Editor’s note: the following commentary has been submitted for publication by the Assemble Democratic Campaign Committee. According to its website, the organization is “working to elect Democrats to the Wisconsin Assembly.”
After months of recruiting candidates, training staff, building grassroots field programs, and executing a record-setting fundraising and strategic paid communications program in districts across the state, the ADCC’s (Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee) hard work has paid off. While the final results in some contested races are outstanding, we are confident that Assembly Democrats have blocked a Republican supermajority and saved Gov. Evers’ veto.
“At every point in this election cycle, the ADCC has outworked, out-organized and outraised our Republican counterparts to protect Governor Evers’ veto power. Thanks to record voter turnout and the efforts of our candidates, staff, volunteers, and historic investments in state legislative races by our caucus and the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, the GOP strategy to silence the will of the people was unsuccessful,” said Morgan Hess, Executive Director of the ADCC.
Under the recently adopted, highly gerrymandered legislative maps, President Biden’s winning vote total in 2020 would have won only 35 of 99 State Assembly seats. Despite the fact that Republicans have rigged the system in their favor to lock in political power, the ADCC mounted a winning effort to overcome some of the most gerrymandered maps in the nation. As soon as the state Supreme Court handed legislative Republicans a victory by ruling in favor of GOP-drawn maps, the ADCC began training staff and building a strong leadership team to support our candidates. Through a record-breaking fundraising effort and a robust field program, the ADCC and the DPW were able to make historic investments in State Assembly races from Superior to Kenosha.
Had Republicans been successful in their effort to gerrymander Democrats into a super-minority in the Assembly, they would have passed a slew of bills that are wildly out of touch with Wisconsinites on issues from reproductive healthcare to gun safety to democracy itself.
“With the Governor’s veto power intact, Republicans in the Legislature will be prevented from turning Wisconsin into ground-zero for dismantling our democracy. Despite their best efforts, Republican Legislators were unable to silence the people of Wisconsin. Everyone who came out to vote this year should be proud of the contribution they made to building a Wisconsin where we all can thrive. Through our efforts, we not only succeeded tonight, but also laid the groundwork to compete for the majority in elections to come,” said Assembly Democratic Leader Greta Neubauer.
Wisconsin State Capitol, File photo/Kim McDarison.
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