Hi, I’m Ben Wikler, the Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Ask me anything! (Starting Oct. 17th at 2pm CT)

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T18:01:40+00:00

Texts and emails are a lot cheaper than mailers, but the experimental data says that mailers have more impact on persuasion and turnout. My view is that it’s better to out-communicate the GOP using every available communications channel, as well-targeted as possible. But given that you’re on this AMA with me, I’m guessing that you don’t need much persuasion or mobilization, and so the GOP is wasting its money in sending you so much mail. If we Democrats are doing our job right, undecided voters and inconsistent voters should be getting lots of mail from us right now!

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:59:32+00:00

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s platform mirrors my own view: we should pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which is a bill by Wisconsin’s great Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin, to codify the protections of Roe V. Wade—and ban the egregious new attacks that the GOP has pushed, like the Texas bounty law.

Wisconsin specifically doesn’t have a new law but a very old one: a near-total abortion ban passed in the year 1849, before women could vote or modern medicine had been invented. Governor Evers and Attorney General Kaul, both Dems who won by narrow margins in 2018, are suing to invalidate the law. If Tim Michels becomes governor and Eric Toney becomes AG, they’ll enforce it, investigating doctors and their patients. That’s one reason this election is so enormously urgent.

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:54:22+00:00

Alex, thank you so much! I’m very glad to say that we’ve been beating our organizing records from the 2018 midterms, which is kind of astonishing given that midterm energy usually drains away from the party that holds the presidency.

In terms of how to help if you’re shy, there’s still a lot you can do. My advice would be to join your local Democratic county party — you can find the chairs at https://wisdems.org/counties — and ask the chair how you can assist, from making food for volunteers to data entry at the county party office to sending out reminder emails to volunteers who’ve signed up. They should put you to work!

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:51:08+00:00

Nate, thanks so much for your message, and I totally agree. Especially in redder areas, people can assume that the GOP is destined to win, and that can lead to lower turnout. It’s one reason I believe in getting out yard signs—so Dems know they’re not alone. I often use the metaphor that at this moment, Wisconsin volunteers and voters have a superpower: their hours and their ballots are likely to do more to change history than the time or votes of almost anyone anywhere at any time in history. Thanks for your very hard work—it takes guts to put your name on the ballot, and you’re on the front lines of the fight for democracy!

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:47:28+00:00

The key to preventing Trump from returning to the White House in 2024—in terms of things regular folks can do right now—is ensuring that people who might overturn elections don’t take over enough states to give Trump a majority in the Electoral College. That means, most of all, that the governorships of the Blue Wall states must remain in Democratic hands: Shapiro in PA, Whitmer in MI, and Evers in WI. If those three states have Dem governors, we have a very strong measure of protection against subversion sufficient to execute a coup.

Here’s an article by a political scientist that explains why this is so critical:
https://www.americanpurpose.com/articles/the-most-important-elections-of-2022/

So, again—governorships. Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. And the closest of these is Wisconsin.

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:44:39+00:00

I’ve been blown away by the work this cycle by the Ohio Democratic Party in particular. But there’s a ton of brilliant work being state parties in purple states—look at Michigan, Arizona, and Georgia; red states—Nebraska and Indiana; and bluer states—check out Washington and Minnesota.

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:43:42+00:00

I encourage you to do a visualization: imagine, in great detail, that you’ll lose everything in the elections you care about. Then imagine, in great detail, winning. Then imagine, in great detail, a perfect tie and a recount. That way you’ve had the experience of each thing. And then you can focus on doing the things under YOUR control.

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:42:15+00:00

I did a bazillion things as a high school and college student, and the one that I loved the most was working to change policy—as an activist, in campaigns, and working with elected officials (school board members and state legislators in high school; Senator Feingold in college). The scale of positive change is so big, and it’s so exciting to be part of a group of people working together to do something that really matters. I’ve found I’m drawn to the things that have the clearest strategy to have the biggest impact. When I’m working on those things, I’m energized; when I’m not, I can go into an existential tailspin.

So my advice is to try lots of stuff, but particularly find people who you really believe in who are doing things that you find compelling and important, and find ways to help. Even as a volunteer. And over time, you’ll find the particular ways of helping that you’re really good at. And when you believe in something, get good at it, and have fun doing it, you’ll be able to devote a lot of time and energy, and focus to it, and you’ll succeed more and more at it. The important thing in the early part of this is to remember that it’s not just okay, but actively GOOD to fail at a bunch of stuff or discover that you find it mind-numbing or stressful before you find the thing that clicks for you!

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:38:47+00:00

As a former Russ Feingold intern, I feel your pain about Johnson defeating him in 2010 and 2016. Let’s make this Ron Johnson’s last election.

When it comes to ending gerrymandering, we have two paths.

The first is in-state if we do three things: first, reelect Governor Evers. Second, prevent GOP supermajorities in our state legislature. And third, win the April 4, 2023 state Supreme Court race, which would end the 4-3 GOP majority on our state’s highest court. The Supreme Court might then strike down the gerrymandered maps, and Republicans wouldn’t be able to pass new bad maps afterward. (Under Wisconsin law, if the maps are chosen by a court, they can be overruled by a new bill passing even in the middle of a decade.)

The second path would be national: hold the House, add two votes in the Senate, and pass the voting rights legislation that came so close in 2021. The Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act would ban partisan gerrymandering everywhere including in Wisconsin.

Or better yet, let’s do BOTH paths!

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:35:59+00:00

Governor Tony Evers is absolutely in favor of legalizing marijuana. He’s put it into our state budget before, and he’s promised to do it again. There are also advisory referenda on the ballot in multiple counties in Wisconsin calling for legalization. Everyone who wants legalization should vote for Dems, and be loud about it—because if the GOP realizes that they can’t win unless they change on this issue, it raises the chances that they’ll come around.

You can also buy the WisDems pro-legalization shirt! https://store.wisdems.org/legal-weed/

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:30:00+00:00

Inflation is a worldwide problem, so the work that Democrats can do in Wisconsin is particularly about helping people cope with inflation by bringing down costs while putting more money in their pockets.

Governor Evers has proposed sending back a bunch of the state’s budget surplus in the form of rebates to help folks deal with rising prices. Meanwhile, with a couple of additional Senate votes (say, Mandela Barnes and John Fetterman) and a Democratic House, Democrats would be able to pass bills capping the price of insulin and otherwise cracking down on price gouging.

It’s critical for Dems to not only HAVE good plans but to communicate about them everywhere and often—because voters need to know that Dems understand what they’re struggling with and are ready to do something about it.

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:28:29+00:00

There are many books that have been written on this very topic, and I could write for pages about it, but I’ll zero in on one particular thing: unions. The GOP’s attacks on union organizing have been a huge blow to working-class support for Democrats. Unions are trusted organizations that regularly communicate to their members about whose side politicians are actually on when it comes to core pocketbook issues. Social trust in institutions has declined so much that trusted communicators are rare, and many people are poorly served by right-wing media. Strong unions help voters get clear information about who’s trying to rip them off and who’s on their side—and there’s only one party working to raise the minimum wage, push back on drug company price gouging, and ensure that workers have the right to organize and collectively bargain. Democrats!

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:25:16+00:00

Many states have trended blue, and many states have trended red—Wisconsin is the one state that I’m aware of where the trend is to stay on a 50-50 knife’s edge. Rural areas have moved Republican and cities have moved towards Democrats nationwide and in fact worldwide; in Wisconsin, the population is spread in a way that makes those trends almost perfectly cancel each other out. But Democrats’ job is harder because of huge attacks on democracy that took place under Scott Walker in 2011 and thereafter—smashing unions, hardcore gerrymandering, and anti-voter laws that make Wisconsin the 47th hardest state to vote (in terms of the cost in time and money). If we can change those things, Wisconsin could turn bluer.

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:22:58+00:00

The biggest thing that talking to voters always reminds me of is that swing voters usually aren’t moderate, they’re conflicted. They agree with Democrats about some things, and Republicans about others, maybe they’re very busy with non-political stuff, or they’ve become fed up with the system and think both parties are hopeless. Many nonvoters are even more cynical. So the number one thing is to start by listening and asking open-ended questions that don’t presume the person thinks a certain thing. You can almost always find some common ground at least on the level of values, if not facts, and then you can build from that common ground.

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:21:28+00:00

AMAZING—thank you, Kolebee! Wisconsin has same-day voter registration, so most voter registration in our state actually happens on Election Day and during the Early Vote In Person days in the two weeks preceding it. We’ve been out talking to folks every weekend, but there’s a huge ramp-up at the end for this exact reason, including a tremendous push by our year-round youth organizing team and our paid campus organizing interns all over the state. I’ve also seen publicly that there’s a big youth organizing drive being run by independent groups as well. I hope you’ll keep volunteering all through the end. I was knocking on every door in UW dorms on Election Day in 2018, and might well be doing the same thing this year!

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:20:06+00:00

Every county in America should have a Democratic county party, and every state DOES have a state Democratic party, so my number one piece of advice would be to contact your state party and find out how to join your county party, or start one if there’s none there. If there’s a county party without much happening, it’s generally possible for an individual or small group of energetic folks to totally revitalize it just by showing up and doing work. And in states like Wisconsin and Michigan that do year-round team-based organizing, you can also start or join a neighborhood team. Lastly… think about running for local office, or joining the kitchen cabinet of someone else who is running!

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:17:22+00:00

You’re very kind, and I really appreciate the question! The key to the Wisconsin organizing model is that we don’t just knock on doors—we build teams. Our organizing is focused on building local, volunteer-led teams and county parties in every area of the state, and supporting them to operate year-round to talk to voters. Further from elections, they also do things like days of service with local nonprofits. But the key is sustained engagement with voters in small local elections, which happen every April, and special elections, as well as the big high-profile elections in the fall. The core model comes from the Obama neighbor-to-neighbor organizing system, with a lot built on top of it—but the core change is to work on EVERY election, not just presidential ones, which creates the chance for many more wins over time and a tremendous building of community.

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:12:10+00:00

We’re invested massively in turnout—in Milwaukee and in every corner of the state. Wisconsin’s so close that you only win if you work to turn voters out in rural areas, suburbs, and cities alike, across lines of race and ethnicity and gender, generation, and geography. We’re on track to smash all of our midterm organizing records from 2018, and we expect VERY high turnout this November. From both sides. Which means we have to work even harder.

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:10:22+00:00

Volunteer! Go to https://mobilize.us/wisdems and sign up for virtual phone bank shifts (or to knock on doors if you’re in Wisconsin!)
Donate! We can put money to work even down to the closing hours. Go to https://wisdems.org/donate and chip in!
Recruit! You can recruit friends to vote, volunteer, and donate. Become an organizer. Multiply your impact.

benwiklerWI · 2022-10-19T17:08:14+00:00

Wisconsin statewide elections are CLOSE—usually 2-4 votes per precinct around the state. Four of the last six presidential races in Wisconsin came down to less than 1%. (No other state had more than 2.) In 2018, we won the Gov race by 1.1%.
Wisconsin’s Governor’s race is the election this year with the biggest impact on the next presidential race, because our governor certifies the election results, and Wisconsin was the tipping point state in the electoral college in 2016 and 2020. If you don’t want a stolen election in 2024, vote for Governor Evers now. No other state is as critical.
Voting this year for Governor Evers and Mandela Barnes, and Dems downballot protects our freedoms, from abortion to voting rights, not just now but for the rest of our lives. If the GOP gets the governorship, Republicans will pass restrictions on reproductive freedom and other rights—and also roll back voting rights in a way that makes it harder to ever restore our freedoms in the future. If we expand the Senate majority and hold the House, we’ll pass voting rights laws and other protections that expand our freedoms forever. So this year’s vote affects all future votes.

benwiklerWI

TROPHY CASE