At least three former losing major party candidates could be on the primary ballot in 2026

Photograph of Governor Patrick LuceyA recent Smart Politics report highlighted how Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers’ decision not to seek a third term is putting Democrats on pace to field a record number of candidates in the primary next August.

While Attorney General Josh Kaul recently opted to run for reelection instead, the field could yet grow with ex-Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes still expected to launch a bid.

Two Democrats are already campaigning for the nomination despite previous failed runs for the office (State Senator Kelda Roys and former State Assemblyman Brett Hulsey) and one Republican is also considering another run (2022 nominee Tim Michels).

Hulsey was a sitting two-term Assemblyman when he was the lone primary challenger to Trek Bicycle executive Mary Burke in 2014, winning just 16.1 percent of the vote.

Roys was a former two-term Assemblywoman who placed third with 12.8 percent in the state record 10-candidate Democratic primary of 2018 won by Evers, then State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Suiting up for another chance at the governorship is hardly unusual in the Badger State. But getting a different outcome after being rejected by Wisconsin voters the first time around has been an electoral novelty.

Through the 2022 cycle, only two of 37 subsequent attempts by failed major party gubernatorial candidates in Wisconsin have been successful since statehood.

The first to accomplish this feat was Madison Mayor Albert Schmedeman in 1932. In 1928, Schmedeman won the Democratic nomination unopposed but lost by 15.5 points in the general election to Kohler Company president and CEO Walter Kohler, Sr.

Four years later, Schmedeman was nominated from a three-candidate primary field with 44.2 percent and rode Franklin Roosevelt’s coattails at the top of the ticket – unseating Kohler by 10.6 points.

In 1966, Democratic Lieutenant Governor Patrick Lucey (pictured above) won a four-candidate primary with a plurality 45.2 percent but came 7.4 points short of unseating first term Governor Warren Knowles that November.

In 1970, Lucey was nominated again – this time by 24.5 points over Eau Claire sales manager Donald Peterson. He then won the open seat general election by 9.3 points against Lieutenant Governor Jack Olson. [Lucey had previously unseated Olson in the 1964 race for Lieutenant Governor].

Only a handful of failed Wisconsin gubernatorial candidates have made second (or third or fourth) attempts to win the governorship during the last half-century:

  • Democratic State Assemblyman Harrison Caroll Hobart: lost the general elections of 1859 and 1865
  • Former Democratic State Senator Nicholas Fratt: lost the general elections of 1881 and 1884
  • Madison Democratic attorney John Aylward: lost the general elections of 1906 and 1908 and the 1914 Democratic primary
  • Milwaukee Democratic attorney Adolph Schmitz: lost the 1910 general election and the 1912 Democratic primary
  • Milwaukee Democratic Judge John Karel: lost the 1912 and 1914 general elections
  • Former New London Republican State Senator William Hatton: lost the 1914 and 1916 GOP primaries
  • Republican State Assembly Speaker (and subsequent Secretary of State) Merlin Hull: lost the 1914 and 1920 GOP primaries
  • Eau Claire Republican lawyer and State Senator Roy Wilcox: lost the 1918 and 1920 GOP primaries
  • Poygan Township Republican farmer James Tittemore: lost the 1918, 1920, and 1934 GOP primaries
  • Milwaukee Democratic attorney W.B. Rubin: lost the 1932 and 1934 Democratic primaries
  • Former Democratic State Senator William Carroll: lost the 1936 and 1938 Democratic primaries
  • West Allis Democratic painter Edward Ihlenfeldt: lost the 1938 and 1970 Democratic primaries
  • Former three-term Democratic U.S. Representative Raymond Cannon: lost the 1940 and 1942 Democratic primaries
  • Milwaukee Republican dentist James Robinson: lost the 1940 and 1942 GOP primaries
  • Republican State Senator Milton Murray: lost the 1940 and 1942 GOP primaries
  • Milwaukee Democrat and U.S. Army Corporal Stanley Fajkowski: lost the 1942 and 1946 Democratic primaries
  • Milwaukee Democrat (and former Socialist Milwaukee Mayor) Daniel Hoan: lost the 1944 and 1946 general elections
  • West Bend Republican brokerage firm superintendent Delbert Kenny: lost the 1944 and 1946 GOP primaries
  • Madison Republican and State Adjutant General Ralph Immell: lost the 1946 and 1948 GOP primaries
  • Stoughton Democratic attorney and ex-Alderman Carl Thompson: lost the 1948 and 1950 general elections
  • Democratic State Assemblyman William Proxmire: lost the 1952, 1954, and 1956 general elections
  • Former Republican State Chairman Philip Kuehn: lost the 1960 and 1962 general elections
  • Milwaukee Democratic attorney Dominic Frinzi: lost the 1964 and 1966 Democratic primaries
  • Madison Democratic business executive David Carley: lost the 1966 and 1978 Democratic primaries
  • Sheboygan Democrat Edmond Hou-Seye: lost the 1974, 1978, and 1986 Democratic primaries and the 1990 GOP primary
  • Ascended Democratic Governor Martin Schrieber: lost the 1978 general election and 1982 Democratic primary
  • Six-term Democratic U.S. Representative (and subsequent Milwaukee Mayor) Tom Barrett: lost the 2002 Democratic primary, the 2010 general election, and the 2012 special recall election
  • Democratic Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk: lost the 2002 and 2012 Democratic primaries
  • Democratic State Senator Kathleen Vineout: lost the 2012 and 2018 Democratic primaries

In addition to these 35 aforementioned failed retread candidacies there have also been four instances of ex-governors attempting comebacks following an unsuccessful campaign for the office.

  • Former two-term Democratic Governor George Peck (1891-1895) lost his 1894 bid for a third term to former Marshfield Mayor William Upham. A decade later, in 1904, Peck was defeated as the party’s nominee against two-term Governor Robert La Follette.
  • Republican Governor Francis McGovern served two terms (19111-1915), lost the 1914 U.S. Senate election, placed third in the 1916 GOP primary, and then placed third in the 1940 general election as the Democratic nominee, in a race won by Governor Julius Heil
  • Republican Governor Walter Kohler, Sr. (1929-1931) lost his 1930 renomination bid to former Dane County Attorney Philip Fox La Follette. In 1932, Kohler turned the table and won the GOP nomination against La Follette but lost the general election to Albert Schmedeman.
  • Republican Governor Fred Zimmerman (1927-1929) placed third in the 1928 GOP primary won by Walter Kohler and then second in the 1934 Republican primary to Genesse Depot farmer Howard Greene

Many failed third party and independent candidates have also made subsequent attempts to win the governorship since the first such candidate in the early 1880s (Greenbacker Edward Phelps Allis in 1877 and 1881).

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