Democrats see Wisconsin as proving ground for party revival
PARDEEVILLE, Wis. (AP) — Margo Miller thanked her hosts, covered herself in a blue plastic poncho and headed back into the driving sleet Saturday morning, with more doors to knock on in this rural subdivision but with another new volunteer’s name on her clipboard.
Miller and about 50 other Democratic activists who braved the spring storm returned with 160 petition signatures for a special state Assembly campaign, a local sleeper election that Democrats hope will be anything but.
Since Republican Donald Trump’s surprise win in Wisconsin helped put him in the White House, Miller and other Democrats have channeled their anger and soul-searching into races closer to home, racking up unexpected victories that have alarmed Republicans across the country.
The epicenter of the Republican resurgence of eight years ago, Wisconsin is now the proving ground for a Democratic revival. The work of Miller and activists like her could play an important role in the fight for control of the House and Senate in November’s midterm elections. But their goal is more broad. One knock at a time, Democrats are seeking to rebuild their hold on the Upper Midwest and with it their hopes of winning the White House in 2020.
“That’s why I’m here,” Miller told Jane Breuer, a 71-year-old retired legal secretary, after knocking on her door in a rural subdivision outside tiny Pardeeville amid the rolling dairy farm country north of Madison. “You’re starting to see that blue wave, and I think we’re making progress.”
Whether a wave is actually coming is unclear, but Democrats have certainly put Republicans on edge. In January, a Democrat snagged a state Senate seat by winning over the same rural, working-class voters who voted for Trump. In April, Democrats drove up turnout in a typically little-noticed Supreme Court race. Last week, feeling the headwinds at home and across the country, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan announced he would retire from Congress, leaving behind a free-for-all for his southeastern Wisconsin seat and giving Democrats a shot at a hugely symbolic win.
While Trump’s election has ignited intensity for Democrats here, the drive in Wisconsin is not simply a backlash against the president. Before Trump there was Gov. Scott Walker, who tapped into frustrations across struggling small towns and growing suburbs in 2010 to upend the political establishment. His successful bid to dismantle the state’s union-friendly laws ignited a firestorm, an unsuccessful recall, and an identity crisis for Democrats who fretted the state’s pro-union, populist tradition was fading.
https://www.apnews.com/f30f595a195f4125abceb01e5e80e350/Democrats-see-Wisconsin-as-proving-ground-for-party-revival
= new reply since forum marked as read
