Thread by @benwikler

Thread: Betsy DeVos’ dark money group is targeting a public school champion, Jill Underly, who is running for Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Schools—a statewide WI election on April 6. This race is critical. Sign up to volunteer & fight back:
secure.ngpvan.com/p/eh27mPeAy0yB…

The American Federation For Children—an anti-public-school, pro-voucher lobbying group founded and funded by Betsy DeVos—is running ads attacking Jill Underly. These attacks are ridiculous, but revealing.

Republicans and school privatizers are lying about the school debate specifically in order to attack teachers. The truth is, *everyone* wants to safely reopen schools. Underly, a school superintendent, safely kept her schools open. Different districts face different conditions.

Wisconsin Republicans, in a particularly spiteful act of demagoguery, want to withhold funding for the districts that aren't able to safely open their doors yet. Underly opposes this. So, the GOP/DeVos crew are attacking her for it.

Running against Jill Underly is Deb Kerr—endorsed by Scott Walker, a supporter of Act 10 & diverting public funds to voucher schools, and under fire for financial scandal. The Betsy DeVos crowd is helping her by attacking Underly.
jsonline.com/story/news/202…

Superintendent of Public Schools is the job held by Tony Evers before he became governor. It’s a critical role that will shape public education in our state. And organizing in this race is crucial for a broader reason as well.

Wisconsin’s election on April 6 will shape whether we defeat Ron Johnson in 2022, whether Governor Evers wins reelection, and whether 2024 sends a Democrat back to the White House.

Historically, Wisconsin (like most states) has had a turnout roller coaster. Big turnout in presidential years. Lower in midterms. Much, much lower in spring elections, especially in off years.

Wisconsin statewide turnout history:
2014 Governor: 2,410,317 total votes
2015 state Supreme Court: 813,200
2016 Prez: 2,976,150
2017 Schools head: 707,382
2018 Sup Ct: 996,656
2018 Gov: 2,673,308
2019 Sup Ct: 1,207,569
2020 Sup Ct: 1,549,697
2020 Prez: 3,297,352

The fascinating thing about 2020 was not just that it had a larger number of votes. HOW people voted changed as well. In 2016, the previous record, only 249k people voted absentee, by mail. In 2020? 1.3 million. The vast majority of them Democrats.

Republican lawmakers intentionally made absentee voting hard in Wisconsin. The first time you vote absentee here, you have to snap a photo of your voter ID and upload it to a webform—or mail in a printout.

That creates a barrier. But the SECOND time you request an absentee ballot, your ID is already on file. So the barrier is lower. Which most Wisconsinites don’t yet know. Because they’ve only done it once.

So, in organizing for Underly’s race, we have our first big chance to educate our electorate about how simple it is to re-request an absentee ballot. If you join our virtual phone banks, you’ll help do exactly that.

By expanding our spring electorate this year, we increase the number of never-miss-an-election Democratic super-voters. And that, in turn, expands the number of voters we can count on in 2022 and 2024.

Moreover, we’ll learn from our experiences this spring—what works, what doesn’t—in ways that will pay dividends for future elections. Just as we learned from the spring 2020 state Supreme Court race and applied those lessons to Nov 2020.

So: two huge reasons to volunteer for our spring election to help Jill Underly. First, beat the DeVos/Walker team and elect a terrific candidate to lead Wisconsin’s education department. madison.com/ct/opinion/edi…

And second, educate and build the electorate in the pivotal state before a year that could determine the balance of power in the Senate *and* the governorship that could determine who wins the presidency in 2024. Sign up & help!
secure.ngpvan.com/p/eh27mPeAy0yB…

Organizing in every race, year-round, is the essence of party-building. It’s what keeps our infrastructure strong. It’s what worked in Wisconsin, what worked in Georgia—and it’s what we should be doing nationwide.

Make some calls. Join the fight. We’re making change, together—so let’s keep our foot on the gas. Go Jill Underly!