Friend,

Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court election earlier this month made national news. People around the country were horrified by the choice voters were forced to make: go to the polls and risk getting seriously ill, or stay home and have their voice silenced.

The fact is, what happened in Wisconsin was the result of a decade’s worth of malfeasance by state and national Republicans. I’m going to lay it out below -- but first, can you make a donation to help the NDRC continue our fight against voter suppression and gerrymandering?

Here’s the timeline:

• In 2011, former Governor Scott Walker signed manipulated maps into law. This gave Republicans lasting majorities in the state legislature, even when they won less than 50 percent of the vote.

• Walker also “reduced the state’s non-partisan elections office to a largely gridlocked bipartisan agency,” according to an expert interviewed by ProPublica.

• In 2018, after Democrat Tony Evers beat Walker (with our help!), the gerrymandered Republican legislature forced through bills that “neutered the authority of the incoming Democratic governor in emergency situations.” Then, a couple of weeks ago, Republican legislative leaders challenged Gov. Evers’ order to postpone the April 7 state Supreme Court election, calling it “executive overreach.”

• Just hours later, the state Supreme Court -- which Republicans have packed with hard-line conservatives -- ruled that the election must proceed despite the public health emergency.

• And Trump and McConnell’s U.S. Supreme Court picks, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, sided with the Wisconsin Republican legislators, who refused to extend the deadline for absentee ballots -- which some voters hadn’t even received by Election Day!

The roots of the Wisconsin debacle were planted long before April 7. This was the culmination of a decade-long effort by Republicans to undermine democracy to serve their own political ends.

We’re fighting back, friend. The NDRC is committed to ending voter suppression and gerrymandering so that what happened in Wisconsin never happens again. Can you make a donation to help us achieve truly fair and safe elections?

-- Kelly