Dear fellow Wisconsin Democrats,

On Election Day, I thought we were winning the presidential race.

We came up short.

Losing was a gut punch. Enormous peril lies ahead.

As we prepare for what’s next, we also have to find space for curiosity about what just happened.

We’re beginning to see the outlines: a red wave. A nationwide shift toward Trump of 6%. But in Wisconsin, we nearly defeated that wave.

The shift here was just one quarter the size: a 1.5% swing from 2020. Not because Trump was weaker here than elsewhere, but because we were stronger. Thanks to tens of thousands of heroes—our candidates, the campaign, party infrastructure, allies, and volunteers—we persuaded and turned out even more voters for Harris than we did for Biden in 2020. We lost Wisconsin by just 0.9%—the smallest margin of any state in America.

2024 was a high turnout year, second only to 2020 nationwide. But in most states, turnout went down slightly. In Wisconsin, overall turnout went up—by 1.3%, the most in the country.

All of your work had a critical impact. You helped Tammy Baldwin win re-election. You flipped four state Senate and ten state Assembly seats on our new fair maps, setting the stage for majorities in 2026.

That reality doesn’t lessen the blow of knowing what Trump is poised to inflict on the country. But it fills me with profound gratitude for your work. To everyone involved in this fight, thank you.

Here’s my first-pass analysis of what just happened, and a note of appreciation.

* * *

In 2024, voters nationwide—across, from what we can tell, geography, gender, generation, race, and ethnicity—shifted towards Trump. This wasn’t any particular group’s “fault.” Don’t fall for that trap.

We’re just at the beginning of figuring out what happened. Be wary of anyone who tells you that X, Y, or Z thing would have changed the outcome.

But two things are very clear from the big picture.

The first key thing is that the post-COVID inflation era has marked a global wave against incumbent parties. In 2024, for the first year on record (with 120 years of data), every wealthy-country ruling party has lost ground, regardless of whether it was left or right of center. Across Belgium, France, Japan, Austria, Portugal, the US, and the UK, the average swing was 20 points.

Worldwide, political scientists are arguing, this is a reaction to high prices. Inflation leads voters to punish whoever’s in power, even if they didn’t have control over it. The fact that US voters swung less hard against Democrats may be due to the greater success in the US, relative to other countries, in bringing inflation down.

This tracks with what we’ve heard consistently for the last two years—in polls, in exit polls, and on doors. Many voters have been furious about high prices. The question was whether we could win the presidential race despite that headwind, given everything else (and yes, there was so much else). Like other parties worldwide, we didn’t.

The second thing that jumps out is that, in the states where Harris and Trump campaigned the hardest, Harris overperformed. And she overperformed in Wisconsin most of all.

Trump and his allies poured hundreds of millions of dollars into vicious attack ads in the seven battleground states. They did all they could to drive up their vote share, knowing that these states would determine the Electoral College.

Harris and her allies—including all of us—poured our hearts and souls into the battle here as well.

If Trump’s campaign had been more effective than Harris’s, he would have swung the vote in the battleground states by more than the nationwide shift.

Instead, it was the exact opposite. Harris’s campaign had a bigger effect than Trump’s.

As Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report, one of the nation’s most clear-eyed analysts, puts it:

Latest numbers: across the seven battleground states, the '20-'24 swing towards Trump was ~3.1 pts. Across the other 43 states (+DC), it was ~6.7 pts.

Bottom line: the Harris campaign swam impressively against some very strong underlying currents.

You can see the same thing in turnout numbers.

Nationally, based on the numbers tallied so far by the University of Florida Election Lab, turnout in 2024 is roughly 62.3% of eligible voters. That’s higher than any election in the last half-century—with the exception of 2020, when it hit 66.4%.

But, as with the swing in margins, this is a tale of two elections—because while turnout dropped slightly in non-battleground states, it actually went up, very slightly, in the seven battlegrounds.

And it rose most of all in Wisconsin: turnout here rose 1.3%, the highest in the nation.

In other words, that feeling so many of us had—that energy on the ground was explosive, that the campaign was soaring, that we were finding new Harris voters all over the state—that was real.

Harris earned more than 30,000 more raw votes than Biden. She earned more votes than Obama in 2012, and almost as many as Obama in 2008—when he won a 14-point landslide victory. She added votes in 46 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties—rural, urban, suburban, and small-town alike.

It’s just that there was an even larger group of voters, a quieter group, that turned out and voted for Trump.

The Washington Post analyzed county by county results to look at what happened in different types of geographies nationally and in the swing states. This year, unlike past years, was not a situation where the blue got bluer and the red got redder.

Everywhere got redder, and once-blue cities and suburbs swung more towards Trump than rural areas:

But in Wisconsin, the shift was far smaller than the national picture—across types of geographies:

“Urban core” counties moved 8% towards Trump nationally—but Milwaukee only moved 1%.

Milwaukee County actually delivered more net votes (Dem votes minus Republican votes) for Harris than it did for Obama in 2008 or 2012.

“Major suburbs” moved 5.7% towards Trump nationally—but in Wisconsin, they moved 0.1% to Harris. Her margin grew, slightly, in each of the WOW counties.

“Medium metros”—counties with mid-sized cities—moved 4.9% towards Trump nationally, but in Wisconsin, just shifted 1% towards Trump. Dane County, the fastest-growing in the state, for the first time delivered the most net votes for Harris of any Wisconsin county.

And “Rural counties and small cities” nationally moved towards Trump by 4%. In Wisconsin, these 57 counties accounted for 36% of the overall vote, and 29% of the vote for Harris. But the Trumpward shift in rural Wisconsin counties—2%—was only half the national shift. And Harris racked up more raw votes than Biden in 35 of those counties, even though Trump added more.

This is why we organize in every corner and every community in Wisconsin, year-round.

Does this mean that there was no way we could have done better? Of course not.

There will be an enormous amount to learn, and the debates have, rightfully, already begun.

If about 125,000 Trump voters had instead chosen Harris across Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, then Harris would have won the Electoral College while losing the popular vote. Same outcome if 250,000 more people had voted for Harris instead of voting third party or not voting at all.

We can, should, and must do all we can to think through, what, in small ways and big, we could have done better. And there is much to learn, perhaps painful lessons, about what led to this outcome.

But we can be rightly proud of what we achieved in Wisconsin.

It all mattered.

It mattered because Tammy Baldwin won her Senate race. This was another classic Wisconsin photo finish: a 0.9%, 28,958-vote margin, overcoming an absolutely horrendous $100 million flood of attack ads. Baldwin ran a dynamite campaign. And all of our work to lift up Democrats up and down the ballot played a critical role in her race. You helped make that happen.

It mattered because, in the state legislature, Democrats flipped all four of our targeted state Senate seats, shattering the GOP’s supermajority and putting Democrats on track for a majority in 2026. Two seats to go.

Meanwhile, Dems picked up 10 Assembly districts—ending the massive Republican margin created by gerrymandered maps. If we flip five more seats, we’ll win an Assembly majority in 2026 as well.

And it mattered because of the way we won—by staying true to our values, by organizing, by building community and working together and taking nobody for granted and counting nobody out.

So: some thanks are in order.

First, to our candidates.

Thanks first and foremost to Vice President Harris and Governor Walz—for running with heart and soul in extraordinarily challenging circumstances. To President Biden. And to Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin’s triumphant Senate champion.

Thanks to Governor Tony Evers, who fought for and won fair maps, has consistently championed the WisDems, raised resources for state legislative candidates, and campaigned all over the state in support of other Democrats. We owe him an enormous debt of gratitude.

Huge thanks for their enormous efforts, and congratulations on their reelection, to Rep. Mark Pocan and Rep. Gwen Moore. And thanks to Rebecca Cooke, Peter Barca, Kristin Lyerly, Kyle Kilbourn, John Zarbano, and Ben Steinhoff for pouring themselves into dynamite House campaigns.

The statewide elected officials who weren’t on the ballot this year nonetheless worked their hearts out to lift up other candidates. Huge thanks to Lieutenant Governor Rodriguez, Attorney General Kaul, and Secretary of State Godlewski.

In the legislature, we’re spectacularly blessed to have the leadership of Senate Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein and Assembly leader Greta Neubauer, and their phenomenal leadership. And to all of the Assembly incumbents and candidates who ran this year, win or lose, thank you—you helped drive out votes that ensured Tammy Baldwin could win her Senate race; you sharply narrowed the GOP’s majorities—either by flipping a seat or by ensuring that Republicans had to focus on their own districts—and you laid the groundwork for huge gains next cycle. This took a lot. We see it. We’re grateful.

To all the county and municipal leaders who helped out this year, going the extra mile to advance democracy, thank you. This includes Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, outgoing Dane County Executive Jamie Kuhn (and congratulations, Executive-Elect Melissa Agard!), Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, and mayors including Milwaukee’s Cavalier Johnson, Madison’s Satya Rhodes-Conway, Green Bay’s Eric Genrich, Racine’s Cory Mason, Sheboygan’s Ryan Sorenson, Superior’s Jim Paine, Waukesha’s Shawn Reilly, and La Crosse’s Mitch Reynolds—and so many more.

It would be impossible to list all the elected officials from other states who came to Wisconsin and relentlessly worked to help us win here up and down the ballot—so I’ll just mention the Governors. JB Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro, Wes Moore, and of course Tim Walz—thank you! To all the Senators, members of Congress (including Speaker Emerita Pelosi and Leader Jeffries), and others who lent your time and talents to Wisconsin’s cause, we’re in your debt.

To all of those who worked intensively to pass school funding, municipal funding, and other referenda—often making up for shortfalls caused by Republican legislators in Madison—thank you. And congratulations to the many who succeeded in securing critical resources.

Second, thank you to the campaign and party staff that worked themselves to the bone on this election. None of this would have been possible without you.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s Executive Director this year has been Cassi Fenili, one of the most effective political professionals on Planet Earth. I’m so grateful for her relentless focus, drive, realism, strategic judgment, managerial skills, and partnership. We’ve also been so lucky to have the help of Deputy Executive Director Sarah Abel, who resolved impossible challenges on a daily basis and helped so many colleagues step up their game, and Senior Advisor Devin Remiker, an operative’s operative who level-headedly spotted and seized untold opportunities and defused untold problems.

WisDems benefited enormously from a superb executive leadership team: Senior Advisor and legislative program lead Hannah Mullen, Finance Director Tina Ignasiak, Operations Director Sal Cornacchione, Communications Director Joe Oslund, People Operations Director Leah Zine, Digital Director Chuck Engel, and Political Director Chandler Denhart. Each of these leaders oversaw teams of outstanding colleagues who moved mountains. To all of the WisDems team members at every level: thank you.

And special thanks to Chief of Staff Andrea Berkeland, who spun an impossible number of plates while making my work possible. As I tell people, she’s the chief, I’m the staff.

The Harris-Walz campaign in Wisconsin was managed by the extraordinary Garren Randolph, a stellar leader and strategist who navigated a world-class team at the center of the political universe. We’re so lucky to have had him on the case. His leadership team in Wisconsin was phenomenal, including senior Advisor Tanya Bjork, senior Advisor Devin Remiker (doing double duty with the party), and Deputy Campaign Manager Iris Riis.

They worked with a crew of rock-star leaders: Senior Advisor Shirley Ellis, Coalitions Director Darrol Gibson, COO Bethany Sorensen, Communications Director Brianna Johnson, Trips Advisor Jorna Taylor, Digital Director Sean McFeely, and Political Director Nick Truog. To each of them, and all of the great folks who worked on their teams—thank you, thank you, thank you.

The presidential campaign in Wisconsin and the WisDems core team worked together, hand in glove, on a constant basis. That integration was the product of years of work, relationships, and strategy. It was also made possible by the powerhouse Coordinated Campaign.

The legend of Coordinated Campaign Director Anna Surrey has been growing ever since her first cycle as a Regional Organizing Director in Brookfield in 2016. Year over year, she’s risen in responsibility—and at every step, knocked it out of the park.

Her coordinated leadership team is similarly amazing: Organizing Director Gabbie Stasson, Voter Protection Director Caroline Hutton, Director Ari Ghasemian, and GOTV Director Marquise Roberson-Bester, as well as our Training and Leadership Directors Breanna Flowers and John Mayo, all blew their goals out of the water. This group led a team of hundreds of people with dozens of job titles in every part of Wisconsin who exceeded what anyone thought would be possible this year. They set a new standard for coordinated campaigns in the Badger State. I can’t thank you enough.

The staffers on each of the campaigns did amazing work.

Tammy Baldwin’s campaign, led by Scott Spector, won a staggeringly tough race by being the best at what they do.

The legislative caucuses—led by Assembly Democratic Campaign Comittee’s Executive Director Morgan Hess and the State Senate Democratic Committee’s Andrew Whitley—fielded bigger teams, bigger budgets, and better campaigns than our state has ever seen, and delivered amazing results.

And every person who worked on the Senate campaign, the eight House races, the 112 state legislative races, and the other referendum and local elections this fall deserves our gratitude. You contributed to change that will echo through this state for years to come.

Thanks also to our national counterparts at the DNC, starting with Chair Jaime Harrison, who has been unstoppable in his support for work in Wisconsin. Thanks to Executive Director (and Sconnie!) Sam Cornale, Deputy Executive Director Roger Lau, our great regional desk Mikayla Lee, and the whole team. Thanks also to Association of Democratic State Committees Chair Ken Martin, ASDC ED Maureen Garde, and ASDC regional Karyn Bradford Coleman. And thanks to my predecessor chairs, especially Martha Laning (now leading SPAN) and Mike Tate (involved in many ways)—for all you’ve done and continue to do.

I’ve also been lucky to work closely with fellow state chairs around the country, most of all Michigan’s Lavora Barnes, North Carolina’s Anderson Clayton, Arizona’s Yoli Bejarano, Ohio’s Liz Walters, Nebraska’s Jane Kleeb, Illinois’s Lisa Hernandez, and Georgia’s Nikema Williams—among many others. Thanks to each for your dedication and mutual support.  

There are candidates, there are staffers—and then there are the volunteers who make everything possible for the party and for campaigns.

Roughly 100,000 volunteers this year took part in the fight in Wisconsin.

Let’s thank them all—a few of them by name.

As chair, I’m the only elected leader of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin for whom party work is a full-time job. The other leaders volunteer their time out of sheer patriotism and commitment to change. At the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, thanks first to Vice Chair Felesia Martin, Second Vice Chair Tricia Zunker, Secretary Kim Butler, and Treasurer Randy Udell—who was just elected to the State Assembly. Congratulations, Randy! And thanks to all.

Thanks also to our Democratic National Committee members: Andrew Werthmann, Alex Lasry, Tomika Vukovic, Arvina Margin, Mahlon Mitchell, and DNC Secretary Jason Rae, who oversaw the best roll call in American history during the national Convention. And thanks so much to departing DNC members Martha Love, Janet Bewley, and Henry Pahlow—and to all of the dedicated Democrats who made up our delegation and served on standing committees at the Democratic National Convention.

Huge thanks to all the standing committees, caucuses, Congressional District parties, youth wings, county chairs and leadership teams, and other bodies that make the Democratic Party of Wisconsin work. Special thanks to Green County Chair Sandy Rindy, chair of the County Chair Association and all of the CCA officers. Thanks also to the neighborhood team leaders and members, the leaders of the signage distribution network run by the Rural Caucus (no yard left unsigned!), and the many out of state volunteers who traveled to knock doors in Wisconsin.

Every one of the 100,000 people who volunteered, including tens of thousands who knocked on doors and made phone calls in Wisconsin this year, helped Tammy Baldwin win Wisconsin, helped make huge gains downballot, and helped ensure that Harris came closer to winning here than any other battleground state.

Elections rely on a three-legged stool: the candidate campaigns, the party and volunteers—and allied groups. So many organizations played a huge role in Wisconsin’s outcomes this year.

The middle class built America, and unions built the middle class. They also built our democracy, they’re the essential and eternal partner of the Democratic Party. Huge thanks to the AFL-CIO, WEAC and the NEA, SEIU, IBEW, CWG, AFSCME, AFT, LiUNA, Wisconsin Teamsters, the Operating Engineers, UFCW, the United Association of Pipe Trades, Plumbers Local 75, the Painters, the Transport Workers Union, the International Association of Fire Fighters, UAW, and all the unions who fight for working people and for a government that serves them. Thanks also to the stunning array of labor leaders who visited Wisconsin this year to campaign for Democrats.

Enormous thanks to all the groups involved in mounting an absolutely blockbuster field and communications operation in Wisconsin. Particular thanks to the League of Conservation Voters and Wisconsin Conservation Voters, Power to the Polls, the Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy, For Our Future, Working America, Leaders Igniting Transformation, the Wisconsin Working Families Party, Voces de la Frontera, Somos Votantes, and WISDOM.

Thanks also to the Center for Racial and Gender Equity, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, Standing Up for Racial Justice, the Wisconsin Education Association, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Progress North, Black Leaders Organizing for Communities,350 WI Action, Indivisible, and Southeast Asian Action.

So many groups did critical work—organizing, coordinating, communicating, analyzing, and activating networks. Thanks to America Votes, A Better Wisconsin Together and the ABWT Political Fund, the Empower Project, the Center for Voter Information/Voter Participation Center, the NAACP, Community Change Action, and the Committee to Protect Health Care.

Enormous gratitude to the States Project, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), Forward Majority, EMILY's List, the Wisconsin Initiative, Main Street Alliance / Main Street Action, SEIU Blue, the Freedom Action Network, Collective PAC, Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action (COPAL), Blue Sky Waukesha, the Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance, Color of Change PAC, Black Voters Matter (BVM), the Jewish Democratic Council of America, Stand Up America, the Human Rights Campaign, the American Civil Liberties Union, MAP USA, and Schools Make Madison.

Thanks to Future Forward, Senate Majority PAC, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Women Vote, Project 72, the House Majority PAC, Galvanize, Priorities USA, American Bridge, Party to the Polls, Fight for Our Rights PAC, the Wisco Project and SVF Student Turnout Project.

Thanks also to the Democracy Alliance, the Committee on States, Solidaire, Way to Win AF, and the Movement Voter Project. Thanks to the Wisconsin Donor Table for pulling it all together, and the Strategic Victory Fund for your years-long dedication to Wisconsin. And thanks to the many people, especially John Stocks and Teresa Vilmain, who’ve taken time to mentor me and many other people who’ve been working on this election.

Thanks also to the team at Crooked Media and Vote Save America; to Bradley Whitford and the teams from VEEP and The West Wing, and to so many other cultural leaders who helped us energize voters to get involved.

So many other groups contributed their efforts. All of it is deeply appreciated.

This work takes resources. In the time between Wisconsin’s 2023 state Supreme Court race and now, more than 100,000 people have contributed to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Thank you to all of them.

I will also say, on a personal note: my deepest joy, pride, and gratitude is for my family. My kids, Mac, Suzy, and Jack, have grown up so much this year, I’ve missed them so much during long nights on the road, and I relish every moment we spend together. My wife Beth Wikler is my hero, my best friend, and the love of my life. I’m grateful to my mom, stepdad, dad, and stepmom for their constant support this year and always. So many friends dropped off food, texted to check in, and otherwise took care of my family and me when our heads were spinning. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Pumpkin, our giant dog, even if she’s a rascal and even though she can’t read this.

Everyone who worked on this election has done so at personal cost. To all the family members of all the folks mentioned above: thank you.

There is so much to do in the months to come. We have to do all we can to stand in solidarity with communities now endangered by Trump’s presidency. We have to learn from what took place, and plan how to prevail next time. And in Wisconsin, we have a state Supreme Court race—and a slew of other elections—coming up next April.

But before all that happens—and especially as we process the shock of a rough election—it’s important to thank the people we love, the people we’ve worked with, and all the people who did everything they could to advance the cause of progress and democracy this year.

We didn’t win all that we wanted to win. But the values that lead us to do this work will endure. We will keep striving to learn and improve. And together, in times to come, we will bend the moral arc of the universe towards justice.

In solidarity,

Ben