Democrat David Crowley won the race for Wisconsin governor Tuesday, Nov. 3, according to a race call by the Associated Press, and unofficial results reported by Wisconsin Public Radio show Democrats flipped both chambers of the Legislature, the majorities he has said it would take to repeal Wisconsin’s same-sex marriage ban. “I will call a special session of the Legislature to focus squarely on repealing this ban,” Crowley pledged in an October 2025 campaign release.
The Milwaukee County executive will be Wisconsin’s first Black governor, the AP reported. “Wisconsin isn’t a red state or a blue state,” he told supporters in his victory speech in Milwaukee. “We never have been. In a state this close, nobody gets to govern alone.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany conceded in a 9:45 p.m. speech, before the AP’s call, Wisconsin Public Radio reported, and the AP said he wished Crowley success.
Wisconsin’s Same-Sex Marriage Ban Has Sat Dormant Since 2014
“Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state,” the amendment reads. Wisconsin voters approved it 59% to 41% in November 2006, Wisconsin Watch reported. “In 2006, Wisconsin wrote discrimination into our constitution,” Crowley said in his release.
A federal judge struck the ban down in 2014, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges ruling made same-sex marriage legal nationwide in 2015, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in 2022, in a concurrence to the ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, that “we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents,” and he named Obergefell among them, the Journal Sentinel noted. (Virginia voters scrapped their own 2006 marriage ban on Tuesday, and Gayety’s election results hub has the latest LGBTQ+ race results.)
The Respect for Marriage Act also provides federal recognition of valid same-sex marriages and requires states to recognize qualifying marriages from other states. It does not require every state to issue marriage licenses. Repealing Wisconsin’s amendment would remove the ban from the state constitution; it would not create a right couples currently lack.
How a Repeal Works: Two Legislatures, Then the Voters
“A proposed constitutional amendment requires adoption by two successive legislatures, and ratification by the people, before it can become effective,” the Legislative Reference Bureau wrote in its analysis of Assembly Joint Resolution 76, a 2025 Democratic repeal proposal. Greta Neubauer of Racine, the Assembly Democratic leader, was one of its authors, and Senate Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein signed on, but it never left the Assembly’s Committee on State Affairs and failed on March 23, the Legislature’s records show.
“Tonight we celebrate, tomorrow we get to work,” Neubauer said Tuesday night, the Wisconsin Examiner reported.
A repeal approved by the Legislature seated in January 2027 would need approval again after the 2028 election. Only then could it go to voters, in 2029 at the earliest. A governor cannot remove a constitutional amendment alone. “This fight cannot wait,” Crowley said in his 2025 release.
Tom Tiffany Voted Against the Respect for Marriage Act
Tiffany voted no in July 2022 when the U.S. House passed the Respect for Marriage Act 267 to 157, WXOW reported. “This legislation is nothing more than a cheap attempt to fearmonger Americans into believing that every Supreme Court decision is under threat,” he said in a 2022 statement to the station. “We all know that’s not true.”
GLAAD and Fair Wisconsin flagged the vote in an Oct. 5 rundown of both candidates’ LGBTQ+ records. “David Crowley has stood for LGBTQ+ rights his entire career in public service,” Fair Wisconsin executive director Abigail Swetz said in it.
Democrats Take the Assembly and Senate for a Trifecta
Democrats won an 18-15 Senate majority, according to preliminary results compiled by The Associated Press, and a 53-46 Assembly majority, WPR reported, calling both totals unofficial. Hesselbein said Wisconsinites had “placed their trust in Senate Democrats to deliver progress in our state,” according to the Examiner. WPR reported that Democratic Rep. Jenna Jacobson defeated Republican Sen. Howard Marklein in Senate District 17.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican who didn’t seek reelection, congratulated the incoming Democratic leaders in a social media post Tuesday night but knocked their résumés, Wisconsin Watch reported. “They know politics. Being good at politics will mean paying back their powerful political allies,” he wrote.
Democrats will run the Capitol in Madison starting in January, Wisconsin Watch reported. “For the first time since 2010, Wisconsin voters will trust us to lead,” Crowley told supporters at his victory party in Milwaukee.
