Ben Wikler will leave as president of the state of Dem this weekend with a box without control on his list of tasks – a Trifecta dem in Capitol.
And he says that the reversal of two seats in the State Senate and five to the Assembly next fall is the key to completing a program which includes the restoration of workers’ rights, ensuring access to health care and fully funding schools.
“The great unfinished task is to win the legislative majorities and to be able to achieve the change in people’s lives that Democrats are fighting for all this time,” Wikler said in a new Wispolitics interview before the DEMS State Convention this week in Wisconsin Dells. “I often tell our staff that the only real measure of our work is the impact that it has about people’s lives. This is not the number of doors that we hit or the dollars that we collect, or even the number of elections we gain, it is the change that people who serve in the public service can create by emitting policies that make people better for people. “
>> Wispolitics is now on the state business network. Get notifications of personalized keywords, monitoring of invoices and all Wispolitics content. Get the application.
The realization of this will be up to the successor of Wikler, with three people in the running to replace him at the Convention: the president of the 3rd CD William Garcia, the former executive director of the Dévin Remiker State and the company Joe Zepecki. Wikler approved Remiker.
The winner will also be responsible for continuing the success of the fundraising that Wikler has established. When he announced in April that he would not ask for a fourth term of two years, the party said that Wilker had raised $ 206 million since its entry into office in early June 2019 through its state and federal accounts.
This success was built on major donors such as the co-founder of Linkedin, Reid Hoffman, who donated $ 14.7 million in the Party public accounts since Wikler took office, as well as his Petit Dollar operation. The party reported More than $ 4 million donors giving $ 200 or less in 2024 via its federal account after draw $ 3.5 million in these small dollar contributors in 2023.
One of the key questions of the initiates about the future of the party is whether Wikler’s successor can keep pace.
Wikler, however, is not worried.
“I think that fundamentally, donors invest in the Wisconsin Democratic Party at all levels, including people who manage in five dollars a month, because they share party values, and they consider the party as an effective way to advance victories during the elections,” said Wikler. “And I think that the party will be able to advance this confidence by continuing both to do things that really work, like the organization all year round and to continue to innovate.”
Wikler, who worked for Moveon.org Before becoming president in 2019, announced in April that he would not ask for re -election. This decision occurred shortly after the liberal Susan Crawford won the Supreme Court of the State of April 1 of 10 points and on the heels of the unsuccessful offer of Wikler for the president of the National Party.
At the time, Wikler said that he would not reproduce in the race to replace him. But he reversed the course last month to support Remiker, who was executive director and political director of Wikler.
Wikler said he had decided to approve because he wanted to inform the delegates of what he observed from remike during their stay together.
After the announcement last month, Zepecki posted a video On Facebook, criticizing Wikler for approving the race after saying he wouldn’t.
“In the end, I have the impression that it is my duty to the party to share the information I have, to support the voting delegates to our State Convention when they make their decision,” said Wikler. “It would do no good for me to sit on what I saw.”
Wikler ends his time at the helm of the party on a high note after Crawford’s victory in April against the former GOP prosecutor, Brad Schimel, a Waukesha county judge. However, the Wisconsin party – and at the national level – is to search the soul after Donald Trump won the presidency, in particular by taking the 10 electoral votes of Badger State.
Wikler said the party started debriefing shortly after the elections and returned to the organization, in particular by being part of the doors in January and mobilizing volunteers. He said that a key to this approach was that volunteers speak to friends, family and neighbors for a personal argument. He said it was a better approach than “outsourcing” work to Elon Musk Super PAC and the Conservative group Turning Point USA. The two made Schimel’s support in the Wisconsin spring race.
Wikler said the party had learned a lesson in November on “presenting itself in non -traditional places” to reach voters, including platforms such as Tiktok.
“But the fundamental truth in politics is that information goes to the speed of confidence, and establishing confidence with voters is something that takes time, and we have put from this period in a way that allowed us to really transmit a message on Elon Musk and Brad Schimel, corruption and the struggle for a state where everyone would get a fair shaken in the spring elections.
