Tommy Washbush
A close-up of a postcard from Listen to Us PAC.
Dane County delivered the highest numbers in the state to a protest campaign in the Democratic primary Tuesday night, but couldn’t sway a statewide vote on two constitutional amendments.
More than 14% of Dane County voters voted “uninstructed” in the Democratic presidential primary to protest President Joe Biden’s support of military aid for Israel’s war in Gaza, compared to roughly 8% statewide.
Democratic state Rep. Francesca Hong, who represents the isthmus and parts of Madison’s east and north sides, encouraged Democratic voters to cast their ballot for “uninstructed” in the weeks before the election.
“Many in this movement have felt ignored and dismissed. We are feeling left behind by our party,” she said in a Zoom press conference Wednesday morning. “Here in Wisconsin, there is no path to victory for the Biden administration without our coalition. We want better than the default of the lesser of two evils. We want to vote for leaders who are listening, include us, and recognize that including us strengthens our democracy.”
The “uninstructed” campaign set a goal of winning 20,000 votes statewide — about the number of votes Biden defeated Trump by in Wisconsin in 2020 — and reached that number easily, receiving about 48,000 votes, according to unofficial statewide results with 97% of votes counted. But that fell short of the number needed to send delegates to the party’s national convention. Biden won 83% of Democratic primary voters in Dane County and 88% statewide.
In an interview Wednesday morning, Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler says he is confident that “uninstructed” voters won’t switch camps in November. “These are Democratic primary voters who know Trump is not the answer,” he says. “There’s an opportunity for President Biden and the Democratic Party to earn their support as we go forward in the general election. Most people want to see an end to this heart wrenching crisis in Gaza and an enduring, just peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
On the Zoom news conference this morning, organized by Listen To Wisconsin, “uninstructed” organizers confirmed that voting for Trump in November would not be an option. But they did not commit to delivering voters for Biden.
“We need this administration to change course now,” said Halah Ahmad, spokeswoman for Listen to Wisconsin. “The way that Biden won Wisconsin [in 2020] was through a broad coalition, through communities that were represented in this campaign. Wisconsin is going to be the tipping point state again. The ball is in this administration’s court.”
Recent polls show Biden and Trump statistically deadlocked both in Wisconsin and nationally. Trump visited Green Bay on Tuesday and Biden is scheduled to visit Madison Monday.
In other states, “uncommitted” campaigns in Democratic primaries have been successful enough to send delegates to the party’s convention. On Tuesday night, the uncommitted option won 16% in Rhode Island and 11% in Connecticut in those states’ Democratic primaries. Previously in Michigan, 13% of primary voters voted “uncommitted,” and 19% did so in Minnesota.
A Poll Progressive Strategies poll of previous Democratic primary voters in Wisconsin released the morning of the election found that one in five of those surveyed said Biden’s handling of Gaza would impact their vote. Overall, the poll found pluralities of Democratic primary voters in favor of Biden’s approach to the war and disapproving of the “uninstructed” campaign, but there was a large generation gap. Zero respondents aged 18-29 strongly approved of Biden’s handling of the war, while 59% of voters aged 50-64 strongly or somewhat approved. Overall, 60% of those surveyed supported a ceasefire, compared to 94% of young voters.
Dane County Republicans also expressed some displeasure in their party’s frontrunner, who has already secured enough delegates to clinch his party’s nomination. Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the race in March, received 24% of the vote, with Trump registering 63% — 16 points lower than the 79% he got statewide.
Wikler notes that because of Nikki Haley protest votes, which outnumbered “uninstructed” votes in the Democratic primary, Biden received more votes statewide than Trump did. In the Republican primary, more than 120,000 voters cast their ballots for candidates other than Trump. Wikler says that between now and November, the party will be listening to and communicating with “uninstructed” voters, Nikki Haley voters, and those who sat out the primary to build a “big tent” ahead of the election.
“Whoever wins Wisconsin is probably going to win the presidential election,” he says. “That means that every voter and every volunteer in the state has more power than almost anyone in the history of our democracy to shape the future of not just Wisconsin, but America and the whole world.”
State constitutional amendments
Dane County was also an outlier when it came to two statewide ballot questions seeking to enshrine elections-related requirements in the state Constitution.
Both of those amendments are on track to pass despite strong opposition in Dane County, where voters opposed both by more than two-to-one, with 69% voting against and 31% in favor of each. Statewide, according to unofficial results, the amendment that would ban private funding for elections administration received 54% of the vote and the amendment restricting elections-related tasks to elections officials passed with 59% of the vote.
Legislative Republicans pushed the amendments in response to the millions of dollars in private funding provided to communities across Wisconsin and other states in 2020 through a nonprofit called the Center for Tech and Civic Life to help defray the increased costs of elections administration during the pandemic.
Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe said in an Election Day press conference that the commission would have to meet to discuss what the next steps would be if the amendments passed.
