Democratic Governor-elect David Crowley will face a challenging “to do” list out-of-power Democratic legislators have been compiling for 16 years — a list that Crowley must reconcile with the changes he will request in the state budget he recommends next year.

Tuesday night, voters not only elected Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive, as governor but gave Democrats control of both the 33-member Senate and 99-member Assembly. Democrats last controlled the Legislature during the 2009-2010 session.

Democrats took control of the Senate by winning three seats — in southwest Wisconsin, where Rep. Jenna Jacobson ousted Republican incumbent Howard Marklein; in an open seat in the Milwaukee suburbs, where Rep. Robyn Vining won; and in the Racine area, where Trevor Jung will take office in January.

In the Assembly, Democrats won control by ousting six Republican incumbents — Todd Novak, Pat Snyder, Shannon Zimmerman, Bob Donovan, Ben Franklin and Clint Moses — and winning six out of 13 open seats.

“Alongside Gov. David Crowley and our Democratic colleagues in the Senate, we will show that government can be a force for good and that things can be different with Democrats in charge,” Assembly Democratic Leader Greta Neubauer said in a statement.

UW-Madison political science professor Matthew Pietryka said President Donald Trump and his policies were “one of the most important reasons” for Democratic victories in Wisconsin and nationally.

“Since many Republicans in the Assembly tied themselves to Trump's agenda when they won two years ago, replicating that success is hard when Trump's name is no longer on the ballot to bring his supporters to the polls,” Pietryka said in an email. “And it's similar in the state Senate, where this cycle's Republican incumbents were last elected in 2022, which was a more favorable environment for Republicans.”

Six of 18 Republican state senators who controlled the state Senate last session retired this year.

Brandon Scholz, a former executive director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin who is now a political independent, also blamed the president, calling Democratic victories in Wisconsin and the nation a "complete repudiation" of Trump and his policies.

"It used to be that voters liked the local guy" who they regularly re-elected, Scholz said. But there was so much anger at Trump on Tuesday that it erased any advantage Republican incumbents have traditionally enjoyed, he added.

Crowley, a former Assembly member, will have the benefit of working with his fellow Democrats on his budget — something retiring Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who faced a Republican-controlled Legislature for his eight years in office, didn’t have. Crowley’s budget will include recommendations for spending the state’s $3.3-billion surplus.

In his victory speech in Milwaukee Tuesday night, Crowley pledged to "work with" the Legislature's new Democratic leaders to make sure they present a joint agenda for the 2027-2028 session.

In pre-election interviews, Neubauer, Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein and other Democrats re-elected Tuesday listed specific priorities for the upcoming session. Neubauer is in line to be Assembly speaker; Hesselbein, Senate majority leader. They include:

*Directing more money to public schools — Evers and Democratic legislators say they have too often had to rely on voters raising their property taxes to keep schools open.

“People really care about their community schools,” Hesselbein said in a June WisPolitics forum, according to the Wisconsin Examiner. “They are sick and tired of these school boards…having to go to referendum over and over because they want to keep the lights on. We have schools closing all over Wisconsin and that’s a big problem.”

Some Senate and Assembly Democrats have started considering alternatives to the state’s “convoluted” school-funding formula, she added.

Crowley may recommend new limits on the state’s Choice program, which allows students to attend private schools using state-paid vouchers — limits Democratic legislators will welcome.

During his only debate with Republican candidate Tom Tiffany, Crowley said the Choice program “cannot” be expanded but it also shouldn’t be ended.

*Responding to the “affordability” issue, which hurt Republican candidates, early in the next session. The cost of living is “absolutely top of mind,” Neubauer said in an Oct. 21 interview on the Recombobulation Area podcast. One possibility, Hesselbein said in the WisPolitics forum, is trying to lower high housing costs.

*Helping families deal with high child care costs, since Republicans refused pleas by Evers to replace federal funds that ended months ago.

“Democrats have plans to make (childcare) more affordable,” Rep. Jodi Emerson, who was re-elected Tuesday, said at an Eau Claire press conference in October. “We’re doing it not as a handout, but so we can keep people in the workforce, kids getting the care that they need, decent care…so that we can raise up the next generation.”

* Lowering healthcare costs — mentioned by both Hesselbein in the WisPolitics forum and Senate Democratic Assistant Leader Jeff Smith, who also won a new term Tuesday.

“One reason (Eau Claire) hospitals closed — maybe the most critical piece — was that Republicans who have controlled our Legislature have refused, for 13 years, to take the $1.6 million in (federal) Medicaid expansion that was so important,” Smith said at that October press conference.

*Enacting campaign-finance reform, including repeal of the so-called “Walker loophole,” passed by Republicans in 2015, that removed all limits on donations to political parties and what those parties can give to candidates. That led to the campaigns of both Crowley and Tiffany getting million-dollar donations from billionaires.

Million-dollar donations “are not good for our democracy,” because voters don’t know “who’s giving, what they want,” Neubauer told Dan Shafer, host of the Recombobulation Area podcast. What’s needed are “reasonable limits on campaign donations.”

*Making changes to election laws. After taking control of the governor’s office and the Legislature in 2010 elections, Republicans required voters to show a photo ID and ignored Evers’ requests for changes that included adding anyone getting a Wisconsin driver’s license to the list of registered voters.

Democrats will focus on “increased access to the ballot box,” Neubauer said.

*Abolishing an 1800s law, which is not enforced, that bans abortions. Republican legislators refused to consider Democrats’ attempts to repeal that statute.

*Restoring the right of public employees to organize and collectively bargain, if the state Supreme Court overturns Act 10, which Republicans passed in 2011 to end those employee-employer workplace negotiations and make public employees pay more for pensions and health care.

Two other issues that could be included in Crowley’s budget, or brought up by Democratic legislators, are raising income taxes on the wealthiest residents and new restrictions on data centers, which the Marquette University Law School poll said most residents now question.

In their 2023-2024 state budget, Republicans approved a sales tax exemption on data center construction costs and electricity those centers use. A March memo from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau said the construction cost exemption could total $1.5 billion in lost sales taxes and the electricity exemption an additional $369 million a year.

The Democratic legislative wins stunned Republicans, who must pick new leaders to lead minority caucuses in both houses. Four GOP veteran leaders — including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu — retired this year.

“The next two years will test [Republicans’] resolve,” Vos said in a social media post. “They will also clarify the choice ahead. We are ready for both.”

Potential Senate Republican leaders include Pat Testin and outgoing Senate President Mary Felzkowski. In the Assembly, Majority Leader Tyler August and Joint Finance Committee members Mark Born and Tony Kurtz may consider leading Assembly Republicans next session.