The Nov. 3 election produced a series of firsts in Wisconsin, starting at the top of the ticket. Democratic Gov.-elect David Crowley will be the first Black governor in state history after winning by about eight points, and at 40 he is also the state's first millennial governor and its youngest in decades. After the win, Crowley said he had not run to make history and pointed instead to delivering for people in both urban and rural communities.
Crowley's running mate, Sarah Godlewski, will be the fifth woman to serve as lieutenant governor. Five of the state's last six lieutenant governors have been women, and Godlewski is the second in a row, following Sara Rodriguez.
Attorney General Josh Kaul, whose father is an Indian immigrant and whose mother is a former Wisconsin attorney general, won a third term, defeating Republican Eric Toney by 11.8 points. Secretary of State-elect JoCasta Zamarripa becomes the first Latina to hold that office, and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to do so, succeeding Godlewski.
State Treasurer-elect Yee Leng Xiong becomes the first Hmong-American elected to a statewide office anywhere in the United States. His parents fled Laos in 1982, spent two years in a refugee camp and then came to America.
In the Legislature, Sen. Dianne Hesselbein of Middleton and Rep. Greta Neubauer of Racine, the current Democratic minority leaders, are in line to be the first two women to hold the majority leadership posts in both chambers at once. Neubauer would also be the Assembly's first female speaker. In Madison's 76th Assembly District, Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford was elected as the state's first transgender lawmaker.
