Where Our Candidates Stand

Outagamie County has real choices on the ballot this year. Here is what our Democratic candidates have vowed to do, in their own words, and the positives for many local families if Democrats win their elections. Data included below is sourced.

Your races depend on where you live. Districts split Outagamie County, so not every race below is on your ballot. Most of the county votes in U.S. House District 8 (Rick Crosson) at the federal level.
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A marquee race: State Senate District 19

Emily Tseffos, chair of the Outagamie County Democrats, is challenging Republican incumbent Rachael Cabral-Guevara. District 19 covers part of Outagamie; if you live elsewhere in the county, your key contest may be a U.S. House race or a different Assembly district below.

Emily Tseffos
Democrat
“Lower Costs. Support Kids. Safer Communities.”
  • Health care costs: worried about premiums going up, “a huge issue for a lot of people.”
  • Public schools: districts keep going to operational referendums “simply to cover the costs of educating children.”
  • Property taxes: “a symptom of chronically underfunding our local governments and our public schools.”
  • Working families: “the minimum wage is not a livable wage,” leaving people reliant on SNAP.
Rachael Cabral-Guevara
Republican · Incumbent
Rachael Cabral-Guevara
State Senator since 2023
  • Taxes: “People know best how to spend their money, not the government.”
  • Abortion: “I believe in the sanctity of life,” with exceptions for the mother’s health, rape, and incest.
  • Health care: emphasizes price transparency; has not backed full BadgerCare expansion.
  • On the record: voted for the 12-month postpartum Medicaid extension (“we’re all on board with this bill”).

This seat is winnable, and they know it.

Campaign filings as of July 27, 2026 show the Republican incumbent has outspent Emily by roughly four to one. Nobody pours that kind of money into a seat they are sure to win. Emily is running a grassroots campaign, which means your time and your dollars go further here than almost anywhere else on the ballot.

More Democrats fighting for Outagamie

Local candidates running to give our county stronger representation. Each is shown with the priorities they have stated publicly.

Alicia Saunders
State Assembly, District 2
What they have vowed to do
  • Fully fund Childcare Counts and expand child care assistance so more working families qualify.
  • Make paid family and medical leave a right, not a privilege.
  • Defend postpartum Medicaid and expand prenatal and postpartum care in rural areas.
What it means for OutagamieChild care and rural maternal-health access are concrete pocketbook issues for families in the district’s smaller communities.
Lee Snodgrass
State Assembly, District 52
What they have vowed to do
  • Treat child care as a workforce issue: cap the cost of care for families and grow the child-care workforce.
  • Pass paid family and medical leave, “a top priority for our rising majority.”
  • Create a public option for BadgerCare and protect maternal health, including doula coverage.
What it means for OutagamieA longtime Appleton legislator and former Outagamie County Dems chair; her child-care and BadgerCare priorities are direct pocketbook issues for Fox Valley families.
Becky Nichols
State Assembly, District 53
What they have vowed to do
  • Lower the cost of living for working families.
  • Invest in public education and increase access to affordable, comprehensive health care.
  • Fund Childcare Counts and guarantee paid family and medical leave.
What it means for OutagamieDistrict 53 covers Neenah, Menasha, and part of Appleton, where her cost-of-living and school-funding focus maps onto local property-tax and referendum pressure.
Alex Corrigan
State Assembly, District 55
What they have vowed to do
  • Manage rising costs: climbing property taxes and utility bills nobody can explain.
  • Uplift education, including full-day 4K and competitive wages for child-care providers.
  • Strengthen community and support working families.
What it means for Outagamie“The problems keeping her neighbors up at night aren’t local failures. They’re state level decisions landing on local families.” (District 55 is mostly Winnebago County and includes part of southern Outagamie.)
Grace Abitz
State Assembly, District 56
What they have vowed to do
  • Raise the special-education reimbursement rate toward 60% (it is barely at 40% now).
  • Make sure child care centers get the help they need to stay open and affordable.
  • Protect local clean water: no new AI data centers draining natural resources.
What it means for OutagamieSpecial-ed reimbursement and child-care funding are state-budget levers that directly reach Outagamie school districts; the clean-water stance speaks to the rural western county.
Joey Marschall
State Assembly, District 57
What they have vowed to do
  • Bring down the cost of living and make the district more affordable for working families.
  • Make health care affordable, so no one has to choose between a medical bill and putting food on the table.
What it means for OutagamieDistrict 57 takes in a slice of Outagamie County; the focus on affordability and health-care costs speaks to Fox Valley families.

An independent in State Senate District 1

Mark Becker, a former Republican now running as an independent, is challenging Republican Nic Cravillion. District 1 reaches into Outagamie County, including the Town of Buchanan and several Appleton wards.

Mark Becker
State Senate, District 1 · Independent
What he has vowed to do
  • Take on a skyrocketing cost of living and “stagnant wages that have failed to keep up.”
  • Fix chronically underfunded schools that lead to “soaring property taxes.”
  • Confront “an unaccountable and unresponsive state government” on the cost of groceries, health care, and housing.
What it means for OutagamieHis cost-of-living and school-funding focus speaks to the Outagamie parts of District 1. In his words: “It’s not about left vs. right, it’s about right vs. wrong.”

Sources

Emily Tseffos (SD-19). Campaign: emilyforwi.com. Quotes: Civic Media, Nov. 25, 2025, civicmedia.us.
Rachael Cabral-Guevara (SD-19). Positions via BallotReady and rachaelforsenate.com. Postpartum Medicaid vote: Urban Milwaukee (supporter/yes-vote, not an author).
SD-19 spending. Reported disbursements as of July 27, 2026, Wisconsin Ethics Commission (CFIS) filings. Recent additions may not yet appear in WEC data.
Alicia Saunders (AD-2). WisPolitics; 9to5 Wisconsin candidate questionnaire.
Lee Snodgrass (AD-52). votesnodgrass.com; 9to5 Wisconsin candidate questionnaire.
Becky Nichols (AD-53). DLCC; beckynicholsforassembly.com; 9to5 questionnaire.
Alex Corrigan (AD-55). alexfor55th.com; 9to5 questionnaire.
Grace Abitz (AD-56). Direct quotes to the Appleton Post-Crescent, July 8, 2026, via AOL/Post-Crescent; 9to5 questionnaire.
Joey Marschall (AD-57). Priorities as reported in the Waupaca County Post race preview, waupacanow.com (full article paywalled; positions paraphrased, not quoted).
Mark Becker (SD-1, Independent). markforwisconsin.vote. SD-1 boundaries (includes Buchanan and Appleton wards in Outagamie): Wisconsin LTSB district maps (2023 Act 94).

Like what they stand for? Help make it happen.

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