Devin Remiker on Charting Wisconsin Democrats Into 2026

Zac Schultz:
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has a new leader. At last week’s state convention, members elected Devin Remiker as chair of the party after he previously served as the party’s political director and he joins us now. Thanks for being here.

Devin Remiker:
Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

Zac Schultz:
So Ben Wikler is a name that a lot of people recognize from Democratic politics. He was the chair of the party the last six years, oversaw a lot of very successful elections. What will change? What will be different from — in the transition from Ben to you?

Devin Remiker:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think we have a fantastic opportunity to be able to build on the success that Ben Wikler has laid down and what he built on the successes of chair Martha Laning before him. We have a fantastic year-round organizing program. We have a robust donor strategy for large, medium, small donors across this country, and we also have an opportunity to do more in 2026. So I’m really excited to get to work expanding our 72 county strategy to make sure that we have robust infrastructure in every corner of the state, above and beyond, just organizing and knocking on doors, improving our messaging and communications with localized messaging in each and every community in the state to make sure that we can authentically connect with voters and keep our eye on the prize with the chance for a trifecta next year.

Zac Schultz:
So we’ve seen party chairs in the past keep a lower profile in the public sphere, and obviously Ben became the face of the party in a lot of ways. What’s your style?

Devin Remiker:
Well, I think that we have a really unique opportunity to change the way that we communicate and to reach voters in places that we haven’t been able to before. One thing I’m really excited about coming into this role, obviously, as a 32 year old, I’m a little bit younger than a lot of folks may otherwise be in politics, and I think that that can give me an opportunity to connect, particularly with younger voters, that our party’s had some difficulty with in the last election, to be able to reach them in authentic, engaging ways. In addition to all the traditional media that Ben has done before, I’m also really excited to partner with First Vice Chair, Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski to also maintain a lot of the communications work that we’ve done, and I think that we’re going to get out the gate pretty strong.

Zac Schultz:
So national polling shows the image of Democrats is not great right now in the Trump era. Do you expect that to change due to national events, or is that something that you have to change yourself?

Devin Remiker:
Well, I don’t think we should take for granted that, you know, someone’s going to come over the hill as cavalry and be able to change what we’re doing here in Wisconsin. I think we have to build the plan to win and advance our candidates here in the state ourselves. And we can, if we can get help with that, that is fantastic. But at the end of the day, I think that we have had a very distinct sort of set of outcomes in Wisconsin that is different than national Democrats across the country. I mean in 2024, not many people would have put money on Wisconsin being the closest out of all the battleground states, to the left of Michigan and Pennsylvania, even when that just hasn’t been the case in 2020 or 2022. So I think that the way that we’ve done that is by making sure that we are supporting our candidates year-round. Every spring, special, fall election, connecting with folks authentically on the issues that they care most about and really what I’m trying to do is just take that work to the next level and build the plan that we need here.

Zac Schultz:
Now, you’ve mentioned Wisconsin being to the left of Michigan and some of those other traditional blue wall states. Over the last 15 years, we’ve seen a political realignment with rural working-class voters shifting more towards Donald Trump and the Republican Party and Democrats doing better in suburban areas with college-educated voters. There are people that think Wisconsin is actually more ripe for Republicans to do well, because there are more traditional Democratic voters that have not swung to the Republican Party. And that is why Wisconsin is still to the left, to a slight degree. What do you do to keep those voters? You talked about your youth. How do you connect with some of those people that are coming up that may be disengaged from that party?

Devin Remiker:
Absolutely. Well, I think that my background also helps a lot. I’m — was born in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and I think that the story of Two Rivers and neighboring Manitowoc mirrors a lot of communities around this state. There was a — there was a factory in Two Rivers named Hamilton’s. They closed up in the mid to late 2000. These were good paying union jobs with great benefits. It was hollowed out and all that was left was basically an empty lot of land contaminated with chemicals that are basically stuck in the ground, and they’re trying to mitigate right now. And it kind of ripped the heart out of this community. Right. And this was, this was a community that took pride in being working class, in making something. And once that was gone, it really lost a little sense of soul. And I think that you see that all over the state. And I think that that is something that Democrats haven’t been as effective in speaking to is that sort of lost sense of self and identity to working class voters. And I think that is where Republicans have had some success filling that void. So something I want to do is just be more attentive and attuned, because it’s my lived experience of how to connect with people and talk about a positive, optimistic vision of the future that they can actually connect with and speaks to sort of that identity as working class people that want to work hard and earn a fair wage and don’t necessarily just want to be given something.

Zac Schultz:
You’ve mentioned a couple times about the possibility of a trifecta. Democrats winning control of the Legislature in ’26. How closely are you watching those GOP potential targets, especially as they’re struggling to pass a budget right now.

Devin Remiker:
Incredibly closely and I think that they are making a grave mistake by not coming to the table and finishing out the budget process with Governor Evers. I mean, candidly, they’re also fighting with themselves at this moment in time, which I don’t think is good for their party in the long term. But, I mean, you have folks like Howard Marklein who didn’t even bother to consider the fact that Medicaid cuts could be coming from the federal government when they originally were thinking about this budget. I mean it’s ridiculous. It’s hard to take that seriously. And I think that we’re going to be very aggressive in making sure that voters this summer know about what their representatives and senators are doing, or rather, not doing. I mean, they need to get back to work, negotiate with the governor, and get a deal done to move this state forward.

Zac Schultz:
Obviously, there is a political and national tragedy in Minnesota with the shooting of legislators there. Does that impact your ability to recruit candidates, especially since there were Wisconsin Democratic names on the list of the shooter?

Devin Remiker:
Yeah, well, we haven’t seen any impact as to this point in time, but I think that, you know, for myself personally and many people, it was it was a terrifying moment, you know, and I’m glad that we could sort of put politics aside. And as human beings, see Democrats and Republicans put out a strong statement condemning that. Obviously, it happened during our convention weekend. And, you know, one of the first conversations I had with my wife after being elected chair was about, do we need to adjust our own sort of security measures or precautions? Is this something we need to worry about? And I don’t think anybody in politics should have to worry about their livelihood being taken away from them. I do think we need to find ways to take down the temperature and the rhetoric a little bit, which is also why I’m so disappointed to see Representative Derrick Van Orden right after sort of making his performative statement, just lean right back into vitriol, That sort of behavior is exactly what we need less of in politics. And from my experience working for Congressman Ron Kind for four years, something that voters in western Wisconsin really don’t respond well to.

Zac Schultz:
All right, Devin Remiker, thanks for your time.

Devin Remiker:
Thank you. Really appreciate it.