Ben Wikler on 2024 DNC Impacts, Enthusiasm of Democrats

Frederica Freyberg:
The word of the week: energy. Democrats are flying high following their party convention in Chicago. Now they look toward their push to November. We check in now with Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler. Thanks so much for being here.

Ben Wikler:
Thanks so much for having me on, Frederica.

Frederica Freyberg:
So how do you maintain the energy of that convention and translate it into votes for your candidates?

Ben Wikler:
Well, for all the Democrats that were here, their first step is to drink some tea and recover their voice after cheering their hearts out for the last four nights. For Democrats across the country, I think you can think of this convention as almost like a bolt of lightning that went directly into a weathervane connected to a giant battery, and that battery now has to power us to zoom through the next 73 days. We have this tiny window of time to take everything that we learned over this last week about who Kamala Harris is: the daughter of the middle class, the daughter of immigrants who loves this country so much and has seen what it can do. The opportunity that it can offer and wants it to offer that opportunity to everyone. Of Tim Walz, who embodies his small town’s value for being a good neighbor, for looking after everyone, and for as a coach, making sure people know that they have the power to make things better. He gave a pep talk to the entire audience at the convention, and we’re ready to run through a wall. That’s essentially what we have to do. It’s called the Blue Wall, and Wisconsin is the centerpiece of it.

Frederica Freyberg:
How do you put Democrats’ money advantage to work to win in November?

Ben Wikler:
Well, in a funny way, money is an indicator of enthusiasm. There are, as far as I can tell, millions of people who’ve chipped in at KamalaHarris.com and made small donations and big donations over the course of this convention just in an extraordinary clip. The key thing that the campaign has to do, that the Democratic Party of Wisconsin has to do, is make sure that that money translates into clear communication that connects with people’s values. And that can come in the form of hiring organizers to connect with the 42,000 volunteers who’ve signed up in Wisconsin since Kamala Harris became our nominee. To connect with those volunteers and make sure they’re ready to go and knock on doors and talk to undecided voters. It can be TV ads that I’m sure people are going to see not on, on, on — well, on just about every screen that they can turn on, including their phones, probably at gas stations when you’re filling up your tank. We know that the other side in this campaign is already investing millions of dollars in Wisconsin and across the country. We cannot be out communicated. We can’t be outworked. We can’t be out organized. We have to deliver in the same way that we just saw Vice President Harris do from the convention stage last night.

Frederica Freyberg:
Why is the race so very close in Wisconsin?

Ben Wikler:
Well, Wisconsin is a 50/50 state. We’re the only state where four of the last six presidential races has come down to less than one percentage point. And that’s not just presidential races. Our senate race in ’22, one point. Governor’s race in 2018, 1.1 point. I’d love to get to that extra 1.1. This is a state where there’s just a lot of Democrats, a lot of Republicans, a lot of people who think through with each election which party they’re going to vote for, and some people who think through whether they’re going to vote. For all of those voters, it is critical that they hear on a regular basis, very clearly, that Vice President Harris is going to fight for them, that she wants them to be free. She doesn’t think the government should be interfering in their personal lives, and she thinks the government should be ensuring that big companies like Big Pharma can’t price gouge, can’t, can’t force up costs for people that want to be able to afford their medicine and their groceries at the same time, which shouldn’t be that tall of an order in the wealthiest country in the world. She’s here to give a middle-class tax cut and ensure that the wealthy pay their fair share. And she laid out a vision at this convention of really a country that lifts everyone up, whether you live in a rural area or a city or a suburb, she’s lived in lots of different places, including in Wisconsin as a kid, and she brings that life experience to bear. She thinks about the kind of president that she’s ready to be.

Frederica Freyberg:
Tammy Baldwin is ahead in polling over her challenger, Eric Hovde, for the U. S. Senate. Can she count on that polling?

Ben Wikler:
Well, again, this is Wisconsin. I remember a poll in 2020 that said that Joe Biden was 17 points ahead. He won by 6/10ths of a percentage point. So if you’re running or if you think it’s important that someone win, if you think that you want Tammy Baldwin to get to the United States Senate and keep fighting special interests and working to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act to make Roe versus Wade the law of the land, don’t trust any poll that says this is a landslide. Work, work as though it’s not within the margin of error. That it’s within the margin of effort. And that means pulling out your phone and thinking through and finding which friends of yours might not have voted before, who might have moved and not updated their voter registration, who sometimes votes Republican, sometimes votes Democrat. Go call them and talk to them about why they might care about Tammy Baldwin defeating Eric Hovde. And while they’re at it, vote for state legislative races, house races, and for Vice President Harris.

Frederica Freyberg:
We leave it there. Ben Wikler, thanks very much.

Ben Wikler:
Thanks so much for having me on.