Dunn County & St. Croix County November 5 candidates: U.S. Senate, Congress, Wisconsin Senate District 10 and Assembly District 28
By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — The November 5 ballots in Dunn County and St. Croix County will have candidates for United States Senate and Congress and for Wisconsin Senate District 10 and Assembly District 28.
The Senate and Assembly districts have different boundaries after the legislative maps were redrawn.
U.S. Senate
One of Wisconsin’s two United States Senators is up for election this year.
Incumbent United States Senator Tammy Baldwin is the Democratic candidate on the November 5 ballot for United States Senator.
Senator Baldwin graduated from Madison West High School, double-majored in political science and mathematics at Smith College, and received a law degree in 1989 from the University of Wisconsin Law School.
She has served on the Dane County Board of Supervisors, was elected to the Wisconsin Assembly in 1992 and served three terms, was elected as a member of Congress representing Wisconsin’s 2nd Congressional District in 1998 and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012.
Eric Hovde, the Republican candidate, is described as an entrepreneur and business person and the owner of Sunwest Bank, which has offices in Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho and Utah. He also has founded other businesses.
Hovde was born and raised in Wisconsin and graduated from UW-Madison. He reportedly owns a $7 million mansion in Laguna Beach, California.
It is not clear from articles written about Hovde, as well as answers he has given during interviews, how much time he has spent in Wisconsin in recent years.
3rd district
Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District includes the counties of Adams, Buffalo, Chippewa, Crawford, Dunn, Eau Claire, Grant, Jackson, Juneau, La Crosse, Monroe, Pepin, Pierce, Portage, Richland, Trempealeau, Vernon and Wood. .
Rebecca Cooke, the Democratic candidate for the 3rd Congressional District, was born and raised on an Eau Claire dairy farm and worked her way through college before returning to Eau Claire to start a small business and non-profit that provides start-up capital and hands-on education for women-owned businesses in a 10-county area in western Wisconsin.
She was appointed by Governor Tony Evers to serve on the board of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.
Incumbent Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden, a retired Navy SEAL Senior Chief, was first elected to Congress in 2022 after Congressman Ron Kind decided to retire.
He serves on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, the Economic Opportunity Subcommittee, House Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, Foreign Agriculture and Horticulture Subcommittee, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Highways and Transit Subcommittee.
7th District
Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District includes the counties of Ashland, Barron, Bayfield, Burnett, St. Croix, Chippewa, Clark, Douglas, Florence, Forest, Iron, Jackson (partial), Juneau (partial), Langlade, Lincoln, Marathon, Money, Oneida, Polk, Pierce, Rusk, Sawyer, Taylor, Vilas, Washburn and Wood (partial).
Kyle Kilbourn, the Democratic candidate for the 7th Congressional District on the November 5 ballot, grew up in North Dakota. He attended the University of Minnesota and then earned a doctorate degree in product design and innovation from the University of Southern Denmark, which is near the German border.
While at the University of Minnesota, Kilbourn served as President of the Council of College Boards. He has served as a board member of local neighborhood groups in several places where he has lived. During his career, Kilbourn has conducted research in Ireland around aging in place, understanding gas station users in Texas, Italy and Sweden and working with diabetic patients in India.
Incumbent Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany was first elected to represent Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District in May of 2020 after serving in the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate. He serves on the Committee of Natural Resources and the Committee on the Judiciary.
Senate Dist. 10
Wisconsin Senate District 10 in Dunn County includes the Towns of Eau Galle, Lucas, Stanton and Weston and the Villages of Downing and Knapp and also covers all of St. Croix County.
Incumbent State Senator Rob Stafsholt is the Republican candidate for Senate District 10. He is from St. Croix County and lives in New Richmond.
Stafsholt is serving his fourth term in the state Legislature. He has been self-employed as a farmer, owner of a waste disposal company, salesman and co-owner of the family salad and food dressing company and started his own business for investing in real estate and residential rental properties.
Paul Hambleton is the Democratic candidate on the November 5 ballot for Senate District 10.
Hambleton is a former Baldwin-Woodville Special Education teacher and English teacher. He has served as the director of the West Central Education Association in Menomonie, the Deputy Executive Director for Maine Education Association and the Chief Academic Officer at the Maine Department of Education.
He retired to St. Croix County in 2018 to help his elderly parents.
District 28
Wisconsin Assembly District 28 includes all of St. Croix County and in Dunn County covers the Towns of Eau Galle, Lucas, Stanton, Weston and the Villages of Downing and Knapp.
The Democratic candidate on the November 5 ballot is Danielle Johnson, who settled in St. Croix County with her husband in 2009 and started Homestead Veterinary Clinic in Baldwin in 2011.
Johnson served on the Board of Western Wisconsin Health from January of 2015 to April of 2023 and is an Advisory Board Member for Northwoods Technical College Veterinary Technician Program. She also was a delegate to the Wisconsin Conservation Congress from April of 2023 to the present.
Rob Kreibich is the Republican candidate on the ballot for Assembly District 28 in the November 5 general election.
Kreibich formerly served in the state Assembly for 14 years and has been the president of the New Richmond Chamber of Commerce for nine years. He worked at NBC affiliate WEAU-TV in Eau Claire as a reporter and an anchor.
