Spiros, Hurd easily win terms in redrawn Assembly districts

By Kevin O’Brien

Rep. John Spiros (R-Marshfield) won a new two-year term in the legislature on Tuesday, decisively fending off a challenge from Democrat John Small in the 86th Assembly District.

Spiros earned 23,329 votes, compared to 11,511 for Small, a former village president of Marathon City and supervisor on the Marathon County Board. In August, Spiros won a three-way race in the Republican primary, beating fellow assembly representative Donna Rozar, also of Marshfield, and town of Day farmer Trine Spindler.

Rozar has been representing the 69th Assembly District since 2021 and will finish out her term at the end of this year. Under a redistricting bill passed into law earlier this year, Rozar was drawn out of the 69th and into the 86th, which Spiros has represented since 2013.

Meanwhile, Rep. Karen Hurd successfully completed her transition into the 69th As-

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sembly District on Tuesday, easily beating her two opponents to take what had become an empty seat after the district’s were redrawn earlier this year.

Hurd, a Republican who has been representing the 68th Assembly District to the west, defeated both Democrat Roger Halls of Stanley and independent candidate Joshua Kelley of Greenwood to become the first representative of the newly reconfigured 69th, which includes all of Clark County, the city of Medford in Taylor County and the village of Athens in Marathon County.

With all precincts reporting their results, Hurd earned 19,534 votes, compared to 6,565 for Halls and 1,056 for Kelley. In August, Hurd fended off a challenge from former Abbotsford mayor Lori Voss, who ran against in the Republican primary.

Prior to running for the 69th Assembly seat, Hurd had to move from Fall Creek in Chippewa County to the town of Withee in Clark County in order to be an eligible candidate. She was first elected to the Assembly in 2022 and will finish off her current term in the 68th District at the end of this year.