APPLETON — Nate Gustafson won his incumbent seat in the 55th District in the first election using newly drawn electoral maps, according to unofficial results released by the Associated Press, despite heavy attack ads.
He has faced more than $29,000 in opposition mailers, live calls, online ads and text messages in recent weeks from the Stronger Wisconsin Fund, a PAC that has bankrolled campaign ads in northeastern Wisconsin precincts with a war chest of $450,000. The PAC spent less than $10,000 placing ads supporting his opponent, Rep. Michael Schraa, the incumbent from District 53.
Gustafson responded by spending more than $15,000 on his own campaign message, much of it through Facebook ads, nearly three times what he spent on ads in recent weeks than he did in the first six months of 2024.
His strategy ultimately won out. Although both candidates promised to restructure state income taxes as part of their campaigns, Gustafson won 57.4 percent of the vote as of 11:25 p.m., with 92.75 percent of the estimated votes counted.
Here are the results of the local primaries. Incumbents are marked “(i).” Winners are marked in bold.
8th Congressional District
Tony Wied won the Republican nomination for the 8th Congressional District to fill both the unexpired term of former Rep. Mike Gallagher and the vote for a two-year term. Wied defeated former Sen. Roger Roth and incumbent 1st Senate District Sen. Andre Jacque.
18th Senate District
With 77% of the vote, Republican Anthony Phillips will face Democrat Kristin Alfheim in November.
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Anthony Phillips: 62.4%
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Blong Yang: 37.6%
55th Assembly District (City of Menasha, Winneconne, Omro, Pickett)
Republican Nate Gustafson won after 70.8% of precincts reported voting and will face Democrat Kyle Kehoe.
Winnebago County Register of Deeds
With 59% of polling places reporting, Republican Susan Snyder led the primary. The winner will face Democrat Christopher Larson.
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Susan Snijder: 6,692
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Paul Esslinger: 5,763
Jesse Lin is a reporter covering Green Bay and northeastern Wisconsin politics. Contact him at 920-431-8247 or jlin@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared in the Green Bay Press-Gazette: Partisan Primary Results for Appleton Area: Here’s What We Know
