Longtime GOP incumbent faces rural challenger in new Green Bay area district

A primary battle in the rural Green Bay 4th Assembly District seeks to test whether redistricting can uproot an entrenched incumbent, pitting a five-term lawmaker campaigning on his decade-long record against a local party leader and self-described “Christian conservative.”

Rep. David Steffen, R-Howard, currently represents the 4th Assembly District, covering a mostly urban region of Green Bay to the city’s south and west. Following redistricting, Steffen will still reside in the 4th Assembly District, but the region’s borders now include much of rural Oconto County in the north.

The new district more closely resembles pre-2024 borders for the 89th Assembly District, where Rep. Elijah Behnke, R-Oconto, currently serves. Elijah Behnke was drawn into the 4th Assembly District, but he decided to run against incumbent Rep. Peter Schmidt, R-Bonduel, in the 6th Assembly District instead of remaining to run against Steffen. Elijah Behnke has said that Schmidt being an “easier target” had “something to do” with his move.

Darwin Behnke, Elijah’s father, is now challenging Steffen instead. While Elijah and his brother Micah have run campaigns for public office in the past, this marks the elder Behnke’s first attempt at an elected position.

Behnke introduced his campaign to a group of supporters in May at the Log Jam Saloon in Oconto, standing in front of a wall of Trump flags.

“I’m just another old man who’s grumpy and irritated about what’s going on in Wisconsin,” Behnke told the crowd.

Behnke told Wisconsin Watch he was motivated to run for Assembly because he’s frustrated with how state government is run, viewing the decision as a necessity.

“I’m stepping up because I feel somebody should do it. I wish it wasn’t me,” Behnke said. “I don’t want Steffen, or any RINO, to run unopposed.”

Asked why he considers Steffen as a RINO, which stands for “Republican in name only,” Behnke said Steffen “calls himself a conservative, a Christian, but fiscally and morally I don’t see him taking a hard stance.”

Steffen, who has represented the district since 2015, received a 90% lifetime rating for “Conservative Excellency” from the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2023. 

Steffen has historically aligned himself with conservative factions among Republicans on several occasions, notably leading efforts to decertify 2020 election results in Wisconsin. Steffen is also a coauthor of Assembly Resolution 18, which called for the impeachment of Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe.

Steffen declined multiple interview requests.

Behnke said if elected he wants to decrease state budget allocations and “go back five or six years” to previous state budget amounts. He also suggested cutting state spending as a whole to address the possibility that “someday we’re not going to get the tax dollars that we get from the federal government.”

In statements on his campaign website, Steffen criticized “raising taxes to further grow government programs” and said that he would “continue fighting for a middle-class tax cut and tax-free retirement for our seniors.” 

Behnke also said that he thinks schools in the state are “trying to change children,” and he suggested that schools should produce better results considering “the amount of money we’re spending.”

A July 2022 report found that while school spending per pupil in Wisconsin, unadjusted for inflation, has increased since 2002, education spending nationwide has increased at a much higher rate. Only two states, Idaho and Indiana, had lower increases in school spending during the two-decade period.

Steffen said on his campaign website that he would support parents’ “right to know what’s happening in their child’s classroom,” mentioning his introduction of AB 510, a proposed bill of educational changes previously vetoed by Gov. Evers. The bill has been identified as anti-trans legislation by independent research organization Trans Legislation Tracker. 

The controversial bill proposed 15 “parental rights,” such as allowing parents to determine their children’s religion, to opt their children out of classes or educational material and to determine their children’s name and pronoun usage in school settings. It also proposed requiring schools to notify parents of any instance when a “controversial subject” would be taught or discussed, specifying that such subjects would include “instruction about gender identity, sexual orientation, racial identity, structural, systemic, or institutional racism, or content that is not age-appropriate.”

On his campaign website, Steffen also proposed to “dramatically increase local funding” for law enforcement and frontline workers.

The candidates contrast more in their home turf. Behnke resides in Oconto County and is currently vice chair of the Oconto County Republican Party, and Steffen is more prominent in Brown County.

Ken Sikora, chair of the Oconto County Republican Party, said that while the party doesn’t make an official endorsement, he remains skeptical of Steffen because of his long tenure as a representative and his lack of rural experience. 

“He’s not familiar with this district, and that’s a big disadvantage,” Sikora said. “People don’t know him.”

However, after a campaign ad mailer attacked Behnke for having “trouble with money,” the Oconto County Republican Party promoted Behnke’s campaign on social media and criticized Steffen for the advertisement.

Steffen responded on social media, saying that the mailers “were funded and sent by an Eau Claire-based PAC” that he did not know about.

“Personally… I want somebody new,” Sikora said. “Anybody that’s been in politics and in Madison for more than 10 years is part of the problem.”

When asked if he had any qualms with Steffen’s performance as a representative, Sikora said that while he did not know of any, he still wanted a change.

“I think a lot of people right now want someone outside,” Sikora said. “We want the next Donald Trump.”

Whoever wins the Republican primary will face one of two Democratic challengers, though the district is a safe GOP seat leaning 62-36 based on past election results. According to Dixon Wolf, member at large of the Brown County Republican Party, the party plans on supporting whichever Republican candidate wins the Aug. 13 primary.

“We will support any candidate post-primary that is conservative,” Wolf said.

This article first appeared on Wisconsin Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.