The most important election since last November is taking place in Wisconsin today: the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court. If you’re in Wisconsin, polls are open until 8pm and you can same-day register at your polling place (find it here). Go! Vote for Chris Taylor!

It has gotten almost no national attention. Compared to the last two majority-determining races, it has barely even registered in the state of Wisconsin. But this election matters. Here’s why.

Wisconsin is the most evenly divided state in the country; the last three presidential races and the last two US Senate races had margins of 1% or less. Small shifts in voting rules—a topic frequently adjudicated by the Supreme Court—have major national consequences. The court has also played a critical role in determining district lines for the state legislature and may do so vis-a-vis the US House (a case is working its way through Wisconsin courts now). Moreover, in 2020, Wisconsin’s court came within a single vote of overturning the presidential election.

In other words, for the future of democracy in Wisconsin and for the country at large, the composition of the court has far-reaching consequences.

And, of course, the court rules on issues affecting daily life for the people of the state—including on issues like reproductive freedom and worker’s rights.

The reason why this year’s election has gotten so much less attention than the previous two such races is that, this year, the majority is not at stake.

But the reason why this race has far-reaching consequences is that it will affect the majority for years to come.

If Judge Chris Taylor beats Maria Lazar, then the pro-democracy bloc on the court will grow from 4-3 to 5-2.

There are Wisconsin Supreme Court elections coming up in 2027, 2028, 2029, and 2030. Of those four seats, two are currently held by conservatives and two are held by more progressive Justices. If Taylor wins, the far right won’t have any path to regaining the majority on the court before the 2028 presidential election—meaning, the race won’t be overturned in the ultimate purple state. And a Taylor victory also makes likely that MAGA won’t be able to seize the court’s majority before the post-2030 census, which will set maps for both the the state legislature and the US House all the way through 2042.

That’s why this race doesn’t just affect the year to come. It affects American democracy for the next 16 years.

Beyond the stakes for democracy, this is an election between two candidates. Chris Taylor is a brilliant judge. Before ascending to the bench, she was a pathbreaking state legislator who made national news by attending meetings of the officially-nonpartisan far-right network ALEC—and then going public about their nefarious special-interest plans. Prior to that, she was a leader at Planned Parenthood and an attorney in private practice. Small wonder, then, that she’s been endorsed by the court’s current pro-democracy majority, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, unions, Senator Tammy Baldwin, and others. On the other hand, you’ve got Maria Lazar, backed by the GOP, who, over the years, has been endorsed by people actively involved in trying to overturn the 2020 election, groups trying to block abortion and emergency contraception, and her old boss Scott Walker.

Which brings us back to today. If you’re an eligible voter in Wisconsin, cast your ballot. Whether or not you can vote, if you know anyone who can, send them a friendly reminder. And if you have any free time to volunteer, consider finding a handy spot more than 100 feet from a polling place and asking people with “I Voted” stickers to text their friends and family and urge them to vote.

And if you happen to be near Library Mall on campus this afternoon from 3-4 PM, come meet me and my doggo Pumpkin at our Pet Out The Vote event! RSVP here. Bring your dog!

Winning matters. And winning big matters even more. Because a huge Taylor landslide today can provide a jolt of energy to people across Wisconsin and the country who want to believe democracy can survive this dark era—but whose feeling of hope has been flagging in the face of Trump’s unremitting assault. A landslide today can help propel us into victories this November.

Let’s send a beacon of hope across the country—by using every precious minute today.

One insidious undercurrent: the feeling of being powerless.

But there’s a way out of this accelerating disaster. It’s a long, hard path. It’s going to take all of us, working together, to walk it. But I know we can do it. And if we fight our way along that path—if we can join our power together, even as the far right tries to take that power away—we can build a new era of democracy that actually delivers for everyone.

I’ve spent the last few months furiously mapping out that path in my new book. In truth, I’m still in the middle of revising it, and my publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, is pulling out all the stops to get the book out to the country as quickly as possible. It will hit bookshelves (and phones, as an ebook and audiobook—narrated by me!) on July 21, 2026.

You can pre-order the book from your favorite bookseller via this link.

Reversing an authoritarian collapse is an enormous lift. But I’ve seen a state-sized version of it right where I live—in Wisconsin, the only state where five of the last seven presidential elections have had margins of victories of under 1%, and where I served as the state Democratic Party chair from 2019 to 2025.

Here, thousands of people—my heroes—have fought year-round for more than a decade, throwing their energy into organizing and communicating everywhere, to everyone, in contests for power at every level of government, despite a system rigged by the GOP to thwart majority rule. As a result, a state that was, just recently, categorized as a “democracy desert” is now a toss-up for a Democratic trifecta in the 2026 midterms. To hear Wisconsin’s story, told from the inside, is to realize that there’s a way out of this mess. The book shares that story—and then applies its formula to a national plan to win elections, remove democracy’s saboteurs from office, and make America work for all of us.

My goal in this book is to equip you to level up your role in the fight, or to join it for the first time. I’ll map out not just what we have to do, but how you personally can do it.

And I aim to have fun. Things are dark. But the people smashing the country to pieces have no sense of humor. They win when we cower. Most of all, they fear being mocked. But we win more when we’re having a blast. Our job is to—to quote The Princess Bride—have fun storming the castle. In a decidedly non-violent, non-January-6-y sort of way.

I don’t need to tell you that the fight for our country’s future isn’t waiting for the publication of this book. It’s underway, from the streets of Minneapolis to your own front door. We’ve all got a lot to do. But I wrote this book because, even as we’re organizing and protesting and trying to care for each other and survive, it’s worth looking beyond the daily howl to figure out how we’re going to get out of this mess.

I hope you’ll join me.

In solidarity,

Ben

P.S. Presale links to all your favorite booksellers can be found here. I’m grateful for your help in spreading the word—either through this post, or the version that appeared on The Contrarian this morning, or on BlueSky, Threads, X (ugh, I know), LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, or Instagram. And stay tuned for many more announcements this spring!

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Our country is in crisis, and the 2026 Wisconsin Governor’s race is essential to the path out.

Wisconsin was the closest state in 2024. The chance of a free, fair presidential election in 2028—and a peaceful transfer of power—is far better if our state’s next Governor believes in democracy.

Moreover, the 2026 elections offer a once-in-a-generation opportunity to unrig the state I love. Our goal must be not just to win the Governor’s race, but also to flip the state Assembly and state Senate majorities. Then we can finally pass the hugely popular, urgently-needed laws that would make Wisconsin work for regular people, not just well-heeled far-right special interests.

This summer, Governor Evers announced that, after two tremendously successful terms at the helm and a half-century of public service, he would be passing the torch. Since then, I’ve been honored that friends and allies across Wisconsin have urged me to put my own name on the ballot for Governor.

I’m determined to do all I can to ensure that a great Democrat wins in 2026, but I won’t be seeking the nomination myself.

The great Molly Beck at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote a story about this news today that you can read here. From that piece:

“I know we have an extraordinary field of candidates and for me the chance to actually reconnect with my family after six years of constant, hyper-intense work as the state party chair is the kind of opportunity you only get a few times in a lifetime,” said Wikler, who noted his children were 1, 4 and 7 when he was first elected party chairman and are now 7, 10 and 13.

“The first big click of their lives has already happened. Now, being able to walk them to school and the bus stop and read before bed instead of being on the road all over the state — it’s the kind of thing that I know that I’ll look back on and be really glad I invested this time with them.”

I may not be running now, but I’m not leaving the fight.

One key way I’ll be helping: I’m joining Governor Evers, new WisDems chair Devin Remiker, and Evers campaign manager Cassi Fenili to support the Democratic Party of Wisconsin (WisDems) and its Governor Readiness Project.

Wisconsin’s primary in the governor’s race—which, on the Democratic side, has already drawn a field of great candidates that continues to grow—won’t take place until August 11, 2026. From there, the nominee will have only 84 days until the general election. I’m committed to helping Governor Evers ensure that WisDems has the resources and campaigning infrastructure ready to go on day one for the next Democratic nominee.

That race is just one of the many critical elections on the Wisconsin ballot.

• Next spring, Judge Chris Taylor will flip a state Supreme Court seat and ensure that MAGA has no path to regaining a majority in advance of 2028’s presidential election.

• In House races, starting with Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, Wisconsin has a chance to ensure that Democrats end Mike Johnson’s disastrous Speakership.

• And in offices next November ranging from the state legislature to Attorney General Kaul’s reelection, voters have a chance to reject the extremism, tyranny, and economic carnage fomented by MAGA billionaires and choose, instead, a future for our state and our country where everyone can thrive.

I’ll be doing my part to assist on all of those fronts, both by supporting WisDems and through other projects that I will announce in the months to come.

In the meantime, after six intense years leading the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, I’m treasuring real time with my family. Kids are only young once. And, in the face of the daily onslaught of catastrophe, I’m taking the chance to think, write, and communicate more broadly about how our state and country can break free of today’s cascading emergencies and better deliver for everyone.

I’ll be speaking at this Saturday’s No Kings event in Madison. I’ll look for other ways to lend my voice to the fight—and I hope you will as well.

This is an all-hands-on-deck moment. There is a path out of the present darkness, but we can only travel its distance if we walk it together.

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers just announced that he won’t be running for reelection in 2026:

Wisconsin owes a profound debt of gratitude to Governor Evers—one of the kindest, most decent, and most public-spirited people I've ever met, in or out of politics. He makes Wisconsin a better place, every single day, and will leave a legacy that touches all of our lives.

Kids can always tell whether adults are for real. My kids, and kids across the state, know what I've seen firsthand myself: Tony Evers is on their side. He got into politics for the right reason: to make things better for them. And because of that, he always does the right thing. He shows that kindness and conviction can go hand in hand, that empathy and integrity can be a form of strength, and that lifting people up makes us all grow. In a time of corrosive, cynical politics, Governor Evers—through the example of his life and his actions moment to moment—shows people that politics really can be about public service.

Anyone who defeated Scott Walker would have instantly become a hero for Wisconsin’s working people, its kids, and their families. It has always been gratifying that the person who defeated Walker was a teacher–a profession of everyday heroes that had been targeted by Walker most of all. As Wisconsin’s democracy was going over a cliff, he grabbed the wheel and steered us away from the brink.

But, year after year, Governor Evers has soared far beyond simply ending a dark time in our state’s governance. He has overseen the rebuilding of democracy in our state just as surely as he has fixed the roads, restored critical funding for our schools, protected reproductive freedom, cut taxes for the middle class, and refocused our priorities away from political games and towards delivering for regular families, no matter who they voted for—or whether they vote at all.

If you're a Wisconsinite, Governor Evers cares about you, and he's worked to ensure that our state’s government reflects that.

Wisconsin is the crucible of American politics, with a constant string of nailbiter elections. Governor Evers’s leadership of our state party has been transformative. As the party chair, I saw firsthand how Governor Evers worked to ensure that our party could show up for Democrats and public servants at every level of the ballot, setting a national standard for what a strong party led by a great governor could accomplish—winning 15 of the last 19 statewide elections, from his victory in 2018 through this spring’s Supreme Court election. At a personal level, I learned so much from his example and his leadership, and I’ll be forever grateful for the opportunity to support and partner with him.

Governor Evers’s legacy will be a better, more decent Wisconsin with a thriving democracy and a bright future. I'm profoundly grateful to him for his service, his character, and his steadfast commitment to building a politics that puts kids first.

Thank you, Governor Evers. We’re all lucky that you chose to lead—and that you’ve led us so well.

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Today is my final day at WisDems—my last day as Wisconsin’s Democratic Party chair.

To everyone who has helped us beat the odds, again and again, for the last six years—you have my deep gratitude.

There are a million things going wrong in the world. But our state party has been one of the things going right. And the fundamental reason for that is you.

This party works because of its people. The thousands of card-carrying party members. The tens of thousands of volunteers and grassroots donors. The dozens of professional staff—and hundreds who have worked here at some point over these last six years.

Our success—victories in 10 of 13 statewide elections, a new majority in the Supreme Court, fair maps—has come thanks not just to the party, but to our extraordinary candidates and their campaigns; our eternal partners in the labor movement; and our grassroots allies.

At every step, through 18 statewide primary and general election days, in battle after battle, you’ve persevered. You’ve kept the faith. You’ve shown up—in ways that have inspired others to show up as well.

The vision of WisDems is a state, country, and world that works for everyone—not just the few. Where every person has freedom, dignity, justice, and respect. Our mission—the way we move towards that vision—is to elect Democrats up and down the ballot. And our strategy to advance that mission has been to build a permanent campaign, organizing and communicating everywhere, year-round, across all of our communities, fighting for working families and against those who’d use their wealth and power to destroy the power of the people.

Perhaps all of that sounds obvious. But it doesn’t happen everywhere. It is, in a sense, Wisconsin’s secret sauce. Knowing our values. Knowing our goals. And putting in the work, day after day, to turn our vision into political reality.

The way we’ve done this, by fighting for our values, including and respecting everyone, and by empowering the grassroots, is only possible because you and so many other people have made the decision, over and over, that it’s not somebody else’s job. It’s yours.

By building up from the grassroots in every corner of Wisconsin, we’ve not only built up Democrats. We’ve built our democracy.

We’ve worked to re-weave the fabric of our communities, in a time when giant corporations make money by trapping people in their homes, alone, gazing at their phones.

We’ve gone outside and met each other, knock by knock, county fair by county fair, parade by parade.

And because we’ve rebuilt the muscle of civic life in our state, my confidence in our state’s future path is bright as day, even in this moment of political darkness.

I have faith in Devin Remiker, our next chair, and our extraordinary team. I have faith in our county parties, our caucuses, our youth wings, our neighborhood teams. I have faith in you.

I have loved this job. One of the hardest things I’ve ever done, and the most rewarding. Now, I’m excited to take a breath. Spend time with kids, and my wife, and our goofball dog, Pumpkin. Taking some space to reflect, and figure out how, down the road, I can best contribute to the fight of our lives.

Meanwhile, I’d love to stay in touch. Going forward, you can get updates from me at benwikler.com. I’m planning to continue writing a regular newsletter.

My tenure as WisDems chair may have ended, but my full support for their mission continues. The best way you can help get Democrats elected up and down the ballot is by fueling WisDems’ year-round grassroots organizing. Chip in here.

Thank you for six extraordinary years.

The fight continues.

Solidarity.

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On Sunday, delegates to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin state convention elected my successor as WisDems chair: Devin Remiker.

I’m thrilled.

Devin has been my closest collaborator at WisDems throughout my six years as chair. I’ve seen his remarkable ability to see around corners, to unify our party for critical fights in moments of crisis, and to treat every person—from grassroots activists to powerful politicians—with the same respect that every person is due.

In fight after fight, Devin has played a decisive role.

Devin figured out how to retool our organizing program in 2020 when COVID hit—creating the model for virtual organizing for absentee ballots that became the basis not only for our victory in that year’s Supreme Court race, but also for the Biden campaign nationwide.

Devin realized that the GOP was serious about attempting to impeach Justice Janet Protasiewicz in 2023—and wrote the game plan to fight back. His “Defend Justice” campaign prevailed. Today, we have fair maps in Wisconsin because Republicans retreated—thanks to Devin.

In 2025, it was Devin who devised the strategy to make Elon Musk’s millions backfire in the spring Supreme Court election. Today, Susan Crawford is our Justice-elect, and Elon Musk is out of the White House.

Those three stories are plucked from dozens of examples I could offer—stories I’ve seen firsthand. He was my longest-serving Executive Director, and a constant advisor. He’s my first call when we face seemingly impossible odds. Time and again, he finds a way.

Devin’s battle-tested commitment to constant innovation, game-changing communication, and grassroots organizing is exactly what we need. WisDems will continue to light the path. It’s a great joy to me that our party will be in such strong hands as I move on to my own next chapter.

To all who attended the WisDems convention this weekend, enormous thanks. To all of our staff who poured countless hours into making it a success, and the volunteers who contributed their time and talents, huge thanks to you as well.

To Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski, incoming First Vice Chair, and Elder Joshua Taylor, incoming Second Vice Chair, and to returning Party Treasurer Randy Udell and Party Secretary Kim Butler, huge congratulations—and thanks for your willingness to serve.

To outgoing First Vice Chair Felesia Martin and Second Vice Chair Tricia Zunker, thank you for all of your partnership and service—and for concluding your service with such a great presence at our party convention.

To Joe Zepecki and William Garcia, thank you for the commitment to our party that led you to run for Chair, and for your gracious support for party unity going forward.

Our convention took place as the tragic events in Minnesota unfolded, and hit even closer to home when it was reported that many Wisconsin leaders were on the assassin’s list. We mourned, paid tribute, and recommitted our efforts to keep fighting for a better future.

Now the work begins anew.

In Wisconsin, Republicans in the state legislature are refusing to fund child care, K-12 public education, and the UW system. Republicans in DC, including Derrick Van Orden and Ron Johnson, are dreaming up new ways to cut health care to fund tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. And Donald Trump is toying with plunging the US into war with Iran, defying calls from great Democrats like Tammy Baldwin and Mark Pocan to follow the Constitution’s clear rule: only Congress can declare war.

To move through these crises, we will need not only a great chair, leadership team, and professional staff at the party—we’ll need you. Every one of us has an essential role to play.

My term as chair ends on July 1, so I’ll be sending out another note next week reflecting on the journey behind us and the work ahead. But until then: Thanks for all you’ve done, in partnership with me, over these last six years. And thanks in advance for all you’ll do to fight for the values that we share.

You can continue to do your part by chipping in to WisDems here.

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This weekend, WisDems will gather for the 76th convention of the modern Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

And this weekend, across Wisconsin and nationwide, we peacefully march in the streets with the No Kings protests.

We refuse to accept a collapse into dictatorship, refuse to be silenced by a Trump administration bent on intimidating and crushing its critics, and refuse to stand by as Republicans rip health care and food from millions in order to fund a tax giveaway to the ultra-wealthy.

This weekend, we don’t just say no. We say yes to the best in our country’s history and values—values that we are still fighting to make real, two and a half centuries into the American experiment. Values, and an experiment, that are under threat.

Trump sent Marines into Los Angeles. Administration enforcers arrested and handcuffed a sitting United States Senator.

Meanwhile, in DC, Republicans are racing to pass a bill that will predictably cause tens of thousands of American deaths each year as our fellow citizens lose access to the care they need—all to reward far-right billionaires like Elon Musk.

Tomorrow, June 14, is Flag Day. It marks the day, 250 years ago in 1775, when the United States Army was founded.

Like most Americans, I’ve had generations of family members who’ve served our country in uniform. They proudly fought, not just for the flag, but for the republic for which it stands—one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

As we march, as we organize, as we gather for our state convention, we lift up that same vision, honoring those who’ve given their lives to that cause, in defiance of those who would dishonor their sacrifice by tearing us apart for their own personal gain.

Trump and his henchmen are growing desperate precisely because the public is already turning against them.

Poll after poll confirms that the Big Horrible Bill is hideously unpopular, that the public doesn’t trust Trump on his mass deportations, and that MAGA’s approval is falling apart.

For Trump and his MAGA followers in positions of power, every new horror is, in part, an attempt to change the subject from the last disaster they created.

It’s all of our job to show that our ideals will not be crushed. To show that we’ll continue to fight. And to lay the groundwork to turn our patriotic fury into political accountability.

Trump is losing in court.

He’s losing even more in the court of public opinion.

Together, we’ll ensure that people who believe in America—in our ideals, and the extraordinary and diverse people who make up this country—defeat Trump’s lackeys and lickspittles and win public office to end his reign of destruction, and build the kind of country every person deserves to live in.

It seems like karma to read news reports suggesting that Trump’s North Korea-style military parade in Washington DC—on his birthday—may be canceled due to thunderstorms in our nation’s Capitol.

Meanwhile, this weekend, we rise.

This weekend is just the beginning. Holding the GOP accountable is a year-round effort, and you can help fuel WisDems to keep the pressure on Wisconsin Republicans by chipping in here.

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Trump vs. Musk is like watching two rubbery movie monsters fighting. The problem is, it’s real life, and the tiny people being squashed underfoot aren’t special effects—they’re us.

Why is Musk attacking Trump over the Giant Horrible Bill? Because it doesn’t go far enough—in his mind, he wants to cut health care even more.

Trump’s bill would kick 10.9 million people off of health insurance.

It would lead to tens of thousands of deaths a year.

It would cost jobs, shutter small businesses, and transfer massive wealth from poor and working-class Americans to the ultra-rich.

Here’s the math, in terms of percent change to income:

If you want to understand where the money goes in terms of actual dollars rather than percentages, it’s actually hard to fit the inequality on the screen. You have to make an animation.

This Giant Horrible Bill is pure reverse Robin Hood: steal from the poor and give to the rich. Or you could call it pillaging. It’s obscene.

In the House, the bill passed by one vote. That means that every Republican who voted for the bill cast the deciding vote. All of this death, destruction, and plunder is on them.

Elon Musk, whose viciousness at DOGE has likely already caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, wishes the bill was even worse. Don’t think for a second that he’s now on the side of the angels.

Musk’s not alone—Sen. Ron Johnson has the same goal and has even said he understands Musk’s frustrations. Johnson’s allies in the House—Reps. Bryan Steil and Tom Tiffany—have both said they support his efforts, while Derrick Van Orden wants to work with Johnson on the legislation. That can only mean one thing: they all support inflicting even more pain on Wisconsin.

Even if Musk’s reasons are wrong, he’s right to call the bill a “disgusting abomination.”

By all means, break out the popcorn as we watch Musk and Trump duke it out.

Take pride in the fact that, as the Wall Street Journal just reminded readers, Wisconsin voters and volunteers and supporters of Susan Crawford helped make this happen.

But then, as the popcorn digests, get your protest signs ready, call your Republican members of Congress at 202-224-3121, and get ready to raise your voice again—to save lives by killing this bill.

Here’s that number again. The Congressional Switchboard. 202-224-3121.

Melt the phones.

And consider chipping in to help WisDems hold Republicans—from Ron Johnson to House malefactors like Derrick Van Orden—accountable.

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At a hospital in Madison, nurses are on strike. From the White House, Trump is gutting workers’ rights. And in Congress, Republicans are plotting mammoth cuts to health care.

These fights are interlinked.

In Madison, nurses at UnityPoint-Health Meriter Hospital went on strike on Tuesday, with a labor action slated to run through tomorrow after months of negotiations in which management refused to include safety standards and patient-staff ratios in the contract. If you’re in the area, you can join their actions on Saturday morning—sign up here.

Meanwhile, Trump signed an executive order refusing to honor collective bargaining for public sector employees—the biggest act of union-busting in American history. This illegal order is now tied up in court; we have to hope it will be struck down.

At the same time, Trump fired the chair of the National Labor Relations Board—leaving the top labor court without a quorum to hear cases.

The NLRB firing—which most observers and lower courts also considered illegal—has been upheld by an unsigned Supreme Court opinion, dangerously undermining the authority of independent agencies generally & devastatingly harming labor rights in our country.

These attacks are patterned on Scott Walker’s attacks on unions in 2011. There’s a reason autocrats try to crush unions first: unions build the power of working people. And that power is essential to democracy.

And then there’s the third front: the Medicaid cuts.

Voters are furious. They point out that when you cut health care, people lose their lives.

One Republican Senator’s response: “Well, we’re all going to die.”

Most Americans don’t want health care cuts. But attacks on Medicaid don’t hurt the rich. If you take away the political power of working people, it’s easier to loot the working class in order to extra-enrich the already wealthy.

That’s how these agendas fit together: crush unions, slash health care, and hand the plunder to the billionaires who fund Republican campaigns.

All of that brings us back to the Meriter nurses’ strike. Everyone benefits when hospitals work with nurses to raise the bar on safety and improve staffing—unless your only value is counting pennies.

When I joined the picket line as the strike kicked off early Tuesday morning, nurses shared their stories. I heard from the nurses about how they loved their jobs, how dedicated they were to caring for their patients, and how infuriating it was for management to refuse to even negotiate on questions that affect their work and their patients’ lives every single day.

Let’s stand with the SEIU nurses fighting for what’s right. And, as Democrats, let’s fight for a country where the dignity and voice of working people—and respect for the unions through which they take action—is honored, not undermined.

You can help fuel our WisDems year-round grassroots organizing and help us reach our end-of-month fundraising goal as we gear up for a blue trifecta in 2026. Chip in here.

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This week, Elon Musk announced that, “In terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future.” How much? "I think I've done enough."

It looks like your work in this spring’s Supreme Court race fueled a sea change in American politics.

It’s never a great idea to take Elon Musk at his word. But even the act of publicly backing away from his previous position—where he was regularly promising to fund primary and general election campaigns against anyone who got in Trump’s way—is a huge shift.

In light of Elon Musk promising to back off funding elections, let’s review the path to this moment. There’s value in celebrating wins.

From Election Day last fall all the way through April 1, Elon Musk cast a dark shadow over all of American politics. He’d spent hundreds of millions of dollars to elect Trump—and the threat that he would open his checkbook again was the Trump team’s biggest weapon to bully lawmakers to fall in line.

“Trump team warns Republicans to support Cabinet picks or face primary funded by Musk,” ran the ABC News headline in November.

“GOP senators terrified of crossing Trump, facing Musk-funded challengers,” said another headline this February.

Even as Musk was ripping through the federal government with his chainsaw this winter and spring, Republicans—in cabinet meetings, CPAC audiences, and GOP Senate retreats—were cheering Musk on publicly and terrified of crossing him privately.

For everyone else, the possibility seemed very real that an extremist with hundreds of billions of dollars to his name would be able to simply buy whatever election outcome he wanted. Musk would turn his unlimited funds into unlimited power.

The Supreme Court race made this fear concrete.

Day after day, as April 1 approached, Elon Musk would pour more money into the Supreme Court race. At first, “just” $670,000. Then it was $1.6 million. Then $2.5 million. And then it kept going up, and up, and up—to numbers never seen before in a judicial election. Most press accounts cite a $25 million price tag.

But the real number could be far higher—because, for example, none of those figures include Musk’s payouts of $100 to an undisclosed number of people for signing, or recruiting others to sign, his petition against activist judges. If that tactic racked up 100,000 signatures, each referred by someone else, that would add another $20 million. And this was just one of Musk’s thinly veiled bribery tactics. We’ll probably never know the real number.

If his plan had worked, Musk’s domination of American politics would have been total.

But then Susan Crawford—and you, and all of us—fought back.

“As a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls,” Crawford said at every campaign stop, “I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the richest man in the world.”

Crawford fought back. At her debate, she even called her opponent “Elon Schimel.” WisDems fought by her side. Allied groups across Wisconsin fought with everything they had. And volunteers and donors in Wisconsin, and nationwide, threw themselves into the fight.

More than 200,000 individuals chipped in, adding up to enough to go toe-to-toe on the airwaves and online with the Schimel-Musk-Trump machine. The Crawford campaign used those resources with awe-inspiring effectiveness. Meanwhile, more than 10,000 people volunteered with WisDems, reaching out to voters roughly ten million times—astonishingly, a greater total volume of volunteer effort than Wisconsin saw in the 2022 midterm elections. Allied groups, from the America Votes coalition to Empower, organized many millions of additional voter contact attempts, and groups like A Better Wisconsin Together made sure the message reached every glowing screen in the state. (For a more full account of those who helped drive the work this spring, see my note from April.)

The results reflected the effort.

Even though Musk’s money fueled a GOP turnout surge that would have defeated any previous candidate who ran for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Crawford’s turnout numbers were so vast that she would have defeated any November Republican nominee for Governor—Tim Michels in 2022; Scott Walker in 2018 or 2014 or 2010; Tommy Thompson in any of his four landslides, or any other.

As The Washington Post wrote, “In Wisconsin, Democrats executed this anti-Musk playbook flawlessly and successfully tied the unpopular Musk to the Republican Party writ large.”

Musk chose the wrong state in which to demonstrate his power. And the fallout was immediate.

The day after the Wisconsin Supreme Court fight, multiple outlets ran stories like this one from Politico: “Trump Tells Inner Circle That Musk Will Leave Soon.” As the story explained, Musk “increasingly looks like a political liability.”

Suddenly, he wasn’t in cabinet meetings. He stopped his incessant posting about politics. And now, the ever-present threat of Musk’s money bomb appears to be defused.

We should recognize that Musk is still very much on the scene, wreaking havoc and going on international trips with Trump, and could change his mind at any time about political spending.

But this moment is nonetheless worth marking. Trump saying “follow my orders or Elon Musk will come for you” was a menacing bludgeon.

You and Susan Crawford and our movement took that weapon off the table.

Given how many other threats our democracy continues to face, it would be easy to let this fade from memory. But it’s worth recognizing how existential the stakes in the Musk fight felt just a few weeks ago, and to celebrate the collective power that we built to fight back.

Per the New York Times, “the Wisconsin race may have been a turning point.”

You helped make that happen.

I’m grateful.

With your help, WisDems will continue to fight on and help Democrats win elections up and down the ballot.

Your donation will help fuel our year-round organizing. Chip in here.

Today, I’m enthusiastically endorsing Devin Remiker as the next Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is widely considered to be the strongest state party in the country. Devin has been a huge part of how we built that strength. We wouldn’t be here without him. Devin is ready from day one to keep building that strength—and to take things to the next level.

I make this endorsement with great appreciation for both William Garcia and Joe Zepecki, both of whom bring strengths to this race. But with less than a month until the vote, my love for our party compels me to share what I know first-hand: that Devin is a uniquely ready and, indeed, extraordinary candidate for this critical role.

(One note: this endorsement is being made in my personal capacity. The election is administered by a commission chosen by our statewide governing body, and our staff will maintain neutrality and work on an equal basis with all candidates going forward. And regardless of the outcome of the race, I hope you’ll join me in committing to ensure the party’s success going forward.)

Here are the ten reasons I urge you to vote for Devin Remiker for WisDems chair:

1. Devin built what you love about our party. I’ve been in front of the scenes, sharing the vision. At every step, going back before I was chair and throughout my six years in office, Devin has played an absolutely integral role in both crafting that vision and in making it happen, starting before I myself took the helm. My predecessor, Chair Martha Laning, launched year-round organizing, year-round support for county party offices, and a team to support EVERY candidate (even in the toughest areas). Devin has overseen and played a key role in each of those programs, and many more.

2. Devin knows rural. And he knows urban, suburban, and small towns. He knows, in other words, Wisconsin. He grew up in Two Rivers, and while going to college in La Crosse, worked for State Rep Steve Doyle—the Democratic legislator who represents the reddest district in the caucus—and Ron Kind. He’s lived in Madison and Reedsburg, organized huge events in Milwaukee, traveled and worked all over the state. At the party, he’s driven our strategy of competing everywhere, in every zip code—taking nobody for granted and writing nobody off.

3. Devin is a master strategist and a brilliant tactician. He blew up Trump’s cynical plot to get Kanye West on the ballot in 2020. He created the Defend Justice campaign to stop Robin Vos’s plot to impeach Janet Protasiewicz. When Elon Musk came to town, Devin crafted the People v. Musk campaign. He knows great communication isn’t just words—it takes action. He plays hardball, and that’s what this moment requires.

4. Integrity is his middle name. Devin acts based on his values, and believes everyone—no matter their gender, their generation, the color of their skin, where they live, or (and this is a rarity in politics) who they know—has a valuable perspective that deserves to be heard. He genuinely listens, comes to see every person’s perspective, and finds win-win solutions that turn conflict into cooperation. He’s an honest broker. That’s what you want in a chair.

5. Devin innovates. He sees around corners. When COVID hit, it was Devin who figured out how to organize around absentee ballots—a model that helped power Biden’s victory nationwide. He’s developed new ways to stretch every dollar, to organize and communicate online, to empower the grassroots. If you have a problem to solve, call Devin. I know, because he’s the person I call first. He always comes through.

6. Devin keeps us on offense. Here’s one example. In 2023, Republicans sent a fake emergency weather alert to try to get attention for their attack on Janet Protasiewicz, a particularly vicious gambit in the middle of a Tornado Watch. Devin made it backfire. He immediately figured out that it was illegal, filed a legal complaint with the FCC, and generated headlines across the state exposing the GOP, putting them on defense. That’s classic Devin. 2026 is all about offense, and Devin is the fighter we need.

7. Devin is relentless. For Devin, everything flows from the mission: winning. Leading a large organization (WisDems often has hundreds of staff!) requires a constant focus on what matters most, so that the team knows which way to push. It’s so easy, as Democrats, to get distracted by infighting. Devin brings us back to the big picture, the battle to save our democracy and deliver for working folks, and simply doesn’t stop.

8. Devin earns trust. He keeps his word. So much of being a great chair is finding a way to meet many needs at once—the county parties, volunteers, the local candidates, the statewide candidates, even the presidential campaigns. By being honest about what’s possible, explaining why, and then overdelivering, Devin builds goodwill that makes excellence and teamwork possible. That’s also what makes him a great fundraiser: in a world of cynicism, donors fund WisDems because they believe the party will actually be effective. Devin will sustain that trust.

9. He’s ready today. In fact, he’s been ready for a long time. As my longest-serving Executive Director, he’s led the party through some of the toughest political waters imaginable. He’ll hit the ground sprinting. That’s exactly what we need to expand the Supreme Court majority, flip House seats—and win a trifecta in 2026.

10. Devin will take us into the future. He represents a new generation of leadership in the Democratic Party, fluent with every aspect of digital culture, full of ideas for how we can engage young voters whose relationship to both parties is up in the air. Devin has been essential to the victories and progress of yesterday. We need him today. And he’ll work with all of us to build the party of tomorrow.

We have a great state party. Building it has been the work of thousands of people. I’m proud to be one of them, but because our strategy has involved me speaking so much in the press, I am often personally given credit for the work of many other great leaders. Meanwhile, Devin has intentionally stayed out of the spotlight, and is constantly focused on pushing credit and appreciation to others. When he speaks to the press—and he’s led major press briefings with dozens national reporters on several occasions—he knocks it out of the park. But until now, for the most part, his work has been behind the scenes. Devin Remiker has been a game-changing secret weapon for Wisconsin Democrats. Now it’s time to let the secret out.

What our party does matters to our state, our communities, and our whole country. Getting leadership right is a high-stakes call. I want to make sure that every delegate attending our convention knows why I feel so lucky to have the chance to vote for Devin as our next chair.

I hope you’ll join me in endorsing him, voting for him at our convention in the Dells on June 15th, and then working with him to ensure that Democrats win up and down the ballot for years to come.

In solidarity,

Ben

The good news is that the GOP’s massive raid on health care in order to fund a multi-trillion-dollar tax cut for billionaires has hit rocky shoals—and, so far, doesn’t have the votes to pass.

The bad news is that, among Republicans—both in the House and in the Senate—the objectors think it doesn’t go far enough.

Ron Johnson is the worst of them.

Johnson is on a media tour describing the so-called “big, beautiful bill” as “the Titanic” because its cuts don’t go far enough.

So what is it that he thinks should be cut? As he wrote in an op-ed, he wants to target “ObamaCare, which seems to have found new life under the name ‘Medicaid expansion.’”

21 million Americans today have health insurance thanks to Medicaid expansion (which is, by the way, what it’s been called all along). The total number of people covered by the Affordable Care Act, including those on Medicaid expansion, is now 35 million.

That’s more than one in ten Americans.

But remember: Americans over 65 get Medicare. The expansion and ACA are critical programs focused on working-age adults, the folks who have kids. If you do the math, roughly one in three kids has a parent whose health insurance comes from the ACA or Medicaid expansion.

Imagine a public school classroom with 30 kids. If Ron Johnson got his way, ten kids in that class would have parents who lost their health care coverage.

These are families in red states as well as blue states; rural areas as well as urban areas; Republican voters as well as Democratic voters. But most importantly, they’re human beings.

The current bill would kick 8.6 million people off their health care, primarily via attacks on Medicaid, plus another 5.1 million by not renewing support for Affordable Care Act premiums that passed under Biden but will expire this year. That’s 13.7 million. Clearly not enough for Ron Johnson.

Johnson’s other idea is to “eliminate the hundreds of billions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse that the DOGE effort has shown exists.” But DOGE hasn’t actually found waste, fraud, and abuse—it’s just gutted programs that Americans rely on, such as cancer research, food quality inspections, the Social Security Administration, and, oh yes, the IRS’s capacity to audit wealthy tax cheats, which may or may not include some of Ron Johnson’s biggest campaign contributors.

This last one is the most galling. One estimate suggests that the deficit may grow by $500 billion due to the DOGE/Trump assault on the IRS. That’s $500 billion in one year.

So Johnson’s vision is to cut health care for the neediest and most vulnerable, cut taxes for the ultra-wealthy, and then cut the government’s ability to check whether the super-rich pay even those smaller tax bills. Got it.

Johnson isn’t alone. This morning, far-right extremists blocked the already-extreme Trump budget from passing through the House Budget Committee.

Now, the GOP will be looking for even more ways to be cruel in order to garner the votes from the right-wing defectors and push the bill to the House floor.

This is where the rest of us need to come in.

For battles like this, every day that the bill doesn’t move is a day we’ve won—and where we’ve increased the chance that we can win this fight.

The more the public finds out about what the Republicans are trying to do to them, in order to enrich their MAGA billionaire backers, the more outraged the American people will become.

The more outraged the public becomes, the more public opposition to this bill will coalesce.

The more public opposition, the greater the chance that Republican members of Congress from non-deep-red districts and states will want to avoid voting for the bill—because they will know it could cost them their jobs.

Derrick Van Orden in WI-03, for example, would face a choice between the end of his political career or a vote for a vicious piece of legislation that would kick his own constituents off their health coverage.

But if Republicans try to secure the votes of endangered Republicans by softening the bill’s extremism, they’ll lose the ultra-extremists like Ron Johnson, who already say it’s not cruel enough.

The GOP is divided. They’re in disarray. This is the time to press our case—for the good of the country.

Call them. Protest. Write. Be unignorable.

Democrats are entirely united in our opposition to this attack on our communities and our fundamental values. This is what our party is about: building a country that works for everyone, not just those who have everything.

Let’s keep fighting. Let’s win this thing. And then let’s win some elections.

You can help WisDems organize for the coming blue trifecta by donating now. Chip in here.

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Okay, so: Should we cut health care to fund tax giveaways to the rich?

Ask voters what they think about that idea, and they’re not shy: they hate it.

Ask Republicans in Congress and Trump’s White House, and you find out it’s been their goal all along.

A poll of voters in battleground House districts found 68% opposed cutting Medicaid in order to pay for tax cuts. 22% supported the idea. But the plan is barreling forward.

If you’re one of the 68% opposed to Medicaid cuts—especially if you’re represented by Republicans in Congress—now is the time to get loud.

First, take a second to learn what the GOP is proposing, and why it’s bad.

• One GOP idea is to charge poor people more for their health care.

• Another GOP is to reduce federal support for Medicaid expansion—which would kick 5.5 million people off their coverage, per the Congressional Budget Office.

• Another Republican bright idea: make it harder to enroll in Medicaid. That would lead to 2.3 million people losing their benefits.

That’s just a partial list of the GOP’s terrible ideas—there are many more, each of them rancid. Their proposals kill jobs, hurt the economy, make the lives of the poorest even harder, and worse. If passed, these Republican attacks on health care would cut short tens of thousands of Americans’ lives.

This is not a game.

Why cut Medicaid? The GOP’s goal is to find $880 billion to help pay for a giant tax cut for the ultra-wealthy that is the Republican Party’s number one policy priority.

This isn’t a surprise. During the last GOP trifecta, their first big bill attempted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. We defeated it. The second was the gigantic tax cut for the ultra-rich, which passed—and blew a hole in the federal budget.

Cutting Medicaid to make way for tax cuts for the rich is the oligarchy in action.

But we don’t have to let it happen.

Here’s your to-do list.

First, make some phone calls. 5Calls.org makes it easy. This page has facts about the Medicaid fight, a call script, and a handy tool for calling your legislators.

Make those calls, and put a reminder in your phone to do it every weekday.

Next, think about who you know who might care enough about this to take action—and send this along to them, or drop them a text, or make another call to ask if they’d be up for joining you.

Voila. You’re an advocate and an organizer.

Then, get involved with a group organizing protests on the ground. There are a ton. Sign up with some organizations like MoveOn, Indivisible, and disability rights groups to get alerts.

And one last thing: let’s recommit to ensuring that these extremists lose their MAGA majorities in 2026.

We should be talking about expanding health coverage and bringing costs down, not slashing it and driving costs up.

These are shared goals by pretty much every Democrat in public life. For example: all those ideas are right there in Governor Evers budget proposal—as they have been each year in office.

Republicans, led by Robin Vos, are poised to once again slash these programs from the budget this year. But once we win Wisconsin blue trifecta in 2026, we can make Governor Evers’ proposal a reality in the Badger State in 2027.

At a federal level, Democrats are united on this as well. Every single Democrat will vote against the GOP’s health care cuts and tax giveaways to the wealthy. As Leader Jeffries—joined by every House Democrat—has proclaimed for months the GOP budget plan will not get “a single Democratic vote.” Senate Democrats are in formation as well: they’re a unified wall of opposition to the oligarchic attack on working people and the poor. If you want to explain the difference between the two parties to someone who only casually pays attention to politics, this is a pretty good place to start. And to their credit, Democrats in both chambers, the DNC, and Democratic electeds and activists in the states are doing everything in their power to fight this atrocious policy—in ways that voters will see.

Our collective goal is to stop these cuts from passing, this year or next. After that, the most powerful way to fight back is by winning elections. When we flip the House in 2026—including newly blue seats from Wisconsin—we can make these GOP assaults on Medicaid a relic of history, not a daily nightmare.

And when we win a federal trifecta in 2028, we can move forward with the vision that every single Democratic presidency has worked to advance, step by (often painfully incremental) step.

We can do the work to ensure that every American has the health care that every human being deserves, as a right rather than a privilege, without costs that force working people to choose between medicine and food.

Once we win that trifecta and make those changes, we’ll wonder how it took so long. But now, we must prevent the GOP’s demolition of millions of Americans’ coverage—and exact the greatest possible political price on those attempting a reverse Robin Hood theft from the poor to enrich the already rich.

Fighting a fight like this, win or lose, is the right thing to do. And it shows voters whose side we’re on—theirs. Taking this fight to the public can show everyone who the GOP really works for.

This is a battle line where the vast majority of the country is with us on one side, and MAGA is on the other. Let’s fight with confidence, pride, and the ferocity that the stakes require.

—

You can help to keep the pressure on the Trump administration by donating now to @WisDems. Help fuel our year-round grassroots efforts to hold the GOP accountable, and help elect Democrats in Wisconsin up and down the ballot. Chip in here.

A version of this piece first appeared on Daily Kos.

This is not going well for them. In fact, it’s going to age like milk on a Miami sidewalk.

Let’s review what happened.

The arrest of Judge Dugan stemmed from a Keystone Kops-esque episode that took place a week earlier, when immigration enforcement attempted to arrest an individual in Dugan’s courtroom.

Judge Dugan sent the enforcers out, telling them to talk to the chief judge. Then she sent the individual out via the “jury door.” The FBI now wants to prosecute her for supposedly obstructing a U.S. agency and concealing an individual to prevent an arrest.

But there’s a problem.

The government’s case hinges (among other problems) on the idea that the choice of the jury door showed an attempt to evade authorities. But as the FBI complaint details (as Ann Jacobs points out), the door led to *where the agents were waiting.*

Attorneys Jeff Mandell and Norm Eisen further summarize the case in a great Journal Sentinel op-ed:

That’s the government’s case. You’d think the higher-ups would be nervous about staking their reputations on such hole-ridden foundations, but no: immediately after the arrest, FBI director Kash Patel celebrated the arrest—in a deleted and later reposted tweet.

Shortly thereafter, Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared on Fox News bragging about the case.

Both of those actions represent a problem for the administration—because federal Department of Justice policies prohibit officials from making public statements that could affect the outcome of a criminal proceeding, as Norm Eisen and Lisa Gilbert point out.

This wasn’t about law enforcement. The arrest of Judge Dugan was a stunt calculated to intimidate judges.

Condemnation and public protests erupted immediately.

Here’s how Governor Evers responded:

And here is Senator Baldwin:

It’s also worth reading and amplifying the great statements from Rep. Gwen Moore…

Rep. Mark Pocan…

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley…

And Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson.

Judge Dugan's attorney said: "Hannah C. Dugan has committed herself to the rule of law and the principles of due process for her entire career as a lawyer and a judge. Judge Dugan will defend herself vigorously, and looks forward to being exonerated."

Grassroots groups immediately mobilized protests in Milwaukee—two on the day of the arrest, and another on Saturday. A slew of organizations signed on to a letter opposing Judge Dugan’s arrest.

The State Democracy Defenders Fund and Public Citizen led a sign-on letter calling for a formal investigation into Patel’s and Bondi’s public statements about Judge Dugan’s arrest to determine if they violate DOJ policies.

And an all-star defense team signed up to represent Judge Dugan, including the “LeBron James of Lawyers”—former United States Solicitor General Paul Clement.

Judge Dugan was released on her own recognizance the same day, and will be back in court on May 15. As the case unfolds, the state Supreme Court has paused her service on the bench. Meanwhile, furious opposition is spreading through the country.

When Judge Dugan wins, it will be one more legal blow to an administration that keeps acting as though our laws don’t apply to them—and then finding out, via losses in court, that their power does indeed have limits.

This is a frightening time. The destruction created by this administration is real. But amidst the blizzard of constant catastrophe, it’s worth reflecting that we—those who believe in freedom, justice, democracy, and the rule of law—are, in fact, winning key fights on a near-daily basis.

We won the Wisconsin Supreme Court race this spring. And Trump has lost in court on at least 131 different fronts. Many of his key initiatives are paused. And many more, including the attack on Judge Dugan, have highly dim legal prospects.

Part of Trump’s strategy is to move so fast that people forget that his last outrage wound up fizzling out. Don’t let his speed make you lose track. We’re fighting back. We are strong. And in the short, medium, and long term, we will win.

You can take part in the fight against Trump’s destructive agenda by donating to WisDems. Our year-round organizing operation will keep pressure on the Trump administration, as we gear up for winning up and down ballot races in Wisconsin in 2026.