Ben Wicker on how Democrats can win in Wisconsin

Beard’s program began with the most popular headlines from Tuesday night.

A special election was held in Texas to fill the remaining term of office for Democratic Representative Philemon Vel, who resigned earlier this year to take up a job at a lobbying firm. Conservative activist Maira Flores transferred the Rio region to the GOP, gaining about 51% of the vote. There were four candidates, but only one great Republican and one major Democrat. Flores won 51% of the vote, while the biggest Democrat candidate, former Cameroon County Commissioner Dan Sanchez, won about 43% of the vote.

Beard noted that there wasn’t much investment in trying to keep the Democrats on the side, and that Republicans saw the opportunity and spent a lot on the competition:

Republicans spent more than a million dollars on the race. They really invested. Democrats only started showing TV ads last week. They didn’t spend a lot of money. This area is changing significantly. Biden defeated the current district, which is still from the 2010 redistribution cycle, with 52:48, while Biden defeated the new district, which will take effect in November this year, with 57:42, making it significantly more democratic.

“That being said, it’s definitely a shift from 52 to 48 Baiden to – if you add Democrats and Republicans – about 53% voted for Republicans and 47% voted for Democrats, so it’s a noticeable change. It definitely corresponds to a more focused year. to the Republicans, which we have seen through a survey and other information that is being received, “added Burda. “The second factor that is definitely worth mentioning is that there was a very, very low voter turnout, so it may also be a factor in the change. So you don’t want to accept it and just say, “Oh, we saw this change. It will be translated in every way until November, but it’s definitely a signal worth acknowledging that it’s definitely a Republican inclination right now.”

The hosts then repeated the pre-election in South Carolina, which some have called “Tramp Revenge.” Trump, in fact, retaliated against the Republican Congressman in District 7, Tom Rice, who was one of ten members of the GOP House to vote for impeachment. Rice was convincingly defeated by state representative Russell Frerey, beating him with 51:25. “What was even more remarkable in this case was that a total of five Republicans competed, so it was quite unexpected for Freya to get a majority. Even Freud said his own poll indicated that the race would be in the second round, ”said Nirs.

The second race in South Carolina, which was watched very closely this week, took place in Area 1, where Nancy Meiss beat Cate Arrington by 53:45 to avoid a second round. Trump supported Arrington because he was outraged by some of Mays’ critical remarks about him after January 6, even though she resigned very quickly.

A special election was held in Alaska on Saturday for Alaska’s largest congressional venue, which has been vacant since the death of GOP spokesman Don Young earlier this year. Alaska has a fairly different electoral system: all candidates ran in this first round, and the top four candidates will enter the second round on August 16th. This ballot will use a ranked vote to determine the winner. Votes are still being counted, but the HR has announced three of the four candidates who will make it to the second round, the first being former governor Sarah Peilina, who has so far won a convincing majority with around 30% of the vote.

Bārda summarized the result so far:

Of course, Peilin is a Republican, as is the second-place candidate, Nick Begih, who holds about 19% of the vote. And then the independent Al Gross, who is also a former 2020 Democrat candidate in the Senate, but is now running as an independent candidate; he is also called upon to move forward. He has about 13% of the vote so far. And then the fourth time has not yet been called, but the former Democratic State Representative Mary Peltola is currently in this place and is likely to move forward, unless the late ballot papers differ significantly from those counted so far.

Peeline’s strong first-round vote, with more than 30% of the vote, suggests she will be one of the last two candidates in this ranked vote. The big question, Bārda points out, is: who will get to the other place where the fourth place candidate is excluded and then the third place candidate?

While Peilin has always been a polarized figure, she has Donald Trump’s confirmation, which makes it much more likely that Begic will choose the Independents and Democrats if the two face each other at the very end of the immediate second round table.

At this point, Wikler joined the hosts to discuss the essential work of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

“Let’s talk a little bit about what a roller coaster ride has been like. I’m sure some of our listeners may be quite involved in their state’s democratic parties. But I bet many people aren’t always so well informed about what And, of course, the goal of any party organization is to get its candidates elected, but what exactly is the Democratic Party of Wisconsin doing to make that happen? ”Nirs asked.

The majority of the organization’s budget and its crown jewel, according to Wickler, is the model of the organization that allows it to reach voters in every corner of the state:

Our national party is unusually using the Obama campaign model, in which our organizers actually form teams of volunteers to carry out door-to-door investigations and telephone banking in their communities. And when you do it all the time, as we have done since my predecessor, who launched the teams in this neighborhood in the spring of 2017, and we have designed, built and built them; we now have hundreds across the country. If you do it all the time, you actually create an impulse over time. So every dollar spent on organizing is even more, as you can have one organizer working with multiple teams to train and support them and make sure they have the data they need.

Robust The year-round voter protection campaign is now at the heart of the organisation’s work. Wikler stressed how the party has become increasingly focused on voting rights in recent years to make sure local officials do not revoke voting rights. The State Democratic Party also hires and supports polling workers, poll observers and lawyers who can help voters solve problems. A Voter Protection Helpline is also available for anyone in Wisconsin to call 608-DEM-3232.

Last but not least, the party data team helps make sure they know where the voters are, who they need to mobilize and what they need to convince.

The trio went into the plans of Wicker and his team to defeat Republican Senator Ron Johnson this fall. As Wicker put it, “Ron Johnson is so terribly extremely bad”:

It’s not just that he says COVID can be cured with a mouthwash, or that the insurgents on January 6 were patriots who love their country and love the rule of law, which he also said. He said he would be scared if they were Black Lives Matter protesters, but he was not scared of the protesters who were actually there. That’s not all. It is that he is very self-serving. His claim to the senator’s fame is that he insisted on additional tax breaks in addition to Trump’s huge tax fraud, which personally benefited him and his biggest donor. This is one of the most regressive tax cuts ever passed in the United States Congress, which he has insisted on demanding from taxpayers to take him back to Congress from his vacation home in Florida.

That is why we have brought this case against him, and so many independent and local organizations have done the same. His approval rating is now 36%, which is a staggering year, which is expected to be tough for Democrats and good for Republicans. The Political report In 2022, he was named the most vulnerable official on both sides of the Senate. Meanwhile, the Democrats are holding pre-elections. There are several candidates who have taken part in the vote, but we will not know our candidate until 9 August. So this is a perfect example of why a strong party matters, because we need to have the whole general election apparatus before 9 August. It’s like building a spaceship directly on a launch platform. And when we have a candidate, they jump into the cab and press the ignition.

“Can you tell us a little more about this spacecraft you are building on a potential Democratic candidate for the Senate launch platform?” Nirs asked.

Wikler discussed the intersection of digital, data, organization, voter protection, communications – all different elements. He also mentioned that due to state party regulations, the Wisconsin Democratic Party is affiliated and committed to maintaining a neutral pre-election. “So we don’t put our thumb on the scale, but all the candidates have told us that as soon as we have a candidate, they will work with the infrastructure we have put in place,” he added. “Contrary to what often happens in different states across the country, namely: you get a Senate candidate, and they decide they want to change all the staff and change the program and all that stuff.”

Concerning the goals of the state party in the upcoming state legislature elections in November and the candidates to be nominated in this race, Wickler said the following:

Republicans have managed to rearrange the maps, at least for the time being, with some help from the U.S. Supreme Court, which, unlike other states, decided to obtain and delete our state legislative maps for reasons that have been a constitutional scholar for decades. That is why we have very, very complex maps for this cycle.

Republicans are once again clearly trying to win a majority in both chambers, and we are clearly working hard to stop them. We have excellent Democratic leaders in both chambers with whom we work closely: Greta Noibauere in the Assembly, Janet Bewley in the State Senate. We have strong candidates across the country. …

Next year, in April 2023, we will have a national Supreme Court race to do so. There won’t be much of a nationwide election this spring, but the race will be for the majority in the Wisconsin Supreme Court. If we can support the governor’s veto, and if we have a non-hyper-right wing in our state’s Supreme Court, it will allow us to ensure safe, fair and legitimate elections in 2024, when Wisconsin is likely to be the decisive state. again.

Finally, Bird asked Wicker how listeners could help: “How can our Wisconsin listeners get in touch with the Democratic Party in their state and get more involved?”

Wikler replied:

Wherever you are, you can support the Democrats and the Wisconsin Democratic Party in the fight for Governor Evers and Ron Johnson. I think Dems has won a ballot, including defeating Derek van Orden, a rebel who is currently on probation for trying to bring a gun on a plane. He is running for Congress in the third congressional district, which is an open seat. We need comprehensive help and you can get involved. You can become a monthly donor. That’s the only thing I love to do.

If you visit wisdems.org/monthly, you can sign up for a few dollars a month; which helps us to recruit and know that we will be able to provide our staff every month, year after year, and which in turn allows us to carry out the kind of in-depth, long-term organization, neighborhood team building that helps us. to win, especially in these difficult elections, such as next year’s spring race in the state Supreme Court. And finally, I’ll give you a link to wisdems.org/volunteer. You can join our virtual telephone banks. You can join our volunteers to call all possible Democratic voters. The competition here is so close, so often.