2024 Wisconsin State Legislature Voter Guide: Senate District 14
Dan Shafer
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Democrat Sarah Keyeski faces Republican incumbent Joan Ballweg in the race for Senate District 14 in the 2024 election.
This is part of The Recombobulation Area and Civic Media’s 2024 Wisconsin State Legislature Voter Guide. Read the first part of the series, “New Board, New Game,” here. See the full district-by-district breakdown of the Wisconsin State Senate here. See the comprehensive Voter Guide here.
R: Joan Ballweg*
While District 8 saw split results from the midterm elections, District 14 is one won by both Tony Evers and Mandela Barnes in 2022, and is among the top targets for a Democrat to flip a district under new maps. In fact, Evers won this district by a nearly 10-point margin.
The 14th now includes cities like Baraboo, Portage, Richland Center and Wisconsin Dells, along with the city of DeForest on the north edge of hyper-blue Dane County. Columbia, Sauk, and Richland counties are all within this district, and Sauk has proven to be a real bellwether in Wisconsin, going for Obama in 2008 and 2012, Trump in 2016, and for Biden in 2020.
The incumbent here is Republican Joan Ballweg, who is moving to remain in the 14th. Ballweg, who did not face a primary challenge in this district, is seeking her second term in the State Senate, after serving eight terms in the State Assembly, beginning in 2004. She is currently the Chair of the Committee on Agriculture and Tourism and sits on the Joint Committee on Finance, and is part of Republican leadership as the Majority Caucus Vice-Chair.. The same week she announced her re-election campaign, Ballweg joined Democrats on a Senate committee to vote against a bill that would bar transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports, and also voted against a similar bill in 2021.
Ballweg also has a long record of being anti-abortion and has opposed exceptions for rape or incest. Expect this to come up a whole lot in this campaign, as the first TV ad against her is on the topic of abortion rights.
Ballweg’s opponent for the general election will be Sarah Keyeski, who also did not face opposition in the primary. Keyeski is a political newcomer, and was initially going to run for Assembly before Gov. Evers signed the new maps into law. Keyeski has worked as a mental health counselor for nearly 25 years, and founded the community nonprofit, “Lift Lodi,” in 2021. In May of this year, the terrific New York Times podcast “The Run-Up” featured Keyeski, reporting from her home town of Lodi, with an episode titled, “The Democrats’ New Chance in Wisconsin.”
CNalysis: Lean D (FLIP)
- Proj. margin: D+5
Modeled 2022 outcome: D+6.7
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