Op-Ed
A message for the next Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin
Jun 9, 2025, 12:16 PM CST
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This is an opinion column co-written by Angela Lang, executive director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC), and Darrin Madison, state representative from Milwaukee, serving in Assembly District 10.
Lang is a regular contributor to The Recombobulation Area, is the winner of multiple awards from the Milwaukee Press Club for her work at the publication.
Lang and Madison have each endorsed Joe Zepecki in the race to be the next Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
In a few days, there will be an election for a new chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. This is an opportunity. The party — and our country — is at a crossroads. The President is defying court orders and pushing the fundamental values of our democracy to their limits. This is an era most of us have no experience in. Organizing under these conditions is incredibly difficult, to say the least.
Outgoing Chair Ben Wikler did a lot to shape the party and helped tell the complicated Wisconsin story on a national level. So many times, Wisconsin was in the spotlight and Wikler did his best to meet the moment. He had to balance many challenging and often conflicting opinions and values within the Democratic Party. It is not an easy task, especially for a state like Wisconsin with a razor-thin majority on the state Supreme Court, a Democratic governor, and a Republican-controlled legislature. Those can be challenging dynamics to navigate at any point, especially so now with the ongoing dismantling of our democracy.
Now, there is renewed energy and passion for those wanting to make a change, and anger and sadness at the current state of our country and the scaling back of our basic civil liberties. This energy needs someone to be able to meet the moment. There are still competing tensions and discomforts within the party. There are also people getting involved in politics for the first time. This is a good thing, and we should embrace an opportunity to organize with new activists, but we also need to educate people on intersectionality.
There are intersections in many of our issues, but just like we were educated when we first started organizing, we need to do the same with newly-activated people. It will be uncomfortable at times. When you’re doing “the work” it often can be, but it’s critical that we all continue to see how our struggles are linked. The new WisDems chair needs to be a leader in that effort. The politicos on the inside can have a more progressive analysis in how they run campaigns and handle things internally, but there is also a responsibility on the chair to educate the broader membership as well.
After the 2024 election, it felt like a dark quiet fell upon the country. Unlike in late 2016 and early 2017, there wasn’t the energy for a national resistance movement — at least not immediately. That was a time that brought the formations of groups like the Women’s March and Indivisible. This time, though, folks reflected inward, paused, and turned to community as a refuge. While many local acts of resistance have been happening, the April 5 “Hands Off” events were a burst of energy, where people needed to feel a little bit of hope. In the days and weeks since the start of those events, some have been reflecting on the lack of intersectionality of the action and even some out of touch comments and behavior, particularly when it comes to police interactions at a protest, and in some of the tactics that became common during the Black Lives Matter movement.
While there can be valid criticisms of those events and protests, we will be watching with curiosity how the next chair brings people along. While some people may not understand the culture of organizing, and may have stumbled into a protest, those people are there because something had been activated within them. They showed up, and that matters. These moments can present as opportunities to strengthen the party’s ability to stand in its values. Democrats claim to be a “big tent” party and that can only be true if people embrace all perspectives. That means holding fellow Democrats accountable, having uncomfortable conversations and leaning into tension, not running from it. We talk about “meeting people where they are at” and this is where some people are at. How do we use this energy for teachable moments? As one example, there is an opportunity to talk about how thanking the cops at civil actions might not make some people of color feel safe. There will be more opportunities where people are showing up for the first time, and it’s important to bring people along and unpack certain viewpoints.
Wisconsin is a leader. People are always watching us. Take a look at Elon Musk. As goes Wisconsin, so goes the rest of the county. What happens here has national implications. It is why the Wisconsin Supreme Court race was such a significant win not just for Wisconsinites, but also for the nation.
The next chair needs to continue to tell the full Wisconsin story. We have an opportunity to give hope well beyond our state’s borders. Wisconsin has been organizing and fighting non stop since Scott Walker was elected governor in 2010. Our state was ripped apart shortly after his election with his “Budget Repair Bill,” and in the years since, has continued to be a battleground in all of the ways.
That reputation of constantly organizing and fighting must continue, and it starts with persistently painting the picture of the impacts of the Trump agenda. Telling the story of Wisconsin means telling people’s stories who are often overlooked. How are we telling the story of Wisconsin where people feel connected to the fabric of the state? Dairy farmers standing in solidarity with immigrants and LGBTQ organizations standing with Black organizations are a part of our story. Wisconsinites just want to thrive, be safe, have access to safe healthcare, housing, etc. There is common ground where we choose to seek it.
A clear story also includes a clear villain. The villain isn’t the person who is to the political left of a traditional Democrat, it’s the rich and wealthy who are turning our democracy into an oligarchy. Now is the time to fully embrace Wisconsin’s progressive values. There can be a place for differing ideas, but space for shared values. Organizing under these circumstances means bringing people in — not vilifying people who oppose the genocide in Gaza, for example.
In the months since the 2024 presidential election, a repeated point time and time again has been that people did not understand where Democrats stood on issues of safety and policing and immigration. Without clear stances, the electorate can lose trust with you. Time has run out on skirting around the issues and saying the bare minimum. Democrats need to do a better job of taking a clear stance on these key issues. You don’t get to straddle the line when we’re living under fascism. People are hurting financially, emotionally, losing their jobs and healthcare, and people wonder where Democrats are. Sides are drawn.
After the recent Wisconsin Supreme court race, part of the analysis has been about how people on both sides of the aisle hated the tough-on-crime ads that dominated the campaign. This is an opportunity to listen to the feedback, and apply it to future state Supreme Court races. This is an inflection point both in this country and with the Democratic Party, Wisconsin can be an example for other states. We cannot continue business as usual. This is an opportunity to listen to voters, including their frustrations. We had more conversations about people’s frustrations about those ads this year than any other year. There are choices to be made on how future campaigns are run.
The next chair needs to have an understanding of the role and power of the grassroots organizations. The Democratic Party is full of overpaid campaign consultants who are both out of touch and flat-out wrong a lot of times, and grassroots organizations can end up cleaning up after communications missteps and filing in the gaps of their outreach. Grassroot organizations are not a relationship building tool for the party, nor an extension of the Democratic Party. The new chair needs to understand the role, and subsequent power and influence of these organizations to voters. While our roles aren’t to solely elect Democrats, like the party, there can be alignment and shared understanding. There are times where people stop opening the door during campaign season because they don’t want to talk to candidates or representatives from the various parties, but they will open the door to a group like BLOC. That itself is incredibly valuable and needs to be respected for its power.
There is a lot to be said about the November election and what we can learn. Instead of that happening, and really listening, folks want to blame tactics like door knocking, or boil it down to one issue or another. The election is a lot more nuanced and not as simple as some of the analysis may show. What we do know for sure is that people are hurting, frustrated, and begging for a change.
Lastly, people have consistently discussed the failure of elected officials to meet the moment for our most vulnerable populations, as the Trump administration continues to defund critical programs. We need a chair that is willing to work closely with our elected leaders to uplift our efforts to defend democracy here in our state, while formalizing an agenda that meets the needs of all Wisconsinites when we achieve a trifecta in the coming years. Often party chairs have taken a hands-off approach to governing, leading to the party functioning exclusively as an electoral apparatus. This approach around the country has led to weak state governing majorities failing to meet communities needs and inevitably failing to sustain themselves. The chair needs to do their best to thread the needle on so many issues.
Can Democrats meet the moment? Can the new Democratic Party of Wisconsin chair meet the moment? Will they lead electorally? Organize with communities? Will they co-govern with the leaders they help elect? This is an opportunity to repair harm, be honest with each other, and truly listen. The next chair has choices to make. Now is not the time to concede to fascism.
Angela Lang was born and raised in the heart of Milwaukee. She has an extensive background in community organizing. In the past, Angela served as both an organizer and State Council Director for the Service Employees International Union, working on such campaigns as the Fight for 15. Before founding BLOC, Angela was the Political Director with For Our Future Wisconsin. She is a graduate of Emerge Wisconsin. She currently is the Vice President of the ACLU of Wisconsin Board and sits on the board for Diverse and Resilient, a non profit organization that supports the LGBTQ community in Wisconsin, as well as on the board for the Milwaukee Parks Foundation.
Angela is motivated by making substantial and transformative change in her community while developing young, local leaders of color. Her journey in organizing hasn’t always been easy, but through it all she has remained a fierce advocate for securing more seats at the table for those who represent the New American Majority.
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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer and at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social.
