With Ben Wikler opting against seeking another term to lead the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, two have quickly gotten into the race to replace him, while two more say they are considering bids.
Devin Remiker, the party’s former executive director, announced yesterday he is running, and Glendale Mayor Bryan Kennedy tells WisPolitics he will make a formal announcement in the next few days that he’s throwing his hat into the ring.
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Meanwhile, operative Joe Zepecki said in a statement he will take the next week speaking with party leaders as he weighs a bid “to see if they’re ready to shake things up,” while 3rd CD Chair William Garcia said in a phone interview he’s 90% sure he’ll formally launch his campaign for the office after thinking about it over the weekend.
The new chair will be elected at the Dem state convention in June.
Remiker, who became executive director in 2021 and spent last year as a senior adviser to the presidential campaign in Wisconsin, touted his past work for the party and pitched it as an opportunity to build on Wikler’s success.
“I’m running for WisDems chair because now isn’t the time to hit pause or rebuild, it’s time to fight tooth and nail,” Remiker said. “I will be ready on Day One to double down on our successes and make needed changes.”
Kennedy said he plans to run with a team of local elected officials.
“As a local elected official who’s organized his community over and over again to win elections, including last year when I had an opponent, I know how to do this,” Kennedy said.
Zepecki worked on Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign and Mary Burke’s 2014 guv bid. He founded his own communications shop in 2016 and has been working on the independent expenditure side the last few cycles.
“Every conversation I’ve had about the future of our party gets to the same place: Democrats have got to do better when it comes to how we communicate our message. We need more effective communicators, period,” Zepecki said.
Garcia, a longtime educator who is now a learning support instructor at Western Technical College, praised the party’s success under Wikler in raising money and drawing national attention. Still, he also argued the party has started to disconnect itself from county parties with a top-down approach.
“I think this is a very dangerous move for the long-term health of DPW,” said Garcia, who’s been the La Crosse County Dem chair for the past five years. “What my goal is as I run is I want to return a lot of decision-making and empower the county parties.”
State Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, told WisPolitics in January that she’d been encouraged to consider a run if Wikler didn’t seek reelection. She didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Whoever leads the party next will face a challenge in continuing the fundraising success that Wilker has built during his nearly six years in office. The state party says it has raised $206 million since Wikler took office in early June 2019 through its state and federal accounts.
The party has also won 10 of the past 13 statewide races with Wikler as chair, continuing a domination in statewide contests that began after Donald Trump took office in early 2017. Take away the 2017 state Supreme Court race, which wasn’t contested, and Dems or liberals have won 15 of the past 19 statewide races. That doesn’t include winning the lieutenant guv’s office in 2018 and 2022, when Mandela Barnes and then Sara Rodriguez ran on a ticket with Evers.
The only losses under Wikler were the 2024 presidential campaign and the 2022 contests for U.S. Senate and state treasurer. His wins include flipping control of the state Supreme Court to a 4-3 liberal majority from the 5-2 edge conservatives had when he took office and then locking that edge in until at least 2028.
Still, Trump’s victory in Wisconsin last year was one of Ken Martin’s talking points in the DNC race as the former Minnesota chair topped Wikler. Wisconsin Dems countered by pointing out Wisconsin moved the least toward Republicans in 2024 compared to 2020 of any swing state.
Wikler said in the phone interview he’s confident his successor will be able to carry on the party’s fundraising success, particularly since donors know about its full-time organizing efforts.
He doesn’t plan to endorse anyone in the race ahead of the vote in June.
“The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is a team,” Wikler said. “There’s an excellent group of people in our state party and our allies and partners, and we work together to smash records and set the bar for what a state party can do, and I have every confidence that will continue.”
