(The Center Square) – A new lawsuit seeks to upend Wisconsin’s congressional congressional district maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, with plaintiffs urging the courts to throw out “anti-competitive” maps they say disadvantage voters.
The case comes after the state Supreme Court declined to hear two other lawsuits that sought redistricting before 2026.
Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy, the plaintiffs in the case, filed the lawsuit in the Dane County circuit court, not in the state Supreme Court where the earlier attempts at redistricting had been rejected.
According to the lawsuit, the current maps violate the Wisconsin constitution by disadvantaging certain groups of voters relative to others and making races “anti-competitive.”
“Anti-competitive gerrymanders are every bit as antithetical to democracy, and to law, as partisan gerrymanders and racial gerrymanders,” the lawsuit says. “This is because electoral competition is as vital to democracy as partisan fairness.”
The lawsuit points to recent electoral history as evidence, with seven out of eight congressional districts under the 2022 maps producing margins of victory greater than 20 percentage points, and five districts having produced a margin exceeding 30 points.
Only the 3rd district, currently represented by U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wisconsin, has seen races decided by fewer than 10 points, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says that because the current maps were chosen by the state Supreme Court based on a “least change” approach, they “perpetuated” the maps imposed by Act 44 in 2011 after the 2010 census.
The goal of those maps, according to the lawsuit, was not just partisan advantage but mutual, bipartisan incumbent protection – creating maps with deliberately uncompetitive districts to insulate Wisconsin’s U.S. representatives.
Notably, before the 2011 maps took effect, Democrats held five of Wisconsin’s eight U.S. House seats compared to three for Republicans.
Today, Republicans hold six seats, with only two, held by Van Orden and U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wisconsin, being considered competitive.
“An anti-competitive gerrymander occurs when elected officials work in concert to draw district lines to suppress electoral competition, thereby benefiting incumbent politicians to the detriment of voters,” the lawsuit says. “Candidates prevail by larger margins, fewer districts are competitive, and less legislative turnover occurs, undermining core democratic values of accountability and responsiveness.”
The lawsuit names the Wisconsin Elections Commission as the defendant in the case.
WEC did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment at the time of publication.
