Wisconsin’s Ben Wikler comes up short in bid to lead national Democratic Party

After two months of campaigning, Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler lost his bid to lead the Democratic National Committee.

In an election held Saturday outside Washington D.C., Democratic National Committee delegates chose Ken Martin of Minnesota as the party’s next chair. Martin won 246.5 of 428 votes. Wikler came in second with 134.5 votes. Prior to his election, Martin served as a vice-chair for the DNC and also leads Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

In a statement, Wikler thanked supporters and congratulated Martin on his victory.

“While the vote didn’t go the way I hoped, I’m grateful that our whole party has embraced the vision and the values that our campaign lifted up,” Wikler said. “It’s time to fight for working people, across race and ethnicity, in every corner of the country; to build a permanent campaign that organizes and communicates year-round, in every place and on every platform.”

The vote comes at a difficult time for the party. Democrats lost the presidency and control of the Senate in November elections, as voters across the nation shifted to the right. A recent Quinnipiac poll showed the party’s favorability rating at it’s lowest since at least 2008. And party leaders are focused on developing a strategy to fight a flurry of controversial initiatives by President Donald Trump.

During his DNC campaign, Wikler secured dozens of endorsements from delegates, governors, unions and high-profile Democrats like former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. 

In seeking the job, Wikler touted what he called his “permanent campaign” approach aimed at maintaining a year-round presence with voters, even during off-year elections. He also said he helped raise $200 million for the state party over a five-year period.

According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, Wikler raised just more than $726,562 during his campaign for DNC chair. Of that, $250,000 came from LinkedIn founder and Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman. Another $250,000 came from a political action committee founded by George Soros.

Milwaukee-based Democratic consultant Joe Zepecki told WPR that Wikler ran “an extraordinary race” and was able to make the case that what has worked for the party in Wisconsin can work at the national level.

With the DNC election behind him, Zepecki said Wikler and state Democrats must now focus on the upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court election, where liberal Dane County Judge Susan Crawford will face former Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel.

“There’s something like 400,000 new donors to the Wisconsin Democratic Party in the last six years. That is how you win,” Zepecki said. “That is how you find yourself on the cusp of flipping legislative chambers in 2026. It is why we have been so successful at winning statewide races under Ben’s leadership. And I have no doubt that, despite coming up a little short in the race to be the DNC chair, he is going to run through the tape and make sure we have what it takes to win on April 1.” 

Wikler has led the Democratic Party of Wisconsin since 2019. Since then, Democrats have won eight out of 11 statewide races, including the re-election of Gov. Tony Evers in 2022 and Justice Janet Protasiewicz’s 2023 state Supreme Court victory, which gave liberals control of the bench for the first time in 15 years.