Tommy DeVillers
Brandon Maly, chair Dane County Republican Party
Brandon Maly on boosting Republican turnout: ‘I think we can move the needle.’
Brandon Maly was a high school freshman in Florida in 2014 and already a proud and enthusiastic conservative Republican. A classmate invited the first-generation American, whose parents and grandparents emigrated from the Soviet Union, to volunteer on Rick Scott’s winning campaign for governor.
“I got hooked on basic grassroots politics, and I’ve never stopped,” Maly says. “I was not shy about what I believed.”
After getting a communications degree from the University of Tampa, Maly wanted a new challenge early in 2022. Conservatives were easily winning Florida elections and the state was “sprawling with a lot of young [political] upstarts.”
“I wanted to go somewhere where I could make an impact, where it was going to be a 50-50 race — win by 1 point, lose by 1 point. [Wisconsin Republican] Ron Johnson was the most vulnerable Senate incumbent in the country.”
Maly moved to Madison in April of 2022 to direct the Johnson re-election campaign in an eight-county region of south central Wisconsin. “I just thought I’d have a really solid challenge in Madison. This is, in a way, the center of the political universe.” In that job, Maly did “basic grassroots organizing,” locating and coordinating events and rallies, recruiting and encouraging volunteers and building “good relationships” with local Republicans.
Johnson won by 26,718 votes statewide, or 1% of the total vote.
But Johnson only got 22% of the vote in Dane County, where the number of Republican votes has been falling. The Republican candidate for governor, Tim Michels, got 20.8% of the vote; the Republican-backed candidate for an open Supreme Court seat, former Justice Dan Kelly, only 18% of countywide vote in the April election.
Those shrinking margins bothered Maly. So, after talking to some veteran Dane County Republicans who said the party’s local organization amounted to a “social club,” Maly decided to run to be elected Dane County Republican Party chair.
After a bitter caucus attended by hundreds of party members, the 23-year-old Maly was elected chairman in February — less than a year after he moved to Wisconsin.
Veteran Dane County Republican Roger Stauter said he nominated Maly after hearing about the newcomer’s goals over a Dairyland Family Restaurant lunch.
“I have not been disappointed,” says Stauter. “Brandon is providing strong leadership. He excels in motivating people. Membership is up, fundraising is up, morale is up. Underdog Republicans in Dane County are coming alive.”
“This kid is a prodigy,” Stauter adds. “He will become a big star in politics.”
The chairman volunteers, so Maly works as a full-time field representative for Turning Point Action. Its goal is to “empower voters to engage the conservative base at a grassroots level to fight for and take back America.”
As Dane County Republican chairman, Maly says he is now involved in “everything — fundraising, messaging, ‘get your butts to Madison’ appeals…We do kind of get ignored sometimes by some of the candidates. This is the Berkeley of the Midwest.”
Maly’s goal is to get 25% of the Dane County vote for Republican candidates for president and U.S. Senate in November 2024. The 22% that Johnson got last November is “just survival mode,” he adds.
How will he do that? By accepting the fact that Democrats will roll up huge margins in Madison, but reaching the thousands of potential Republican voters outside Madison.
“The single biggest thing we’re facing in Dane County as Republicans is the ‘demoralization’ factor. It’s very real. By virtue of living in such a ‘blue’ area…you have Republicans who don’t turn out to vote. On the outskirts, the periphery of Dane County, you have blue-collar workers and farmers. If you talk to them, they’re not turning out because they live in Big Blue.”
To convince suburban Republicans that their votes will matter next year, Maly says it will take visits from Johnson, from Wisconsin’s five Republican U.S. House members, from whoever is the Republican U.S. Senate candidate, and “robust door-knocking, get out the vote effort, social media and radio” ads.
“Republicans need to be investing time here, and not just in Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington counties. My goal is to get us up to 25%, which would take a little of the pressure off in the WOW counties and in hyper-performing counties in the northwoods,” he says.
“Some people haven’t heard Republican messaging in Dane County. Some people can go a whole election cycle without hearing it. We want to make sure that’s not the case in 2024.”
As a 23-year-old, Maly says the American Dream has “sort of lost its way.”
“With sound economic policies, we can bring it back,” he adds. “We can make it financial sense to start a family again in this country, to own a home without being ultra-wealthy in this country, to make attending a university affordable again, so we’re not crippled in debt.”
But, no, Maly does not favor the Biden Administration’s efforts to cancel student debt. Instead, he says, colleges would be more affordable if “junk programs” like those promoting diversity, equity and inclusion were killed.
Maly says he believes former President Donald Trump will be the party’s presidential nominee next year. Although he has been a Trump supporter, as party chair he must be neutral until the nomination is decided.
But can a former President facing 91 criminal charges win both the party’s nomination and the presidency, if he is convicted of even one criminal charge? “That’s really up to the people to decide,” Maly says.“There definitely is a two-tier system of justice in this country. There’s a lot of anger in this country. It looks like Democrats can conduct themselves poorly, unethically and face no charges. But when Republicans act the same way, they face charges. A lot of that anger is being channeled into more and more support for Donald Trump.
“There’s a lot of people that may not be in [Trump’s] camp right now that are struggling and want the policies of four years ago back. The 2024 election is going to be a ‘quality of life’ election more than a ‘personality’ election.”
Dane County Democratic Party Chair Alexia Sabor has not met Maly, but she also expects Trump to be the Republican presidential nominee. But Trump won’t get more than the 23% of the county vote he got in 2016 and 2020, Sabor says.
“Conversations we’ve had with voters across the county indicate that many people who have traditionally considered themselves Republicans are not aligned with the direction that party has taken,” Sabor says. “They’re not on board with insurrection. or with women losing the freedom to make medical decisions about their bodies, or with many other extremist positions Republican leadership supports.”
Democrats will also work hard to turn out votes outside Madison, according to Sabor. “We know how important it is that we deliver every vote possible for our Democratic candidates and we’re not going to cede any voters or any part of this county to the GOP.”
Maly says he is “realistic” rather than optimistic about boosting Republican voter turnout in 2024. “It’s going to be very difficult, but we are doing difficult things to move the needle,” he says. “Yes, I think we can move the needle.”
