Zac Schultz:
Speaking of the Supreme Court, obviously that's a huge election that's coming up. What role do you see your caucus taking in that?

Greta Neubauer:
So, we are going to be actively engaged in making sure that we elect a justice who is willing to put the people of Wisconsin over their party. We have seen the Supreme Court take up critically important cases over the last couple of years. Everything from attempts to overturn the 2020 election to further voter suppression. We know that it's really important that we have someone on that court who is going to provide a check on extremism put forward by the GOP. So, we intend to work with our candidates who ran last cycle and our members to make sure that we are talking to as many folks as we can about the importance of the spring election.

Zac Schultz:
What is the path back to the majority for Democrats in the Assembly? Does it run through the suburbs in new territory or can you regain some of those rural seats?

Greta Neubauer:
Yeah, it's a great question and, of course, we continue to analyze the election results and we'll be able to get into more detail in the coming weeks. But what we saw in Wisconsin this cycle is every candidate at the statewide level who ran as a Democrat, get close to 50% of the vote. Some a little over some, a little under and yet those same results yielded 35% of seats for Democrats in the Assembly. We know that this is not real democracy and that there is a path for us to have the majority if we have fair maps. We absolutely will continue to need to win voters in the suburbs, in rural Wisconsin, turnout voters in our cities. We have to do the work everywhere. That's what's required of Democrats to continue to gain and move back towards a majority.

Zac Schultz:
We've seen a shift among rural voters over the last decade plus that has been pretty constant and doesn't seem to have the potential of wavering in the same way that some suburban women who voted Republican but have been trending Democratic since the Trump era seem to still be up for grabs. Can you regain rural voters? Are they amenable to Democratic policies or is the party too focused on cities and suburbs to appeal to them?

Greta Neubauer:
Yeah, it's a good question and I think we always have more work to do to try to reach folks across the state. In really tangible terms a challenge that we have is when we don't have a representative in an area, an Assembly member or Senate member, it's hard for us to reach those people and for them to hear our message and hear what we are working on throughout the year here in the legislature and so a major priority for us is getting out and just talking to Wisconsinites about how the policies that we're proposing in Madison would really make their lives better and we believe that we have those policies to support expansion of broadband and small family farms and making sure that those small communities are still being provided with essential services like EMS and fire. Those are real challenges those communities face and bills that Democrats have put forward, do address them.

Zac Schultz:
When you look at the optics of leadership in the legislature, the Democrats have two women running their caucuses and the Republicans have two white men. Does that matter in the grander scheme when people look at who's representing them?

Greta Neubauer:
Good question. I'm really proud that our caucus really does reflect the diversity of our state. We're a caucus in the assembly that, the Democratic caucus is over 50% women, more people of color than ever. We have immigrants, we have a strong LGBT caucus. It's really exciting to see that diversity reflected in our caucus and I do think it's really important when the people of Wisconsin look at the floor of the Assembly that they see themselves there, not only because that helps them believe that we understand the issues that they're experiencing, but also for those young people who are looking at our caucus, they see that there's a path for them too to join the work of government.

Zac Schultz:
When it comes to the next election, are you already thinking of recruitment of who the next people may be or is it wait for to see if there are new maps, if the Supreme Court does take up this issue, if the makeup of it changes?

Greta Neubauer:
We're gonna continue to work year round to talk to folks in communities around the state who are interested in running. We think it's really important that if someone is thinking about running in a couple of years, that they start having those conversations now and talking to their neighbors and understanding the challenges that different facets of their community faces. So, we will be working next year. We're taking a breather for a moment after this election but are excited to dig into that work as we look towards 2023.