2024 Wisconsin State Legislature Voter Guide: Assembly District 43
By Dan Shafer
September 19, 2024 5:16 PM CDT
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: Scott Johnson*
This is another Dane County-adjacent district where Democrats have a clear advantage. This district includes all of the city of Whitewater. Under previous maps, there was a line drawn right down the middle of the UW-Whitewater campus, creating two Republican districts.
The Republican running here is Scott Johnson, more of a moderate, who bucked the party when he won a primary in 2022, criticizing the state GOP over not accepting the outcome of the 2020 election. He won an extremely close race in 2022, by less than 300 votes over Democrat Don Vruwink. Before his term in the Assembly, Johnson served on the Fort Atkinson School board for 15 years, including as board president. In the Assembly, he is the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Consumer Protection.
The Democratic candidate here is Brienne Brown, who has served three terms on the Whitewater Common Council. She also served on the Whitewater Library Board for more than a decade, and on the board of nonprofit Downtown Whitewater. She also worked at the Whitewater Community Foundation. Brown ran for Assembly in 2022, losing to District 31 representative Ellen Schutt.
CNalysis: Very Likely D
- Proj. margin: D+16
Modeled 2022 outcome: D+11.7
