The 1855 United States Senate election in Wisconsin was held in the 8th Wisconsin Legislature between January 30, 1855, and February 1, 1855. Incumbent Democratic U.S. senator Isaac P. Walker did not run for re-election. Former U.S. representative Charles Durkee was elected United States senator on the eighth ballot, and became the first Republican U.S. senator from Wisconsin.[1]
This was the first U.S. Senate election in Wisconsin after the creation of the Republican Party. Republicans held a majority in the Wisconsin State Assembly, with 44 of 82 seats; Democrats held a narrow majority in the Wisconsin Senate, with 13 of 25 seats. As the Republican Party was a new creation, party loyalties were still in flux, with several members of the legislature not officially aligned with either major party.
With 44 seats in the Assembly and 11 seats in the Senate, Republicans technically held a bare majority of the total legislator votes, but they struggled for three days to unify behind their candidate. Durkee ultimately received 53 of the 55 votes of Republican legislators. The two holdouts who did not vote for Durkee were representatives Joseph Schrage of Sheboygan County and Mitchell L. Delaney of Washington County. To secure the necessary 54 votes, Durkee won the vote of independent (later Republican) Alexander Randall.[1]
