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Dear fellow Wisconsin
Democrats,
We did it.
Ten days have passed since Election Day, and it’s still barely sunk
in.
We really, actually, genuinely did it.
Holy mackerel.
Democratic turnout—the raw number of Biden votes, relative to Clinton
votes in 2016—went up in every single county in the state. That means
that, no matter where you live, you were part
of the Biden victory.
In the weeks and months to come, a million pundits, analysts, organizers,
and everyone else will keep sifting through the numbers to try to
understand what it all means. One thing we know now: turning Wisconsin
blue was always going to be a massive challenge.
Look at Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. In those
non-Wisconsin states, the GOP didn’t have the same hammerlock on voting
rules. In 2018, Democratic candidates won the governorships of those
states by double-digit margins, and in many cases, through court
decisions, ballot initiatives, and legislation, voting rules eased access
going into 2018.
In Wisconsin, by contrast, Republicans and GOP-aligned judges set rules
in Wisconsin to suppress Democratic votes, especially Black voters and
young people across race and geography.
The GOP created our harsh and restrictive voter ID laws—and fought, from
the lame-duck session of 2018 through court battles this year—to keep it
in place, including the highly unusual requirement that requesting an
absentee ballot involved uploading a photo or mailing a photocopy of
one’s voter ID.
Not only did the GOP battle against every effort to expand voter
access—they actively made things worse. 127 days out from November 3,
Republicans won a court ruling that actually curtailed voter access
relative to 2016, by shortening the early vote period to two weeks and
expanding residency requirements. Many Republican strongholds already had
chosen two-week early vote periods. But in 2016, Milwaukee began early
vote on September 26. This year, the easiest early vote date was October
20.
Similarly, courts ruled to
uphold a long-stayed GOP law that a Wisconsin voter must reside at her
primary residence for 28 days, rather than 10, to be able to vote from
there. This disproportionately harms voters who have to move frequently.
And at the Congressional and state legislative level, Wisconsin’s
gerrymander remains legendary—one of the most extreme in the nation’s history.
All of those factors were stacked against us. They were why, even when
polling suggested a blowout, we all told each other like a mantra: ignore
the polls and vote. They were why we all felt that pit in our stomachs
even when we could feel the wind at our backs in the final days.
But they weren’t enough to
overcome you.
Republicans spiked their turnout 15% relative to 2016. But your work,
your tireless efforts, your refusal to concede in the face of Republican
attacks, helped Democratic turnout jump up 18%. This was the work of
volunteers and staff; of the campaign, of unions and grassroots groups,
of candidates at every level and their families and kitchen cabinets and
supporters; of community organizations and national allies and everything
in between—and in the end, all of it, in every corner of the state, in
every community and language, was enough to overcome the Trump and GOP
machines.
And when you look at the margins of victory in each state and add it all
up, Wisconsin held the same title it held in the last election: we were
the tipping-point state. (Read this Twitter thread
for an explanation.)
But this time, unlike last time, we tipped the Electoral College for the
Democratic nominee. And that made all the difference.
So many countries that start down the road of autocracy never come back
once a strongman takes power. Here, through grit and focus and the skin
of our teeth, we wrested the country back from the brink. The work goes
on, and won’t be easy. But at this all-important moment, we came
through.
You did the work. You are now a part of history. Congratulations—and
thank you.
Ben
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