‘My Number One Priority’: Zamarripa Stakes Her Wisconsin Race on Driver’s Licenses Her Office Can’t Issue

Asked what she would do with the office, Wisconsin secretary of state candidate JoCasta Zamarripa named one thing.

“My number one priority is to see the governor sign driver’s licenses for undocumented Wisconsinites into law. And I hope that that governor will be David Crowley,” Zamarripa said in remarks captured by WMTV Capitol bureau chief Vanessa Kjeldsen and posted Oct. 15.

Zamarripa is pitching the job as a platform rather than a lever — advocate for a governor and Legislature that pass the law, then champion it from an office that keeps the state’s records and seal.

Her case for the policy is public safety. She argues the licenses would mean, in her words, more drivers “with a driver’s license driving on our roads.”

“Individuals will be more likely to purchase that car insurance which is law here in Wisconsin if they have licenses to drive,” she said in 2014, when a version of the bill drew a Republican co-sponsor, Door County’s Garey Bies.

She has carried this idea for more than a decade. As a state representative, she sponsored bills letting undocumented residents obtain non-REAL ID driver’s cards without proof of legal presence. None became law. Today, nineteen states and the District of Columbia allow licenses without proof of legal status. Wisconsin still requires it.

What the office actually does

The secretary of state’s office keeps official records of the governor’s and Legislature’s acts, maintains the Great Seal, and sits on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, which manages school trust funds. Driver’s licenses belong to the DMV, a division of the state Department of Transportation. Elections belong to the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Zamarripa says she would continue modernizing and expanding the office’s record-keeping, and has framed the role as one that “may not come with sweeping powers, but it comes with a platform,” as she put it when she launched her campaign.

Her Republican opponent, businessman Jay Schroeder, wants the office to mean more. He is campaigning to disband the Elections Commission and move election administration under the secretary of state — a shift Zamarripa opposes. She has said she is “fearful” of his goals and believes the commission is the best fit for running elections, while she would use her soapbox to keep voters confident heading to the polls. Schroeder frames his run the same platform-first way: “I’m running on this crystal-clear issue,” he told Civic Media, so he could take voter backing for it to the governor and Legislature.

Green Party candidate Pete Karas is also in the race, focused on digitizing records and the public lands board. Zamarripa, Schroeder, and Karas face voters Nov. 3.