La CROSSE — Senate Minority Leader Janet Bewley, D-Town of Mason, urged Dem activists to turn their “rage into hard work” and their despair into hope this fall.
Like many speakers at this weekend’s state convention, Bewley touched on recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings, including one on Friday that overturned the right to an abortion.
She also mentioned the recent school shooting in Texas as she said it’s easy to feel despair and ask, “How can our country come to this?” But she said activists owe it to Dems running this fall to gear up for the fall.
“You owe it to the person sitting next to you to take all of this heartache and turn it into power and then turn that into victory in November,” Bewley said.
Likewise, Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, urged activists to stay engaged this fall.
She said losing just a few seats in the Assembly and the Senate would hand Republicans a supermajority that would negate Gov. Tony Evers’ veto powers even if he’s reelected this fall.
Neubauer said Dems were dealt a blow when the state Supreme Court implemented legislative lines drawn by Republicans after initially embracing a map created by Evers. She said several candidates still stepped forward in the face of the gerrymandered maps, saying they wanted to fight the good fight. She added several candidates were inspired to run after a draft opinion leaked suggesting the U.S. Supreme Court was poised to overturn the 1973 decision Roe v. Wade.
“We know the challenges ahead of us,” Neubauer said. “But we also know the strength and resolve of Wisconsin cannot be broken. We know that our shared future is worth fighting for.”
Dems didn’t field a candidate in 16 state Assembly seats, five state Senate seats and two congressional districts. Republicans don’t have a candidate in 10 Assembly seats.
