Sandy J. from Wisconsin (4/9/23)

First and foremost, thank you for every ounce of effort you all poured into Wisconsin for our spring election. It’s been easier to keep my head down and focus on the work I could do to move Wisconsin forward, knowing that when I looked up I could see all of you tugging and pushing with us to give our democracy a fighting chance.

Janet Protasiewicz’s decisive victory was something I couldn’t bear to imagine. There have been breathtaking close calls and devastating near-misses. Those nearly-there, heartbreaking losses continue, as Jodi Habush Sinykin lost her special election for State Senate by 700 votes in a district that has been a Republican stronghold since the early 90's. But I didn’t even have to think about how to get to sleep Tuesday, not knowing the outcome. The Supreme Court race result was clear soon after the polls closed. It already felt real when our regional organizer texted to congratulate everyone. Our cynical neighborhood team lead, who said he might talk to me Wednesday morning, texted before my husband got home from the polls: "Well, ok then."

We’ve got a lot to do to get our local team ready for next year: we need more volunteers, and more of us need to know the wards and districts as well as my cynical friend. I hope WisDems leader Ben Wikler gets some rest and lends his notes to other state parties. I hope the rush one of our best canvassers felt Wednesday sticks with him when our legislature does its next stupid thing. I hope the team forgives me for handing them an unsubtle reminder of the work ahead, as I gave them beer with re-electable Senator Tammy Baldwin’s face on it at the end of their canvass shift.

My time with Markers makes me confident that my neighborhood team can set a steady drum of activity, and step up next year when we need it. People will take breaks and vacations and life will happen and the work will be there when they come back, and they can pick up a new piece of the puzzle, or an old stubborn one, and we’ll make progress.

We’ll also lose. We’ll see awful setbacks here and elsewhere. We’ll face news like the expulsion of Tennessee legislators for standing with their constituents, and the baffling party flip of a North Carolina representative. We’ll be flustered and frustrated.

And while we work out what precisely we can do to help, we will reach for that steady drum of activity that we know is critical momentum for the change we need. We’ll write to Florida voters who can still request their mail ballot even though the rule changed. We’ll connect Arizona voters to their local organizers. We’ll have speakers and share strategies and be ready when a flustered and frustrated friend turns to us at a loss for something they can do to help.

And because of what Markers For Democracy has become, and what it has done, we’ll know people in Tennessee and North Carolina and Florida and Arizona, and they’ll know you have their back as they tug and push forward, just like we know that in Wisconsin.

Sandy

P.S. Here's another recap of how the Wisconsin Dems, with help from grassroots donors and activists around the country, powered Judge Protaseiwicz to victory.