Wisconsin Democratic party chair talks campaign strategy as DNC gets underway

The 2024 Democratic National Convention begins Monday in Chicago. 

The four-day event is set to draw tens of thousands of attendees, including 95 Wisconsin delegates to celebrate Vice President Kamala Harris’s nomination in the presidential race. Harris was formally nominated during a virtual roll call earlier this month. 

Ahead of the event WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” spoke with Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin about the state of the race and keys to success for the Harris campaign.  

Wikler noted a wave of enthusiasm since President Biden dropped out of the race, but cautioned that Wisconsin Democrats should prepare for a surge of votes for former President Donald Trump, too. 

In July, chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin Brian Schimming joined “Wisconsin Today” to preview the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

The following was edited for clarity and brevity.

Kate Archer Kent: On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris will rally in Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum rather than being at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. What does that appearance signal to voters?

Ben Wikler: I think voters in Wisconsin are going to see with crystal clarity that their ballots could determine the winner of this presidential race. That’s why the Republican Convention was here. That’s why we will have our nominee on Wisconsin soil. And it’s why Vice President Harris came to Wisconsin the Tuesday after she became our nominee. It’s why she was back in Eau Claire.

The energy that she’s bringing to the Wisconsin campaign specifically communicates to voters that they matter in this election.

KAK: What does that communicate about being a battleground state?

BW: The 2016 election tipped for Trump In Wisconsin. We were the tipping point state by about three votes per ward across Wisconsin. And in 2020 we were the tipping point state for Biden by, again, three votes per ward across Wisconsin.

If you bring a couple friends to vote you might tip the ward, that tips the state, that tips the presidential election and defines the future of American democracy.

KAK: What have you seen in terms of volunteerism? What have you seen in your fundraising numbers?

BW: Many people are talking about the vibes…how the vibes have changed and how the energy is great. I see those manifested in metrics. Every single thing that I can measure is going up. Fundraising has shot up, hundreds of thousands of dollars came in the 48 hours after that big decision and the contributions have not stopped.

We’re hiring dozens week over week to expand our operation, volunteers signing up in the thousands and then showing up and actually knocking on doors and making calls weekend after weekend.

Really any number that we can track, we’re seeing things move in the right direction. Which is not to say that we can take this race for granted. It’s to say that the kind of fugue state that Democrats were in just a few weeks ago..that is completely gone and it’s been replaced by a level of enthusiasm that can fuel a winning campaign up and down the ballot. 

KAK: Did you anticipate expanding your staff in these ways before Harris became top of the ticket?

BW: I didn’t expect to be in hiring mode in mid-August. We had built out an aggressive plan to win our state and then the dollars, the volunteer energy and the job applicants kept coming.

We want to make sure we honor everyone’s time, and we channel it into the things that can actually move undecided voters to vote for Harris and her vice presidential pick, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and move inconsistent voters to actually get out and go to the ballot box. Wisconsin elections so often are so close, and no matter what the polls say, we should expect a huge surge of votes for former President Donald Trump and vice presidential candidate JD Vance.

Even if I personally don’t think that they’ve earned those votes, we want to be prepared for any scenario and that means doubling down on the work that we know makes a difference.

KAK: Here, you’re one of the automatic delegates of Wisconsin’s 95 representing the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. What is one thing that people around the country should know about the political culture of our state.

BW: Voters know that Wisconsin is a purple state. It’s the only state where the last six presidential elections have come down to less than one percentage point.

But my advice to folks thinking about Wisconsin politics is to look under the hood because this is a state that while it’s often right on a knife’s edge, it’s a state that has deep progressive values and deep progressive roots … And there’s a far right tradition.

It’s not that you take the positions that won’t really appeal to or offend anybody, it’s that you champion causes that have majority support.

Causes like freedom, like unions and strong support for working families across Wisconsin, like expanding voting rights and opportunity to get ahead economically, and a vision that really cares for everyone and ensures that it’s not too expensive and not too hard to raise a kid.

Those kinds of positions really resonate here.