Everything you need to know about ranked-choice voting in one spot. Click to learn more!

Wisconsin's 2nd Congressional District election, 2024 (August 13 Democratic primary)

From Ballotpedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Ballotpedia Election Coverage Badge-smaller use.png
U.S. Senate • U.S. House • Congressional special elections • State Senate • State Assembly • Special state legislative • Appellate courts • State ballot measures • Local ballot measures • School boards • Municipal • Recalls • All other local • How to run for office
Flag of Wisconsin.png


2026 →
← 2022
Wisconsin's 2nd Congressional District
Ballotpedia Election Coverage Badge.png
Democratic primary
Republican primary
General election
Election details
Filing deadline: June 3, 2024
Primary: August 13, 2024
General: November 5, 2024
How to vote
Poll times: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Voting in Wisconsin
Race ratings
Cook Political Report: Solid Democratic
DDHQ and The Hill: Safe Democratic
Inside Elections: Solid Democratic
Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Democratic
Ballotpedia analysis
U.S. Senate battlegrounds
U.S. House battlegrounds
Federal and state primary competitiveness
Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2024
See also
Wisconsin's 2nd Congressional District
U.S. Senate • 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th • 7th • 8th
Wisconsin elections, 2024
U.S. Congress elections, 2024
U.S. Senate elections, 2024
U.S. House elections, 2024

A Democratic Party primary took place on August 13, 2024, in Wisconsin's 2nd Congressional District to determine which Democratic candidate would run in the district's general election on November 5, 2024.

Incumbent Mark Pocan advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House Wisconsin District 2.

All 435 seats were up for election. At the time of the election, Republicans had a 220 to 212 majority with three vacancies.[1] As of June 2024, 45 members of the U.S. House had announced they were not running for re-election. To read more about the U.S. House elections taking place this year, click here.

In the 2022 election in this district, the Democratic candidate won 71.0%-26.9%. Daily Kos calculated what the results of the 2020 presidential election in this district would have been following redistricting. Joe Biden (D) would have defeated Donald Trump (R) 70.2%-28.4%.[2]

Candidate filing deadline Primary election General election
June 3, 2024
August 13, 2024
November 5, 2024


A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. Wisconsin utilizes an open primary system; registered voters do not have to be members of a party to vote in that party's primary.[3][4]

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

This page focuses on Wisconsin's 2nd Congressional District Democratic primary. For more in-depth information on the district's Republican primary and the general election, see the following pages:

Candidates and election results


Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Wisconsin District 2

Incumbent Mark Pocan advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House Wisconsin District 2 on August 13, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Mark Pocan
Mark Pocan
 
99.8
 
149,581
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.2
 
316

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 149,897
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Candidate profiles

There were no candidate profiles created for this race. Candidate profiles would have appeared here as candidates completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey.

Voting information

See also: Voting in Wisconsin

Election information in Wisconsin: Aug. 13, 2024, election.

What was the voter registration deadline?

  • In-person: Aug. 13, 2024
  • By mail: Postmarked by July 24, 2024
  • Online: July 24, 2024

Was absentee/mail-in voting available to all voters?

N/A

What was the absentee/mail-in ballot request deadline?

  • In-person: Aug. 11, 2024
  • By mail: Received by Aug. 8, 2024
  • Online: Aug. 8, 2024

What was the absentee/mail-in ballot return deadline?

  • In-person: Aug. 13, 2024
  • By mail: Received by Aug. 13, 2024

Was early voting available to all voters?

N/A

What were the early voting start and end dates?

July 30, 2024 to Aug. 11, 2024

Were all voters required to present ID at the polls? If so, was a photo or non-photo ID required?

N/A

When were polls open on Election Day?

7:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. (CST)


Campaign finance

Name Party Receipts* Disbursements** Cash on hand Date
Mark Pocan Democratic Party $1,070,481 $1,060,954 $1,002,217 As of December 31, 2024

Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2024. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

* According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee."
** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.

District analysis

Click the tabs below to view information about voter composition, past elections, and demographics in both the district and the state.

  • District map - A map of the district in place for the election.
  • Competitiveness - Information about the competitiveness of 2024 U.S. House elections in the state.
  • Presidential elections - Information about presidential elections in the district and the state.
  • State party control - The partisan makeup of the state's congressional delegation and state government.


Below was the map in use at the time of the election. Click the map below to enlarge it.

2023_01_03_wi_congressional_district_02.jpg
See also: Primary election competitiveness in state and federal government, 2024

This section contains data on U.S. House primary election competitiveness in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin U.S. House competitiveness, 2014-2024
Office Districts/
offices 		Seats Open seats Candidates Possible primaries Contested Democratic primaries Contested Republican primaries % of contested primaries Incumbents in contested primaries % of incumbents in contested primaries
2024 8 8 1 23 16 2 3 31.3% 0 0.0%
2022 8 8 1 22 16 1 5 37.5% 3 42.9%
2020 8 8 1 23 16 3 3 37.5% 1 14.3%
2018 8 8 1 25 16 3 3 37.5% 2 28.6%
2016 8 8 1 23 16 5 3 50.0% 4 57.1%
2014 8 8 1 27 16 3 5 50.0% 3 42.9%

Post-filing deadline analysis

The following analysis covers all U.S. House districts up for election in Wisconsin in 2024. Information below was calculated on June 16, 2024, and may differ from information shown in the table above due to candidate replacements and withdrawals after that time.

Twenty-three candidates ran for Wisconsin’s eight U.S. House districts, including 11 Democrats and 12 Republicans. That’s an average of 2.88 candidates per district. There were 2.75 candidates per district in 2022, 2.88 candidates per district in 2020, and 3.13 candidates per district in 2018.

The 8th Congressional District was the only open district in Wisconsin in 2024. Since 2014, there has been one open district in Wisconsin in every election year.

The 8th Congressional District became vacant after former Rep. Mike Gallagher (R) resigned from Congress on April 19.

Two congressional districts—the 3rd and the 8th—were tied for the most candidates who ran for a district in Wisconsin in 2024. Four candidates ran in each district.

Five primaries—two Democratic and three Republican—were contested in 2024, the fewest in Wisconsin in the last 10 years. Between 2014 and 2022, an average of 6.8 primaries were contested each election year.

No incumbents were in contested primaries in 2024, the fewest in Wisconsin in the last 10 years. Between 2014 and 2022, an average of 2.6 incumbents ran in contested primaries.

Candidates filed to run in the Republican and Democratic primaries in all eight districts, meaning no seats were guaranteed to either party.

Partisan Voter Index

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index

Heading into the 2024 elections, based on results from the 2020 and 2016 presidential elections, the Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was D+19. This meant that in those two presidential elections, this district's results were 19 percentage points more Democratic than the national average. This made Wisconsin's 2nd the 71st most Democratic district nationally.[5]

2020 presidential election results

The table below shows what the vote in the 2020 presidential election would have been in this district. The presidential election data was compiled by Daily Kos.

2020 presidential results in Wisconsin's 2nd based on 2024 district lines
Joe Biden Democratic Party Donald Trump Republican Party
70.2% 28.4%

Inside Elections Baselines

See also: Inside Elections

Inside Elections' Baseline is a figure that analyzes all federal and statewide election results from the district over the past four election cycles. The results are combined in an index estimating the strength of a typical Democratic or Republican candidate in the congressional district.[6] The table below displays the Baseline data for this district.

Inside Elections Baseline for 2024
Democratic Baseline Democratic Party Republican Baseline Republican Party Difference
70.6 27.8 R+42.7

Presidential voting history

See also: Presidential election in Wisconsin, 2020

Wisconsin presidential election results (1900-2020)

  • 15 Democratic wins
  • 15 Republican wins
  • 1 other win
Year 1900 1904 1908 1912 1916 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020
Winning Party R R R D R R P[7] R D D D R D R R R D R R D R R D D D D D D D R D
See also: Party control of Wisconsin state government

Congressional delegation

The table below displays the partisan composition of Wisconsin's congressional delegation as of May 2024.

Congressional Partisan Breakdown from Wisconsin
Party U.S. Senate U.S. House Total
Democratic 1 2 3
Republican 1 6 7
Independent 0 0 0
Vacancies 0 0 0
Total 2 8 10

State executive

The table below displays the officeholders in Wisconsin's top four state executive offices as of May 2024.

State executive officials in Wisconsin, May 2024
Office Officeholder
Governor Democratic Party Tony Evers
Lieutenant Governor Democratic Party Sara Rodriguez
Secretary of State Democratic Party Sarah Godlewski
Attorney General Democratic Party Josh Kaul

State legislature

Wisconsin State Senate

Party As of February 2024
     Democratic Party 10
     Republican Party 22
     Other 0
     Vacancies 1
Total 33

Wisconsin State Assembly

Party As of February 2024
     Democratic Party 35
     Republican Party 64
     Other 0
     Vacancies 0
Total 99

Trifecta control

The table below shows the state's trifecta status from 1992 until the 2024 election.

Wisconsin Party Control: 1992-2024
Two years of Democratic trifectas  •  Ten years of Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

Year 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Governor R R R R R R R R R R R D D D D D D D D R R R R R R R R D D D D D D
Senate D R R R D D R D D D D R R R R D D D D R R R R R R R R R R R R R R
House D D D R R R R R R R R R R R R R R D D R R R R R R R R R R R R R R

Ballot access

The table below details filing requirements for U.S. House candidates in Wisconsin in the 2024 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in Wisconsin, click here.

Filing requirements for U.S. House candidates, 2024
State Office Party Signatures required Filing fee Filing deadline Source
Wisconsin U.S. House All candidates 1,000 N/A 6/3/2024 Source

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ A majority in the U.S. House when there are no vacancies is 218 seats.
  2. ↑ Daily Kos, "Daily Kos Elections' 2020 presidential results by congressional district, for new and old districts," accessed September 15, 2022
  3. ↑ National Conference of State Legislatures, "State Primary Election Types," accessed October 4, 2024
  4. ↑ Wisconsin State Legislature, "Wis. State § 5.62 Partisan primary ballots," accessed October 4, 2024
  5. ↑ Cook Political Report, "The 2022 Cook Partisan Voting Index (Cook PVI℠)," accessed January 10, 2024
  6. ↑ Inside Elections, "Methodology: Inside Elections’ Baseline by Congressional District," December 8, 2023
  7. ↑ Progressive Party


Wisconsin's current delegation to the United States Congress
Senators
Tammy Baldwin (D)
Ronald Johnson (R)
Representatives
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
District 5
District 6
District 7
District 8
Tony Wied (R)
Republican Party (7)
Democratic Party (3)


v • e
2023-2024 Elections to the United States Congress
Senate by StateCongressLogo.png
House by State
Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina • South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Vermont • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin • Wyoming
Election information
Super PACs/Organizations
Retrieved from "https://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=Wisconsin%27s_2nd_Congressional_District_election,_2024_(August_13_Democratic_primary)&oldid=9614281"