Wisconsin's 8th District Primary

Three Democrats are competing for the right to challenge Republican incumbent Rep. Tony Wied (R-WI) in Wisconsin's 8th District, where every major ratings outlet and prediction market favors the GOP heavily in November. Wied is unopposed in his own primary. The Democratic field includes a retired Army officer turned school board member, a wealth manager running as a self-funded progressive, and a first-time candidate who would become only the second openly transgender member of Congress if elected.

A fourth Democrat who initially filed for the seat has since redirected his campaign toward a state Assembly race. Wied, a Republican from De Pere, won the seat in a 2024 special election and then again that November; he faces no opposition in his own primary this cycle. Three Democrats are running to replace him: Rick Crosson, Mark Scheffler and Katrina deVille.

Wisconsin's 8th U.S. House District covers Green Bay and the Door Peninsula along Lake Michigan, then stretches west and north through mostly rural Brown, Calumet, Door, Kewaunee, Marinette, Menominee, Oconto, Outagamie and Waupaca counties, plus parts of Winnebago County, toward the border with Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It spans 11 counties in all and is home to roughly 750,000 people.

Wisconsin runs a traditional partisan primary. Democratic and Republican voters cast separate ballots, and the top vote-getter in each party's primary advances directly to the general election, no top-two system and no ranked-choice component involved. Both primaries land on Aug. 11, with the general election set for Nov. 3.

The Candidates

Rep. Tony Wied (R-WI) sits on the House Committee on Agriculture, the House Committee on Small Business, where he chairs the Subcommittee on Contracting and Infrastructure, and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, where he serves on the Aviation Subcommittee. His legislative record includes sponsoring the Risk-based Oversight for Integrity Act and advancing his own amendments through the Agriculture Committee's work on the bipartisan Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026.

Rick Crosson (D) retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel after 20 years of service, including work as a combat aviator, then moved into transportation and logistics leadership roles. He served on the Green Bay Area Public School District Board of Education before leaving that post in 2025 to run for Congress, and has centered his campaign on restoring congressional checks on the executive branch.

Mark Scheffler (D) is a retired Appleton businessman who began his career as a public school teacher before founding Appleton Group Wealth Management in 2002. He's running as a self-described progressive Democrat, has pledged to accept no corporate PAC money, and has capped his own campaign spending at five dollars per registered voter in the district, about $2.1 million, with a commitment to spend most of it locally.

Katrina deVille (D) is a musician from the Neenah area who fronts the band Katrina deVille and the Nobody Famous and has performed across 30 states and seven countries. A first-time candidate who describes herself as a transgender Democratic Socialist, deVille is campaigning on human rights, a single-payer health care system, and a higher minimum wage.

A fourth Democrat, Benjamin Hable of Birnamwood, filed for the seat but has since redirected his campaign toward a state Assembly race; Ballotpedia lists him as withdrawn from the congressional primary, though he still appears in FEC filings and on some prediction-market listings for the race.

The Money Behind the Race

Combined fundraising in the race reached $1,324,621 as of July 22, according to FEC filings. Wied led all candidates, having raised $1,090,216, spent $619,885 and held $515,561 on hand. Among the Democrats, Scheffler raised $136,755, spent $126,664 and held $10,091, followed by Crosson, who raised $75,430, spent $39,307 and held $23,332, and deVille, who raised $22,220, spent $17,726 and held $4,870. Hable reported no financial activity in the current filing period.

Donor composition varies sharply across the field. Wied's fundraising leaned heavily on large donors, drawing $184,700 from contributions of $2,000 or more, compared with $115,955 from gifts of $200 or less. Scheffler drew the opposite pattern, with $49,039 from small-dollar donors against $5,500 from top-tier contributors. Crosson's base fell in between, with $20,592 in small gifts and $8,660 from major donors. DeVille's reported contributions, $2,376 total, came entirely from small donors.

Ratings vs. Odds

Cook Political Report and Inside Elections both rate Wisconsin's 8th District Solid Republican; Sabato's Crystal Ball rates it Safe Republican. None of the three has revisited the race since spring 2025, which reflects how comfortably the seat leans Republican rather than any coverage gap.

On Kalshi, the Republican nominee is priced to win the general election at 87%, against 12% for the Democratic nominee, on $18,108 in trading volume. In the Democratic primary itself, Kalshi has Crosson as the clear favorite at 80%, with deVille and Scheffler both near 15%. Together, the raters and the markets are telling the same story: whoever wins the Aug. 11 Democratic primary starts the general election as a heavy underdog against Wied.

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