for reelection, nine Democrats are running to succeed him — former Lt. Gov. and U.S. Senate candidate Mandela Barnes, Joel Brennan of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, Rep. Francesca Hong (D–Madison), former Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. executive director Misty Hughes, former state Rep. Brett Hulsey, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Carthage College student Zachary Roper and Rep. Kelda Roys (D–Madison).

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R–Hazelhurst) and Andrew Manske of Franklin are running for the Republican nomination. Also running are independents Jamie Jo Carothers of Green Bay, UW–Madison student Oliver Carranza, Crystal Harper of Milwaukee, David King of Milwaukee, Mike Kohn and Dennis Williams.

U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R–Prairie du Chien) is opposed in the Third Congressional District by Democrats Emily Berge of Eau Claire, Rebecca Cooke of Eau Claire, and Rodney Rave of Black River Falls. Berge earlier this week became the first candidate in the state to reach the 1,000-signature threshold to be on the ballot.

The Second Congressional District will have a rematch between U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D–Black Earth) and Republican Erik Olsen of Madison.