Wisconsin’s Democratic attorney general won’t run for governor and will seek reelection instead

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul announced Tuesday that he will not run for governor, opting instead to seek a third term as the state’s top law enforcement official.

The governor’s race is wide open after Democratic incumbent Tony Evers, 73, announced this summer that he won’t seek reelection. The race will be the highest-profile contest on the ballot, but it has even greater significance this cycle as Democrats look to hold the office and take control of the Legislature for the first time since 2010.

More than half-a-dozen Democrats have announced plans to run in the August primary. Kaul would have been the de facto front-runner had he joined, given his large base of support and two statewide election victories.

The most prominent candidates in the Democratic primary scramble include Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez; Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley; state Sen. Kelda Roys; state Rep. Francesca Hong and former Wisconsin Economic Development Commission leader Missy Hughes.

The most notable Republicans running are U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann.

Kaul is nearly three-quarters of the way through his second term as attorney general. He defeated incumbent Republican Brad Schimel in 2018 and held off a challenge from Republican Eric Toney, Fond du Lac County’s district attorney, to win a second term in 2022. Toney is expected to run for attorney general again in 2026.

Kaul has been an advocate for liberal causes as attorney general. He has repeatedly called on Republican legislators to enact gun safety measures, to no avail. He successfully persuaded the liberal-controlled state Supreme Court to strike down the state’s abortion ban this year. Kaul has launched an investigation into clergy sex abuse in Wisconsin and has worked to expedite testing of sexual assault evidence kits.

Kaul also has pushed back against President Donald Trump. Last year, he filed felony charges against two attorneys and an aide who helped submit false papers to Congress claiming that Trump had won Wisconsin in 2020. Democrat Joe Biden won the state by less than a percentage point. The case Kaul brought against the fake electors is still pending in Dane County circuit court.

Kaul has also joined more than two dozen multi-state lawsuits challenging edicts from the current Trump administration. The filings challenge an array of proposals, including dismantling the federal volunteer agency AmeriCorps, withholding federal education funding from the states and capping research grant funding.

Republicans tried to curtail Kaul’s powers ahead of his first term, passing legislation in a lame duck session before he took office that required the Legislature’s GOP-controlled finance committee to approve any court settlements his office might broker. Kaul fought the statutes all the way to the state Supreme Court and ultimately won a ruling in June that the legislation was unconstitutional.