Dan Shafer
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.
This is the closest district in Wisconsin to the Twin Cities in Minnesota. It’s only about a 20-minute drive from Hudson to St. Paul. So obviously, there’s a lot of influence from the large metro to the west, as this district is within the Minneapolis media market. Perhaps this proximity is why this district is a bit more purple than the many deep-red rural areas surrounding it. And this district has now changed a few times in redistricting, going from a R+4.5 seat in 2020 to a GOP+12 seat in 2022, as the maps advanced by Republicans after 2020 looked to shore up GOP support in suburban areas. Now, with new maps, this district is much closer to toss-up territory.
Republican Shannon Zimmerman is the incumbent in this race, and he’s served in this seat since early 2017, is a member of the Joint Committee on Finance. In late 2017, he lost in a special election primary for an open State Senate seat to then-state Rep. Adam Jarchow, who went on to lose to Democrat Patty Schachtner. He’s also a business owner and executive with several different companies, and owned a winery with his family called Belle Vinez Winery, which they sold in 2022.
The Democratic challenger is Alison Page, whose career has been in health care, as a nurse and later as the CEO of Western Wisconsin Health for 13 years. She also currently serves on the River Falls School District board. She ran for Assembly in 2022, and lost to Republican Warren Petryk.
CNalysis: Lean R
Modeled 2022 outcome: R+5.2