The long, dark night of ultra-partisan gerrymandering is over, and a new day for democracy now dawns in the Badger State.

In late February, a new set of state legislative maps were signed into law for Wisconsin. These maps are graded “A” for fairness by the head of the nonpartisan Princeton Gerrymandering Project. The current maps scored an F. 

With the stroke of a pen, Wisconsin went from a “democracy desert” to, well, a democracy. This was all possible because of you. 

I’m going to ask you to split a $10 donation between the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and the Arizona Democratic Party, but I want to tell you how we got here:

Wisconsin’s gerrymandering crisis began in 2011, when Republican lawmakers drew legislative lines that guaranteed even landslide election losses wouldn’t cost them their majorities. The result was one of the most egregious, extreme partisan gerrymanders in American political history. 

In 2012 and 2018, Wisconsin voters overwhelmingly voted for Democratic majorities in the legislature but Republicans won huge majorities of the seats. In 2020 and 2022, Democrats won major statewide victories, but Republicans won near-supermajorities. 

All the while, Republican politicians in Wisconsin have used their power to restrict access to the ballot, remove authorities that voters had entrusted to statewide elected officials like the Governor and Attorney General, and smash the freedoms of workers to organize and advocate for themselves. 

For thirteen years, the democracy-proof legislature has been laying siege to democracy itself. 

But those statewide victories added up. In 2018, 2020, and 2023, voters built a new progressive majority on the State Supreme Court. By electing Governor Evers and preventing GOP supermajorities, they stopped hard-right maps from being signed into law. And last year, a civic uprising prevented Republicans from impeaching Janet Protasiewicz. In December, the Supreme Court ruled that Wisconsin’s legislative maps were unconstitutional.

This wasn’t easy. This team had to knock on doors, call phones, chip in, and share our views with friends and online—year after year, election after election, never giving up even when it felt like all was lost. 

But we did it. 

Today, the work doesn’t end. The candidate recruitment process now goes into overdrive. And at the same time, we remain vigilant in case Republican politicians in Madison and their allies once again, through the courts or any other strategy, attempt to thwart majority rule.

Today, we commit to doing the work, ending the malign speakership of Robin Vos, breaking the GOP supermajority in the State Senate, and paving the way towards a Democratic state Senate majority in 2026.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask. The number of competitive legislative seats will triple so we’ll need triple the support. Can you chip in a $10 split donation between WisDems and the Arizona Dems to help us organize voters in every corner of Wisconsin and Arizona where Democrats have the chance to win?

If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your split contribution will go through immediately:

This is a story with millions of heroes. Supporters like you and the Arizona Democratic Party are some of them. From all of us at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, please know you have our boundless gratitude. 

In solidarity,

Ben Wikler, WisDems Chair