Wisconsin DEMS Confident Going into Fall Elections Print
Elections, Elected Officials, Political Parties
Written by WisDems Press, Philip Shulman   
Saturday, 25 July 2020 13:50

trump-rnc100 Days Out From November Elections, Democratic Party of Wisconsin Electoral Infrastructure Far Superior to Republican Party.


MADISON - Following the 2016 presidential election when Donald Trump became the first Republican to win Wisconsin since 1984, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin committed to breaking down and rebuilding the state party’s infrastructure to help the 2020 presidential nominee take back Wisconsin -- and the White House. Now, the party has partnered with Biden For President and other candidates up and down the ballot to form the Wisconsin Coordinated Campaign -- a unified organizing effort to elect Biden and Democrats in 2020.

To date, the state party’s investments have paid huge dividends with electoral victories up and down the ticket over the past three and half years. In 2018, with Senator Tammy Baldwin and Governor Tony Evers at the top of the ticket, Democrats won every single statewide election for the first time since 1982. They also won an assembly seat once held by Scott Walker in the WOW Counties (Waukesha, Ozake, Washington), and a state senate seat that had been in Republican control for 17 years. And in April of this year -- despite a pandemic where legal actions taken by Trump, the RNC, the Republican Party of Wisconsin (RPW), and conservative justices forced voters to choose between risking their health or forfeiting their vote -- liberal candidate Jill Korofsky, backed by the DPW, defeated the president’s chosen candidate by nearly 11 points.

The early investment the DPW made in communities across the Badger State helped make these victories possible. At the beginning of 2017, the field team began organizing  Neighborhood Action Teams -- local groups of volunteers who organized in their own communities. Now, the DPW and the Wisconsin Coordinated Campaignhelps guide over 250 neighborhood teams working year round talking to voters in their community in the leadup to the 2020 election. As an extension of the field team, these community-based volunteers have been empowered to conduct their own organizing events, recruit new volunteers, and discuss the clear choices facing voters in this year’s elections. These teams have seen great past success --  last November, a year out from the 2020 election, these teams helped knock on 60,000 doors in two and a half days.

But the DPW has also shown its strength and growing base of support through its vastly superior fundraising operation. Last quarter alone, the party raised a record $10 million, while the RPW barely cracked half a million dollars. These funds are being put towards defeating Donald Trump as well as supporting Governor Evers’ Save The Veto Program to help prevent legislative Republicans from building veto-proof majorities ahead of the critical redistricting fight in 2021. Wisconsin’s current maps were deemed unconstitutional by a federal court in 2016.

See this previous memo on how the electoral map has changed for Trump and Wisconsin Republicans since 2016.

In the last 100 days of the campaign cycle, it’s clear that the Democratic Party of Wiconsin has built a dynamic operation with a vastly superior infrastructure to the Republican Party of Wisconsin. As the DPW has partnered with the Biden For President Campaign and other candidates up and down the ballot, the Trump campaign and RPW are falling behind, trying to outrun their abysmal record of disastrous trade wars that crushed Wisconsin’s farmers and manufacturers, a toxic health care agenda that is still trying to  strip millions of Wisconsinites of their care, and their failed response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which they’ve all but dismissed as someone else’s problem.

With Joe Biden leading the 2020 Democratic ticket, Wisconsinites are faced with a clear choice. Instead of propping up the wealthy and powerful, Joe Biden will unite the country and help us Build Back Better by creating millions of good-paying jobs and supporting working families across the Badger State. Wisconsinites remember that Trump and Wisconsin Republicans have failed to keep their promises  over the past three and a half years, and the DPW is committed to ensuring voters hold them accountable come November.