Retiring Guy's Digest: Wisconsin 2026 elections: Republican Keith Purnell challenges 8-term incumbent Democrat Steve Doyle in 94th Assembly District

Thursday, October 1, 2026

Wisconsin 2026 elections: Republican Keith Purnell challenges 8-term incumbent Democrat Steve Doyle in 94th Assembly District

Before redistricting, the 94th Assembly District included all of LaCrosse County and nibbles of the City of LaCrosse at its edges.

Redistricting created a district that includes most of the northern half of La Crosse County and southeastern Trempealeau County. The current population of La Crosse County is 121,388 -- enough to fill 2 Assembly district with about 2,000 of its resident remaining.

Maps and election results: Ballotpedia

After 2018, the elections in the 93rd District have been increasingly competitive. In 2024, Democrat Steve Doyle won by a mere 0.6 percentage points, receiving just 217 more votes (out of 36,657 cast) than his GOP challenger.

GOP challenger Keith Purnell is going to have to do a better job in getting out the vote in November. Running unopposed in the August primary, he received 4,019 out of 4,023 cast, whereas Democratic incumbent Steve Doyle received 7,873 votes out of 7,877 cast. That's quite a gap!

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)