Five Takeaways From a Big Win in the Wisconsin Supreme Court Election

Apr 6

Winning feels nice, doesn’t it?

But achieving a big win — as we did in yesterday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race — isn’t just a moment to savor. It’s also an occasion to ask the question: what went right?

So let’s take a quick spin through five takeaways from this election — with a focus not on its implications for Wisconsin and national politics, which we’ve written about here, but on what this battle tells us about Democratic donors and progressive infrastructure.

1. State politics has finally moved to the front burner

I wrote my first article about the “battle for the states” in 2001, scorching liberal donors for ignoring this all-important arena even as the right invested heavily here through ALEC, the State Policy Network, and other efforts. Happily, those days of neglect now seem to be over. Democrats gave tens of millions of dollars to win in Wisconsin — an outpouring for a state court race that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. Meanwhile, donors have helped scale up a suite of new progressive organizations focused on winning power in the states, including Sister District, the States Project, the State Innovation Exchange, and the Fairness Project. But the work here is just beginning: Republicans still have trifecta control of 22 states that are home to 40% percent of Americans.

2. Courts are also finally top of mind

Just as the right zeroed in strategically on the states decades ago, they did the same with the courts. They invested to hijack the federal judiciary through the Federalist Society and an array of other legal organizations — and, less noticed, they also focused on state supreme courts. Blue Tent has written before about why these courts matter so much in an era where the U.S. Supreme Court is granting wide powers to the states in areas like elections and reproductive rights. The good news: Democratic donors are finally on the case. Even before they rallied for the Wisconsin battle, donors gave at record levels last year to affect crucial state supreme court races.

3. Progressive donor organizing is growing more powerful and strategic

The growing array of electoral fundraising networks on the left really showed its stuff in this special election. A number of these groups jumped on the race early and raised substantial sums of money. I’m thinking here of Movement Voter Project, Focus for Democracy, Force Multiplier, and others. (Blue Tent also sent several appeals — thanks to all who gave!) But it’s not just that fundraising groups sent out an urgent SOS. It’s also that they offered donors compelling evidence that their money could make a difference — convening online briefings with leaders in Wisconsin to explain how funds would be spent.

4. The left’s GOTV infrastructure is ever more impressive

To boost turnout in Wisconsin's off-year election, both local and national voter mobilization groups pulled an array of levers. If you were tapped into the Movement Voter Project, you learned you could invest in a number of Wisconsin organizing groups that MVP has been supporting for years, like BLOC and Freedom Action Now. Or, if you follow Focus for Democracy — which uses a cost-per-net-vote approach — you had the option of supporting national GOTV groups like Center for Voter Information and Movement Labs that specialize in evidence-based digital and mail appeals. Donors also had the option of investing in GOTV work by the Wisconsin Democratic Party, as I discuss below. This array of strong options underscores just how far we’ve come since 2016.

5. A strong state Democratic Party is a beautiful thing

When Blue Tent first interviewed Ben Wikler in early 2021, fresh off of President-elect Joe Biden’s win in Wisconsin, it was already clear that he led the strongest state Democratic party in the country. Now, it’s even more obvious after the party mounted a massive field program and advertising blitz to win the court race. The lesson here is that a powerful state party can be decisive when it operates on all cylinders and works in close concert with progressive organizing groups. While these parties have big advantages over 501(c)(4)s in how they can spend money and operate in elections, their historic weakness has led many progressive organizers and donors to write them off, focusing instead on scaling up a new parallel infrastructure of c4 voter mobilization groups. That's understandable, but I’d say we’ve now over-corrected. Donors interested in giving to revive state parties should check out the State Party Advancement Network.

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After the 2020 election, a lot of us worried that Democratic donors and activists might retreat from their commitments. That hasn’t happened. The money and energy are as strong as ever. And we saw that on vivid display in Wisconsin over these past few months.