# Chris Kapenga

Chris Kapenga is a Republican member of the Wisconsin Senate for district 33.

- Party: Republican
- Seat: Wisconsin Senate, district 33
- Serving since: 2015-08-06
- Current term: WI 2025–26 session
- Open States ID: ocd-person/8d93f6ba-19eb-4684-a47d-6de08e009741

Source: https://americaspoliticalpulse.com/p/8d93f6ba-19eb-4684-a47d-6de08e009741 (America’s Political Pulse, Polarization Research Lab), data through 2026-10-27. Data under CC BY 4.0. Cite as: Westwood, Sean J., and Yphtach Lelkes. 2024. America's Political Pulse [data set].

## Headline

Kapenga sits at +0.73 on the CSIP scale, more conservative than 92% of State Senate Republicans.

## What Kapenga says (WI 2025–26 session)

169 classified statements: 169 posts on X. Each rate is the share of statements with the label, against the State Senate Republicans average; rank 1 is the highest rate.

| Label | Kapenga | State Senate Republicans average | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal attacks | 5.3% | 2.3% | 57 of 354 |
| Policy criticism | 34.9% | 9.5% | 7 of 354 |
| Policy discussion | 62.7% | 37.3% | 27 of 354 |
| Bipartisanship | 2.4% | 2.3% | 126 of 354 |
| Credit claiming | 15.4% | 15.4% | 151 of 354 |
| Extreme labels | 4.1% | 1.3% | 30 of 354 |

Most discussed policy areas: Economics and Public Finance 26% (State Senate Republicans 12%); Government Operations and Politics 19% (State Senate Republicans 17%); Taxation 18% (State Senate Republicans 7.1%); Education 12% (State Senate Republicans 14%); Agriculture and Food 8.5% (State Senate Republicans 6.2%).

## Ideology (CSIP)

CSIP score +0.73 (standard error 0.02), from 423 donors and 579 roll calls. Negative is left of 0, positive right of it, on one scale for every official. 92% of State Senate Republicans score lower.

## Votes (WI 2025–26 session)

191 roll calls. Attendance 100% (Wisconsin Senate 99.8%). Party unity 95.0% (97.3%). 31 votes against the party majority.

Key votes:

- 2026-03-17 · voted yea · CONCURRENCE · AB 911 Relating to: funding for a battery collection and recycling program and making an appropriation. (FE) · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB911/
- 2026-03-17 · voted nay · CONCURRENCE · AB 454 Relating to: a workforce home loan program. (FE) · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB454/
- 2026-03-17 · voted nay · CONCURRENCE · AB 182 Relating to: changes to the low-income housing tax credit. (FE) · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB182/
- 2026-03-17 · voted yea · CONCURRENCE · AB 604 Relating to: coverage under the Medical Assistance program for incarcerated individuals. (FE) · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB604/
- 2026-03-17 · voted yea · CONCURRENCE · AB 248 Relating to: vacancies in appointive state offices. · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB248/
- 2026-03-17 · voted yea · CONCURRENCE · AB 884 Relating to: who may purchase certain contractual services and technical changes to tax provisions related to qualified retirement plans and the film… · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB884/
- 2026-03-17 · voted yea · CONCURRENCE · AB 595 Relating to: compliance with the federal Help America Vote Act, voter registration data sharing agreements, removing ineligible voters from the… · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB595/
- 2026-03-17 · voted nay · CONCURRENCE · AB 373 Relating to: creating a refundable individual income tax credit for the parent of a stillbirth and making an appropriation. (FE) · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB373/
- 2026-03-17 · voted yea · CONCURRENCE · AB 685 Relating to: individual income tax subtraction for certain theft losses. (FE) · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB685/
- 2026-03-17 · voted yea · CONCURRENCE · AB 650 Relating to: funding for identity verification under the unemployment insurance law and making an appropriation. (FE) · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB650/

## Legislation (WI 2025–26 session)

Sponsored 45 bills: 45 reached committee, 16 passed one chamber, 13 passed both, 4 became law. Cosponsored 0. 71.1% of sponsored bills got out of committee (Wisconsin Senate 42.9%; rank 6 of 33).

Recent sponsored bills:

- SB 1094: Relating to: creating the penalty of death or life imprisonment for persons who are convicted of certain child sex offenses, providing an exemption from… (in committee, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SB1094/
- SB 1034: Relating to: prohibited employment for former members of the Public Service Commission. (in committee, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SB1034/
- SB 1010: Relating to: requiring information relating to the food stamp program to be compiled and provided to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (FE) (in committee, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SB1010/
- SB 1: Relating to: onetime individual income tax rebates. (FE) (in committee, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SB1/
- SB 995: Relating to: funding for individual income tax rebates and making an appropriation. (FE) (in committee, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SB995/
- SB 940: Relating to: the rule-making authority of agencies. (FE) (in committee, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SB940/
- SJR 124: Relating to: legislative suspension of rules promulgated by state agencies (first consideration). (in committee, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SJR124/
- SJR 116: Relating to: prohibiting the governor from using the partial veto to create or increase any tax or fee (second consideration). (became law, 2026-06-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SJR116/
- SB 763: Relating to: the management of assets of and the voting of ownership interests in securities by the Wisconsin Retirement System and the retirement systems of… (in committee, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SB763/
- SB 781: Relating to: excluding costs funded by referenda from shared costs for the purpose of determining general equalization aids for school districts. (FE) (in committee, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SB781/

## Campaign money (2026 cycle)

Itemized receipts $33.2K (State Senate Republicans median $46.2K). 97% of itemized individual money came from in state. Aggregates only; no individual donors.

## Recent statements

Newest first. Posts on X are listed by date and link only.

- 2026-10-26 · Post on X · labels: policy criticism, policy discussion, credit claiming · https://x.com/SenatorKapenga/status/2114705758759591946
- 2026-10-20 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion · https://x.com/SenatorKapenga/status/2112570457627009336
- 2026-10-14 · Post on X · labels: policy criticism, policy discussion · https://x.com/SenatorKapenga/status/2110419212057358834
- 2026-10-08 · Post on X · labels: policy criticism, policy discussion · https://x.com/SenatorKapenga/status/2107990259032023220
- 2026-09-28 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion · https://x.com/SenatorKapenga/status/2104553614475714964
- 2026-09-22 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion · https://x.com/SenatorKapenga/status/2102382991641104496
- 2026-09-11 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion · https://x.com/SenatorKapenga/status/2098547888297234725
- 2026-09-09 · Post on X · labels: personal attacks, policy discussion, credit claiming · https://x.com/SenatorKapenga/status/2097669400740368698
- 2026-09-04 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion · https://x.com/SenatorKapenga/status/2095861775740637530
- 2026-09-02 · Post on X · https://x.com/SenatorKapenga/status/2095127595146793117

## Links

- Official site: https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2023/legislators/senate/2422
- Campaign site: https://chriskapenga.com/
- X: https://x.com/SenatorKapenga
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SenatorKapenga
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-kapenga-75606412/

Full profile, with every chart and the methods: https://americaspoliticalpulse.com/p/8d93f6ba-19eb-4684-a47d-6de08e009741