Retiring Guy's Digest: Wisconsin 2026 elections:Republican Frank Kostka challenges freshman Democrat Angela Stroud in the 73rd Assembly District

Monday, August 31, 2026

Wisconsin 2026 elections:Republican Frank Kostka challenges freshman Democrat Angela Stroud in the 73rd Assembly District

Before redistricting, the GOP gerrymandered 73rd Assembly District included all but a small slice of Douglas County, eastern Burnett County, and northern Washburn County,

Redistricting reunited a community of interest along the southern shore of Lake Superior. It now includes northern tier of Douglas, Bayfield, and Ashland counties.

The Redistricting Data Hub website defines a "community of interest" as:

...a group of people with shared concerns, interests, and characteristics. Every COI is unique; they might be formed around neighborhoods or the physical landscape, cultures, values, and many other things. Because of these shared interests and concerns, a common redistricting criteria is that COIs be considered during the process.

Maps and election results: Ballotpedia

The 2020 and 2022 elections in the 73rd Assembly District were won by razor-thin margins, with Democrat Nick Milroy winning by 0.4 percentage points in 2020 and Republican Angie Sapik flipping seat with a 1.8-point victory two years later. In 2024, Democrat Angela Stroud rousted her Republicans challenger Frank Kostka, In a 2026 rematch, Kostka will play a very convincing GOP sacrificial lamb.

Related reading:

Wisconsin Applied Population Lab, 6/18/2018

Malia Jones explains:

Two core concepts of gerrymandering were central to the arguments presented to the high court: cracking and packing. A third process, known as stacking, also crops up in gerrymandered political maps, but was not the focus of Gill v. Whitford.

Cracking and packing both refer to specific ways of drawing legislative boundaries with the outcomes of elections in mind. These two processes operate in tension with one another, but both can be implemented by a party in power seeking to maximize its electoral chances through gerrymandering.

Packing refers to the practice of drawing particular districts in such a way as to ensure that another party's candidate wins that seat by a tremendous margin. Although the opposing party is all but guaranteed the seat, packing makes surrounding districts less competitive, and thus tips the balance of power in the legislative body overall toward the ruling party.

Cracking involves drawing districts in such a way as to divide a concentration of specific types of voters across several districts such that they are a minority in each one, with practically no hope of achieving representation in any of the districts. This practice also helps make districts less competitive. [emphasis added]

Other Wisconsin 2026 election posts:

1st Assembly District. (6/11/2026)

2nd Assembly District. (6/14/2026)

3rd Assembly District. (6/15/2026)

4th Assembly District. (6/17/2026)

5th Assembly District. (6/18/2026)

6th Assembly District. (6/20/2026)

7th Assembly District. (6/21/2026)

8th Assembly District. (6/21/2026)

9th Assembly District. (6/22/2026)

10th Assembly District. (6/23/2026)

11th Assembly District. (6/23/2026)