Wisconsin Senate Democrats posted "Another one bites the dust" on X alongside an image of Republican State Sen. Van Wanggaard on the same day the 73-year-old lawmaker announced his retirement, citing his family's devastating health crises. The post included the hashtag "#OPENTOWORK."

According to Daily Caller, Wanggaard announced Tuesday that he would not run in November's election, citing personal reasons, his family's health, and his age. His chief of staff, Scott Kelly, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the circumstances behind that decision were no secret to anyone in the state senate, including the Democrats now celebrating his departure.

"The family health struggles that Van has been dealing with over the last 4 years are well known in the State Senate. Democrats frequently check in with him about his daughter, with sympathy and prayers. Any excuse of 'we didn't know' is patently false."

Three of Wanggaard's siblings have died. His daughter has Stage 4 cancer. Another brother suffered a heart attack. These are the "personal reasons" the Wisconsin Senate Democrats chose to spike like a football.

The Senator Responds

Wanggaard replied on X Thursday afternoon, two days after the post went up and apparently two days after anyone on the Democratic side thought to reconsider.

"It's been 48 hours. I decide to retire to be with my family after 3 siblings died, daughter has Stage 4 cancer, and another brother had a heart attack + more."

He called on Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein, the top Democrat in the chamber, to tell her team to take it down. The DCNF reached out to Hesselbein's office to ask whether she plans to direct her team to delete the post. Her office did not immediately respond.

As of Friday at 12 p.m. EDT, the post was still live. Three days. No deletion. No apology. Wanggaard's response had drawn 16,000 likes. The Democrats' post sat at 185.

Even X users flagged the cruelty. A community note was appended to the post with a simple correction:

"Important Context: He's retiring because of age/personal tragedy – there is no Dem victory here."

They Knew

This is the detail that turns a tasteless social media post into something worse. Kelly's statement is unambiguous: Democrats in the Wisconsin Senate have personally checked in with Wanggaard about his daughter's cancer. They offered sympathy. They offered prayers. Then their official party account turned his departure into a punchline.

Kelly did not mince words in his statement to the DCNF:

"Using the term 'Another one bites the dust…' in regards to Van's retirement is grossly insensitive, hurtful and out-of-line given his family's health. It's disgusting. They should take the post down and apologize."

That apology has not come.

The Spin

The Wisconsin State Senate Democratic Committee's communications director released a statement on Tuesday that tried to fold Wanggaard's retirement into a broader narrative of Republican weakness. The statement lumped his departure with the retirements of Rob Hutton and Stephen Nass, framing all of them as evidence that Republicans "would rather retire than risk losing their seats or serving in a Republican minority."

"Voters across Wisconsin are fed up with the dysfunction and lack of action we've seen from Senate Republicans. Democrats will win a majority in the Senate this November and get to work cutting costs, investing in our communities, and creating a strong future for our state."

So a man burying siblings and caring for a daughter with Stage 4 cancer is, in the SSDC's telling, just another Republican too scared to face voters. That framing requires you to ignore everything Wanggaard publicly stated about why he is leaving. It requires you to ignore what your own colleagues privately told you in the hallways of the state capitol.

It requires, in other words, exactly the kind of selective memory that makes voters distrust political institutions in the first place.

Politics Over People

Wanggaard represents a Racine-based swing district that former Vice President Kamala Harris carried by just over one percentage point in the 2024 presidential election. The seat had been made significantly more friendly to Democrats following a 2024 mid-decade redistricting plan spearheaded by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Sabato's Crystal Ball rates control of both chambers as toss-ups.

In other words, Democrats may well pick up this seat. The political math is real. Nobody disputes that retirement announcements matter in competitive chambers.

But there is a difference between noting that a seat is now open and posting a Queen lyric over a grieving man's photograph. One is political analysis. The other is something Wanggaard diagnosed precisely:

"It shows that Democrats don't care about people, only power."

The Wisconsin Senate Democrats account describes itself in its bio as "Working to elect Democrats to the Wisconsin State Senate." Fair enough. Every party has campaign arms, and campaign arms play hardball. But the calculation here reveals something about what the people running this account consider acceptable collateral damage in pursuit of a majority.

A man's dead siblings. His daughter's cancer. Reduced to content.

Three days, and the post still stands. That silence is its own statement, and Hesselbein's office hasn't found the words to contradict it.