WASHINGTON — Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., first got to know Ben Wikler when he was in high school and joined her campaign for Congress.
“And he's been helping Wisconsinites — Democrats — win ever since,” Baldwin said in a recent interview with Spectrum News.
Wikler now heads Wisconsin’s Democratic Party, and last month, he entered the race to become the party’s national chairman. Baldwin and Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, are supporting his candidacy.
“He's very strategic,” Baldwin said. “He's an inspirational leader. People love him.”
“Ben has been able to work with everyone,” Pocan added. “He realized it's about getting Democrats elected, period.”
Pocan said Wikler has it all: The organizing, communication and fundraising skills to lead the party through another Donald Trump presidency.
“If you can bring those three skills to the DNC and do it in the way he did in Wisconsin, that would serve the National Democratic Party really well,” Pocan said.
This year, Wisconsin was again at the center of the nation’s politics. The state hosted the Republican National Convention in July and was repeatedly visited by the presidential candidates and their surrogates, reflecting its status as a swing state. Although President-elect Trump beat Vice President Kamala Harris in the state, Democrats generally have been winners during Wikler’s time atop the state party.
“Since I've been our state party chair, we've flipped our state Supreme Court majority, re-elected our great democratic governor, Tony Evers, and in this very tough year for Democrats nationwide, a six point swing towards Trump, we closed that gap to a point and a half, making Wisconsin the closest state in the country,” Wikler said in a video posted on X.
Democrats also flipped 14 legislative seats this year.
Baldwin said that before Wikler became state party chairman five years ago, there was no active strategy in off-years when there were no elections for Congress, the state legislature and governor, and no real effort related to the non-partisan spring elections.
“Ben changed all that,” Baldwin said. “Ben has a party that's operating year-round.”
Both Baldwin and Pocan said Wikler is up for a bigger role in the nation’s capital.
“He's worked nationally in Washington before, as a political director for Move On,” Pocan said. “He knows this environment as well, and he knows the more granular state environment, where you have to win state by state in order to pick up governorships and Senate races and House races. So I think he's got a really good mix. And also, he's younger.”
This is the first open race for DNC Chairman since 2017. Wikler is one of several candidates, including Minnesota Democratic Chairman Ken Martin. The election by DNC members is scheduled for Feb. 1.