Live election results: Donovan defeats Bird in Assembly District 61
MILWAUKEE - Republican State Rep. Bob Donovan defeated Democrat LuAnn Bird in the race for Wisconsin's 61st State Assembly District.
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Donovan currently represents the 84th State Assembly District, but new legislative district maps put him in a district that fellow Republican Amanda Nedweski currently represents.
Nedewski is now running to represent the 32nd District under the new maps. Republican Chuck Wichgers, who currently represents the 82nd State Assembly District, will face Democrat Zach Roper for the 84th District seat that Donovan currently holds.
Bird lost to Donovan in 2022's race for the 84th State Assembly District. She won the August partisan primary for the upcoming general election with no challenger.
New district maps
Gov. Tony Evers signed new Wisconsin legislative district maps into law in February. Those maps – used for the Wisconsin Senate and Wisconsin Assembly races – are in place for the November election.
Democrats tried unsuccessfully for more than a decade to overturn Republican-drawn maps. In December 2023, the Wisconsin Supreme Court – having flipped to a liberal majority of justices – ruled the existing maps were unconstitutional.
Evers, a Democrat, proposed the maps that are now law. Republicans who control the state Legislature passed the maps to avoid having the liberal-controlled state Supreme Court draw the lines instead.
Headed into the election, Republicans hold a supermajority in the Wisconsin Senate. They are very close to a supermajority in the Assembly, too, where they hold a 30-seat majority.