Anthony Steven Evers (/ˈiːvərz/ EE-vərz;[1] born November 5, 1951) is an American politician and educator serving since 2019 as the 46th governor of Wisconsin.

[4] Born and raised in Plymouth, Wisconsin, Evers was educated at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, eventually receiving a Ph.D. After working as a teacher for several years, he became a school administrator, serving as a principal, until he assumed the office of district superintendent.

[23][24] In March 2016, the United States Department of Education announced that Evers had been selected to serve on the Negotiated Rulemaking Committee for Title 1, Part A, of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

The council stressed that declining enrollment and escalating fixed costs put added pressure on small, sparsely populated districts.

[32] He cited his 2017 reelection as state superintendent with over 70% of the vote, as well as his criticism of Governor Walker, as key reasons for deciding to run.

In the August 2022 Democratic primary, Evers was unopposed and Brookfield-area state representative Sara Rodriguez was nominated as his running mate.

[35] Evers has extensively used his veto power, due to his opposition to the vast majority of the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature's agenda.

[7][8] Evers's vetoes have included laws related to election procedures, government powers during a pandemic, education, federal aid, redistricting, guns, police and crime, abortion, social welfare programs, and regulations and licensing.

[6] Since his election as governor, Republicans in the legislature and state supreme court have used their positions in partisan attempts to usurp powers from Evers and executive departments.

This began just weeks after his election—before he took office—when the Republican-controlled legislature met in a lame-duck session and passed legislation to reduce the powers of the incoming governor and attorney general.

[37][38] The move was "widely criticized as a power play"[37] and challenged as unconstitutional in four lawsuits variously filed by Evers, other Wisconsin Democrats, and labor unions.

[36] The Wisconsin Supreme Court also endorsed most of the lame-duck laws the legislature adopted, defeating lawsuits brought by the League of Women Voters and Service Employees International Union.

Evers said, "There is simply not ample evidence to support the president's contention that there exists a national security crisis at our Southwestern border.

Evers also proposed to decriminalize the possession or distribution of 25 grams or less of marijuana in Wisconsin and to repeal the requirement that users of cannabidiol obtain a physician's certification every year.

[53] On April 16, Evers ordered an extension of the statewide lockdown to May 26, and mandated all schools in the state to remain closed through the end of the academic year.

[54] The legislature promptly sued to block the order, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court's conservative majority ultimately struck it down on May 13, following the expiration of Evers's initial state of emergency.

[59] On July 30, Evers issued a statewide mask mandate in a new attempt to curb the increasing spread of the virus, declaring a new state of emergency in order to do so.

[61] After the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Evers issued a statement denouncing the excessive use of force by police and invoking the names of African Americans killed by law enforcement.

[62] He said, "While we do not have all of the details yet, what we know for certain is that he is not the first Black man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in our state or our country.

He also proposed legalizing medical and recreational marijuana, as well as increasing the minimum wage and granting public workers collective bargaining rights.

Wisconsin has one of the most extensive line-item veto powers in the country, with governors enabled to delete specific words in order to change the meaning of a sentence or whole section of law.

[citation needed] After 2024 Wisconsin state legislative elections, Evers called for the creation of statewide citizen-initiated referendum process.

[80] In December 2021, as the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a case that overturned Roe v. Wade, Evers vetoed five bills that would have restricted access to reproductive healthcare in Wisconsin, saying "as long as I'm governor, I will veto any legislation that turns back the clock on reproductive rights in this state—and that's a promise.

[84] In January 2020, he created a nonpartisan redistricting commission by executive order with the intent of drawing an alternative map proposal for post-2020 census redistricting to counter the proposal the Republican-controlled legislature has said it will put forward if the issue ends up in the state's court system, as it has under past periods of divided government in Wisconsin.

The Court, with a 4–3 conservative majority, chose to assume jurisdiction and soon articulated that it would pursue a map with the least changes necessary from the existing one to bring it into compliance with the 2020 census figures.

[88] Evers has said that Scott Walker's decisions about health care in Wisconsin led to higher insurance premiums for residents.

[90] Evers supports legislation that would protect residents from higher costs for health insurance due to old age or preexisting conditions.

[80] Evers supports permitting undocumented immigrants living in Wisconsin to obtain driver's licenses, and has called this position "common sense".

He ran for governor on a promise to focus on improving roads and bridges, and has said he is open to imposing a gas tax to fund the projects.

[100] Having campaigned on his support of cannabis in Wisconsin, Evers announced in January 2019 the inclusion of medical marijuana in his state budget as a "first step" toward legalization.