MADISON, Wis. — Last night, Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler joined MSNBC’s Ayman to discuss how Wisconsin Democrats defied the odds to re-elect Governor Evers and preserved democracy by blocking Republicans’ quest for veto-proof supermajorities in the State Legislature.
Voters in Wisconsin resoundingly denounced Tim Michels’ radical vision for our state and backed Gov. Evers for re-election by 3.4 points—a landslide in a state where statewide elections are frequently decided by less than one percentage point. Chair Wikler outlined the historic obstacles Gov. Evers overcame on his path to re-election, having become the first gubernatorial candidate from the same party as the sitting president to win in 30 years, and highlighted the importance of Gov. Evers’ victory for preserving democracy in Wisconsin.
Democracy and the voice of Wisconsinites was on the ballot this year. Republicans nearly won a supermajority in both chambers of the State Legislature this year despite losing the governor’s seat. This was due solely to the GOP’s hyper-partisan gerrymander designed to preserve Republican power even when voters statewide in Wisconsin reject their extreme agenda.
The fight to save democracy in Wisconsin is ongoing, with the upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court race in April. A victory by a liberal-aligned candidate could topple the GOP’s anti-democratic gerrymander and allow our Legislature to represent the will of all Wisconsinites for the first time in over a decade.
“The other piece of this is that Republicans have gerrymandered Wisconsin so badly that they could very well have gotten supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature. They were 2,499 votes short, but voters said no to having unilateral Republican control go to a party that didn’t even win statewide in the governor’s race. So it really is, as Molly was saying, an extraordinary night in a midterm election. It goes against the pattern of history and it represents a triumph for democracy and for freedom in a moment when a basic freedom was being taken away from half the population.”
