Why I Believe Ben Wikler Will Show Up for Rural America as DNC Chair

What I encountered in my deep red district before the November election ranged from cautious optimism to downright hostility. In communities, like Somerset—a town of 4,000 where Moms for Liberty has taken control of the school board and neighbors fly all-black, or “no quarter,” American flags—it was more of the latter.

Now, in the wake of the 2024 election, I’m steeling myself for the real harm Trump and MAGA Republicans promise to unleash. It will touch all of us. And for the most marginalized among us, that harm will be devastating.

In this perilous moment, I also see a unique opportunity to unite working people and build power from the bottom up. And who better to lead the charge as chair of the Democratic National Committee than the state party chair who I believe is America’s most tested and accomplished organizer?

That’s Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler.

Simply look at the 2024 presidential election results. Although I lost my race, Vice President Kamala Harris won about 40% in Wisconsin’s rural GOP counties. That’s a result no other state in the Midwest could match.

We need Ben’s leadership at the national level to meet the challenges ahead—challenges I see as largely twofold.

First, rural Americans are struggling.

Families are still reeling from the loss of manufacturing jobs and commercial ag operations that are pushing out family farmers, as billionaires extract wealth from our communities. Young people who’d like to call their small towns home can’t scratch out a life for themselves, forcing them to leave for opportunities in metropolitan centers.

Tony Garcia, a former Republican who works at a milled parts factory, feels the pinch in his small town of Hammond. “I’m 3rd generation at the old stick factory,” he says, “and I saw my mom get less than my grandpa. I got less than my mom. Now? There’s no way my kids could afford a house.”

Tony actively knocked doors for WisDems in 2024. “I didn’t want Trump,” he says. “Either you get off your ass and go do something or you need to stop whining. Deeds over words.”

Second, Trump and MAGA Republicans gave our neighbors someone to blame.

They spoke completely untethered from the truth. They lied to voters, scapegoated immigrants and trans kids, and pointed their fingers at Democrats. The right-wing media machine then flooded the zone with disinformation while billionaire-controlled social media platforms and mainstream media boosted MAGA content and sane-washed Trump.

Without a robust, progressive information infrastructure to counter the lies, voters heard about Democratic candidates from Republicans. “We need to be louder,” Ben told Simon Rosenberg on a recent episode of Hopium Chronicles. “We need to build an independent, progressive media ecosystem … to make sure it is not just Republicans narrating what’s happening in our politics.”

Volunteers at our rural Wisconsin polling locations shared their fears as Election Day wore on. There was an unusual tension at our town halls, churches and fire stations as a flood of first-time voters, largely young white men, arrived to cast their ballots. Some issued threats. Many of our neighbors stayed home.

Progressive messaging strategist, Anat Shenker-Osorio, described this “couchward” trend to Rolling Stone. Voters didn’t see the Democratic Party stepping up to fight for them, and they believed Project 2025 was too ambitious and repulsive to be enacted. In the face of two uninspiring options, they chose not to participate.

How do we address the growing resentment many of us experienced on the ground? There is no magic bullet, but the national party would be wise to embrace what has worked here in Wisconsin.

To truly understand this, it means understanding what drives Ben.

To those who know him best, Ben is deeply proud of the Wisconsin Idea first embraced by Progressive Era state leaders in the early 20th century; that the true role of government is to serve its people, and that, at our best, we fight for working people across race, age, gender, ethnicity, occupation and zip code by building a vibrant coalition.

When the administration of former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker began chipping away at this central idea, even proposing to remove the Wisconsin Idea from the University of Wisconsin System mission statement, Ben became outraged. He returned to the Wisconsin State Capitol to protest Act 10, which stripped public employees of their bargaining rights, and followed with the launch of the political podcast “The Flaming Sword of Justice” with Aaron Swartz, a podcast he later relaunched as “The Good Fight.” In 2018, he and his family moved back to his childhood home in Madison so he could take the good fight to Gov. Walker as a WisDems volunteer, and he made it his life’s work to restore all that Walker and his Koch-brother backers destroyed.

Even with the election of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in 2019, our gerrymandered maps, conservative state Supreme Court and GOP-controlled state legislature left the legacy of the Wisconsin Idea teetering on the brink.

Organizers across our state struggled to see a path forward.

Ben renewed our faith with a vision for achieving a government accountable to working people through a visible presence in every corner of the state, year-round, connection-building conversations and strategic investment in campaigns most critical to restoring fair maps.

In 2022, we re-elected Gov. Evers to a second term and retained enough seats in the State Assembly to hold the firewall that protected Wisconsinites from the worst tendencies of a Republican supermajority. In 2023, we elected Judge Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, overturning our conservative bench and ending the worst-in-the-nation gerrymander. And, in 2024, we picked up 14 state legislative seats, finally breaking the GOP’s supermajority and setting the stage for a Democratic majority in 2026.

Now, as we face the devastating reality of a second Trump term, many are rightly talking about the need for Ben’s DNC reforms, including his proposed 57-state-and-territory strategy.

“In each state, you map out the fights that are going to have huge downstream consequences,” Ben told Hopium Chronicles. “Then you identify the communication and organizing structure you need to win those fights. Then the national party is a partner with the state parties, and the allies, elected officials and organizing communities to be able to build that infrastructure and win those battles even when the rest of the country hasn’t caught on to the significance of those fights.”

Ben also proposed a communications strategy to combat MAGA disinformation. It calls for scores of local messengers meeting voters wherever they get their news, inside and outside the political conversation—from unfriendly traditional outlets, like Fox News, to new media platforms, podcasts and group chats. Trump is rigging this country for billionaires at the expense of working people. They must hear that we’ve got their backs; that we’re fighting for their families, freedoms and futures. And to do that, we need to invest in progressive media infrastructure that will communicate honestly with the American people.

“If we do that in this really challenging moment where Republicans have taken over the federal government then we could become a seedbed for a great new era of progress and forward movement for this country because we are tuned in and we know that this fight is not over and we’re gearing up,” says Ben. “We can build a party that fights everywhere and wins up and down the ballot in a way that creates a change in the lives of working folks across this country.”

Can Ben really transform the DNC?

Without a doubt. I say this with confidence having witnessed the incredible evolution of our party up close.

Ben made Wisconsin’s progress possible through a smart, electoral strategy and a singular ability to message the moment.

While our previous state party chair, Martha Lanning, had already begun the important work of developing a year-round organizing infrastructure here—a fact that Ben will be the first to acknowledge—he powered it with jet fuel.

For instance, Ben has created innovative fundraising campaigns. During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, a time when people felt isolated and anxious about the future, he gathered together The Princess Bride cast to read the movie’s script for a steaming audience of 110,000. The event raised nearly $4.3 million in small donations averaging $30. Ben’s fundraising successes enabled him to open physical offices and place field organizers in every single county across our state—red, blue and purple.

In Barron County’s Rice Lake, the new Main Street party office attracted unheard-of walk-in volunteers; some declaring they were Republicans and begging to be put to work. “In fact,” says Pat Edwardsen, Chair of the Barron County Dems, “the person who ran our phone bank was a Republican.” The space also allowed her to bring together a group of women angered by the 2024 election results. They found collective purpose in gathering signatures for Susan Crawford, who is running in the April 1 Wisconsin Supreme Court election. And they plan to continue.

Ben’s unique ability to create a strong culture and connect with everyone—from slick Washington insiders to struggling rural parents—has also been instrumental to our success.

Chair of the Chequamegon Dems Mary Hayes, who lives in Drummond in Bayfield County, says it best:

“If a rural person who leaned conservative met him without knowing he was a Democratic Party chair or even a Democrat, they’d find him a very authentic, caring individual who truly wants the best for every American and feels that everyone can contribute to that vision.”

Ben shows up everywhere—and for everyone. He makes people feel involved and invested in campaigns and constantly reinforces that both they and the work matter. “People respond to strength of leadership,” says Pete Huff, chair of the Dunn County Democratic Party. Edwardsen shares her memory of Ben arriving at their party office, exhausted by the campaign trail. “He said, ‘Let’s just sit in a circle here. I want to hear about you.’ He was asking very thoughtful questions; he was listening and learning. That impressed me.”

It’s why I bristle at the mention of the WisDems “organizing machine.” If we’re going to crawl out of this dark chasm, we need a national party culture that listens and lifts people up; one that nurtures community resilience and empowers grassroots leaders across our broad coalition with the training and resources they need to make an impact on the ground.

This is why Ben made himself available for one-on-one conversations with his 150 field organizers following the 2020 election, helping them navigate their next career steps—something no other state party chair took the time to do. And this election year, he ensured every candidate in the state had someone within the party who could advise their campaign. For those of us running for office while working full time, that assistance was invaluable. Supporting down-ballot candidates, even in losing districts, is a winning play.

Stories like these are not unique in Wisconsin, and it’s time they were more common elsewhere.

On November 3, I had a full-circle moment.

I was gathered with scores of volunteers at our Hudson office who had turned out to knock doors that weekend. Ben arrived dressed in his trademark jeans and flannel shirt to launch our canvass, and to listen.

I thought back to my first meeting with Ben at the Amery Community Center in 2019. I introduced myself as a new party co-chair and, without skipping a beat, complained about the WisDems’ ToxicTomTiffany.com website. Ben did what I’ve now witnessed multiple times over the years. He listened thoughtfully. He weighed what I shared, and he ensured I felt heard.

Now? I look back and recognize how wrong I was; the moniker reminded voters that when the Republican candidate had the opportunity to stand on the side of children, he chose to shield lead paint manufacturers from the harm they had caused instead. I see the value in stark contrasts and bold language when demonstrating that fight for my neighbors.

I’ve learned so much since I first began my organizing life, and Ben—he’s grown into the party leader we need at this moment in history.

On January 30, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) will hold its annual winter meeting in National Harbor, St. Georges County, Maryland, at which the 448 members of the committee will elect a new Chair. As part of our coverage of how the Republican and Democratic Parties and the policies they promote impact the people of rural and small town America, Barn Raiser will cover the election of the next Democratic Party chair from a variety of perspectives. On December 19, we featured an essay by Jane Kleeb, the chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, in which she endorses Ken Martin, chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, for chair of the DNC. And she explains why she is running for president of the Association of State Democratic Committees, a position currently held by Martin.

Danielle Johnson

Danielle Johnson is a veterinarian and small business owner. She has served her St. Croix County community as president of the Western Wisconsin Health Board of Directors, candidate for Wisconsin State Assembly, co-chair of the St. Croix County Democratic Party, and delegate to the Wisconsin Conservation Congress. She lives in Erin Prairie, a town of 658, with her husband, Mark, and their two dogs, Barnum and Dori.