The Wisconsin Green Party stated this week that it is developing a statewide slate of candidates for the 2026 election, along with candidates for local offices in the 2025 off-year election cycle. According to the party, several individuals have already been recruited for both efforts.
Peter Karas, the Wisconsin Green Party’s candidate recruitment coordinator, stated in an interview with The Cap Times on Tuesday that the party is actively building a bench of candidates for 2026. This push comes in response to unsuccessful efforts by the Democratic Party to block the Green Party’s presidential ticket of Drs. Jill Stein and Butch Ware from appearing on the ballot last month.
During this past election cycle, the Democratic National Committee’s deputy operations director in Wisconsin filed a complaint alleging that the Green Party lacked the legal authority to nominate presidential electors under state law. The complaint argued that the party did not have eligible individuals to serve as nominators, which would prevent it from putting forward a valid slate of electors. Election officials ultimately dismissed the complaint, allowing the Green Party ticket to appear on the ballot.
Karas revealed in the interview that the party has already recruited candidates for governor and secretary of state, naming Jill Ferguson for governor and himself for secretary of state. Efforts are underway to recruit candidates for attorney general, state treasurer, and lieutenant governor. The party is also focusing on congressional races, having identified candidates for the 1st and 4th Congressional Districts, and is actively searching for a candidate in the 2nd District.
For the 2025 off-year election cycle, the party has already identified several municipal candidates, including for local positions in Milwaukee and Racine. However, Karas did not provide any names or specifics on their races.
Even at this early stage, the Wisconsin Green Party has surpassed the number of statewide and congressional candidates it recruited in the 2024 and 2022 cycles, assuming the party is successful in placing them on the ballot. In 2024, the party ran only its presidential ticket and a single candidate in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District. In 2022, it fielded just one candidate, who ran for secretary of state, and had no congressional candidates.
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