Donald Trumps 2016 electoral college victory was, in many ways, epitomized by his stunning win in Wisconsin. Hillary Clintons failure to visit the state during the general election campaign took most of the blame, but her weak Badger State ground game was probably more crippling. Ben Wikler has spent the past 18 months trying to fix that problem. An activist since his high school days in Madison, Wikler attended Harvard; helped former Minnesota senator Al Franken write two books and produced his radio show; launched his own podcast, The Flaming Sword of Justice; then became MoveOns Washington directorall good preparation for being elected last year, at 38, as chairman of Wisconsins Democratic Party. He has overseen traditional tactics like deploying thousands of volunteers, but also novel ones, including cast members of The Princess Bride, Parks and Recreation, and Veep reuniting virtually to raise money for the state party. Vanity Fairs Chris Smith spoke with Wikler about the 2020 endgame in a crucial battleground state.
Vanity Fair: Were talking exactly two weeks before Election Day. How are you feeling?
Ben Wikler: Its like being on a roller coaster in the middle of an earthquake. Theres not a lot of sleep happening.
Well, you have three children under the age of nine, so that should be familiar. But what about the presidential campaign in Wisconsin?
The level of grassroots Democratic energy feels like 2008 and the Obama campaign. The level of Trumpian malevolence and willingness to smash every rule feels like 2016 on steroids. And those two realities are about to smash into each other.
The most recent Marquette poll had Joe Biden up by five points. Do you believe it?
The most hopeful thing about the polling in Wisconsin is that it has been remarkably steady for months and months: Biden has been up between four and six points. I think every Democrat in the state remembers that Hillary Clinton was six and a half points up going into Election Day in 2016 and lost by less than one percentage point. So you have to treat what looks like a solid lead as a knifes edge. As a jump ball. Its neck and neck. Is that a triple metaphor?
Youve talked about how the surest way to win Wisconsin is for a presidential candidate to visit multiple times and meet voters. Biden and Kamala Harris held small events in Kenosha after the police shooting of Jacob Blake, and in late September, Biden stopped at a foundry in Manitowoc but spoke to maybe a dozen people. Last Saturday, Trump held a rally in Janesville that drew thousands. Is the pandemic creating the same dynamic that lost the state for Democrats four years ago?
The fact that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are not holding super-spreader events is a way of communicating that they mean what they say about bringing this pandemic under control. Were holding virtual events constantly with the nominees, with surrogates, with activists and leaders of all kinds. Those help too. We have had massive virtual phone banks. We have text banks. We have friend banks where people go through their own contacts. We have planes flying over Milwaukee with banners. We have mail pouring into peoples mailboxes. We have digital ads on every screen someone might open. The Biden team is outspending the Trump campaign more than two to one on TV ads. And were actually going to have sound trucks in major cities in the final stretch.
Trump is reinforcing with every one of his rallies that he doesnt actually care about the millions and millions of families who are grieving or are fundamentally reshaping their lives to avoid endangering their communities.Hes doubling down on the exact strategy thats causing him to lose.
Wisconsins Democratic governor, Tony Evers, tried to delay the states April primary because of the pandemic, but the Republican-majority legislature and the courts refused. That produced something both heroic and infuriating: epically long lines of voters. Will the waits be better or worse on November 3?
The mechanics are vastly improved because we had the brutal lesson of the spring. Milwaukee, which had 180 polling places in previous elections, shrank down to five because so many poll workers dropped out in April due to the coronavirus. So going into the fall, we got phone banks going six nights a week to recruit poll workers. The plan currently is that 173 precincts will be open in Milwaukee, despite a COVID-19 outbreak now thats worse than the one we had in the spring.
Another one of your organizing pushes has been aimed at holding down Trumps margins in rural, red counties. Hows that going?
There are three pillars holding up an electoral victory in Wisconsin: cities, suburbs, and rural areas. Trump is gaining no ground in cities, and hes underperforming in suburbs so badly that his only path is to blow the roof out in rural areas. Unluckily for Trump, weve been organizing in rural Wisconsin intensively for the last three and a half years. In every election during this period, we are closing margins rather than letting Trump grow them. There was a lot of talk in 2016 about the shy Trump voter who wasnt necessarily talking to pollsters. In a lot of the reddest places in Wisconsin, there has been a shy-Democrat phenomenon. Driving around Wisconsin in 2016, it was just a sea of Trump signs. Now there are Biden signs on lawns, on the sides of roads, on the sides of barns. Handmade murals and flags.People are discovering there are a lot more Democrats around than they thought. For folks who might have been feeling hopeless, its actually giving them permission to think that we can really win. Ive been speaking to rural Democratic county party meetings, and they have been marveling at all these people they didnt know were Democrats.
That all sounds encouraging. Yet Wisconsin Republicans recently won a federal appeals court ruling that will restrict the counting of mail-in ballots to those physically received by November 3.
Weve appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which just upheld a ruling allowing Pennsylvania to count ballots that come in after Election Day. But were organizing as if the existing rules are what will prevail.
Four years ago Koch money helped Trump in Wisconsin. Is that spending happening again?
Other conservative groups are doing their dark money thing. Yet if you add together what the dark money groups and the Trump campaign are doing, its still far short of what the Biden campaign alone is spending. Still, its very clear that the whole right-wing infrastructure has coalesced around Trump in a way that it actually didnt in 2016, when people like Charlie Sykes, the radio host in Milwaukee, were against Trump and others sat it out. So you saw declining turnout in places like Waukesha. This time, if youre a Republican in Wisconsin, youre supporting Trump.
Follow this link:
Wisconsin Democrats Are Organizing Like Mad. Will It Be Enough? - Vanity Fair
- 6 Things New York Attorneys Need To Know About The New Surrogacy Law - Above the Law - February 16th, 2021
- Is Scarlet Witch Really In Control? Every Theory | Screen Rant - Screen Rant - February 11th, 2021
- The third wave that pushed Irish hospitals to the brink - RTE.ie - February 11th, 2021
- Candidates, Experts Discuss Potential Positives and Pitfalls of Ranked-Choice Voting Amid New York City Implementation - Gotham Gazette - February 4th, 2021
- One Year Of Fight Against Coronavirus, Has India Passed Its Peak? What To Expect Now, Dr Randeep Guleria Explains | Coronavirus Outbreak - Swachh... - February 4th, 2021
- Surrogacy reform is spreading in the rich world - The Economist - January 31st, 2021
- As teams prepare for Super Bowl Sunday, CDC says NFL's COVID-19 mitigation strategies are effective - Yahoo! Voices - January 31st, 2021
- The unregulated, All-Star-driven world of open enrollment loopholes in Texas high school football - The Dallas Morning News - January 15th, 2021
- The Twitter presidency is over. Or is it? - Vox.com - January 15th, 2021
- Peaceful transition of power is the American dream right now - Modern Diplomacy - December 28th, 2020
- News industry must seize opportunity restore trust | TheHill - The Hill - December 18th, 2020
- The GOP Hopes This Issue Will Tarnish Warnock's Pastor Image - The Daily Beast - December 18th, 2020
- The real US failure when it comes to globalization is not having a 21st century, social safety net - The Times of India Blog - December 18th, 2020
- Prevent your guacamole from browning with this airtight container - Yahoo! Voices - December 18th, 2020
- How Trump Won One of America's Most Diverse Counties By a Lot - POLITICO - December 14th, 2020
- Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton holding off on wedding due to COVID-19 - Yahoo News Canada - December 14th, 2020
- Trump May Be Leaving, But 'Fake News' is a Part of All Our Lives Now | Opinion - Newsweek - November 30th, 2020
- Concerns over Thanksgiving gatherings continue as U.S. marks deadliest day in pandemic in months - Yahoo News - November 30th, 2020
- Will Biden administration be a repeat of Obama years? - Yahoo News - November 30th, 2020
- Fontana Residents 'Fed Up' With Possible Thanksgiving Day Planned Power Outages - Yahoo News - November 30th, 2020
- The Next Administration Should Bring the Shadow Wars into the Light - Defense One - November 26th, 2020
- Dan and Ray's traditional Thanksgiving meal will be curbside - Yahoo News - November 26th, 2020
- Thanksgiving 2020 At Home: Reasons We're Thankful - Yahoo News - November 26th, 2020
- Invisible campaign and the specter of socialism: Why Cuban Americans fell hard for Trump - Tampa Bay Times - November 26th, 2020
- Eagles fans, experts split on what to do with Carson Wentz - Yahoo News - November 26th, 2020
- The Damage Of Trumps International Anti-Abortion Policy Wont Be Easy To Undo - HuffPost - November 26th, 2020
- Painting the town: Murals meet the moment | Oregon ArtsWatch - Oregon ArtsWatch - November 11th, 2020
- Jill Biden: a chance to transform the role of first lady - FRANCE 24 - November 11th, 2020
- The Dem Hid From a Scandal. The Republican Attended Super-Spreader Events. Guess Who Racked up the Votes? - Mother Jones - November 11th, 2020
- Trump probably 'cant steal the election' but here's why you should be 'alarmed' anyway: conservative - AlterNet - November 11th, 2020
- The Trump Era Is Over. Our Leaders Want To Take Us Back To 2015 - Jacobin magazine - November 11th, 2020
- Opinion: The future of Fintech marketing - ETBrandEquity.com - November 11th, 2020
- Biden sleepwalks to the White House - Spectator.co.uk - November 11th, 2020
- Letters to the Editor 11/5/20 | Letters to the Editor | Bend - The Source Weekly - November 5th, 2020
- Florida Democrats Assess What Went Wrong For Biden With Latinos in the State - Newsweek - November 5th, 2020
- Whats at stake in Arizonas 2020 election - Cronkite News - November 5th, 2020
- HOW DUVAL SHAPED PAST ELECTIONS: Why Jacksonville is critical to winning the presidency - FirstCoastNews.com WTLV-WJXX - November 5th, 2020
- Jill Biden: A Chance To Transform The Role Of First Lady - NDTV - November 5th, 2020
- Election 2020 Live Blog - 90.5 WESA - November 5th, 2020
- 2020 Watch: Is Biden remaking the Democratic coalition? - Minneapolis Star Tribune - November 1st, 2020
- HOW DUVAL SHAPED PAST ELECTIONS: Why Jacksonville is critical to winning the presidency - The Florida Times-Union - November 1st, 2020
- How Joe Biden May Have Outmaneuvered Donald Trump On Energy, Climate, and the Economic Recovery - TIME - November 1st, 2020
- Presidential race shaping up to be tight in northern Maine - CBC.ca - November 1st, 2020
- Kamala Harris Urges Democrats To Keep Their Foot On The Pedal In Late Texas Visit - Patch.com - November 1st, 2020
- Emo-truthful Trump-Biden 2020: another post-truth election | OUPblog - OUPblog - November 1st, 2020
- Early Voting May Change the Impact of Last Week Blitz Campaigning - WOUB - October 29th, 2020
- Lagging in the Polls, Trump Team Predicts Win Based on 'Enthusiasm' - Newsweek - October 25th, 2020
- Network, GPS Will Be Jammed In Project Convergence 2021 - Breaking Defense - October 25th, 2020
- Surrogate Carrying Twins Shocked When Parents Say They No Longer Want The Babies - BabyGaga - October 25th, 2020
- Biden needs Black voters to turn out better than '16, in Florida and across nation - Sarasota Herald-Tribune - October 25th, 2020
- Trump vs. Biden: Here's how every region of the state plays its part in the race - Detroit Free Press - October 25th, 2020
- Weekly jobless claims fall to 787K | TheHill - The Hill - October 25th, 2020
- How Fox News analyst Arnon Mishkin will call the election - Los Angeles Times - October 25th, 2020
- My Wild 2 Weeks Inside the Trump Campaign Bubble - POLITICO - October 25th, 2020
- A burning planet: Why we must learn to live with fire - National Observer - October 25th, 2020
- Will Americans vote against Trump's behavior or for his achievements? | TheHill - The Hill - October 25th, 2020
- Salem 'Witch City' Massachusetts to triple fines over Halloween weekend amid coronavirus pandemic | TheHill - The Hill - October 25th, 2020
- Queensland election: has Palaszczuk helped defeat the politics of gender? - The Guardian - October 25th, 2020
- It's time to end employment discrimination for people with disabilities | TheHill - The Hill - October 25th, 2020
- Akufo-Addo Is The Most Serious Threat To Our Country And Democracy - We Change Him On December 7 Or We Suffer - Modern Ghana - October 25th, 2020
- Trumps top health official lies and says the US is doing as well as the rest of the world on COVID - AlterNet - October 25th, 2020
- Strategist on stimulus: the market has already priced it in - Yahoo Money - October 25th, 2020
- Cooper and Forest clash over masks, schools, and COVID-19 response in NC Governor debate - The Fayetteville Observer - October 16th, 2020
- Trump needs North Carolina in 2020 election, but the swing state is a toss-up - Citizen Times - October 16th, 2020
- 'All hands on deck': Stabenow works to build another blue wave in Michigan - Michigan Advance - October 16th, 2020
- Tom Stevenson In the Grey Zone: Proxy Warfare LRB 22 October 2020 - London Review of Books - October 16th, 2020
- Gentlemen against Trump - The Week - October 16th, 2020
- Battleground state of Wisconsin clashes over Trump and beyond - Anadolu Agency - October 16th, 2020
- Trump barely won Pennsylvania in 2016. His 2020 election may depend on keeping this swing state. - The Times - October 16th, 2020
- Somewhere in Whitehall a defence review is taking place - TheArticle - October 16th, 2020
- Air Force to Test Weapons Swarming Software in October - Air Force Magazine - September 23rd, 2020
- Improvised Mode: The Army Network Evolves In Project Convergence - Breaking Defense - September 23rd, 2020
- Biden Will Beat Expectations in the First Debate - Election Central - September 23rd, 2020
- On the trail: Visits part of Trump push in key battleground state - Concord Monitor - September 21st, 2020
- What's causing Western wildfires and how to stop them | TheHill - The Hill - September 21st, 2020
- Office working was already on the way out, Covid-19 has just hastened its end - iNews - September 21st, 2020
- Putin is about to turn his attention to the American way of life | TheHill - The Hill - September 21st, 2020
- Does the DHS Whistleblower Report Reveal an Election Interference Scandal? - Lawfare - September 21st, 2020
- Obituary of the Supreme Court justice - Sports Grind Entertainment - September 21st, 2020
- Buying power: Author warns democracy is for sale as parties put a price on influence and access bought and sold - The Sunday Post - September 21st, 2020