Jacobson announces state Senate run in southwestern Wisconsin

RIDGEWAY, Wis. (WMDX) – The latest candidate for the state Senate district in southwestern Wisconsin has announced their run in the 2026 election.

Democrat Jenna Jacobson, who currently represents Wisconsin’s 50th Assembly District, announced she is running for Senate District 17.

Currently, Senate District 17 is represented by Republican Howard Marklein, who is the co-chair of the Joint Committee on Finance and has served in the state Senate since 2014. As a result of legislative redistricting, Marklein now resides just outside of the 17th in the 14th Senate District.

Jacobson said that her motivation to run for the Senate seat was due in part to challenge Marklein, who she said hasn’t done enough to support public education in his role in the Senate and on the Joint Finance Committee.

“Instead of having a representative to fight for them, the residents across this district have had to take it upon themselves to fight.” Jacobson said, speaking in Ridgeway, where an elementary school was closed in 2020 due to a lack of available funding. “The 17th Senate District —  our district —  has time and again been forced into referendum to fund our schools because Marklein has chosen power over people.”

Jacobson said that the 42 school districts in the 17th Senate District have had the most referendums for any Senate district in the state the past two years with a total of 61 total questions on the ballot.

“It is time that the people of the 17th have a Senator that will invest in our schools and invest in the future of our children,” Jacobson said, who added that her main motivation to run for the office was the state of public education in Wisconsin.

“So many schools, not just around our district, but in our state are struggling, and we had a real opportunity in this last state budget to make meaningful impact on the funding of our schools, and try to stop this cycle of endless referendums,” Jacobson said. “Unfortunately, the budget fell short on that.”

Jacobson voted against the biennial budget bill that Governor Tony Evers signed into law last week.

“We also need to look at what we’re doing to support our rural communities,” Jacobson said, citing a lack of investment in broadband internet and infrastructure. “When we look at not only this budget, but the last 15 years of budgets, we see chronic underfunding of our schools, of our communities, and that lack of investment can lead to some of these problems.”

In addition to funding public education and lowering property taxes, Jacobson also spoke in favor of policies that would invest in child care services, health care, and prescription medication caps during her campaign-opening speech.

Jacobson, whose Assembly district includes all of Green County as well as parts of Dane and Rock counties, is the third candidate to announce a campaign for the 2026 election in the 17th Senate District. According to the state’s Campaign Finance Information System, Lisa White filed to run in February and Todd Larson filed in May.

The 17th Senate District includes all of Grant, Crawford, Iowa, Lafayette, and Green counties, and also includes part of Dane County. In addition, small parts of Vernon and Rock counties are part of the district due to municipalities that are split by county lines.

Before redistricting, the 17th District included a swath of counties from Juneau County down to the Illinois state line, including all of Grant, Richland, Lafayette, and Juneau counties, as well as parts of Iowa, Monroe, Sauk, and Green counties.

What is Jacobson looking forward to the most about the campaign?

“I love getting out and talking to folks,” Jacobson said. “Whether it’s knocking doors, going to a pancake breakfast, I love learning from folks.”

In the last state Senate election under the old boundaries for the 17th District in 2022, Marklein easily defeated Democrat Pat Skogen with 60.1% of the vote, a victory margin of more than 20 percentage points. In 2018, Marklein won by 8.2 percentage points, and in his first Senate term in 2014, Marklein had a 10.2 percentage point win.

The 2026 General Election is on November 3, 2026. If needed, a primary will be held on August 11, 2026. You can learn about how elections are conducted and the deadlines to file for office if you are considering a run on the Wisconsin Elections Commission website.

To find out where to vote, how to register to vote, or to see upcoming election information, you can visit MyVote.wi.gov.

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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article said that Jacobson is the first candidate to declare for the 17th District. Lisa White and Todd Larson both filed paperwork earlier this year to run, making Jacobson the third candidate to enter the race. That means that a Democratic Primary will be held on August 11, 2026 if more than one Democrat files all of their campaign paperwork by the deadline in 2026.