MADISON, Wis. — Ben Wikler, the political organizer and strategist who led the Democratic Party of Wisconsin from 2019 to 2025, today announced a Wisconsin and national book tour in support of his forthcoming book, This Is The Plan: How to End America’s Meltdown and Save Democracy, publishing July 21, 2026 from W.W. Norton & Company. Wikler makes the case at the heart of the book in an op-ed published today in The New York Times, available here. 

The tour begins where the book does: in the Badger State. Wikler will kick off the tour in his hometown of Madison on Friday, July 17 with former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg at the Overture Center, before a six-city swing across Wisconsin with stops in Milwaukee, Green Bay, Wausau, La Crosse, and Eau Claire. Each Wisconsin event pairs Wikler with a Wisconsin voice, including radio hosts Earl Ingram Jr. and Kristin Brey, former Wausau Mayor Katie Rosenberg, and journalists Todd Allbaugh and Dan Shafer.

Beyond Wisconsin, the tour features live conversations with some of the most prominent voices in American politics, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Judy Woodruff in Washington, DC; Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Stacey Abrams in Chicago; Pod Save America’s Jon Favreau in Los Angeles; actor and activist Bradley Whitford in San Francisco; and Professor Danielle Allen in Boston.

“Wisconsin was called a democracy desert, and we turned it into proof that organized people can beat MAGA money and rigged maps,” said Wikler. “This tour starts at home because the plan starts at home: in every county, every community, every conversation. Then we’re taking it to the whole country.”

In This Is The Plan, Wikler draws on six years on the front lines of America’s most closely divided state to lay out a comprehensive, year-by-year roadmap to dictator-proof American government, defeat MAGA at every level of the ballot, and rebuild a democracy that delivers for everyone. The book has drawn early praise from Nancy Pelosi, Heather Cox Richardson, Jon Favreau, and Bradley Whitford. Wikler will narrate the forthcoming audiobook himself.

WISCONSIN TOUR DATES

Friday, July 17 | Madison | In conversation with Pete Buttigieg

6:30 PM | Overture Center for the Arts

Free with RSVP: TICKETS

Friday, July 24 | Milwaukee | In conversation with Earl Ingram Jr.

6:00 PM | Turner Hall Ballroom

Free with RSVP: TICKETS

Saturday, July 25 | Green Bay | In conversation with Kristin Brey

11:30 AM | Tarlton Theatre

Free with RSVP: TICKETS

Saturday, July 25 | Wausau | In conversation with Katie Rosenberg

5:30 PM | Wausau Labor Temple

Free with RSVP: TICKETS

Sunday, July 26 | La Crosse | In conversation with Todd Allbaugh

12:30 PM | Capella Performing Arts Center

Free with RSVP: TICKETS

Sunday, July 26 | Eau Claire | In conversation with Dan Shafer

6:30 PM | Pablo Center at the Confluence

Free with RSVP: TICKETS

NATIONAL TOUR DATES

Tuesday, July 21 | Washington, DC | In conversation with Nancy Pelosi and Judy Woodruff

7:00 PM | Politics and Prose

Free with RSVP: TICKETS (first come, first seated) 

Wednesday, July 22 | Boston, MA | In conversation with Danielle Allen

6:00 PM | Cambridge Public Library

Free with RSVP: TICKETS

Thursday, July 23 | Chicago, IL | In conversation with JB Pritzker and Stacey Abrams

7:00 PM | Everybody’s Coffee

Free with RSVP: TICKETS

Monday, July 27 | Los Angeles, CA | In conversation with Jon Favreau

7:30 PM | Ebell Theatre

Paid Ticket: TICKETS

Tuesday, July 28 | San Francisco, CA | In conversation with Bradley Whitford

6:00 PM | Commonwealth Club

Paid Ticket: TICKETS

Wednesday, July 29 | Seattle, WA  

7:30 PM | Town Hall Seattle

Paid Ticket: TICKETS

Additional dates may be announced. Full event details are available at thisistheplan.com. 

About the Book

This Is The Plan: How to End America’s Meltdown and Save Democracy takes readers behind the scenes of decades of organizing, from a county coroner’s race that hinged on the question of zombification to presidential showdowns, revealing the hidden structures of power that shape American politics and the art and science of winning elections. The result is a people-powered path out of the political wilderness, and a vision for rebuilding meaning, community, and joy through the fight for democracy itself.

About Ben Wikler

Ben Wikler is a political organizer and strategist who served as chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin from July 2019 to July 2025. Under his leadership, Wisconsin Democrats won a string of improbable statewide victories and built one of the most effective grassroots organizing operations in the country, raising nearly a quarter of a billion dollars and transforming a state once dubbed a “democracy desert” into a national model. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with his family.

This Is The Plan is available for preorder now wherever books are sold. For interview requests, review copies, or event press credentials, contact press@benwikler.com.