Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) during a press conference in March 2023. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) and Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) both serve on one of the most powerful committees in the Wisconsin State Legislature, yet as members of the minority they’ve often been frustrated by the way Republicans on the committee have excluded them from conversations. The lawmakers say they hope some of this changes next year.

The 16-person Joint Finance Committee is responsible for writing the state’s two-year budget — deciding which policy priorities get funding and which don’t — and reviewing all state appropriations and revenues. Republican lawmakers will continue to hold 12 seats next session with Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) and Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) serving as co-chairs.

In previous sessions, when Democrats held a smaller minority in the Senate and Assembly, the lawmakers said Republicans often excluded them from the budget negotiation process.

“The Republican party didn’t just treat us badly because we were in the minority, they treated us as though we did not exist on Joint Finance,” Johnson said. “Some of their motions we didn’t find out about until they were actually passing them out on paper. That means we had very little input.” 

Roys said it’s been “very easy for the Republicans to just go in a little room, figure out what they’re going to do, and then they come out and they all vote in lockstep.” 

“There’s no discussion, there’s no transparency, and there’s certainly no opportunity for Democrats to have our priorities reflected in the budget,” Roys said. 

Beyond budget writing discussions, Republican lawmakers on the committee have also often rejected calls from Democrats on the committee to release money that was already dedicated to certain issues.

Johnson called the practice of withholding of money a “tremendous problem.” She noted that $50 million that was meant to help support the implementation of new literacy curricula in schools across the state haven’t been released despite being included in the 2023-25 budget.

“Not only are they holding those funds up, but the cost is continuing to rise, so that $50 million that was promised in 2024 isn’t going to go as far in 2025,” Johnson said. “We’ve seen that.” 

Johnson also pointed out that funding to help expand the number of beds at Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center, a facility in Madison that provides specialized treatment services for juveniles transferred from the Department of Corrections, was withheld for about six months. It was only released after the death of a youth counselor for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections at Lincoln Hills School for Boys at the hands of a 16-year-old boy. 

Other funds that have been withheld by the committee in the recent session include $10 million to support hospitals in the Chippewa Valley and $125 million to combat PFAS contamination.

“What is the purpose of us allocating these funds if the agencies can’t access them the way that they need to to make these programs work, to get what they need to get?” Johnson said. 

Johnson said she thinks that new legislative maps could help change the dynamic. Roys also said it could have an impact that the state Supreme Court found it unconstitutional for the committee to block state spending on land conservation projects after the money has been budgeted. 

“That dynamic is at play, and I wonder if it will chasten the Republicans. It doesn’t seem to have done so yet,” Roys said. 

Elections under new legislative maps increased Democrats’ presence in the state Legislature by 14 seats. In the upcoming session about 45% of the Legislature will be Democrats, but they will only make up one-quarter of the finance committee with four seats. Despite this, Democrats hope that Republicans will allow for more communication. 

Whether there is more bipartisan collaboration in JFC next session given the closer margins in the Senate and Assembly is an open question, Roys said. 

“There’s always an opportunity,” Roys said. “Our doors are open, and we are very willing to collaborate. I think we’ve shown that in previous sessions by supporting legislation that would not have passed without Democratic votes, even though Republicans had these crazy outsized majorities.”

Johnson said that she hopes that Republicans learned a lesson from the recent elections, and warned that if Republicans don’t change their ways it could hurt their election chances in two years, when Democrats will aim to flip the Senate.

Republicans in the Senate lost four members in recent elections, including two who were members of the committee — Sens. Joan Ballweg and Duey Stroebel. Three new Republican Senators are joining the committee next session —  Sen. Romaine Quinn, Julian Bradley and Rob Stafsholt — to replace the outgoing lawmakers and newly elected Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk).

Johnson said that, while she’s glad to have Sen.-elect. Sarah Keyeski of Lodi, who ousted Ballweg, joining the Senate Democrats, she thought Ballweg was a good lawmaker, who faced the consequences of gerrymandering.

“That’s the hard part of when maps are gerrymandered … when it’s corrected, sometimes the people that you lose are the moderates who are willing to do the right thing simply because it’s the right thing,” Johnson said. “That doesn’t mean that she never voted with her side. Of course she did. But she stepped away from that sometimes when she needed things for her community, too. She wasn’t opposed to doing the right thing.” 

Johnson said she hopes the writing is on the wall for lawmakers that want to ostracize the minority. 

“If they don’t take this as a wake-up call, then that’s better for us,” Johnson said. “Continue to operate the way that you have been operating for these last 11 years or so that I’ve been in the building, continue to do that, and it should most definitely be best for us next election cycle.” 

Priorities for the lawmakers

Johnson, who has served on the committee since 2017, says she continues to because of the opportunity it presents.

“The quickest way to help some of the people that I know that need help the most — like the working poor in Milwaukee, Milwaukee County — is through JFC,” Johnson says. “That’s where all of the important decisions are made because if you’re going to get anything passed in that building that requires one dollar amount, then that money has to be set aside through JFC to make sure that the appropriate appropriations are there.”

Johnson said lawmakers have been preparing for the next budget cycle by reading agency requests.

The Democratic senators said they want to see next year’s budget invest in a variety of priorities, including K-12 and higher education, local government funding, child care, health care and public safety. 

Johnson said that investing in some of these priorities could help bring down costs down the road. 

Johnson noted the high costs of housing youth at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake schools. Currently, the state budgets $463,000 annually to house each juvenile in those facilities, and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections has requested that be increased to about $862,000 per year by 2026. 

investing in human needs and public education instead could help prevent children from ending up at the facility, Johnson said.

“It drives me crazy,” Johnson said. “I would much rather see my tax dollars being spent on higher educational tuition reimbursements, more housing assistance, more Foodshare, more whatever, to keep these families stable, to keep these kids in the home, than to pay [over] $860,000 for one child that may or may not correct that behavior.”

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has requested an additional $4 billion in funding, the UW System has requested an additional $855 million and the state’s technical colleges have requested an additional $45 million.

Roys mentioned increasing funding for education and local governments as some of her top priorities. 

“We’ve been asking our schools and local governments to continually do more with less under these harsh levy limits and inadequate funding from the state. That compounds over time,” Roys said. “We have got to make sure that our schools and our local governments have the money they need to continue providing the service that every single Wisconsinite deserves.” 

When it comes to K-12 education, Roys said securing a 90% special education reimbursement for public schools would be her top priority. Private schools that participate in the school choice program already receive that rate of reimbursement, while public schools currently receive about a 33% reimbursement. 

“We have a moral and a legal obligation to educate all kids, and that means meeting the needs of students with disabilities, but when the state only pays for a third of the cost of educating what that means is that school districts have to take away things for all students,” Roys said. “All kids are being harmed by the state failing to meet this unfunded mandate, failing to fund this obligation.”

Roys said investing in child care is another big priority for her. 

Wisconsin’s Child Care Counts program was launched in March 2020 using federal money and has provided funding assistance to eligible child care providers to help support operating expenses, investments in program quality, tuition relief for families, staff compensation and professional development. The program is set to end in June 2025, however, as federal funds will run out. 

“We cannot have a vibrant economy and have the workforce participation that we need for a strong economy if we don’t have affordable, accessible child care in every corner of the state,” Roys said. “The Legislature’s decision to go from, you know, $300 million Child Care Counts program that kept the doors open to $0 for child care in the last budget has had devastating consequences in every community across the state.” 

Lawmakers on what people should know

When asked about what people should know going into next year, Johnson said people need to stay aware of what the committee is doing. She pointed out that people who closely watch Wisconsin politics probably already know about the importance of JFC. 

“For those people who are not politically savvy and who don’t pay attention to those types of things, they really need to pay attention to JFC,” Johnson said. 

“JFC is where those priorities are manifested, or they go to die,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t matter how good a piece of legislation is, if the funding isn’t there for it and it requests dollar amounts, it’s gonna die.” 

Roys said people should make their voices and priorities known, saying that people could send emails to every member of the committee. 

“Public input tells us what’s important,” Roys said. “We can’t guarantee, obviously, what the Republicans are going to choose and be funded, but it does send a strong message. That is how we know without a shadow of a doubt that public education and affordable child care were key priorities, but Republicans chose to ignore that.”

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Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein on floor of Senate. (Courtesy Hesselbein's office)

Wisconsin Senate Democrats knew going into this year’s elections that their opportunity to flip the Senate wouldn’t come until 2026, but they had a goal of flipping four seats and keeping every seat already held by a Democrat. They succeeded, and now the caucus is preparing for a legislative session with high hopes for bipartisan work.

Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) told the Wisconsin Examiner in a year-end interview that her 15-member caucus is bringing “a lot of energy, enthusiasm and honesty” to the Senate and is looking forward to working next session. She said the bolstered caucus is returning for the next two-year session with “a lot of good ideas.”

Hesselbein said lawmakers have already started to talk about what happened on the campaign trail, and the caucus will begin having more robust conversations next week about their priorities for the session. She said the importance of public schools including K-12, universities and technical colleges has been a recurring theme already.

Hesselbein sees new influence for Democrats in a few ways. For one, Senate Democrats now have the numbers to stop Senate Republicans from overturning Gov. Tony Evers’ vetoes. Hesselbein said this is “huge.” Senate Republicans held a 22-seat supermajority in the 2023-24 session, which allowed them to vote to overturn some of Evers’ vetoes, though these efforts weren’t successful since Assembly Republicans didn’t hold a supermajority. Senate Republicans’ majority  was trimmed back to 18 out of 33 seats in the recent election. 

With a more evenly split Legislature, Hesselbein said there will be the potential to get more things done in a bipartisan way. She noted that last session several big pieces of legislation, including funding renovations at the stadium where the Milwaukee Brewers play, investing in the state’s local government funding and overhauling the state’s alcohol licensing, had bipartisan support. 

“They have a lot of Republicans on their side that don’t vote for much of anything, so we will see going forward,” Hesselbein said. She said that she has spoken with Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) and newly-elected Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) about the upcoming session, and the conversation was good. She said Senate Republicans plan to caucus on Monday and Senate Democrats will caucus on Tuesday, and the leaders will hopefully meet again in January. 

“I’m going to have conversations with Sen. LeMahieu and Sen. Felzkowski, and figure out if there’s a way we can move forward in a bipartisan manner,” Hesselbein said. 

One area ripe for work next year is the state’s two-year budget. With a $4 billion budget surplus, lawmakers will return in January with the task of deciding how to spend the money. 

Hesselbein said she believes that Democratic votes could be necessary to successfully pass a budget. The Senate Democratic leader hasn’t voted in favor of a state budget in her 12 years in the Legislature, and hopes that can change. 

“I don’t know how they would pass a budget without Democratic votes. They have a lot of Republicans on their side that don’t vote for much of anything,” Hesselbein. She pointed to Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater), who voted against the last state budget, as an example. Nass’ Chief of Staff Mike Mikalsen noted in an email to the Examiner that Nass has voted against “many fiscally flawed and big spending state budgets,” but that “since his first election in 1990, he has voted in favor of a few fiscally-sane state budgets.” 

Agencies recently submitted their budget requests, and when it comes to education funding, DPI Superintendent Jill Underly submitted a request for an additional $4 billion and the UW System has asked for an additional $855 million. Hesselbein said she was surprised that the requests were so high. 

“They’re big numbers but you know what? They have been underfunded for decades,” Hesselbein said. 

Underly’s job, Hesselbein said, is “to run the Department of Public Instruction and let us know what she thinks she needs for that budget, and she did that.” She said that UW System President Jay Rothman had the same responsibility. 

“I know we couldn’t meet both their expectations, right, without blowing a huge hole in the budget,” Hesselbein said.

Shoring up education

Hesselbein said that investing in the state’s special education reimbursement for public schools could be particularly important as there is uncertainty about what could happen under the new Trump administration.

“If Donald Trump gets rid of the Department of Education on a federal level, what does that do for special education in the state of Wisconsin? We have students that have IEPs, and they have federal protection so that they can get help but they might be learning different ways,” Hesselbein said. “There’s a lot of unsure things going on right now.”

Hesselbein said investing in mental health resources in K-12 schools and higher education will be important as well. 

Republicans have said tax cuts will be one of their highest priorities next year. Hesselbein said that any tax cuts would need to be “micro-targeted” to gain Democratic support, and she doesn’t know if Republicans will “get there based on what they did last session.” Republican lawmakers had proposed several tax cuts that Evers vetoed, including an income tax cut.  

Hesselbein added that property tax relief could be an interesting proposition, given that many communities have decided to raise their property taxes to help with education costs. A recent Wisconsin Policy Forum report found that gross K-12 property taxes in the state are expected to rise by the largest amount since 2009 due in part to referendum requests. 

“Really the reason why we have billions of dollars in our surplus is because we haven’t been funding K-12 education the way we should for years,” Hesselbein said. “People over and over again will raise their property tax if they want to support their neighborhood schools, so those people are agreeing to tax themselves higher because they care so much about K-12 education, but they’re making those decisions because the state of Wisconsin isn’t keeping up their promise to pay for those services and that school.” 

Other Democratic prioirites

When it comes to health care issues, Hesselbein said that she hopes lawmakers will be able to expand Medicaid coverage for postpartum mothers to 12 months. She noted that Wisconsin is one of two states in the U.S. that haven’t accepted the expansion. The Senate passed a bill to do so  in the most recent legislative session, but it never received a vote in the Assembly. 

“We have it on the books where you get 60 days and if you’re postpartum 61 days, too bad, you don’t get any services,” Hesselbein said. “That’s not how your body works after you have a baby.” She said women who have just given birth need support and resources.  

As Democrats are still in the minority, Hesselbein admitted there will likely be limits to what Democrats can accomplish on certain issues next session as much will depend on Republicans.

Hesselbein said Democrats will continue working to eliminate the 1849 statute that went into effect when Roe v. Wade was overturned, causing the cessation of abortion services in Wisconsin. That law is currently being challenged in the Supreme Court. She said that she also wants to pass a bill for a fairer process for drawing voting maps. Wisconsin implemented new maps this year after the state Supreme Court ruled that the last set of maps, drawn to heavily favor Republicans, were unconstitutional. However, the laws guiding how Wisconsin draws voting maps haven’t changed.

“I don’t know if that’s going to happen until we’re in the majority, but we’re going to continue to push for that,” Hesselbein said. 

Hesselbein said it would be a “missed opportunity” if Republicans choose not to work with Democrats to get things done, and said voters will remember “if we don’t get the budget done on time…if we’re not meeting as much” and what bills get completed.

“I can’t force Republicans to work with me if they won’t do that,” Hesselbein said. “I can offer an olive branch. I can say, ‘My door is open. Let’s have these conversations.’ But at the end of the day if they refuse to work with me, that’s on them.”

Hesselbein recalled that on the last day of session Senate Republicans ended debate even as Democrats wanted to speak, which led to Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) throwing papers up in the air in frustration.

“We answer to the voters in our district and it’s awful when the Republican Party silences Democrats, just because they don’t want to hear what we need to say to represent the communities that we represent. That’s unfair,” Hesselbein said. “And we won’t do that, by the way, when we’re in the majority. We’re going to let people be able to talk and be able to say what they want and have robust conversations.”

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Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz.,  speaks during a news conference regarding the separation of immigrant children at the U.S. Capitol on July 10, 2018 in Washington, D.C.  (Photo by Alex Edelman/Getty Images)

Raúl Grijalva, the top Democrat on the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee, will not seek to remain in that position in the next Congress, he said in a written statement Monday.

The announcement from Grijalva, an Arizona progressive who has led Democrats on the committee overseeing environmental, public lands and tribal issues for a decade, paves the way for California’s Jared Huffman to take the ranking member role.

Meanwhile, in another major development among Democrats in the House, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said he would challenge Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York as ranking member on the powerful House Judiciary Committee.

“This is where we will wage our front-line defense of the freedoms and rights of the people, the integrity of the Department of Justice and the FBI, and the security of our most precious birthright possessions: the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the rule of law, and democracy itself,” Raskin said in a “Dear Colleague” letter to lawmakers on Monday.  “I respectfully and humbly ask for your support for my candidacy.”

Grijalva to focus on recovery

Grijalva disclosed in April that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. He returned to Congress last month. His Monday statement noted he would continue to focus on his recovery.

“After much thought, I have decided that it is the right moment to pass the torch as top Democrat” on the House Natural Resources Committee for the 119th Congress, he said. “I do not make this decision lightly, as being elected Ranking Member stands as the honor of my professional career. I will continue to focus on improving my health, strengthening my mobility, and serving my district in what is likely to be a time of unprecedented challenge for our community.”

Grijalva was reelected to the House in November. He plans to serve his full term as a rank-and-file member, a spokeswoman said.

In a statement, Huffman said if he is made ranking member, he would ask the House Democratic Caucus to give Grijalva the title of ranking member emeritus “in recognition of his distinguished career and the enduring importance of his leadership.”

Grijalva was first elected to the House in 2002. He became the Natural Resources Committee’s ranking Democrat in 2015.

Inflation Reduction Act

Grijalva chaired the committee while his party held the majority from 2019 to 2023.

The first half of his chairmanship was marked by investigations of the first Trump administration, including a criminal referral of former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.

The second half, which occurred during the first two years of the Biden administration amid unified Democratic control of Washington, saw the passage of the climate-focused Inflation Reduction Act that Democrats passed along party lines.

With hundreds of millions available in tax breaks for renewable energy projects, the law represented the largest federal investment in addressing climate change to date.

“I am so deeply proud of the progress that my colleagues and I have achieved in protecting our nation’s rich natural and cultural heritage, advancing justice for communities overburdened by pollution, elevating Indigenous voices and honoring tribal sovereignty, fighting for the decolonization of the U.S. territories, and securing a cleaner, safer climate and energy future for all Americans,” Grijalva said Monday.

Avoids race among Dems

Grijalva, who is also a chair emeritus of the Congressional Progressive Caucus after he co-chaired that group from 2009 to 2019, thanked “colleagues, tribal nations, and environmental organizations” who had supported him in his brief bid to fend off the challenge from Huffman.

Huffman, 60, said last month he would seek to unseat Grijalva, 76, a rarity among House Democrats, who do not use term limits for committee positions and normally strictly adhere to seniority.

Huffman is the top Democrat on the panel’s Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee. He is also a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

A statement from Huffman Monday was full of praise for the outgoing leader and said he would seek to work closely with him in the period of transition.

“For the past twelve years, Rep. Raul Grijalva has been my friend and ally on the Natural Resources Committee,” Huffman wrote. “Working alongside him, I’ve seen his grit, determination, and passion for protecting our nation’s treasured natural resources, and his iron-clad commitment to lifting up frontline and indigenous communities.  He has inspired me and countless others with his passion and the clarity of his values.”

“Future generations will benefit from all that he has fought for and accomplished during his remarkable career,” the statement continued. “Rep. Grijalva leaves big shoes to fill, and I will now dedicate myself to building on his legacy of principled and productive leadership as Ranking Member of the Natural Resources Committee.”

Grijalva’s statement did not name Huffman.

A spokesman for Chairman Bruce Westerman, an Arkansas Republican, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Raskin and Nadler

Raskin in his letter said he was announcing his challenge to Nadler, a longtime top member of the panel, with “respect and boundless admiration,” but also said the upcoming session of Congress would be crucial for the nation’s future and House Judiciary would play a major role.

“We face an administration that would essentially put the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 on steroids. They want to turn the Justice Department and FBI into weapons of not only mass immigrant roundup and deportation but political revenge and prosecution. They would collapse the system of separated powers into an all-powerful monarchical Executive, and convert America from being a defender of democracy and human rights to being an open collaborator with autocrats and authoritarian oppression,” wrote Raskin, a former professor of constitutional law at American University’s Washington College of Law and a member of the Jan. 6 investigative committee in the 117th Congress.

“They want to align us with Putin’s Russia, Kim Jong Un’s North Korea, Xi’s China and Orban’s Hungary. In the 119th Congress, the Judiciary Committee will be the headquarters of Congressional opposition to authoritarianism and MAGA’s campaign to dismantle our Constitutional system and the rule of law as we know it. I hope to be at the center of this fight and—as someone who has battled cancer and chemotherapy—I can tell you that I will never, never surrender.”

Nadler told colleagues last month he would like to continue in his role as ranking member of the committee, Axios reported.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, speaks with reporters in the basement of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024.  (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to incoming Republican Leader John Thune on Monday urging him to move nominees through the traditional confirmation process, including committee hearings and floor votes.

The letter is likely a response to President-elect Donald Trump urging Senate Republicans to recess the chamber for at least 10 days next year so he can make recess appointments, getting around the Senate’s role confirming nominees. Republicans will be in the majority when the new Congress convenes in January, taking over from Democrats.

“As we transition to the 119th Congress, Senate Democrats stand ready and willing to work with Senate Republicans to provide advice and consent as we evaluate all of the incoming president’s nominations,” Schumer wrote in the one-page letter. “In particular, we commit to working in a bipartisan fashion to process each nominee by reviewing standard FBI background-investigation materials, scheduling hearings and markups in the committees of jurisdiction, and considering nominees on the Senate floor.”

Thune, who GOP senators elected to replace Mitch McConnell next year as their leader, hasn’t committed to recessing the chamber for the time needed to allow Trump to appoint nominees single-handedly, but has repeatedly encouraged Democrats not to slow down the process.

“What we’re going to do is make sure that we are processing his nominees in a way that gets them into those positions, so they can implement his agenda. How that happens remains to be seen,” the South Dakota Republican said in mid-November.

“Obviously, we want to make sure our committees have confirmation hearings, like they typically do, and that these nominees are reported out to the floor,” Thune added. “But I’ve said this and I mean it — that we expect a level of cooperation from the Democrats to work with us to get these folks installed. And obviously, we’re going to explore all options to make sure they get moved and they get moved quickly.”

Narrow path for nominees

Trump’s nominations have received mixed reaction from GOP senators with some, like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio who will likely become secretary of State, receiving widespread praise, while others have received lukewarm receptions.

For example, Trump’s first nominee for attorney general, former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, withdrew eight days after Trump said he wanted him to lead the Justice Department amid widespread concerns from Republican senators about allegations of illegal drug use and paying for sex.    

Republicans will have a 53-seat majority in the Senate once the next session of Congress begins on Jan. 3, meaning any nominee can lose the support of three Republican senators and still secure confirmation on a party-line vote with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance breaking the tie. 

Democrats may vote for some of Trump’s nominees if they believe they’re qualified, but are unlikely to support the more controversial picks, like TV personality and former U.S. Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz, who Trump says he will tap to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 

With such narrow margins, centrist Republicans like Maine’s Susan Collins, Kentucky’s McConnell and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, could have influence over Trump’s Cabinet, unless the chamber allows recess appointments.

Checks and balances

Schumer wrote in his letter the Senate’s role confirming nominees should be respected regardless of who holds the Oval Office or which political party controls the chamber.

“In our system of checks and balances, the Senate plays a vital role in ensuring the President appoints well-qualified public officials that will dutifully serve the American people and honor their oaths to the Constitution,” Schumer wrote. “Regardless of party, the Senate has upheld this sacred duty for generations and we should not and must not waver in our Constitutional duty. We look forward to joining you in these efforts as soon as possible once the Senate and its committees are organized in January.”

President-elect Donald Trump says on his first day in office he would impose 25% tariffs on all imports from Canada and Mexico and 10% tariffs on goods from China until those countries stop the flow of illegal drugs and migrants into the U.S. (Getty photo illustration by Olivier Le Moal)

President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement Monday that he would impose harsh tariffs on the United States’ closest trading partners will work against his pledge to bring down consumer prices, Democrats in Congress and economists are warning.

In a pair of posts to his social media platform, Truth Social, on Monday evening, Trump said on his first day in office he would impose 25% tariffs on all imports from Canada and Mexico and 10% tariffs on goods from China until those countries stopped the flow of illegal drugs and migrants into the U.S.

“Thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before,” Trump wrote. “On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders. This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”

While Trump has not always followed through on threats of stiff tariffs — generating doubts about how severe the next round will actually be — the executive branch does have wide latitude to impose the taxes on foreign goods without congressional approval, meaning it is likely Trump will act in some way.

“We are going to get several tariff threats via rage-posts over the next four years,” Brendan Duke, a senior director for economic policy at the liberal Center for American Progress, said in an interview. “Unclear what exact levels on what exact countries he is going to pursue.”

What about inflation?

Tariffs are consistent with Trump’s preference for a protectionist trade policy, but may actively hurt in an area that was key to his election win over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris this month: taming inflation.

An analysis from the Center for American Progress said the tariffs Trump announced Monday would raise annual costs for the average U.S. family by $1,300.

Democratic members of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees tax and trade policy, estimated tariffs favored by Trump would increase consumer costs by up to $4,000 per year.

According to CBS News exit polling, 78% of voters said inflation was a moderate or severe hardship. Trump won voters who rated the economy as bad by 40 points over Harris.

Cars, ag and energy to be hardest-hit

About 15% of goods consumed in the United States are imported, Gary Hufbauer, a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, an economics research center, said.

Adding across-the-board tariffs on those imports would contribute to consumers’ overall cost of living, even without considering related economic consequences.

“You’ve added to inflation, and that’s assuming that U.S. producers of similar products don’t jack up their prices,” he said. “But experience shows that if the economy is strong, they’ll do just that.”

The U.S. automotive sector, which is heavily integrated with Mexico and Canada with parts of a single vehicle produced in all three countries, could see “pretty startling” price increases, Hufbauer said.

Additionally, the U.S. imports Mexican fruits and vegetables and Canadian oil, complicating Trump’s campaign promise to bring down prices specifically of groceries and gas, Duke said.

“Americans have obviously been frustrated with the cost of food and the cost of gas,” he said. “Some parts of the United States are heavily reliant on Canadian oil, even though we’re a net exporter … So, one would expect price increases, especially in places like the Midwest that are heavily dependent on Canadian oil.”

Tariffs on Chinese goods would increase the costs of electronics, clothing and other consumer goods, Duke said.

Democratic legislation

Ways and Means Democrats, led by Washington’s Suzan DelBene and Virginia’s Don Beyer, and also joined by Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Terri Sewell of Alabama, Steven Horsford of Nevada, Dan Kildee of Michigan and four others, introduced a bill Tuesday to rein in the executive’s ability to implement tariffs, citing the added cost to American families.

“The American people have clearly and consistently said that costs are one of their top concerns,” DelBene said in a statement. “Imposing sweeping tariffs on imported goods would raise prices on consumer products by thousands of dollars a year according to estimates. Not only would widespread tariffs drive up costs at home and likely send our economy into recession, but they would damage our trade relationships with allies and likely lead to significant retaliation, hurting American workers, farmers, and businesses.”

Trump’s promises of dramatic tariffs go beyond the intent of the law that gave the president the power to enact tariffs, the Democrats said. Congress wanted a president to be able to quickly impose tariffs on hostile foreign countries, but did not intend “to allow a president to indiscriminately impose tariffs without Congress’ approval.”

Tariffs can be an important tool for conducting foreign policy, but the range Trump is proposing is 10 to 20 times beyond what even he did in his first term, Duke said.

He cautioned that the final form of new tariffs may not be exactly what Trump proposed Monday night, though they could be similar.

“He’s gonna do something on tariffs. I don’t know what. It’s probably not these exact levels on these exact countries,” he said. “But it rhymes with it.”

South Carolina Democratic Rep. James Clyburn urges President Joe Biden to recommit sentences of federal death row inmates during a Wednesday press conference outside the U.S. Capitol. (Photo by Ariana Figueroa/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — House Democrats and anti-death penalty advocates pressed Wednesday for President Joe Biden to save the lives of federal death row inmates before his term expires in January.

The push comes as President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to the White House. The former president expedited 13 executions of people on federal death row in the last six months of his first term, which advocates said increased the urgency for Biden to spare prisoners now facing death sentences.

“I joined the abolition movement during the federal killing spree under the first Trump administration,” said Brandi Slaughter, a board member of the death penalty abolition group, Death Penalty Action. “We know what the next president plans to do if any prisoners are left under a sentence of death at the end of the Biden administration. We’ve been there.”

There are currently 40 people on federal death row, all men. There have been no federal executions under the Biden administration. 

On the campaign trail, Trump often called for the death penalty, including for migrants who kill U.S. citizens and human traffickers.

Outside the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, James Clyburn of South Carolina, Mary Scanlon of Pennsylvania and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota pressed for Biden to exercise his clemency authority before Trump comes into office on Jan. 20 next year.

“The mass incarceration crisis is one of our country’s greatest failures,” Pressley said. “It is a policy failure, and it is a moral failure. The shameful crisis that has ravaged our communities, destabilized our families and inflicted generational struggle for far too long.”

Pressley’s father was incarcerated during her early life.

“The system only offered him criminalization and incarceration for his substance use disorder, and as a child, I was forced to also carry that burden, that stigma, that shame,” she said.

Calls for clemency

Pressley said Democrats sent Biden a letter asking him to use his clemency, and proposed types of convicts who should be prioritized. The letter was signed by 64 House Democrats.

Pressley said examples of those deserving leniency included prisoners who are elderly, chronically ill, subjected to sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine and women who were “punished for defending themselves against their abusers or were coerced into criminal activity as part of an abusive relationship.” 

“Those on death row who are at risk of barbaric and inhumane murder at the hands of the Trump administration can have their death sentence commuted and be resentenced to a prison term,” she said.

“We’re here today to ask him to take another step in that direction and to demonstrate, once again, a very positive consequence of his having been elected our 46th president, and to carry out his clemency powers in a very positive way,” Clyburn said.

Omar said that “clemency represents a critical opportunity to correct long-standing injustices, recognize human potential for redemption and acknowledge that our legal system has often been more punitive than restorative.”

In addition to advocating for death-row clemency, Scanlon said that Biden should consider pardoning people for simple marijuana possession and former LGBTQ service members who were convicted under military law because of their sexual orientation.

The Biden administration earlier this year did move to pardon military vets who were charged under military law for same-sex relationships.

Last year, Biden granted clemency to nearly a dozen people for nonviolent drug offenses. In 2022, he granted clemency to nearly 80 people charged with nonviolent crimes.  

Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, introduces Sen. Tammy Baldwin at her victory celebration Thursday. (Erik Gunn | Wisconsin Examiner)

In the midst of a barrage of absurd and appalling news pouring out of Washington, where President-elect Donald Trump keeps topping himself with new, unqualified cabinet appointments, Democrats are looking for hope in Wisconsin.

Two bright lights from our state made headlines after Nov. 5. U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin bucked the red wave to win a third term, and Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler was reported by Politico to be in the running to lead the national party. Baldwin and Wikler share an approach to politics that could help guide Democrats out of the wilderness. 

After losing the White House and failing to capture control of either the U.S. Senate or the House (not to mention the likelihood of two new Trump appointments on the U.S. Supreme Court that could create an enduring far-right supermajority), Democrats would do well to look to Wisconsin for a new approach to politics.

In Wisconsin, Trump’s margin of victory — 0.9% of the vote — was the narrowest among the seven swing states he carried. Baldwin, as she has consistently done, made inroads in rural, Republican-voting counties. And Wikler deployed an approach to organizing across rural and urban areas of the state that took no vote for granted.

While extreme polarization and losing touch with working-class swing-state voters are widely counted as prime reasons Democrats lost the 2024 election, Baldwin and Wikler have a recipe for addressing those problems.

“It’s a state where showing up, being present in all different communities, rejecting the kind of false choices that cable pundits might like to inflict on a state like Wisconsin, and rolling up your sleeves can make the difference,” Wikler told me back in 2019, shortly after he moved back to Wisconsin to reenergize the state party. At that moment, Republicans had just lost complete control over all three branches of state government, with the election of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in 2018. Since then, Wikler has overseen a scrappy fight to claw back power in a state where Republicans, until recently, still dominated politics.

Wikler followed his own advice, opening new field offices across the state. He remained tenaciously upbeat as he steered his party through the rough waters of the pandemic and, in addition to helping elect President Joe Biden and reelecting Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, helped shepherd in a new liberal majority on the state Supreme Court that ended the worst partisan gerrymander in the nation, which had protected a wildly disproportionate Republican legislative majority. 

I was impressed by Wikler’s optimism back in 2019, when the gerrymandered maps seemed insurmountable. 

He pointed to grassroots organizers all over Wisconsin who were building the case for fair maps, and “getting every elected group of human beings in the state to pass resolutions condemning gerrymandering.”

“All of that needs to clearly lead to electoral accountability for anyone who smashes the idea of representative democracy in the state,” Wikler said at the time. It sounded wildly optimistic. Yet here we are.

Commenting on the eternal debate about whether Democrats need to drive their base to turn out or persuade disaffected centrist Republicans and independents to vote for Democrats, Wikler told me, “in Wisconsin we have to do both.”

“The thing I’m frustrated by every day is the idea that you can’t fight for both white working class voters and voters of color,” he added. “Guess what? There are people of all races in the working class. And all of them want schools and jobs and safe communities and air they can breathe. And none of them like the effects of Trump’s actual policies—even if some of them think they might like Trump as a guy.”

That philosophy is very similar to the politics practiced by Tammy Baldwin, who consistently amazes pundits by winning rural and working class voters even though she is an out lesbian with a strongly progressive voting record. Listening carefully to her constituents and delivering for them, whether through the provision she wrote into the Affordable Care Act that lets children stay on their parents’ insurance until they turn 26, or federal investments in Wisconsin farming and manufacturing, or “Buy America” rules, Baldwin connects with her constituents across the ideological divide. 

As Baldwin puts it, “People across Wisconsin want solutions to their challenges and are not all that interested in Republican versus Democrat—they’re interested in who you’ll stand up to, and who you’ll stand up for.”

Wikler agrees: “The key thing to understand is that Wisconsin voters are less centrist than they are conflicted. There’s a populist streak that has both left-wing and right-wing flavors that runs through the state. And the fundamental question that voters are asking is: ‘Is this person on my side?’”

That’s a clarifying vision that could lead Democratic politicians and voters toward a brighter day. 

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U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Democrat of Wisconsin (Screenshot | Democratic National Convention YouTube channel)

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin has won a third term, defeating Republican California bank owner and part-time Wisconsin resident Eric Hovde in a contest characterized by relentless attacks on the part of both candidates.

With 99% of the ballots counted, Baldwin won with 49.4% of the vote and a margin of just under 30,000 votes, less than 1 percentage point ahead of Hovde, who finished with 48.5%. The Associated Press called the race for Baldwin at 12:42 p.m. Wednesday.

Baldwin declared victory eight hours earlier. “It is clear that the voters have spoken and our campaign has won,” she said in a statement released at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Baldwin built on a continuing track record of success across Wisconsin, including carrying counties generally dominated by Republicans. In this year’s campaign, she also became the first statewide Democratic candidate to receive the endorsement of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau.

Tuesday’s election concluded a grueling campaign dominated by attacks in which Baldwin started with a lead of about 7 percentage points that dwindled in the final months. 

Democrats early on painted Hovde, who was raised in Madison, as a California carpetbagger, pointing to his ownership of a bank based in Orange County and a multimillion-dollar mansion in Laguna Beach. Team Baldwin also highlighted numerous past statements from Hovde that they portrayed as denigrating nursing home residents, college students and farmers, among others.

Hovde, meanwhile, characterized Baldwin as a career politician with little to show for her two terms in the Senate and a tenure that included more than a decade in Congress and before that in the Wisconsin Assembly and the Dane County Board.

Baldwin was also likely helped by one of her core messages, focusing on reproductive rights in the post-Roe era. Baldwin has authored a bill to codify federal protections for abortion. Her campaign highlighted Hovde’s past anti-abortion statements and his championing the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended the federal right to abortion that had been declared in the landmark decision Roe v. Wade.

This report has been updated.

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U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Gov. Tony Evers address a group of about three dozen members of the Jefferson County Democratic Party on Election Day. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

In Fort Atkinson, more than three dozen members of the Jefferson County Democratic Party — as well as a few joining from the neighboring Dodge and Walworth counties — packed into the small county party office to welcome U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Gov. Tony Evers before kicking off some last minute canvassing.

Full of excitement at the prospect of electing Democrats Melissa Ratcliff and Joan Fitzgerald to its seats in the state Senate and Assembly (both in attendance at the event) after years of Republican representation under the old legislative maps, the Democrats from a rural county nearly mid-way between the urban centers of Madison and Milwaukee said they were expecting wins on Tuesday.

“I think our country has weathered the storm, and grown in the process,” Fort Atkinson Democrat Jim Marousis says.

Baldwin is running for re-election in one of the country’s most closely watched Senate elections, with Democrats needing her to win in order to retain control of the chamber.

“We are the battleground state,” Baldwin told the gathered group of supporters. “We will decide, most likely, who the next president is, what party controls the United States Senate, what party controls the House of Representatives. All could be decided right here in our state.”

At the beginning of Baldwin’s remarks, the crowd sang happy birthday to Evers, who is celebrating his 73rd birthday on Tuesday. Evers touted the work Baldwin has done in Wisconsin to secure supplies for the state during the COVID-19 pandemic and convince the federal Small Business Administration to provide loans to northern Wisconsin businesses last winter when a lack of snowfall shut down many winter recreational activities.

Evers said that the ground game of Wisconsin Democrats is going to make the difference for the party up and down the ticket on Tuesday, adding that he was hopeful the party would win control of the state Assembly.

“People all across the Wisconsin Democratic Party are doing the things that make the difference,” he said. “Wisconsin has the best ground game. Nothing compares to here.”

With about five hours until polls close on her second re-election campaign, Baldwin said she was optimistic at her chances.

“As of the time that early voting started two weeks ago, and certainly my travels today give me great hope and optimism,” she told the Wisconsin Examiner. “I feel like we have the momentum. I feel like people are stepping up to volunteer. Some have never volunteered before, and it’s not necessarily easy to go knock on a stranger’s door. And also the news of new registrations leading up to Election Day is heartwarming. I’m hearing early readouts now from the clerks in various communities about really motivated voters. So anyways, I’m feeling great.” 

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Opposing political signs in neighbors' yards in Maple Bluff, Wisconsin | Photo by Ruth Conniff

“Truth Decay” is rotting our politics and public discourse, according to political scientist Ray Block. Block delivered the keynote address at the WisPolitics “polling summit” at the Madison Club this week, where a panel of pollsters discussed trends in the 2024 election. (Top takeaway: No one knows who is going to win.)

“We’re in a worrying place,” Block warned, with disinformation and misinformation eroding confidence in election integrity and public institutions. “Lies kill democracy,” he said. If people can’t debate in good faith, public trust, community cohesion and ultimately all of our democratic institutions will collapse.

Block is the inaugural Michael D. Rich Distinguished Chair for Countering Truth Decay at the Rand Corporation, where researchers first began focusing on the degradation of truth in our current political and social media environment because it posed a threat to the value of scientific and academic expertise. After all, if facts don’t matter, research and hard-won expertise lose their currency. 

But the antidote to the bitter polarization and the sheer wackiness of our new political reality, Block and his colleagues have decided, lies not with experts or even with identifying objective truth. Instead, he said, it’s a matter of rebuilding individual relationships among neighbors. 

As he spoke, I thought about my suburban neighborhood, where Trump and Harris signs bristle at each other across sidewalks and driveways. How will we ever get along again?

“You can’t ‘correct’ your way out of these problems,” Block said of some voters’ beliefs that, for example, massive amounts of voter fraud changed the outcome of the 2020 election, or that President Barack Obama wasn’t really born in the United States. It’s no use treating these pernicious narratives as “a wrong answer on a test question,” he added. Instead, we have to understand how such false ideas are attached to a sense of shared social identity and community — and then do something to rebuild community among people with different points of view. 

The antidote to polarization and fact-aversion, Block and his Rand colleagues have decided, is to rebuild civil society through individual acts of community engagement. He talked about the urgency of preserving local news, and he urged people to get involved in local community-building efforts. Rand is doing this by hosting community dialogues near its headquarters in Santa Monica, California. The events bring together people with opposing views to discuss and debate the issues that worry them. The idea, Block said, is to “get people used to the idea that you’ve got to live together even if you don’t agree.” 

It sounds simple, but it’s not an easy thing to do. 

Close to home, I saw a good model of what Block is talking about during high holiday services at Shaarei Shamayim, Madison’s Reconstructionist Jewish congregation, where my family and I belong.

Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman led a conversation on the war in Gaza on Yom Kippur, the traditional Jewish day of mourning. She invited people to share their grief, both for the people killed in the  Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the hostages who remain in Gaza, and for the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians who have been killed and displaced in the ensuing war. “You are going to hear things you don’t agree with,” Rabbi Laurie said, to a group of congregants with conflicting views on Israel, Palestine and the war, “and that’s OK.

In her Rosh Hashanah sermon, Rabbi Laurie described her own uncomfortable conversations with family members with whom she disagrees, and her participation in a community forum on Gaza that devolved into shouting. In her humble, self-deprecating way, she described an unsatisfying conversation about the war with fellow rabbis. One of them pooh-poohed her suggestion that children learn about the complexities of the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians, including the history of repression and injustice Palestinians have experienced. He asserted that “kids need to know what side they’re on.” In his Sunday school classes, he said, he skips complexity and has children draw Israeli flags.

“It’s not soccer,” Rabbi Laurie grumbled. 

In the community forum, she found herself on the opposite side, arguing heatedly with an activist who insisted that the rapes and murders of Oct. 7 were justified — comparable to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of Polish Jews during the Holocaust. 

“​​The attack on October 7th and ensuing war has created, or maybe unleashed, deep polarization — in families, among friends, in congregations, and in the larger community,” Rabbi Laurie said. “It widened the discourse to the point where I have heard people I know and love say things that are untrue, conspiratorial, hateful, and bereft of the basic values I had thought we all shared.”

Despite the discomfort, she continues to pursue these awkward conversations, and encouraged her congregation to do likewise, “not to find solutions, but to become more connected with one another. To think deeply about the meaning of kinship and of justice. To become more committed to our deepest ideals.”

It’s a credit to Rabbi Laurie’s willingness to endure these difficult encounters, to persist despite not knowing where it will lead, that the Shaarei Shamayim community does, in fact, make room for a diversity of opinions. If people can talk to each other and hold onto their relationships through deep disagreement, there’s hope for peace and justice. It’s a good model for all of us going forward. 

As Block said, no matter who wins the election, “we are not going to make it if we don’t figure out how to work together.” 

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Lawrence University student Megan Eisenstein (left) speaking at a reproductive rights roundtable in Appleton last week as Emily Tseffos (right), a Democratic Assembly candidate and chair of the Outagamie County Democratic party chair, listens. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

FOX VALLEY — Democrat Emily Tseffos was stood up by her incumbent opponent Rep. Dave Murphy (R-Greenville), who is seeking his sixth term in the state Assembly, twice before she launched her campaign for Wisconsin’s 56th Assembly District.

The first time, Tesffos, a mother of three, said she got a babysitter and sat waiting at a restaurant in the district but he never showed up. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, she said she scheduled a second meeting. Then, it happened again.

“I was like, we pay your salary, sir, and you are supposed to be listening to people, even if it’s not aligned with what you believe to be true,” Tseffos, who also serves as chair of the Outagamie County Democratic Party, said. She said she later spoke with Murphy after visiting his office in the Wisconsin State Capitol (She was already there for a meeting about Child Care Counts). “I threw my hat in the ring shortly after that. We deserve better and I’m trying to run a campaign that reminds people that we deserve better.”

Outagamie County alongside Brown and Winnebago Counties make up Wisconsin’s ‘BOW’ counties — a growing population center in the Fox Valley that includes the cities of Green Bay and Appleton.

The battleground region could play a role in determining control of Wisconsin’s state Legislature as several newly competitive seats are up for grabs under recently adopted maps. Fox Valley voters could also determine the results of competitive federal races, including the presidential election. (The counties were identified by Politico as helping President Joe Biden win in 2020.) 

The region has been trending less red in recent elections, and Democrats are hoping to accelerate that trend this election year up and down the ballot.

Outagamie County

“This is a super purple county, so the fact that we’re in the battleground state of the moment but then in a county that, for the first time in 15 years, went blue for [Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet] Protasiewicz — like, that’s huge to us,” Tseffos said. “So we recognize the responsibility of making sure we’re getting every single progressive and Democrat and independent that aligns with the Democratic ideals to turn out in November.”

Former President Donald Trump won Outagamie County in 2020 with 53.8% of the vote. Biden had 43.9%, representing an improvement for the Democratic candidate when compared to 2016. During the 2022 midterms, unsuccessful Republican candidate Tim Michels carried the county with almost 53% of the vote, while Democratic Gov. Tony Evers received almost 46%.

The following spring the county swung in favor of liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz, whose campaign focused heavily on restoring abortion rights, with 51.5% voting for her over conservative former Justice Dan Kelly.

The 56th Assembly District, which includes part of Outagamie County and Waupaca County, is not one of Democrats’ top target seats to flip, and CN Analysis rates the district as “Solid R”. Still, Tseffos has been knocking doors there every day. 

On Friday last week, Tseffos drove 30 minutes outside of Appleton to Lebanon, Wis., a small town in Waupaca County, to knock on people’s doors in a rural part of the district. 

“Just talking politics with strangers,” Tseffos would say when someone had a look of confusion by her presence. Sometimes she would joke about how that’s what everyone wants to do on a Friday. It was her way of easing into conversations with people at their front doors, in their yards and as they walked their dogs.

After breaking the ice, Tseffos asked people about the issues that matter the most to them and tried to find common ground. She listened to their concerns, then made her case for why they should vote for her — and other Democrats — next month. 

Tim, an older white man who was in his garage when Tseffos walked up his driveway, said divided politics was a big concern for him, and that he was planning to vote a straight Democratic ticket. 

“I’m tired of the Republicans,” he told Tseffos. By the end of the conversation, he agreed to let Tseffos put one of her yard signs in his front yard, but declined a Harris-Walz sign. He said his neighbor is a Republican and he wanted to keep things civil.

Tseffos heard about concerns about the state of roads from multiple people, and she told them she could be the “squeaky wheel” that would help get those projects done. A Trump voter spoke to her about his concerns about immigration, and how he thought the border was more secure during Trump’s presidency. She tried to steer the conversation towards state-level issues, including education, to see if she could get him to split his ticket. 

A couple of people said they didn’t have any concerns or weren’t planning on voting in which case Tseffos gave them her spiel and tried to convince them that they should vote. She told these voters about her support for increasing public education funding, including special education funding, improving birth control affordability and accessibility and that she generally wants to work on bringing people together.

At the last door, Tseffos spoke to an older couple, Dale and Janice, who said they were Christians and don’t believe in abortion except for in extreme cases.

“We don’t like abortion,” Janice said at one point in the conversation. “There have been millions of babies tossed aside.”

Tseffos told the couple that she was a “fellow Christian,” who wouldn’t entertain abortion for herself, and as a mother, she knows “how precious life is.” However, as a victim of sexual violence, she said she also knows how terrible the world can be. She emphasized that bans could have an outsized impact on women late in pregnancy, who “desperately” want to have a baby, but are dealing with severe complications.

“That’s the problem with bans for me,” Tseffos said to the couple, adding that heartbeat bills are also problematic for her. 

In the rest of the conversation, they touched on the cost of child care, school and the need for the inclusion of rural voices in government. Tseffos said, reflecting on the conversation, that she felt like she made progress because she was able to explain her thinking to them.

Winnebago County 

Vice President Kamala Harris came to Ripon, Wisconsin, which sits just south of Winnebago County, last week to hold a rally with Liz Cheney, who made a pitch to Republican voters who don’t like Trump that they should support Harris. Chair of the Winnebago County Democratic Party Marcia Steele told the Examiner during the rally that enthusiasm for Harris has been unbelievable. Steele has served as party chair on and off for about 20 years. 

“If it comes down to Wisconsin, more than likely would come down to Winnebago County, Brown County and Outagamie County… so we are very fortunate that we’re starting to get more enthusiasm in our area,” Steele said.

Steele said that the enthusiasm is helping, especially as Democrats seek to flip seats by running candidates in newly created districts in the state legislative races. A lot of volunteers are showing up to knock doors and make phone calls, she said. 

“We’ve had… people that have never done it before. It’s just unbelievable — unbelievable. And the older people that have been doing it for a long time, recognize it and just keep saying, yes, sign me up for another shift,” Steele said. “In the Fox Valley, we’ve got the new 18th Senate District, which we can make it blue, which would be great, and then we’ve got the new 53rd [Assembly District], which we could make that blue, so it’ll be huge for the Legislature going in to have more people than it just all being a gerrymandered state.”

The 18th Senate District is made up of Appleton in Outagamie County and Menasha, Neenah and Oshkosh in Winnebago County. Kris Alfheim, a member of the Appleton Common Council, is running for the 18th Senate District against Republican Anthony Phillips, a cancer physician who wants to keep the district red. 

The 53rd Assembly District encompasses Neenah, Menasha and part of Appleton. Democrat Duane Shukoski, a Neenah retiree, faces Republican Dean Kaufert, the former Neenah mayor and a former Assembly member.

The two races are some of Democrats’ top targets as they battle to gain more seats in the state Legislature. Republicans currently hold a 64-seat majority in the 99-seat Assembly and a 22-seat supermajority in the 33-seat Senate. 

“If we can flip the Assembly or at least be close this year,… and get us closer to the Senate [majority] in 2026, we can be the forward Wisconsin it was when I moved here in ‘89,” Steele, who is originally from Michigan, said. 

Reproductive rights

Reproductive health issues are one of the issues that Democrats in the area are hoping will bring voters out to the polls. Tseffos was surprised to see the large margin that Protasiewicz won by in Outagamie County in April 2023. 

“Fair maps and reproductive health… that’s what they kept beating down,” Tseffos said. “It made us realize locally — continue to talk about reproductive health and what that means to people and what the realities are for folks.” 

After her daily door knocking last week, Tseffos joined Alfheim and Shukoski at a roundtable event in Appleton to talk about reproductive health issues.

Lawrence University student Megan Eisenstein, who attended the event, explained that when Roe v. Wade was overturned, it changed the way she felt about going to school in Wisconsin. She’s from Illinois.

“I felt pretty safe there to make any choices that I needed to reproductive health-wise, but I knew that I was going to a state where I wasn’t able to make those choices after Roe v. Wade was overturned, and so I started to really dread going to college as a whole,” Eisenstein said. 

Eisenstein, who is social chair for her campus’s college Democrats group and also interns with the state party, told the Examiner that she became politically active in 2022 after starting school. 

“I didn’t really see politics as being something where you could actually make a difference,” Eisenstein said. “Coming here to Wisconsin, where every single voice matters, every door you knock matters, it really inspired me to get a little more involved.” 

This will be her first time voting in a presidential election, and she has also been helping knock doors for Alfheim and other candidates. She said the issue is a good “rallying cry” for people.

“It serves as the foundation for a lot of liberal values, and so it becomes about more than just reproductive freedom, and it also becomes about freedom for other things, and also for caring for people who might not be like you,” Eisenstein said. 

Democratic candidates in the district emphasized their support for access to abortion, birth control, infertility treatments and control of their health decisions. 

“Democrats get it — people don’t want politicians in Madison or anywhere else making their personal health decisions for them,” Alfheim said. She said she would work towards restoring women’s access to reproductive health care if elected.

During the roundtable in Appleton, Alfheim sought to differentiate her position from her opponent Phillips. She commented on  Trump’s running mate JD Vance, that some Republican candidates’ public and private comments on reproductive health differ, and she sees this with her opponent, whom she described as “anti-choice.”

The Phillips campaign declined an interview request from the Wisconsin Examiner. On his campaign website, Phillips lists “Advocating for a culture of Life to protect the lives of the unborn” as one of the issues that matter to him. He previously told the Examiner that he would support a referendum on the issue, and believes people would favor some level of restrictions.

“You don’t get to take away what you say in private amongst your peers and then make me think it’s OK out here,” Alfheim said. “That’s an Integrity issue. We should be whoever we are. Own how you feel and be strong enough to say it out loud every time… We have seen it with everyone. They are clearly stating they are against it and then they are slowly backing away.” 

Brown County

Brown County — home to the Green Bay Packers — is the last of the three competitive counties in the region where Democrats are aiming to improve their margins.

In 2016, Trump won the county with 52% of the vote, while Hillary Clinton only garnered 41%. Trump won the county, again, in 2020 with 52.7% of the vote. Biden got 45.5%, representing an improvement for Democrats compared to 2016.

During the 2022 midterms, unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels carried the county with 51% of the vote, while Democratic Gov. Tony Evers received 47%. The following spring the county swung in favor of liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz, whose campaign focused heavily on abortion, with 51.5% voting for her over conservative former Justice Kelly. 

“We joke a lot in the office, ‘Welcome to the political epicenter of the country,’” Christy Welch, who chairs the county Democratic Party and is running for the state Assembly, said. “It is pretty wild… [it’s] the largest swing county in this critical state and this battle between the potential end of democracy or just being able to keep building on everything Biden-Harris got going.” 

The region has had several visits from the Harris-Walz campaign. Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz plans to campaign in Green Bay next week, according to a media advisory issued Thursday. Other surrogates including U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and First Lady Jill Biden have also campaigned in the area.

Welch said population growth contributes to the changing political cast of the city but that there are also a lot of people who are opposed to the direction the Republican party has taken.

“I’m knocking a lot of doors and I have run into so many people that tell me that they used to vote Republican but they just don’t want anything to do with the Republican party, the way it’s operating today, and so they’re voting for Democrats,” Welch said. “The divisiveness and not focusing on actual policies and solutions, just always looking backward and blaming. They don’t want to have anything to do with that.” 

Welch is also running in a competitive race against Republican Benjamin Franklin, a De Pere business owner, for the 88th Assembly District, which includes Bellevue, Allouez and De Pere. 

In the Legislature, Welch said she has been speaking with voters about the cost of groceries, housing, health care and child care. Her priorities for the Legislature overlap with these issues. She said she wants to increase public education funding and continue funding for the state’s Child Care Counts program. She said she also wants Wisconsin to take the federal Medicaid expansion and to repeal the state’s 1849 law, which caused all abortions to cease in the state for more than a year after Roe v. Wade was overturned. 

Through door knocking, Welch said that she has been able to let some voters know about the new legislative maps.

“Not everyone pays as close attention and some people just didn’t realize… It is nice to let people know, who consider themselves Democrats and are not totally in the loop on the maps, what that means. We’re definitely going to pick up more seats. Hopefully, we’re going to get the majority. That gives them some hope too,” Welch said.

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Detail of a mural inside the Madison Labor Temple building celebrating unions and worker rights. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)

This week The New York Times podcast “The Daily” did an excellent segment with reporter Dan Kaufman on his story “How NAFTA Broke American Politics.”

Kaufman focuses on Masterlock, the iconic Milwaukee lock company that outsourced 1,000 jobs to Mexico shortly after then President Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Masterlock shut down its entire Milwaukee operation this year. In the podcast, you can hear former Masterlock worker Chancie Adams describe the arc of his disaffection from the Democratic Party. It’s a painful journey. 

Adams’ family was part of the Great Migration of Black Americans from the South who moved to Milwaukee when the city was a manufacturing powerhouse. He was the first among his relatives able to buy a house, thanks to his union wages. The union got him involved in politics, too, and he actually met President Barack Obama when Obama made a campaign stop at Masterlock in 2012. “Milwaukee, we are not going back to an economy that’s weakened by outsourcing and bad debt and phony financial profits,” Obama told Masterlock employees, praising the company’s decision to bring back some of its previously outsourced jobs. But a few years later the company moved all the jobs away and shut its Milwaukee plant.  

After supporting Obama, Adams won’t be voting in 2024, he said. “I’m done with all that,” he told Kaufman. He has no faith that Harris will do anything to help people like him. All politicians are crooks, in Adams’ view. But if he did vote, he’d probably cast his ballot for former President Donald Trump, he said. Trump’s a crook, too, but “he’s a gangster,” Adams said, laughing.

I’ve heard similar reactions from Wisconsin dairy farmers who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. They liked it when Trump pledged to remember “the forgotten men and women of America.” They laughed off some of his outrageous statements. As a political outsider, they felt he would throw a rock at the two-party system that, in their view, abandoned ordinary people and really only served the interests of big corporations, especially when it came to trade deals like NAFTA.

Disappearing factories and farms

In addition to spurring devastating job losses at manufacturing plants in places like Milwaukee, Janesville and Racine, NAFTA helped make Wisconsin the No. 1 state in the nation for farm bankruptcies, accelerating the “get big or get out” trend in agriculture. Wisconsin lost more than half its family farms during the early 2000s. 

Don’t get me wrong. The Democrats were not solely responsible for trade deals that made investors rich by setting off a race to the bottom in wages and prices. Mainstream candidates of both major political parties embraced “free trade,” while on the right and left-wing margins, conservative commentator and 1992 presidential candidate Pat Buchanan and socialist U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders sounded the alarm that what was good for Wall Street could be devastating for Main Street. 

Kaufman does a good job documenting how NAFTA “signaled the Democratic Party’s move away from its working-class, New Deal roots.” I remember that shift in the early 1990s, when liberal intellectuals and New Democrats sneered at down-at-the-heel union workers and farmers, and began embracing more upscale suburban voters.

“For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia,” Kaufman quotes Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer saying before the 2016 election. “And you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.” 

That strategy didn’t work out too well for the Democrats in 2016. And despite Biden’s narrow victory in 2020, it’s still a problem for them in 2024. 

“Democrats have privately grown worried about Kamala Harris’s standing among working-class voters in the crucial ‘blue-wall’ states,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Oct. 8 in a piece citing pleas from allies including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for Harris to make a “sharper economic appeal.”

This criticism is maddening to Democrats who point out President Joe Biden’s pro-union record, including being the first president to walk a picket line, his creation of 765,000 new manufacturing jobs, and massive federal investments in job creation, infrastructure and clean energy projects — plus low unemployment and wage growth. 

Biden came to Wisconsin this year to visit the site of the failed Foxconn plant, to tout a new Microsoft A.I. facility that will create 1,000 jobs on the site where Trump promised “the Eighth Wonder of the World” but where, after billions in public investment, the promised Foxconn facility never materialized.

Contrary to his rhetoric about representing the working class, Trump created a huge trade deficit and his 2017 tax cut gave corporations a new incentive to offshore jobs by cutting taxes on foreign profits.

Still, Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance have capitalized on Democrats’ decision in the 1990s to shift away from working class concerns and embrace NAFTA. They are speaking directly to the voters who were left behind.

One farmer I interviewed for my book “Milked: How an American Crisis Brought Together Midwestern Dairy Farmers and Mexican Immigrants,” said he wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clintion because Bill Clinton signed NAFTA. It’s worth remembering that in Wisconsin, a critical battleground state, Sanders won the Democratic primary in 2016 by a massive 13 point margin over Hillary Clinton.

Speaking to working class voters

For her part, Harris says she would have voted against NAFTA were she in the U.S. Senate when it came up. She has promised to continue Biden’s pro-union efforts and to support and protect U.S. manufacturing. 

But unlike Trump and Vance, Harris doesn’t have a big-picture story to tell “the forgotten men and women” that reverses the impression that Democrats are mostly the party of sophisticated city-dwellers and suburbanites. Her plans to help first-time home buyers come up with a downpayment, expand Medicare to include long-term care, and help families cover the costs of child care — all part of what she calls the “opportunity economy” — are good. But they sound like a grab bag of technocratic solutions to economic upheaval that has played out in the lives of ordinary workers and farmers as an epic catastrophe — something a lot of Democrats haven’t acknowledged.

One exception is Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a staunch opponent of global trade deals, including Most Favored Nation trading status for China and Obama’s Trans Pacific Partnership deal. Baldwin has championed Made in America rules and is constantly visiting farms and pushing investment in ag innovation and in Wisconsin manufacturers. 

In a recent campaign ad, a parade of Teamsters truck drivers wearing baseball caps and their family members praise Baldwin, saying she “fought like hell” and saved their pensions after their employer tried to cut their retirement savings in half. “You don’t forget something like that,” one guy says. That’s the kind of message that helps Baldwin win in districts that voted heavily for Trump.

There’s a lot at stake in the coming election: reproductive freedom, a potentially brutal crackdown on immigrants, voting rights and even the survival of democracy itself. 

But one of the most important questions candidates must answer is who is looking out for working class Midwesterners. Many Democrats have taken a pass on that issue in recent years. Unless they make it very clear that has changed, it will come back to bite them.

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Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford speaks with reporters outside the U.S. Capitol about border policy negotiations on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats attempted to pass a resolution Tuesday addressing abortion access in emergency medical situations, but Republicans blocked it from moving forward.

The floor action followed months of unsuccessful attempts by congressional Democrats to approve legislation on various reproductive rights, including access to birth control and in vitro fertilization.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Tuesday she introduced the resolution to clarify what Congress’ objective was several decades ago when lawmakers approved the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, or EMTALA.

“We want to make it clear that Congress’s intent is that women can get life-saving care when they go to an emergency room anywhere in this country,” Murray said.

Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford blocked Murray’s unanimous consent request to approve the resolution, saying that doctors in emergency departments are able to act in cases of miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and life-threatening situations.

“This is a false claim that somehow what happened in the Dobbs decision and what’s happening in states is limiting that,” Lankford said. “It’s actually the political rhetoric that’s making people afraid.”

Lankford objected to another of Murray’s unanimous consent requests in March, blocking approval of legislation that would have expanded access to in vitro fertilization for military members and veterans.

No recorded vote

Unanimous consent is the fastest way to approve legislative items in the Senate. Under the process, any one senator can ask to approve a bill or resolution and any one senator can object. There is no recorded vote that puts all senators on the record.

Murray’s two-page resolution, which had the backing of 40 cosponsors, would have expressed “the sense of the Senate that every person has the basic right to emergency health care, including abortion care.”

The resolution also expressed that “State laws that purport to ban and restrict abortion in emergency circumstances force medical providers to decide between withholding necessary, stabilizing medical care from a patient experiencing a medical emergency or facing criminal prosecution, and put the lives, health, and futures of patients at risk.”

This resolution wouldn’t have actually changed the text of EMTALA.

The 1986 law states that hospital emergency departments must treat or transfer patients who have emergency medical conditions, regardless of their health insurance status or ability to pay.

It defines an emergency medical condition as something that could result in the health of the patient being in “serious jeopardy,” such as the patient “experiencing serious impairment to bodily functions, or serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part.”

Dobbs decision

The federal law has been the center of political and legal debate since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion two years ago in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling.

The Biden administration issued a public letter shortly afterward saying EMTALA protected doctors and other qualified health care providers who ended a pregnancy to stabilize the patient if their life or health was at risk.

Republican attorneys general in several states challenged that view of the law and the U.S. Department of Justice later sued Idaho over its abortion law.

That case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year, but the justices ultimately decided to send it back to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The high court said it should have waited to hear the case until after the lower court ruled.

At the center of the disagreement between Republican state attorneys general and the Biden administration is that the federal law applies when a pregnant patient’s life or health is at risk; many of the conservative state laws only allow abortions after a certain gestational age when a woman’s life is at risk.

Exactly when a woman’s life becomes at risk due to pregnancy complications has led to dozens of stories from women throughout the country, who say they had to wait for treatment until their health deteriorated further.

Analysis from the Associated Press released in August found that more than 100 women experiencing medical distress during pregnancy were turned away from hospitals or negligently treated during the last two years.

ProPublica recently obtained reports “that confirm that at least two women have already died after they couldn’t access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state.”

‘This cruelty is unforgivable and unacceptable’

The Senate resolution that Republicans rejected Tuesday is nearly identical to one House Democrats introduced earlier this month.

Murray said ahead of her UC request that women and their families will not forget about being denied medical care due to Republican state restrictions on abortion access.

“No woman is ever going to forget when she was sent off to miscarry alone after her doctor said, ‘Look, I know your life is in danger, but I’m not sure I’m allowed to save you right now,’” Murray said. “No husband is going to forget calling 911 in a panic after finding his wife bloody and unconscious. No child is going to forget, for a single day of their life, the mother that was taken from them by Republican abortion bans.

“This cruelty is unforgivable and unacceptable. Democrats will not let it become settled status quo.”

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Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Lafayette County Democratic volunteer irene kendall. Shapiro campaigned in rural Wisconsin for Sen. Tammy Baldwin's reelection Saturday. | Wisconsin Examiner photo

Two-term U.S Sen. Tammy Baldwin got a boost Saturday from a fellow Democrat, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, in her tight reelection race against Republican challenger Eric Hovde. The incumbent senator from Wisconsin and the governor — who attracted national media attention when he was recently considered as a possible vice presidential candidate — toured rural Richland and Lafayette counties, meeting with farmers and small town residents in sparsely populated areas of the state. In both counties, most voters chose former President Donald Trump in the last two presidential elections. But they also voted for Baldwin by more than 10-point margins in 2018. 

The night before embarking on the rural Wisconsin tour, Baldwin spoke from the same stage as Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to a cheering crowd of 10,000 people who packed the Dane County Coliseum, a frequent venue for rock concerts in deep-blue Madison.

Since both population growth and voter turnout are sky-high in Dane County, Democrats are focusing heavily on the area as key to winning elections in this closely-divided swing state. But Baldwin, like Shapiro, who made inroads with rural voters in Pennsylvania, makes a point of campaigning in rural and suburban areas that lean Republican. 

Appealing to voters in areas where other Democrats don’t often show up is a big part of both politicians’ formula for success. In their joint, rural campaign stops in Wisconsin they modeled an approach to politics that refuses to take the urban-rural political divide for granted, and that reconnects with voters the rest of their party has often overlooked. That approach dovetails with the Harris campaign’s effort to appeal to disaffected Republicans and to present the Democratic party as a “big tent.”

Lafayette is among the most rural counties in Wisconsin, and one of only two counties in the state that doesn’t have a traffic light, according to U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democrat, who represents the area in Congress. Voters there chose Trump by 9 percentage points in 2016 and by 13.7 points in 2020 — but Baldwin won the county by 10.6 points in 2018. 

“It really does feel like home,” Shapiro told the Examiner, standing outside a big, red barn at the Iowa and Lafayette County Democrats’ picnic. “There’s a sensibility, and there’s a desire from the people I’ve met to just have elected officials work together to get stuff done,” he said.

Getting stuff done — Shapiro’s trademark phrase — was the theme of his speech endorsing Baldwin’s 2024 reelection bid. He touted her work to bring agriculture innovation grants as well as her work on rural broadband and expanding health care access.

In her own speech at the county picnic, Baldwin also focused on specific accomplishments. She told a story about meeting with executives of a handful of medical device companies and “shaming” them into agreeing to set a cap of $35 per month on the price of inhalers, after hearing from constituents who were struggling to pay hundreds of dollars per month to treat their asthma. 

While Shapiro and Baldwin described themselves as pragmatists, they also espoused progressive values, denouncing Republican “extremism” and threats to democracy and vowing to work to claw back abortion rights after the demise of Roe v. Wade. 

Baldwin warned that the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which held that there is no fundamental constitutional right to privacy, poses a threat to other precedents besides Roe, including protections for access to contraception as well as interracial and same-sex marriage. She described the skepticism she encountered from journalists who did not believe she would be able to get enough Republican votes to pass the Respect for Marriage Act, which codified federal recognition of same-sex and interracial marriages. 

“I said, ‘Just you watch,’ ” she told the audience of rural Democrats, adding she was sure at least 10 of her Republican colleagues had a loved one who would be hurt if same-sex marriage was overturned. In the end she found 12 Republicans to join all 50 Democrats in the Senate to pass the bill.

Baldwin added that she is proud to be the lead author of the Women’s Health Protection Act, “which would restore Roe, make it a part of our national laws, and tell states like Wisconsin and Texas and Florida and Idaho that you can’t pass a whole bunch of laws at the state level that interfere with those rights and freedoms.”

“I don’t have 60 votes yet, but I do have a plan,” she told her rural constituents. “That plan involves all of you working super hard to get me reelected to the United States Senate.”

Democrats are working harder than ever in Lafayette County, said Democratic Party Chair Nancy Fisker, who added that the group has doubled its membership in the last year and a half after opening a new office, with help from the state party. The chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, Ben Wikler, also gave an impassioned speech at the picnic. A prolific fundraiser, he has helped to open new Democratic Party offices all over the state.

Still, county residents are often afraid to put up yard signs or otherwise publicly identify themselves as Democrats, Fisker said. “We have to be aware of it, and we have to not push our agenda at people who don’t want to hear it,” she said. “We don’t just take a bunch of Democrats to a restaurant in Darlington to have a meeting unless we talk to the owner first, or they’ll throw us out on our ear. It’s serious.”

This year, after pushing for a long time, county volunteers are putting up more yard signs. And, after opening the new party office, “We started to have some successes,” Fisker said. Lafayette County voted for liberal state Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz, whose victory over conservative former Justice Dan Kelly changed the ideological balance on the court. Most voters in the county also rejected a pair of constitutional amendments drafted by the Republican-controlled Legislature that would have taken away the governor’s power to give out federal emergency relief funds. Fisker attributes both results to her group’s stepped-up voter education effort.

Fisker said she meets a lot of split-ticket voters. “I have a couple of friends who just said, ‘Oh, well, you know, I’m going to vote for Baldwin, but I don’t know about that Harris person. So then there’s lots of conversations, and it’s your neighbors.”

“We care about reproductive rights. We care about the environment. We care about ensuring that our rights are not taken away. But you have to come to us in the way that we want to engage with you,” said Lafayette County Democrat irene kendall (she spells her name in all lower-case letters), who helped organize the event. She credited Baldwin and Pocan with coming to the area frequently and listening to people. “They understand what happens in the rural communities, because they’re out there, right? And so we know we matter to them. So showing up is a huge part of it, I think.” She has relatives, she said, who split their tickets, voting Republican in most races, but making and exception for Baldwin.

Steve Pickett, now retired, described himself as the first Democratic county clerk elected in Lafayette County since Reconstruction. He agreed that Democrats could do a lot better just by showing up.

“In rural Wisconsin, probably more so than in the cities, people want to know who the candidate is,” he said. “It’s hard for people to say, ‘Well, yeah I want to vote for someone I don’t even know.’”

The working theory for a long time has been that you have to be a Republican to win in Lafayette County, he said. Now that’s starting to change. “You can be a Democrat and win, but you have to work at it,” he added.

“It isn’t that it’s so Republican,” he said of the area. “It’s that we haven’t given people a reason to vote for the Democrats.” Baldwin and Pocan “gave you reasons” in their speeches, he added.

“We have to get the party to understand,” Pickett said, “that these are the races that are going to make them, as opposed to spending money in the really safe districts.”

Shapiro and Baldwin both seem to understand that point — and not just on the state level.

Shapiro told the rural Democrats in Wisconsin the same thing he said he tells voters in Pennsylvania: Because of the way national elections are structured, as swing state voters they have enormous power.  “You’ve got the power to shape the future,” he said, “not just of this state, but of this entire country.”

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