Thread by @benwikler

THREAD: Democracy is under assault in Wisconsin—but we’ve been fighting back. Read on for how we’ve sprinted through 2021—and then click to donate so we can hit our year-end goal & ramp up the fight in 2022! wisdems.org/recap

Before we dig into our review of 2021, let’s set the stage—for why anyone outside Wisconsin should care about this state in the first place. Simply put: what happens in politics here shapes the course of the nation.

Wisconsin is the most evenly divided state in the country. 4 of the last 6 presidential elections have come down to less than 1%. In 2020, President Biden won WI by 20,682 votes—a 0.6% margin. In 2018, Gov Evers won by 1.1% As a result, every election here is a titanic battle.

Wisconsin isn’t just close—it’s decisive. We were the “tipping point” state in 2020 and 2016—the state whose electoral college votes put the winner over the top. To win the White House, win Wisconsin.
nationalreview.com/2020/12/wiscon…

The GOP’s plot to take over elections in ‘24 depends on being able to overturn results in enough states to steal an electoral college majority. The GOP has that power in many states—but not enough. They need to add WI. That’s why we have to stop them here.

https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1456312676875964419

It’s these massive stakes that drive our team and volunteers. We start with our FIRE values: Fight, Include, Respect, and Empower. Our plan is BADGER. We’re organizing across lines of race, ethnicity, geography, gender, and generation. Everywhere. Year-round.

2021 began with the insurrection. Wisconsin Republicans fanned the flames. Derrick Van Orden, Republican candidate for WI Congressional District 3, even attended the Stop the Steal rally and was on Capitol grounds. We went after him:

Ron Johnson—unfortunately one of our U.S. Senators (for now)—fed the lie that led to the insurrection, and then lied about it. We hit him with the first TV ads of the election cycle:

In February, Governor Evers unveiled his #BadgerBounceback agenda; President Biden came to Wisconsin for his presidency’s first official trip; and the Senate voted to acquit Trump on the articles of impeachment for the insurrection.

Trump’s second impeachment was passed on a bipartisan basis—but every Wisconsin Republican in Congress sided with Trump. That notably included flip-flopper, Mike Gallagher.

Rep. Mike Gallagher criticized Trump at first, but then voted against impeachment, investigation, and Liz Cheney. We held him to account:

Meanwhile, Johnson didn’t just vote against impeachment—he kept ratcheting up his rhetoric in an attempt to rewrite the history of the insurrection. We made sure Wisconsinites heard about it.

In March, President Biden signed the historic #AmericanRescuePlan into law! Funds for vaccines, stimulus checks, Child Tax Credit support, and money to safely keep schools and small businesses open. We celebrated the ARP’s success and lifted it up:
wisconsinexaminer.com/2021/12/01/200…

Thankfully, every Wisconsin Democrat voted for the American Rescue Plan. How many Republicans did the same? Zero. We worked to make sure Wisconsinites knew that Ron Johnson and other Republicans in Congress tried to block help that voters needed.

https://twitter.com/WisDems/status/1387170947887665152

April: Wisconsin was home to the first statewide election anywhere in the country under the Biden administration. The GOP tried their divisive tactics. They failed. A huge grassroots push ensured Dr. Jill Underly, public school champ, won by a landslide.

https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1380300767362482180

Dr. Jill @underlyforwi, endorsed by @WisDems, beat a candidate endorsed by Scott Walker and Betsy DeVos-backed dark money groups, by sixteen percentage points. Dems completed more volunteer shifts in spring ‘21 than they had in spring ‘20. Momentum!

We supported and won local elections across the state, like Ryan Sorenson (now Sheboygan’s youngest mayor ever!), Emily Siegrist for Brown Deer Village Board, Sachin Shivaram for Ledgeview Town Board, and Auntavia Jackson for Racine Unified School District. We built the bench!

That month, Gov Evers announced $420 million for small businesses impacted by COVID-19. From Washington to Wisconsin, Democrats were delivering for communities recovering from the pandemic.
madison.com/wsj/news/local…

In May, VP @KamalaHarris visited Wisconsin, her first visit to the Badger State since taking office, only a few months into the Biden Administration! It showed just how committed POTUS and VP are to getting Wisconsin families and small businesses the support they need.

When Gov Evers said 2021 would be the “Year of Broadband Access” he delivered by allocating $129 million in our state’s budget. Wisconsin is now on its way to connect 300,000 homes and businesses to high-speed internet.
wpr.org/wisconsin-regu…

The American Rescue Plan built upon Gov Evers’s work to expand broadband in rural Wisconsin with a $100 million boost from POTUS’s historic legislation.
jsonline.com/story/money/bu…

At our 2021 #BadgerBounceback State Convention in June, we had a dynamite weekend of Democrats in Wisconsin ready to continue fighting for our progressive values, and the uncontested reelection of our state party officers!

https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1403131964400541699

And most importantly—Gov Evers announced his reelection campaign! Wisconsin Democrats are united to deliver another term for @Tony4WI in 2022. #AllinForTony

The #BadgerBounceback WisDems State Convention ended with a bang with our “All Eyes on Wisconsin” grassroots event with @SpeakerPelosi, Majority Leader @chuckschumer, and DNC Chair @harrisonjaime:

June also featured another great visit from President @JoeBiden, swinging through western Wisconsin to talk about the bipartisan infrastructure deal!

https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1409952488694898694

Democrats had a great presence at the Juneteenth celebration in Milwaukee—the 50th anniversary of Milwaukee’s celebration! But Ron Johnson, who had tried to block Juneteenth from becoming a federal holiday, didn't exactly thrill everyone he met.

https://twitter.com/ChrisWaltonMKE/status/1406306518522343426

In July, the expanded #ChildTaxCredit—part of the American Rescue Plan—started to hit families’ bank accounts. Even in that first month, families across Wisconsin began to see what a difference it made in their lives. We made sure Wisconsinites knew about it.

Then, Gov Evers signed the first bipartisan budget since 2007. It included one of the largest tax cuts for working families in state history and restored our public school funding commitment for the first time in two decades.

https://twitter.com/WisDems/status/1413151112677392396

The month ended with the Hmong Wausau Festival—hosted by the Hmong American Center—celebrating the many aspects of the Hmong American community. We were honored to be a part of it—with Hmong-language literature for the 1st time outside of an election year!

https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1421521278083772416

In August, @ProPublica ran an expose on Ron Johnson’s shady tax scam, revealing that Johnson championed a special provision in the 2017 Trump tax bill that handed a half-billion-dollar giveaway to his 3 biggest donors.
propublica.org/article/secret…

Naturally, we had to let every Wisconsinite know. We held a protest outside of Johnson’s Madison office to hold him accountable, and created this video for people to share:

https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1433446286200561666

August also marked a key moment for our democracy: Governor Evers vetoed a half dozen anti-voting bills passed by Republicans in our state legislature. Other states have rolled back voting rights. Because of Evers, Wisconsin’s not among them.
apnews.com/article/joe-bi…

In the same month, we began Rural PowerUp trainings around Wisconsin, following our Rural Advisory Council’s recommendations. The goal was to enhance collaboration between our rural communities & strengthen rural organizing power ahead of the ’22 election.

https://twitter.com/LiberalStallion/status/1414021215086317568

Gov Evers announced $250 million funding for Wisconsin healthcare and neighborhood initiatives, thanks to POTUS, the American Rescue Plan, and Democrats in Congress!
wuwm.com/2021-08-25/eve…

In September, Scott Walker’s former lieutenant governor, Rebecca Kleefisch, launched her campaign against Gov Evers. We were prepared to reintroduce her to the public by exposing her terrible, radical record with a special website: radicalrebecca.com

September also included the 20th anniversary gala of Voces De La Frontera, a powerhouse advocacy voice in Wisconsin. @WisDems was proud to sponsor a table—one of the 250 events where our Coalitions team ensured Dems had a presence:

In October, some WisDems staff and I hit the road to travel across Wisconsin: Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire, Merrill, Rhinelander, Wausau, the Oneida reservation, Green Bay, Milwaukee, and Madison.

We met with rural county party chairs and members, held roundtable conversations with AAPI leaders, connected with elected officials and tribal leaders, and visited the LGBTQ Caucus’s PrideTober booth.

Most importantly, we listened to fellow Wisconsinites—the unique challenges their communities face and were reminded that we were not in this fight alone.

https://twitter.com/mjwongengel/status/1446516824963788804

November 2 was an election day. In WI, radical right-winger Rebecca Kleefisch went all-in on a divisive school board recall campaign in the Mequon-Thiensville school district. Her highly public intervention fell flat, as her candidates lost in a landslide. jsonline.com/story/communit…

For months, we’d been building toward our biggest organizing event of the year: #1Year2Win! In one incredible Nov weekend, we reached out to over 100,000 voters in Wisconsin about how Democrats are delivering for our state & our country.

https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1456310998017748999

We didn’t just equal our record-setting 2019 numbers; we smashed them. We had more than 1,000 volunteers, elected officials, & staff members doorknocking, phonebanking, & organizing their friends & family to reelect Gov Evers & defeat Ron Johnson next year.

https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1457010100284051457

Not only did we talk to voters all over the state—but we also earned press coverage from news outlets statewide. Local outlets are the #1 place Wisconsinites get their news. Viewers heard about how Democrats are energized, a full year out from the midterms!channel3000.com/gov-evers-wisd…

Thank you to everyone who made #1Year2Win great—from our powerhouse @WisDems team to our elected friends, from @Tony4WI to local leaders, helping us at our canvass launches, to every single volunteer who knocked a door or made a call. You power this party.

https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1459320984629088260/

On top of #1Year2Win, Nov was historic for Dems nationwide! Thanks to every single Wisconsin Democrat in Congress & the Senate, we passed the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill—which will bring $6 billion to WI roads, bridges & public transit. upnorthnewswi.com/2021/11/08/bid…

This added to the over 1,000 miles of roads and over 800 bridges Governor Evers has already fixed.
captimes.com/opinion/guest-…

The #BipartisanInfrastructureLaw expands on the already-historic infrastructure investments pioneered by Gov Evers in Wisconsin. And we got word about a jaw-dropping explosion in jobs as our economy builds back better.

https://twitter.com/WisDems/status/1466191750305828868

Meanwhile, @WisDems helped relaunch the Democratic Leadership Institute, a training hosted by leading progressive professionals in Wisconsin. We trained 44 of the next generation of WI political staffers to get involved in our fight for equity & justice!

https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1450526658268696584

In late November, Wisconsin reeled from the tragedy in Waukesha and the painful decision in Kenosha, and the ongoing pandemic. Hearts were heavy as families gathered for Thanksgiving meals. It was an important time to come together.

And now, we’re here in December. The far-right US Supreme Court seems intent on overturning precedent to rip up reproductive freedoms. But in Wisconsin, Governor Evers stands firm against Republican attacks.

https://twitter.com/GovEvers/status/1466849530104721411

In Wisconsin, we’re fighting for our democracy against a Republican Party that is relentlessly attacking the basic fabric of our democracy, and those who conscientiously seek to make it work.

https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1465719451337338891

While voting rights and election administration protections fall in state after state, Wisconsin has what the New York Times termed a “sea wall”: our great Democratic Governor, a rock-solid defender of democracy. We’ve got to reelect him.
nytimes.com/2021/10/06/us/…

And while we watch Republican attorneys general in other states push bogus “voter fraud” probes to undermine confidence in democracy, Wisconsin’s great AG @JoshKaulWI pushes back against the sham investigation here:
cbs58.com/news/shut-this…

Meanwhile, #RadicalRebecca Kleefisch and national embarrassment Ron Johnson continue to push anti-democracy conspiracy theories. We have to make sure neither of them wins in 2022.

This year has been nonstop. We’ve never stopped fighting. While pundits warned about fading Democratic energy, that *didn’t* happen in Wisconsin. The grassroots energy of Democrats in this critical state never faded. This has made me incredibly hopeful.

This is not a cause for complacency. But the absence of complacency is a cause for celebration. We never stopped fighting this year. And we’re going to take it up even further next year. Chip in any amount today to help us do just that: wisdems.org/recap