Berman defeats Steil to flip Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District

Democrat Mitchell Berman defeated Republican U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District Tuesday night in a race to become the first Democrat in the seat in more than three decades. 

The Associated Press called the race for Berman at 11:48 p.m. With 95% of the ballots counted, Berman had more than 52% of the vote to Steil’s share of just under 48%.

Berman’s victory breaks Steil’s four-term winning streak that began with the incumbent’s first election in 2018 and a Republican winning streak for the 1st District seat that began with the 1994 election.

In his victory speech, Berman gave a nod to Wisconsin’s recent World Series championship team.

“I have to give a special shout out and a special thank you to the Milwaukee Brewers for reminding the entire country what Wisconsin can do when we set our minds to it,” he said.

Berman harkened to his job as a nurse and the themes of affordability and healthcare that have been central to his campaign, along with his message focusing on working-class representation in Congress.

“As an ER nurse, I’ve seen patients rationing their medication because they didn’t know they’d be able to afford their next refill. I’ve seen working families, including my own, do everything right and still get squeezed to the ground. And I came into this race to fight for them,” Berman said. “This is about working-class communities coming together to advocate for change.”

The 1st District, which stretches from Lake Michigan to South Central Wisconsin, has been on Democrats’ congressional wish list for most of the last three decades, but it has been out of reach that whole time despite periodic attempts to flip the seat. It covers Kenosha, Racine and most of Walworth counties along with the eastern half of Rock County and the southern third of Milwaukee County. 

Republican and former U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan easily won 10 terms. Steil, a corporate lawyer and former Ryan aide, embarked on a similar trajectory, winning by nine or 10 percentage points in 2024 and 2022 and even wider margins in his two previous elections. 

After Berman won a crowded Democratic primary in August, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added the district to its list of seats targeted to flip from Republican to Democrat. In the final weeks of the campaign, Berman’s campaign pointed to polling showing the two candidates tied or Berman slightly ahead. 

Steil entered the general election with a significant fundraising advantage. Federal campaign reports through Oct. 14 showed Steil had raised approximately $6.4 million, compared with about $2 million for Berman.

Berman, an emergency room nurse who worked for 11 years at the Veterans Administration, entered the race in August 2025, saying his experiences with patients who could not afford basic medical care had helped convince him to run.

Berman, a resident in the Racine County town of Raymond, had previously been involved in local government disputes, including organizing a recall effort against two Raymond School Board members and filing an open meetings lawsuit against the school district in 2024.

Despite Steil’s election track record, there were signs more than a year ago of voter discontent, when several hundred voters at a noisy listening session in Elkhorn frequently shouted him down while he sought to defend the sweeping Republican tax and spending bill that President Donald Trump signed into law in July 2025.

Berman accused Steil of abandoning commitments to protect Medicaid by supporting the 2025 bill, which included tax cuts that largely favored the wealthy and corporations and made cuts to Medicaid and other safety-net programs over the next decade.  Steil defended the legislation as a measure to lower taxes, strengthen border security and tighten Medicaid eligibility requirements.

Berman focused his campaign on rising costs, particularly in healthcare, and with a message that portrayed Steil as out of touch with the needs and concerns of voters in the district. He also criticized Steil for supporting tariffs that Trump imposed early in his second term, charging that they were contributing the rising prices for consumers. 

Steil campaigned on his legislative record, highlighting Republican tax cuts, efforts to strengthen election security and legislation aimed at restricting stock trading by members of Congress. Steil defended the 2025 law, which included a temporary break in federal income taxes on qualifying tips and overtime pay and expanding tax deductions for seniors.

He also highlighted his work as chairman of the House Administration Committee on legislation requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, and his Stop Insider Trading Act, which passed the House but stalled in the Senate.

The Berman campaign contrasted Steil’s stock trading proposal with tougher legislation that has stalled in Congress.

Berman talked about treating underinsured and uninsured patients during his emergency room shifts. He also highlighted connections between Steil donors in banking, crypto currency, industries involved in data center development and housing investment with his votes on bills that benefited those industries.