ICYMI: The Recombobulation Area's coverage of the Democratic primary in the race for governor
A roundup of our coverage of the race, from news to commentary to podcasts to interviews to hosting a candidate forum and beyond.
The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer.
Election Day for Wisconsin’s partisan primary is Aug. 11, where voters will decide the Democratic nominee in the first open race for governor since 2010.
Here at The Recombobulation Area, we have offered coverage of this race in a variety of ways — commentary, news coverage, scoops, podcasts, interviews, in-depth poll analysis, a longform feature story, entirely too many tweets and posts on social media, even moderating a candidate forum.
While I’ve surely had a whole lot to say about this race, I am not here to tell you who to vote for, and will not be making an endorsement. What has been our goal here at The Recombobulation Area is to give you — our loyal readers and listeners and viewers and subscribers — coverage of the race that you will find nowhere else, in a way that’s fair, honest, unsparing, illuminating, and, above all, real and authentic with a voice and perspective.
Part of the way I look at this is the way I think about another entirely different topic, but one I’m also very passionate about (as longtime twitter followers well know) — the NBA.
In the NBA, some coverage focuses on the analytics. For others, it’s the eye test, or the X’s and O’s. Or, maybe the coverage focuses not on the court, but on the high-level machinations behind the decisions being made behind the scenes that impacts what happens once the games get started. Sometimes, it can be about a big breaking news story that stirs up the league. Or, it can be about spending extra time learning about something that had emerged as a major development, or getting to better know a particular individual or team for a profile or feature story. Sometimes, it’s about being in the room for the big events. Perhaps, too, it can just be about having a little fun and getting together with friends and colleagues to talk to people about what you’re seeing.
But really, it’s all of the above. That’s part of the approach I wanted to take in writing about and podcasting about and thinking endlessly about this race — and doing so from right here in Wisconsin. There’s no one way to understand what’s happening. This requires different approaches, different perspectives, different ways of looking at this. I hope you have been able to learn more about these candidates, this campaign, the issues that matter, and the big picture concepts that go beyond the daily news cycle.
At the end of the day, this race is and has always been about the voters. The people of Wisconsin. They are the ones who are going to determine the future of our great state.
Because 2026 presents as a fork-in-the-road moment for the state of Wisconsin.
This is the first open race for governor in 16 years. This is the first state legislative election to be held in full since toppling The Gerrymander. This is the first realistic chance for a Democratic trifecta — control of the Senate, Assembly, and the governorship — in a generation. This election will determine whether Democrats have the opportunity to deliver on on health care, child care, public education, local government funding, raising the minimum wage, gun violence prevention, reproductive rights, environmental conservation, union rights, and protecting the fundamentals of democracy that makes all of these policy debates even possible in the first place. Without winning the governor’s race, none of it happens. Without winning control of the legislature, it’s more of the divided government we’ve seen for the past eight years.
This is it, folks. This is the big one.
And being the most closely contested swing state means that what happens here on Tuesday will reverberate around the country. This is the bellwether. We are the canary in the coal mine. The “as goes Wisconsin” of it all is inescapable. Because this is a fraught moment for our nation, a moment of deciding the future the Democratic Party, here in the state and across the nation.
But it is the voters who will always be the ones to point the way forward, and show us where the wind is blowing. We have done our best here to follow that wind, and see where this is going to take us, but this next part is up to you.
So, before we all go cast our votes on Tuesday — and you all decide our future — let’s take a look back at our coverage of this race here at The Recombobulation, spanning the last year, and all of the highlights and chaos and twists and turns along the way.
Let’s recombobulate.
Candidate interviews
We had the opportunity to interview the four candidates remaining in the race. Listen to or watch each of these conversations here. All are available as YouTube videos or audio podcasts, and are available in full with no paywall at the links below.
Joel Brennan (June 24)
Kelda Roys (July 13)
Francesca Hong (July 21)
David Crowley (Aug. 4)
Main Street Governor Candidate Forum
On January 21 at The Cooperage in Milwaukee, The Recombobulation Area joined Main Street Action to host the first candidate forum of the 2026 campaign. The event was streamed live by Civic Media, moderated by Dan Shafer. Watch it here, and see photos from Civic Media’s Jennie Brand.
Columns and commentary
Over the last year, I have written several extended columns on the race for governor. Starting in August 2025 with my “too-early breakdown” to a widely read “state of the race” piece in June, we have offered incisive, ahead-of-the-curve commentary like you’ll find no where else in Wisconsin media.
See our short list of highlights, listed chronologically below.
News coverage
From on-the-scene reporting to timely scoops to insider news, The Recombobulation Area has been there to cover some of the biggest news in the race.
Special Feature Story
In late April and early May, we spent some time with Francesca Hong and her campaign for a special feature story on what was becoming the buzziest candidacy in the race, as Hong was on the rise from wildcard longshot to genuine contender — and now could very well become the nominee.
From wildcard to contender: The rise of Francesca Hong
A special feature story from The Recombobulation Area.
Poll analysis
Since we launched in 2019, I have written an in-depth breakdown of just about every new edition of the Marquette University Law School Poll. Along with analysis of those surveys, we also covered polls from State Navigate at key moments of the campaign.
Podcasts
Over the last few months, we’ve been doing more and more podcasting (as you may have noticed). Of course, many of those have focused on the gubernatorial campaign.
Wisconsin Politics Group Chat
Beginning shortly after the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s annual convention in mid-June, several media personalities and content creators in left-of-center media started getting together for what we’ve called the “Wisconsin Politics Group Chat.” These episodes have included Patrick Kreitlow of UpNorthNews, Dr. Kristin Lyerly, and Kate Duffy of Motherhood for Good.
These episodes have coincided with the silly season of the campaign, and you can revisit all of them here.
You can find all of our podcasts on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and right here on Substack.
More podcasts!
With guests and contributors including Emily Mills, Greg Bach and Angela Lang. Plus: Appearances on “City Cast Madison” and the “PN Pod” with Aaron Rupar.
The Wisconsin Democratic Primary Ranked-Choice Voting Experiment
In early July, we wanted to take a look at how this race might work if it were happening under a different voting system. So, we invited you to participate in this project. With the help of John Johnson of Marquette University, we were able to dive into the results and break this all down — even as it happened at a particularly chaotic moment of the campaign, with candidates coming in and out of the race over the course of this experiment.
You’ll be able to find more of our coverage of the election and the results in the coming days — including live coverage on Election Night.
Subscribe to join us.
PLUS: Don’t forget to go BEYOND THE GOVERNOR’S RACE with our guide to every statewide, congressional and state legislative primary on the ballot in Wisconsin next week. Every election is more than just the top of the ticket.
You always — ALWAYS — need to pay attention to what’s happening downballot.
Beyond the race for governor: These are the *other* partisan primaries happening in Wisconsin on Aug. 11
The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer.
Dan Shafer is an independent journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He worked with Civic Media from 2024 to 2026. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.
Thanks Joel. Indeed this so far has been a race largely held in secret. Vite411 is quite thin in information.
Kelda is who I am most inclined to choose in this primary. But that mostly because I believe she will be the better debater opposite the Maga candidate.
Brennan appears to be ready for the job, but his performance in the recent non debate debate was too rushed. Although given the dearth of information on any candidate I guess it was his best option, say as much as he can in too short a time...
Since I've long been a poll worker, and am locally elected I perhaps pay more attention. I am curious how this week will end....