After a disastrous national election, Wisconsin Democrats are leading the way

Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler introduces Sen. Tammy Baldwin during her victory celebration Thursday. (Erik Gunn | Wisconsin Examiner)

Amidst a barrage of absurd And terrible As news pours out of Washington, where newly elected President Donald Trump continues to outdo himself with new, unqualified Cabinet appointments, Democrats are looking for hope in Wisconsin.

Two bright lights from our state made the news after November 5. US Senator Tammy Baldwin went against the red wave win a third termand Ben Wikler, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, was reported by Politics are in the running to lead the national party. Baldwin and Wikler share an approach to politics that could help Democrats emerge from the wilderness.

After losing the White House and failing to gain control of the US Senate or House of Representatives (not to mention the likelihood of two new Trump appointments to the US Supreme Court that will leave a lasting far-right supermajority could create), Democrats would do well to look to Wisconsin for a new approach to politics.

In Wisconsin, Trump’s margin of victory – 0.9% of the vote – was the smallest of the seven swing states he carried. Baldwin has, as she has consistently done, made inroads into rural, Republican-voting counties. And Wikler took an approach to organizing in rural and urban areas of the state that didn’t take voting for granted.

While extreme polarization and loss of contact with working-class voters are widely considered the main reasons why Democrats lost the 2024 election, Baldwin and Wikler have a recipe for addressing these problems.

“It’s a state where showing up, being present in all the different communities, rejecting the kind of false choices that cable pundits would like to impose on a state like Wisconsin, and where rolling up your sleeves can make a difference,” Wikler says. told me in 2019, shortly after he returned to Wisconsin to revive the state party. At the time, Republicans had just lost full control of all three branches of state government, with the election of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in 2018. Since then, Wikler has overseen a fight to regain power in a state where the Republicans, until recently still dominated politics.

Wikler followed his own advice and opened new field offices across the state. He remained tenaciously optimistic as he guided his party through the rough waters of the pandemic, helping not only elect President Joe Biden and re-elect Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, but also help secure a new liberal majority in the State Supreme Court, which ended the worst of it. partisan gerrymander in the nation, which had protected a vastly disproportionate Republican legislative majority.

I was impressed by Wikler’s optimism in 2019, when the gerrymander cards seemed insurmountable.

He pointed to grassroots organizers across Wisconsin who advocated for fair maps and “got every elected group of people in the state to pass resolutions condemning gerrymandering.”

“All of this must clearly lead to electoral accountability for anyone who destroys the idea of ​​a representative democracy in the state,” Wikler said at the time. It sounded extremely optimistic. Yet here we are.

Commenting on the perennial debate over whether Democrats should galvanize their base to act or convince disgruntled centrist Republicans and independents to vote for Democrats, Wikler told me, “in Wisconsin we need to do both.”

“What I’m frustrated by every day is the idea that you can’t fight for both white working-class voters and voters of color,” he added. “Guess what? There are people of all races in the working class. And they all want schools and jobs and safe communities and air they can breathe. And none of them like the effects of Trump’s actual policies — even though some of them think they might like Trump as a man.”

That philosophy is very similar to the politics of Tammy Baldwin, who continues to amaze experts by winning over rural and working-class voters, even though she is a lesbian and has a strong progressive voting record. Listen carefully to her constituents and do something for them, whether it’s the provision she included in the Affordable Care Act that lets children stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26 or federal investments in agriculture and manufacturing in Wisconsin, or through “Buy America” lines , Baldwin connects with her voters across the ideological divide.

Like Baldwin says it, “People across Wisconsin want solutions to their challenges and are not so interested in Republicans versus Democrats – they are interested in who you stand up against and who you stand up for.”

Wikler agrees: “The most important thing to understand is that Wisconsin voters are less centrist than they are conflicted. There is a populist streak with both left and right influences running through the state. And the fundamental question voters ask is, ‘Is this person on my side?’”

That’s an illuminating vision that could lead Democratic politicians and voters to a better day.

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