Republicans held control over Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District located directly south of Milwaukee, as Bryan Steil beat Democrat Randy Bryce to replace Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who announced his retirement this spring. Ryan has represented the district since 1999.
Steil received 54.74 percent of the votes, with Bryce receiving 42.17 percent, with 99% of the district reporting.
Bryce’s race gave the district the most competitive House race it has seen in this century, according to past election results.
“Ryan has never really had that close of a race, although his numbers did dip a bit in 2012 when he was on the Romney ticket,” said Chris Murray, a political science professor who teaches courses on the United States Congress at Marquette University’s Les Aspin Center for Government. “Ryan has always been able to raise a lot of money, which usually drowns out any serious opposition and keeps credible challengers from running in the first place.”
Les Aspin, a Democrat, represented Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District in the late 1960s and was Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton.
Murray said that while the district has historically been somewhat Democratic because Janesville, Kenosha and Racine turn out well for Democrats, this is usually outweighed by the rural and suburban parts of the district, especially the Milwaukee suburbs that have been added in recent redistricting.
“Wisconsin districts are pretty gerrymandered and the GOP picked a credible candidate, with Ryan’s backing, to take his place,” he said.
In the rest of Wisconsin’s eight districts, three Democratic representatives were elected and five Republican representatives were elected. The results are as follows:
- District 1 Republican Bryan Steil won by 54.74 percent of votes to replace Paul Ryan’s seat.
- District 2 Democratic Incumbent Mark Pocan won unopposed.
- District 3 Democratic Incumbent Ron Kind won by 57.93 percent of votes.
- District 5 Republican Incumbent Jim Sensenbrenner won by 62.64 percent of votes.
- District 6 Republican Incumbent Glenn Grothman won by 55.79 percent of votes.
- Distrcit 7 Republican Incumbent Sean Duffy won by 59.92 percent of votes.
- District 8 Republican Incumbent Mike Gallagher won by 65.64 percent of votes.
