Wisconsin voters will choose between Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul and Republican challenger Eric Toney on Nov. 3 in a rematch shaped by stark disagreements over abortion, election security, crime-lab performance and the attorney general’s role in confronting the Trump administration. Kaul, 45, won his first term in 2018 after defeating Republican incumbent Brad Schimel by less than 1 percentage point. Toney, 42, was elected Fond du Lac County district attorney in 2012 and narrowly lost to Kaul in 2022. The race has also become a referendum on how aggressively Wisconsin’s attorney general should use litigation against federal policy. Kaul has joined more than 70 lawsuits challenging actions by President Donald Trump’s administration, including cases involving federal funding for infrastructure, schools, university research and food assistance programs. Kaul says he joins multistate lawsuits only when he believes federal action harms Wisconsin residents and when there is a strong legal foundation for the challenge. He points to court victories and settlements as evidence that the litigation has produced results. Toney argues that Kaul has abandoned his 2018 criticism of Schimel for filing lawsuits against the Obama administration. Toney says politics have taken priority over public safety, a charge that echoes Kaul’s own earlier campaign argument that the attorney general’s office should not be overly political. Crime-lab delays are another central fault line. A 2024 audit by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau found that the vacancy rate among state crime-laboratory analyst positions rose from 2.6% in July 2019 to 9.5% in July 2023. The median time to analyze evidence increased from 39 days in fiscal year 2019-20 to 58 days in fiscal year 2022-23. DNA testing has taken even longer in more recent data. The median turnaround time for criminal-case DNA testing rose from 61 days in 2022 to 112 days in 2024. During that period, the number of evidence items increased even as the number of new DNA cases fell slightly. Toney says the delays show the state needs clearer performance standards and stronger management at the laboratories. He also points to the limited number of new positions approved by the Legislature compared with the number requested by Kaul’s office. Kaul says direct comparisons are misleading because the laboratories now use more sophisticated testing, including probabilistic genotyping, which can identify matches in more complicated cases. He also says improved toxicology equipment detects smaller quantities of drugs such as fentanyl but produces more data for analysts to review. Kaul has requested additional laboratory positions in recent state budgets. The Legislature approved three of 16 positions requested for the 2023-25 budget and none of the 19 requested for 2025-27. Abortion policy presents one of the clearest ideological differences. Toney supports Wisconsin’s current prohibition on abortion after 20 weeks and says any change should be decided by voters rather than lawmakers or attorneys general. He has also connected abortion policy to his criticism of a New Richmond school policy allowing transgender girls to use girls’ bathrooms, a policy challenged in federal court by parents and students. Kaul says he would join multistate lawsuits to protect access to abortion medication if the federal government moved to restrict it. He argues that reproductive-health decisions should be made by patients, their doctors and their families rather than by government officials. The candidates also dispute Kaul’s past comments about Wisconsin’s abortion law. Toney has characterized Kaul’s description of the 20-week limit as a restriction as support for eliminating the limit. Kaul says he wants changes that allow people to obtain reproductive health care without government intervention. On elections, Toney emphasizes investigating possible voter fraud. He supports creating a process to check voter rolls for noncitizens who may have been added after obtaining driver’s licenses or identification cards, and he says people who illegally register or vote should be prosecuted. Kaul focuses instead on protecting voters from intimidation and defending election results in court. He was attorney general in 2020, when former President Trump and his allies sought to overturn Wisconsin’s election results. Kaul says his office defended the results and prevailed in every case, preserving the voters’ decision. The candidates also take different approaches to officer-involved shootings, including the fatal Madison police shooting of Corey Ruiz, who was armed with a knife. Kaul supports expanded treatment, diversion and mental-health programs for people whose underlying struggles bring them into the criminal-justice system, along with community policing and accountability for people who pose a serious danger. Toney says reviews of such shootings must consider both police conduct and the actions of the person who was shot. He stresses officer training in de-escalation and use of force and says people should follow police commands during an encounter and pursue legal remedies afterward if they believe an officer acted unlawfully. The contest gives voters a choice between Kaul’s emphasis on civil rights litigation, reproductive access and safeguards against election intimidation, and Toney’s focus on prosecutorial enforcement, crime-lab accountability and closer scrutiny of voter rolls. Their differences are likely to keep the attorney general’s office at the center of Wisconsin’s broader political battles after Election Day.