2022 Wisconsin Attorney General election

The 2022 Wisconsin Attorney General election took place on November 8, 2022, to elect the Attorney General of Wisconsin. Incumbent Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul won re-election to a second term. Party nominees were selected in a partisan primary on August 9, 2022.

2022 Wisconsin Attorney General election

← 2018 November 8, 2022 2026 →

Nominee Josh Kaul Eric Toney Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 1,333,369 1,298,369 Percentage 50.64% 49.31%

County results Congressional district results Precinct results Kaul:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90% Toney:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90% Tie:      40–50%      50%      No data

Attorney General before election Josh Kaul Democratic Elected Attorney General Josh Kaul Democratic

Kaul won re-election by a margin of 1.33%.

Democratic primary

Candidates

Nominee

• Josh Kaul, incumbent attorney general^[1]

Endorsements

Josh Kaul

Organizations

• Fair Wisconsin^[2]
• Giffords^[3]
• Human Rights Campaign PAC^[4]
• NARAL Pro-Choice America^[5]

Labor unions

• American Federation of Teachers Local 212^[6]
• Teamsters Joint Council 39^[7]
• United Auto Workers^[8]
• Wisconsin AFL–CIO^[9]

Results

Democratic primary results^[10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Josh Kaul (incumbent)	461,024	100.0%
Total votes			461,024	100.0%

Republican primary

Candidates

Nominee

• Eric Toney, Fond du Lac County prosecutor^[11]

Eliminated in primary

• Adam Jarchow, former member of the Wisconsin State Assembly (2015–2019)^[12]
• Karen Mueller, attorney and candidate for Wisconsin's 3rd congressional district in 2014^[13]

Withdrew

• Ryan Owens, University of Wisconsin–Madison law professor^[14][15] (endorsed Jarchow)^[16]

Declined

• Jake Curtis, attorney and Wisconsin Air National Guard first lieutenant (endorsed Jarchow)^[17]

Endorsements

Adam Jarchow

U.S. Representatives

• Tom Tiffany, U.S. Representative for Wisconsin's 7th congressional district^[18][19]

State legislators

• Dave Craig, former state senator^[20]
• Joe Handrick, former state assemblyman^[20]
• Treig Pronschinske, state assemblyman^[20]
• John Spiros, state assemblyman^[20]
• Tom Weatherston, former state assemblyman^[20]
• 29 other state legislators^{[18][21][20][19]}

Sheriffs

• 12 sheriffs^[22][21][20]

Police chiefs

• 15 police chiefs^[22][21]

Local officials

• Kirk Anderson, mayor of St. Croix Falls^[20]
• Joanne Laufenberg, Walworth County supervisor^[20]
• Jeff Vollenweider, mayor of Kewaunee^[20]
• Taylor Wishau, Racine County supervisor^[20]

Organizations

• Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin^[23]
• NRA Political Victory Fund^[24][25]
• Wisconsin Right to Life^[26] (co-endorsed with Toney)
• Wisconsin Young Republicans^[27]

Individuals

• Ted Nugent, singer^[28]

Ryan Owens (withdrawn)

Federal officials

• Paul Clement, former Solicitor General of the United States (2004–2008)^[29]

State Supreme Court Justices

• Michael Gableman, former justice (2008–2018)^[29]
• Dan Kelly, former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice (2016–2020)^[29]
• David Prosser, former justice (1998–2016)^[29] (switched endorsement to Toney after Owens withdrew)
• Jon Wilcox, former justice (1992–2007)^[29]

State executive officials

• Margaret Farrow, former Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin (2001–2003)^[29]

Speakers of the Wisconsin Assembly

• Ben Brancel, former speaker of the assembly (1997–1999)^[29] (switched endorsement to Toney after Owens withdrew)
• John Gard, former speaker of the assembly (2003–2007)^[29] (switched endorsement to Toney after Owens withdrew)
• Michael Huebsch, former speaker of the assembly (2007–2009)^[29] (switched endorsement to Toney after Owens withdrew)

State legislators

• 21 state legislators^[30][31]

Sheriffs

• Eric Severson, Waukesha County sheriff^[32]

Eric Toney

U.S. Representatives

• Glenn Grothman, U.S. Representative from Wisconsin's 6th congressional district^[33]

State Supreme Court Justices

• David Prosser, former justice (1998–2016) (previously endorsed Owens)^[29]

State legislators

• 25 state legislators^[29][34][35]

District attorneys

• 36 district attorneys^{[36][37][38][39]}

Local officials

• Steve Abel, Fond du Lac County board chairman^[34]
• Allen Buechel, Fond du Lac County county executive^[29]
• Jonathan Delgrave, Racine County county executive^[35]
• John Doemel, Winnebago County county executive^[34]
• Sam Kaufman, Fond du Lac County county executive^[34]

Sheriffs

• 49 sheriffs^{[36][37][34][40]}

Police chiefs

• 19 police chiefs^{[37][29][41][42]}

Individuals

• Brad Courtney, former chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin^[43]

Organizations

• Milwaukee Police Association^[44]
• Racine Police Association^[44]
• Wisconsin Fraternal Order of Police^[44]
• Wisconsin Right to Life^[26] (co-endorsed with Jarchow)

Declined to endorse

Organizations

• Republican Party of Wisconsin^[45]

Debate and virtual town hall

2022 Wisconsin Attorney General Republican primary debate and virtual town hall

No.	Date	Host	Moderator	Link	Republican	Republican	Republican
Key:  P  Participant   A  Absent   N  Not invited   I  Invited  W  Withdrawn
					Eric Toney	Adam Jarchow	Karen Mueller
1	Jul. 20, 2022	WISN (AM)	Dan O'Donnell	[46]	P	P	P
2	Aug. 3, 2022	Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce	Scott Manley	YouTube	P	P	A

Results

Results by county

  Toney

•   30–40%
•   40–50%
•   60–70%

  Jarchow

•   30–40%
•   40–50%
•   60–70%

  Mueller

•   30–40%
•   40–50%

Republican primary results^[10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Eric Toney	222,902	37.43%
	Republican	Adam Jarchow	220,045	36.95%
	Republican	Karen Mueller	152,581	25.62%
Total votes			595,528	100.0%

General election

Debates

2022 Wisconsin Attorney General debates

No.	Date	Host	Moderator	Link	Democratic	Republican
Key:  P  Participant   A  Absent   N  Not invited   I  Invited  W  Withdrawn
					Josh Kaul	Eric Toney
1[47]	Oct. 27, 2022	State Bar of Wisconsin Wispolitics.com WISC-TV	Eric Franke	YouTube	P	P
2	Oct. 27, 2022	WISN-TV	Matt Smith	YouTube[a] YouTube[b] YouTube[c] YouTube[d] YouTube	P	P

Predictions

Source	Ranking	As of
Sabato's Crystal Ball[48]	Tossup	November 3, 2022
Elections Daily[49]	Leans R (flip)	November 7, 2022

Polling

Poll source	Date(s) administered	Sample size[e]	Margin of error	Josh Kaul (D)	Eric Toney (R)	Undecided
The Trafalgar Group (R)[50]	November 2–4, 2022	1,095 (LV)	± 2.9%	47%	50%	3%

Results

Wisconsin Attorney General election, 2022^[10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Josh Kaul (incumbent)	1,333,369	50.64%	+1.23%
	Republican	Eric Toney	1,298,369	49.31%	+0.55%
	Write-in		1,539	0.06%	+0.01%
Plurality			35,000	1.33%	+0.68%
Total votes			2,633,277	100.0%	-0.36%
	Democratic hold

By congressional district

Despite losing the state, Toney won six of eight congressional districts.^[51]

District	Kaul	Toney	Representative
1st	49%	51%	Bryan Steil
2nd	72%	28%	Mark Pocan
3rd	49.5%	50.4%	Ron Kind (117th Congress)
			Derrick Van Orden (118th Congress)
4th	77%	23%	Gwen Moore
5th	38%	62%	Scott L. Fitzgerald
6th	42%	58%	Glenn Grothman
7th	41%	59%	Tom Tiffany
8th	43%	57%	Mike Gallagher

See also

• Wisconsin Attorney General