August 23, 2024 in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
CHICAGO – An unexpected star emerged at the Democratic National Convention this week: Wisconsin’s state party chairman.
Ben Wikler, the force behind Wisconsin Democrats’ fundraising and organizing operation, was not in the primetime spotlight. But he received constant praise from the country’s top Democrats here for what he’s done in Wisconsin since he assumed the top post in 2019.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called Wikler “one of the best chairs of a state party.” Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dubbed him the “preeminent state party chair.” And vice presidential nominee Tim Walz said Wikler “embodies” what it means to be “happy warriors.”
“If we had Ben Wikler as chair of every single party in this country,” Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet told a crowd of Wisconsin delegates this week, “we wouldn’t lose another race.”
The praise for Wikler, 43, is not entirely new. He’s been credited for state Democrats’ success in vastly outraising their Republican counterparts in recent years. The recognition during the convention, however, came from the biggest names in his party and just over two months before an election in which Wisconsin will play a pivotal role.
Wikler received many of the kind words this week with a smile and a bow of the head. He called the convention “head-spinning” and “eye-popping” and said it was “extraordinary” to see national leaders recognize the work from grassroots Wisconsin Democrats. Though he wouldn’t take all the credit.
“When a visiting elected official says I’m doing a great job, what I know is, they’re really saying that our party activists — the people who are knocking on doors week after week and in rain and sleet and snow and in the hot summer — that they’re doing an amazing job,” Wikler told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“I could not agree more enthusiastically,” Wikler said. “We have some of the most dedicated and energized grassroots volunteers in our party that this country’s ever seen.”
One way to see Wikler’s influence is through the numbers.
Since the start of 2020, state Democrats have raised about $180 million in their state and federal accounts compared to the nearly $66 million raised by Republicans.
In the five years before Wikler took over, Democrats raised a little more than $37 million to Republicans’ nearly $33 million. That means Democrats raised nearly five times the amount under Wikler than they did in the two cycles before he took over.
A majority of that money has come from outside the state as Democrats have taken advantage of a rule change under former Republican Gov. Scott Walker that allowed state parties to accept unlimited contributions. The previous individual contribution limit was $10,000 a year. Candidates are still subject to limits on the donations they receive.
Some of those funds were raised through innovative fundraising methods like online events featuring celebrities and other notable figures that began during the coronavirus pandemic. One event featuring the cast of “The Princess Bride” brought in $4.25 million for the party in 2020.
More important for state Democrats, however, is their record. They’ve won 8 of the last 10 statewide races under Wikler.
The state party helped President Joe Biden win Wisconsin in the 2020 election and rebuild Democrats’ “blue wall,” and Wikler steered the party through Gov. Tony Evers’ reelection in 2022.
More recently, Wikler was at the helm when Democrats’ fundraising operation helped Janet Protasiewicz win a state Supreme Court seat last year — flipping the court into liberal control for the first time in more than a decade.
Democrats’ only two statewide losses under Wikler came to U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and state Treasurer John Lieber, both in 2022.
In interviews, several Democrats, including Wikler himself, pointed to Wisconsin’s swing state status as a main reason the state party has received support from across the country. The tight margin in statewide elections and Wisconsin’s status as a tipping point state, they suggested, have underscored the state’s national importance.
“He is a bulldog in the best sense,” former Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said of Wikler this week. “He goes out there. He knows what he needs to do. He brings the money in, he brings the people in and is just relentless.”
“If you were to write a book about how to be party chair,” Tate added, “you would write one about Ben Wikler.”
Republican’s acknowledge Wikler’s operation
The organizing operation under Wikler has also received both direct and indirect praise from Republicans.
After Wisconsin voters last week rejected a pair of GOP-authored ballot questions that would have limited the governor’s authority to spend federal funds directed to Wisconsin — something Democrats lobbied strongly against — some Republicans pointed to Democrats’ messaging as a reason.
“The Democrat Party of the state of Wisconsin ate the Republican Party of the state of Wisconsin’s lunch,” freshman GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden recently told WKOW.
“The way that they organized themselves and sent out so many mass text messages and everything explaining what they thought should be done,” Van Orden said, “it far and away exceeded the Republican Party’s organization skills.”
(During the convention, however, Van Orden repeatedly attacked Wikler on social media.)
At a breakfast in Chicago Wednesday, Pelosi, the former House speaker, touted Wikler’s work throughout her nearly 13-minute speech to state delegates. She said he “galvanized support all over the country.” He became party chairman, Pelosi said, “and now everything is riding on Wisconsin.”
Pelosi in her remarks noted she was chairwoman of the California Democratic Party and initially had no intentions of running for Congress, joking to Wikler: “You never know what happens, Ben, you have to be ready.”
But Wikler, who previously directed MoveOn.org’s effort to stop Republicans from repealing the Affordable Care Act, kept his cards close to his chest when asked if he planned to run for elected office. He said he was taking it “one election at a time,” noting there will be a state Supreme Court race next year, after the November elections.
It was an expected answer but not an unusual trajectory for the Madison Democrat who began his political career as a high school student attempting to fundraise for now-U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s first run for Congress in 1998. He recalled his first fundraiser drew three people, including Baldwin. Wikler also co-founded his high school newspaper — what he described as an underground, satirical production — and stayed “right at the edge of media, politics and entertainment” before diving into politics.
His focus this week was on November as a parade of high-ranking Democrats in Chicago encouraged Wisconsin delegates to continue their voter turnout efforts. Nearly every speaker sprinkled in praise for the party’s leader.
“I gotta tell you, when I turn on my TV, there’s nobody I want to see more than Ben Wikler,” Walz, Harris’ running mate, told delegates one morning in a downtown Chicago hotel.
Schumer, the Senate majority leader and New York Democrat, called Wikler one of the best state party chairs that same morning, adding: “Not just today, but ever.”
He said he “pleaded” with Wikler to stay in the post when the Madison Democrat concluded his first term.
“Because he has done such an amazing job here in Wisconsin,” Schumer told the delegates. “So let’s have another round of applause.”
Lawrence Andrea 