Madison Area DSA Statement on the Midterm Elections

This Tuesday, as Americans all over the country rejected Republicans, Wisconsin Democrats won big against Trump puppet Tom Tiffany, electing David Crowley by a margin of nearly eight points and winning both chambers of the State Legislature. Many of us can breathe a sigh of relief knowing we will not face the persecution and austerity of a Tiffany administration. 

The trifecta that Wisconsin Democrats now hold represents a generational opportunity to deliver for the working class that elected them. By repealing Act 10 and Right to Work, expanding access to healthcare in cities and rural communities, and fully funding public education, those in state government have the power to make material change not just for their donors, but the whole state. This is a golden opportunity, and it will likely be squandered by democrats with moderate agendas in an era of escalating crisis. Since Taft-Hartley’s restriction of union power our political system has been taking power out of the hands of everyday people and giving it to moneyed interests. The Wisconsin democrats’ agenda is not bold enough to reverse this trend, because the donor class approved their agenda.

Among David Crowley’s top supporters, one can find real estate magnates who make their money renting property to ICE, board members of foundations that vociferously support Israel amidst its genocide in Palestine, and the Chair of the Board of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, an organization that helped direct Scott Walker and his lackeys’ campaign to erode democracy and disempower Wisconsin workers over the last fifteen years. 

Under the current system, candidates are forced to sell out the needs of the working class and promise favors to the elites who fund their campaigns. To break from this system we need to return to the methods that got us the eight-hour workday, the fair labor standards act, the sewer socialists, and weekends. We need to organize.

Democratic working class organizations like DSA give working people the opportunity to build power for ourselves and our friends, coworkers, and neighbors by organizing in our workplaces and neighborhoods, disrupting the profits of bosses and landlords via work rent strikes, and taking back the resources working people need to live a good life from the owners who would keep them from us. If we want a Wisconsin where working people can govern ourselves and our economy, we will only get there by doing it together.

This cycle DSA has won 105 seats for elected office across the country, and eight DSA members will go to Congress in 2027. These victories by our 130,000 members are just the beginning, and our next fights are here in Madison. The Keeping Families Connected campaign is fighting for free communications into and out of Dane County jail, our Palestine solidarity campaign No Appetite for Apartheid is coordinating a boycott effort, and the ICE OUT neighborhood chats are creating grassroots community responses to state violence. Now we’re building teams to work on electoral races for municipal offices, and running trainings on how to organize your workplace or democratize your union.

We must make the most of the next two years, and force Crowley and the Democratic trifecta to serve the workers of Wisconsin, because they won’t do it otherwise. Now is the time to build power, in your union, your neighborhood, and your municipality, so that we can develop institutions that deliver lasting wins. Now is the time for transformative changes that don’t just ease the worst of our unjust system. Now is the time to build toward Democratic Socialism, together. Join DSA Today!