Before redistricting, the GOP gerrymandered 90th Assembly District in the equally GOP gerrymandered 30th Senate District (see map below) packed the central area of Green Bay. (See explanation below)
Redistricting created a district that primarily includes the east side of Green Bay.
The population of Green Bay and its suburbs is about 200,000 -- more than enough to fill three Assembly districts. In other words, the 88th, 89th, and 90th should all be located within Brown County. And that is what redistricting accomplished with fair maps.
The election results in 2018, 2020, and 2022 illustrate the goal of "packing": drawing particular districts in such a way as to ensure that another party's candidate wins that seat by a tremendous margin. Redistricting created a much more competitive district. In 2024, Democrat Amaad Rivera-Wagner won by 5 percentage points.
The numbers from the August primary elections indicate that Rivera-Wagner will win a second term. He received 4,456 votes out of 4,484 cast while his GOP challenger Jessica Henderson received 2,208 votes out of 2,217 cast.
This is now: fair map (wholly within Brown County)
Related reading:
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:
