Ben Wikler Sees ‘Wind’ in Democrats’ Sails

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and outgoing Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler have a one-on-one conversation on stage at the party’s annual convention in Wisconsin Dells on Saturday, June 14, 2025. Rich Kremer/WPR

Ben Wikler wants Wisconsin residents to know that their votes are a lot more powerful than those living in most of the rest of the country. That’s because Wisconsin is a battleground state that can swing presidential elections and determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate and House.

“Wisconsinites, you know, we have to stay humble, even though our ballots matter more than just about anybody else’s,” said Wikler, the former chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. “I was on a book tour and I went to New York and California, and I was like, ‘I know it can be hard to feel like Wisconsinites are lording it over you folks, but we get to decide who leads the country and you don’t really.’”

Wikler is out with a book, “This Is The Plan: How to End America’s Meltdown and Save Democracy,” which is his blueprint for helping the Democratic Party rebound during the age of Trump. And he believes that Wisconsin can show the rest of the country how to push back against corporate interests and the Republican Party. He spoke to WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” about the book and the upcoming midterm elections.

The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Kate Archer Kent: Wisconsin has just experienced a very eventful partisan primary. The nomination for governor mirrored Democratic fights we’re seeing around the country. We had a democratic socialist competing against a moderate, establishment figure. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, the moderate, narrowly defeated state Rep. Francesca Hong. What do you make of the primary results?

Ben Wikler: It was crystal clear out of this primary that there’s a huge level of participation, of interest, enthusiasm from Democrats. Way more Democrats voted than Republicans in the primary. The turnout among Democrats shot up compared to 2018, which was the year Gov. Tony Evers won, and the Republican participation fell from 2018. So this looks like a Democratic wave year from all the signals we can tell. We can also see, even though it was a hard-fought primary with a very close photo finish result, all the candidates joined together for a unity tour starting immediately after the race was called, and that kind of unity is also really good news for Democrats at every level of the ballot going into the November election.

KAK: In your book, you said you think Wisconsin Democrats can score a trifecta this November … winning the governor’s race and both chambers of the Legislature. What makes you feel so confident?

There’s, in a sense, an election happening at two levels in Wisconsin and across the country. One level is the people who follow the news, people who like to think about politics in their free time. … For those folks, there’s the real sense that we are in a moment of emergency across the country. … The other election is people who would rather never think about politics, and I totally get why that would be. So many people feel like the system is totally broken. They don’t believe what either party says. They’d rather not think about any of this stuff. They just want politics to stop interfering with the lives that they want to lead.

And right now, both groups of voters … are aligned that this is not working, and we need a different path. That’s the Democratic coalition in 2026, and that’s the reason why I think that there really is a wind in the sails for Democrats.

Former state Democratic Party chair sees ‘wind’ in Democrats’ sails was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.