A memorable moment of recognition for the great Ada Deer.

Votes by acclamation for our state party’s leadership team: me, First Vice Chair Martin, our new Second Vice Chair Tricia Zunker, our new secretary Kim Butler, and Treasurer Randy Udell.

Grateful thank-yous to our departing officers, outgoing Secretary Meg Andrietsch and Second Vice Chair Lee Snodgrass. A big welcome to Alex Lasry, newly elected DNC representative. And a slew of great trainings, caucus meetings, and moments of joy at hospitality suites.

It was a demonstration of party unity, of resolve, and of alignment around our party’s core values. Our faith in FIRE: Fight, Include, Respect, and Empower. And our shared belief that the work of politics and public service is about making our state more free, more fair, safer, and more prosperous, for everyone—no matter their gender, geography, generation, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.

This week, Republicans in the legislature flexed their gerrymandering-attained power to hurt Wisconsinites.

In the middle of the night last night, they killed the Child Care Counts program that thousands of families across Wisconsin rely on for affordable, high quality child care.

They killed Medicaid expansion, yet again. Robin Vos made it plain: “As long as I am speaker of the Assembly, Medicaid expansion will never happen.”

They rejected Gov. Evers’s budget proposal to legalize recreational cannabis in Wisconsin.

They threatened to cut funding for the UW system—in order to entirely eliminate programs supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion. And then they did cut funding for a new engineering building at UW-Madison, which would have attracted new investment to our state.

They banned Medicaid from providing life-saving gender-affirming care to trans people, putting lives at risk.

And last week they gutted funding from the Office of School Safety, putting Wisconsin students and communities at risk.

That’s just a partial list. A series of calculated steps, all of them against the public’s interest and the public’s wishes. An illustration of autocratic control from a party that keeps losing statewide elections.

And then, this weekend, Republicans will gather for their state party convention.

They’re in a civil war. Do they support Trump, now facing dozens of criminal indictments? Do they stand for anything, other than cruelty? Who will challenge Tammy Baldwin?

They have no answers. In fact, their only answer—when asked to lift a finger for the people of our state—is “no.”

In 2024, we have an enormous opportunity to create change. And at the same time, we face extraordinary peril from a GOP that wants to move us backwards.

Let’s use the energy of the WisDems convention to fuel us as we face down the sinister politics of division and austerity advanced by the GOP. Let’s remember why we do this. And let’s win.

In solidarity,

Ben

This week, as Attorney General Josh Kaul and Democratic leaders in the Legislature reintroduced commonsense gun safety reforms to keep Wisconsin families, schools, and communities safe, Republican politicians moved to deprioritize school safety entirely.

Republicans on the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee last Thursday voted to slash funding from the Office of School Safety, undermining efforts to keep Wisconsin students safe in school. The GOP’s budget cut threatens the 24/7 Speak Up, Speak Out tip line, which has collected over 3,500 tips since its launch in 2020 and helped to keep thousands of Wisconsin students safe.

While Republicans in the State Legislature play games with school safety, Democrats are listening to the will of the people by reintroducing a package of commonsense gun safety reforms to keep Wisconsin communities safe. Democrats’ previous attempts to pass popular gun safety reforms have failed in the GOP-controlled Legislature, where Republicans beholden to the gun lobby instead push legislation to make guns more accessible.

Fully funding the Office of School Safety and passing commonsense gun safety reforms should be no brainers, but it seems that the GOP is more concerned with appeasing the gun lobby and their far-right base than they are with keeping Wisconsin kids and communities safe.

The hallmark of Robin Vos’ tenure in the State Legislature has been his willful ignorance of Wisconsinites’ top concerns. This week alone, Vos and his Republican colleagues went on a tirade against several policies enjoying widespread support from Wisconsin voters.

On Wednesday, Vos announced that “as long as I am speaker of the Assembly, Medicaid expansion will never happen.” By refusing to expand BadgerCare, Vos is denying affordable health care to an estimated 89,700 Wisconsinites. Not to outdo himself, Vos went on to say he “can’t see any scenario” where he would support legalizing recreational marijuana in Wisconsin despite over two-thirds of Wisconsin voters backing the full legalization of cannabis.

Vos and Republicans’ obstructionism doesn’t stop at popular public policy. Vos’ announcements were followed by news that Republicans planned to cut UW System funding by $32 million—an amount Vos claims is equal to the System’s spending on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion initiatives. This comes after Republicans voted down funding for a new engineering building at UW Madison, an investment that would have enabled the campus to graduate at least 1,000 more engineers annually, hire more faculty and staff, expand research, and attract new investment to Wisconsin.

From refusing to expand Medicaid and legalize cannabis, to inflicting petty and politically-motivated budget cuts on the University of Wisconsin, Robin Vos seems determined to drive Wisconsin into the ground by ignoring our state’s priorities and obstructing progress.

Last weekend, Democrats from across Wisconsin gathered in Green Bay for the 2023 WisDems State Convention to celebrate Democrats’ accomplishments for working Wisconsinites and to rally to reelect Senator Tammy Baldwin and President Joe Biden in 2024. News crews from across Wisconsin headed to Green Bay to cover the event—check out some of their coverage:

• WPR: “The convention, held in Green Bay, looked ahead more than a year to feature Baldwin’s race and highlight the key role Wisconsin is expected to play in the reelection campaign of Democratic President Joe Biden. Gov. Tony Evers spoke, boasting that after his own reelection in November, some people call him ‘two-term Tony.’ And Baldwin spoke about Democrats’ work passing a landmark bill to lower the cost of prescription drugs to seniors and a bipartisan bill she spearheaded that codified gay marriage into law.”
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “‘I just am so proud of what we have been able to do as Democrats,’ Moore said. ‘We replaced Scott Walker with the best governor ever, Tony Evers. We reelected Tony Evers. We defeated Donald Trump with Joe Biden. We’ve got the ‘Big Mo’ going for us, and we are going to reelect Joe Biden.’…However, Baldwin said, she is ‘as hopeful for our party, for our state and for our country as I have ever been’ — in part as a result of Protasiewicz’s victory — ‘because in Wisconsin, we Democrats know how to win.’”
• WLUK: “President Joe Biden’s run for reelection was among the topics discussed. ‘Joe Biden is the best candidate, his track record is really remarkable and the truth is he hasn’t gotten the credit he deserves but there has been historic legislation passed in his presidency including the inflation reduction act,’ says Attorney General Josh Kaul.”
• Wisconsin State Journal: “‘Even though the wind is blowing in our direction, every Democrat at this convention is determined to take nothing for granted,’ Wikler told reporters in Green Bay. ‘We’re planned for a 1 percentage point margin election and will do everything we can to make sure the ball gets over the line.’”