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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Minnesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
Thank you, Don Rue.
Good morning, 8.06.
Nice to have you here up north on this Friday morning, April 25th, 2025.
I've got a lot to cover today.
We're going to be talking at the bottom of the hour here with Devin Remaker.
He is the current executive director of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
He's also one of the candidates running to be the next state party chair for Wisconsin Democrats.
So we will talk a bit about that coming up in our second half hour.
But right now we have Dr. Kristen Lahrle and we have meteorologist Brittany Merleau with us.
We'll be talking about the draft.
We will be talking about a a what we talked about with key of the keel in our 6 a.m.
Hour a Texas legislator wants to pass a bill that would allow wastewater to be checked for Abortion pills and birth control pills because I mean can can big government get any bigger for these folks and also the Trump White House wants you to be out there making more babies ladies like
I could not say it anymore, smarmy if I tried.
I am
doing my part,
Pat.
You did your four boys.
That's it.
So we'll get into that in just a second.
But first, Brittany is back with us to talk about the forecast where, again, Kristen, her boys were at the draft last night and they escaped a lot of the rain, which was really nice.
But you can't get away from it all day today, can
you?
No.
Unfortunately, a few of that little bit of drizzle is moving through the Fox Valley right now.
It's their first little bit of rain.
And of course, a lot of it, the heavy, the steadier rain is sitting just northwest of the Fox Valley.
It is raining from pretty much northeast Wisconsin into Wausau all the way to La Crosse.
And that is going to be shifting its way towards the lake in towards Green Bay.
And it's going to be raining for a good chunk of the afternoon pretty much from noon to five.
Expect some
rainfall.
I'd say the heaviest is going to be coming down from one to three.
You are looking at about a quarter of an inch of rain headed your way today and it's breezy too and chilly.
Temperatures are only going to make it to 50 degrees in Green Bay.
We're looking at some 40s only up north and some mid 50s down south for high temperatures and of course those winds are breezy too gusting up to 30 miles per hour out of the north keeping us cooler.
adding a wind chill to that too.
So of course, it's just damp dreary and raw out there.
But we are going to see those clouds clear as we go through tonight.
They're actually going to start clearing far northwest early this evening.
So you may see some spots of sunshine, but by the lake and off to the east, it's going to wait till overnight.
And tomorrow we've got tons of sunshine on tap.
It will be beautiful.
We'll hold on to that for most of the day on Sunday before more rain rolls in.
And that looks to bring some strong to severe thunderstorms on Monday.
Now, I think a lot of folks for the draft were, you know, staying in hotels or, you know, verbose or bed and breakfast areas.
I'm sure a couple of people were in, you know, some campgrounds or, you know, maybe pitched a tent in somebody's front yard, which brings me to Dr. Lyrely, who is not that terribly far away from Lambeau Field.
Did you rent out any of the rooms?
Do you have anybody camping in your front yard for the draft?
Did you make money off this in any way, shape, or form?
I have not, but my house is full of kids, my own kids and other people's kids, so I'm happy.
And Brittany, I'd like a do-over.
Could we please just like roll the dice again and have a different forecast?
Yeah, where's
my magic eight ball, right?
Right.
I was like, why did Mother Nature pick this of all times?
It's, I mean, that's luck of the draw.
But like, like we were saying yesterday, it's a big storm system.
There would have been a lot of NFL cities that would have gotten rain, uh, had, had the draft happen in their place.
Uh, Robin Tigerton still with us saying, thank you, Kristen, for all you're doing to help motivate people.
We are very lucky to have Kristen around.
So.
Thanks, Rob.
Rob's the
best.
Yes.
Brittany, thank you so much for the weather update.
As always, you're the best.
Have a
great day, Brittany.
You as well.
Kristen, so you were talking about maybe heading over to the draft, maybe getting on your bike and going on down there, but life got in the way.
My bike plan is tomorrow.
I've got it all mapped out, Pat.
So I have a meeting this afternoon that goes until about, when did you say the rain was going to end?
Five?
My meeting
goes until
about five.
I'm going to head down there.
But my kids were down there last night.
They had a blast.
Did you hear about Clay Matthews?
Yes.
And I, you know, I did not want to rub it in on Dan when he was here just a moment ago because they're, you know, Steve, Michael's passing away and everything.
But when Clay Matthews got up there and said, I have a message from the president, the bears still suck.
And the crowd goes wild.
And it was, it was such a great moment.
And I did, I did really like.
People might say it's gimmicky.
I disagree.
I liked it when the commissioner came out along with some of the Packer players on kids bikes.
Yeah.
Just like for training camp.
I thought that was a nice touch.
They have a whole thing like that tomorrow morning.
There are so many different events that are happening.
There's food.
There's all this like Wisconsin kitschy stuff.
It is they went full bore.
Northeast Wisconsin.
If you are in the area, please stop by the draft.
They had to close the doors last night around, I don't know, 530 maybe because it had reached capacity.
People are so excited having such a great time and it's not just in the draft area.
It's downtown.
It's all around.
You can just feel the buzz.
Here was my one question though when the parking lot basically filled up.
It was like the world's best tailgate party kind of sort of.
But then the spillover was in the stadium.
They said, just go on in the stadium.
You could see the bowl starting to fill up with fans.
There's my question.
I'm sure the bathrooms were open.
They better have been.
But were their concession stands open if you were in there?
Because if there weren't, then you were just sitting there on the bleachers watching the Jumbotron.
But then you decided you were hungry or something.
You were kind of out of luck.
I'm
pretty sure they
were.
I mean, I wasn't there and I didn't hear firsthand, but I'm pretty sure they were.
And there's so much food, like in the whole area, there are so many food trucks and local folks who brought in, I mean, it's cheese, it's the stuff that we're used to, but the rest of the country doesn't know about.
Remember when the world discovered fried cheese curds?
Oh yes, yes.
And we were
like, yeah, of course.
I was talking last night with some folks who were watching the draft and, you know, they're...
about my age as well, but they, you know, they spent their childhood in Wisconsin and they said, you know, I'm old enough to remember cheese curds weren't always the big deal that they are.
They was just like, well, here's some leftover way.
We should do something with it.
And, you know, much like it reminds me of how buffalo, you know, chicken wings, buffalo wings used to not be a big deal.
People thought wings were like the scrap and somebody got the idea to market those and
make a killing and now we all think chicken wings are the best and the same goes for cheese curds.
That was just some leftover product.
It's like, no, everybody loves these now.
Yep.
And they've got some really fun beers on tap with really cool, like very Wisconsin names.
It's just, it's a love fest for Wisconsin.
Yeah.
Um, let's see, uh, from the text line here, Matt in Germantown, uh, back to our history lesson, we missed the most important birthday today.
He writes mine.
Matt.
Happy birthday, Matt.
There you go.
Happy birthday to you.
Thanks for writing in.
A lot of texts, a lot of comments today will not get to them all.
And I just wanted to thank everybody for putting something in, especially when you put what city you're listening in or what town.
We love to hear that and get a feel for where everybody is out there.
Oh, how do we get into this?
Let's go in by People Magazine.
When People Magazine is covering something from the Trump administration, you understand this is a big deal.
Here's the headline.
Trump's team ponders how to make women have more babies.
One idea was part of Hitler and Stalin's playbook.
Ideas for parenting incentives such as a national medal of motherhood for six-time moms comes amid steadily declining birth rates across the U.S.
and they've talked about one idea is to give a $5,000 cash baby bonus to American mothers when they give birth.
Kristen, you've given birth to four nice baby boys.
Tell me what $5,000 would do to entice somebody to have a baby in this day and age.
What I really want to talk about is comparing Hitler's plan versus Stalin's.
I would go with Hitler because he starts at four kids and Stalin starts at six.
It's right.
It does.
Yes.
And it's a
cool looking metal, except for the swastika in the middle of it.
Apparently
people wore it with pride.
I did a little research last night.
Also the cost of producing these metals and all of the stuff around giving the metals, it was extensive.
And in Hitler's world, they took away
military medals to focus on these like mom-producing baby metals.
That's how important this was in the Nazi regime.
So this is the whole thing that they are tapping into.
That's not surprising when we're hearing about things like registries of people with autism and some of these other things that they've borrowed
from the Nazi money.
And of course, grabbing people off the streets.
So I mean, can we look, people are gonna say, don't trash motherhood, not trash and motherhood.
Let's call this what it is, kids.
It's race-based.
If you're trying to round up all the brown people and ship them off to camps and try to restrict migration, but you're basically saying, let's have more American babies.
We know what you're talking about.
We know what you're talking about because it's exactly what they were doing in Germany and in Russia.
How about you just embrace the fact that we are a nation of migrants, migrant labor.
We have such a worker shortage here.
But even if you skip that, Kristen, again, $5,000 versus say, childcare assistance, health insurance, paid family leave.
I mean, there are things they could actually do that new moms would love to see.
Yeah.
you know, if we would just invest into our infrastructure, if we could make sure that everybody had access to quality, affordable healthcare, and I'm talking about not just when you're pregnant, but all the time.
If we really want to make America healthy again, make sure people can get to the doctor when they're sick.
Because I don't know about you, Pat.
I used to be able to afford that.
Now it's really expensive.
That's why people are getting so much information off of TikTok because they can't afford to go to the doctor.
So how about we make our health system affordable?
accessible in rural areas.
We know that people who are having babies in rural areas have twice the likelihood of having a bad outcome because they can't get to the doctor.
It's just not there for them.
They can't afford healthcare.
So start there and then expand to childcare.
Let's make sure that childcare is accessible and affordable.
How about housing?
Let's make sure that people can live in houses that they can afford, that they have food that they can afford.
Do you know what the number one reason is?
Why people don't want to have babies?
Pew did a study on this.
The number one reason is they don't want to.
They don't want to because of the number two reason, the state of the world.
So how about we solve some problems and make the state of the world better so we can all be out there and then we're going to have babies?
I like that idea better.
Every day for some 500 radio shows now I end the show going I wonder if I have a clip that I could turn into a video for social media
And some days it's really easy.
Thank you, Kristen,
for
that.
Now I got to end on something that is as troubling as it is funny in its own weird way, that there are Texas legislators who want to introduce a bill that will require water utilities to test the wastewater for chemical byproducts related to the use of the abortion pill or birth control pill.
And they're doing it, of course, under the guise of environmental protection.
This is wackadoodle stuff.
Great idea fellas.
Yeah.
Yep.
You're doing a great job brownie I Don't even know what to say.
I obviously this is ridiculous if we're trying to cut waste fraud and abuse This is a program that's gonna cost money and it's gonna result in what?
I Investigations of women of course, so it's like okay somewhere.
It's they're gonna know don't like okay now we're gonna look at the water just in this quadrant and then the water just here and
It can't possibly get any more Handmaid's tail goofball than that, but this is this is Texas boys and girls and by the way We talked about talked about this with key of the keel and he's got a strong reaction to it too in our 6 a.m.
Hour, so head over to the civic media website or
Get the show by podcast and you can listen back to some of our past hours.
Still ahead this hour, Devon Remaker, candidate for a state Democratic Party chair from the heart of America's up north live from Lake Wissota.
Thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.
I'm Pat Krightlow and this is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
It's Friday morning.
Welcome back here live from Lake Wissota and beautiful Depeere, Wisconsin, where we find Dr. Kristen Lyrely, who did not attend the NFL Draft, but made some of the babies who did.
I did not, I did, my own children.
I'm like, that's weird.
That just sounds weird.
Again, that's from the White House.
We've got to encourage baby making.
So whatever gets it done, I guess.
Just
monitor my water, my wastewater.
That's
right.
Let's be done with it.
Kristen now has a weekend show.
on parts of the Civic Media Radio Network through the app, on the station in Green Bay, I assume in Oshkosh as well.
So this would be, tomorrow would be episode three, right?
Tomorrow is episode three.
All
right.
I had the most wonderful conversation with our old friend, Dr. Patrick McBride from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
And guess what we talked about?
What?
Medical research.
We talked a lot about medical research.
He himself is an NIH researcher.
So the Trump administration's cuts that are stifling, stopping, preventing us from doing this fundamental research that is really life-changing.
I mean, research on Alzheimer's and cancer, and you've heard all of this.
the impact is profound.
So Dr. McBride goes into that, talks about how it's affecting the university, the researchers themselves, what this means for the future of Wisconsin.
It is an incredible conversation.
And for the cherry on the top at the end, we talk a little bit about Wisconsin sports because this is the guy who was the first bat boy for the Brewers when the Brewers came back to Milwaukee.
And then he was involved with the Bucks.
And the Packers, we talk about Junior Bridgeman and the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
It's just some really fond memories.
Dr. McBride is a treasure trove of conversation.
I was going to say, this will not be, this better not be his last appearance on your show.
Oh gosh,
no.
I mean, the guy is just a walking history book of Wisconsin sports.
And his own personal story is so compelling.
And if you have not read his book yet,
you really should the luckiest boy in the world I believe is the title of it and it is it covers it all covers sports it covers growing up with alcoholic parents it covers again going into a life of public health and
We had, we had some, we had a good run there, Christian with public health, but from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this morning, the medical college of Wisconsin in the Milwaukee area where my wife went to medical school, the medical college of Wisconsin has lost about $5 million in research grants, has frozen some hiring and halted development of a new physician assistant program due to funding uncertainty driven by Trump administration policies.
Again, heck of a job, Brownie.
Yeah, this is exactly what we were just talking about.
When we take these training opportunities away, we know we already don't have enough healthcare providers, especially in rural areas.
So when we take away these programs because of funding issues, people in rural areas suffer disproportionately more.
Okay.
The Trump administration has canceled eight research grants to the medical college so far, according to John Raymond, the college president.
They are among hundreds of NIH grants that have been canceled nationwide, specifically because the medical research is related to transgender issues or COVID-19.
or somehow ties into diversity, equity, and inclusion, which again gets back to the whole matter of, you know, make America white again, and, you know, make America doubt science, and let's try to essentially eliminate an entire population of our community in the trans community.
These are all things where research is so critically necessary, and instead it is a direct attack on fellow Americans who...
they would like to just disappear.
It's not just the trans community, obviously, the women's health initiative.
Yes.
They defunded the women's health initiative, which is a giant study that's been going on for decades that primarily looks at women later in life.
So women who are beyond their reproductive potential, so they're not worthy.
They're not worth anything anymore.
So they, they
defunded that but the last thing I heard and of course everything is chaotic and unstable right now is that they were thinking twice about that and likely to keep it going because the last person you want to piss off is a post-menopausal woman.
Can I hear a hell
yeah.
Hell yeah.
But the thing about that is that kind of volatility.
that it's on again and soft again.
The tariffs are a great example of it.
It's now that you no longer go, well, if we just hold out hope, maybe the mad king will change his mind and make this go away.
You're no longer hoping for it to go away.
You no longer assume it will go away.
It might, but then he might change his mind again.
And so it's a permanent state of doubt.
In this case, the medical college says that they have a soft hiring freeze in place right now.
simply because they just don't know what to expect.
And as soon as one announcement is made, it could be repealed, but then it could be quietly put back into effect.
This is the worst way to run a government.
It's entirely chaotic.
And that's like...
this on the upper level.
Think about how it's affecting all of the individuals.
Think of how it's affecting these researchers who have been studying this information.
This is what they got their undergrad degree in and their graduate degrees and their post-grad.
These are the experts in the field who are doing the work and suddenly poof, it's gone.
How does that affect you and your family and your livelihood and your community and the research community?
The ripple effects are monumental.
But to the Trump administration, this is waste, fraud, and abuse.
They don't even know what's happening because they're using a machete to make these ridiculous and unsustainable cuts.
And by the way, when times change and they will, it's not like everybody just comes back to their microscope and the slide is still there where we left it.
You have to start these trials over again.
You have to start these studies over again.
It is just an absolute mess that will affect us for many years after Trump is in the ground.
And the cost.
And the cost.
And the cost.
Kristen, thank you.
Have a great time at the Draft tomorrow.
I'm going to.
It's going to be the best week I've never had.
I can't wait to report back on Monday.
I
cannot wait for that.
We'll see you, Kristen, Monday morning at 6.30.
See you later, my friend.
Coming up next, Devon Remaker, candidate for State Democratic Party Chair.
First, a reminder to sign up for our newsletters.
Plural at upnorthnewswi.com.
Live from Lake Wissota, I'm Pat Crightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
I know it's radio, but I still want to thank Adam in Oregon, Wisconsin for using the text line to send us a photo from the draft last night and he was in a great spot in the crowd there.
Wonderful lighting, just a mass of people and all looked like they're having a good time.
I've heard nothing but good things, you know, so far that that came out of it and and the Packers Drafted a receiver.
Who to thunk?
What what amazing times that we live in.
So round two of the draft will be this evening.
Hopefully the rain that Brittany talked about falling throughout the course of the day today will let up just in time for the second round and that things go smoothly tomorrow for the rest of the draft as well.
So that's the big event this weekend for Wisconsin Democrats.
There's a big event coming up in mid-June There will be the usual state party convention Republicans do the same thing and in these off years is typically when they have elections for positions like chair of the state party and Ben Wickler has been the state party chair for these past six years and is stepping down not running for another term
That has opened up the field so far with three candidates running for that slot.
We're going to talk to one in just a second.
First, want to remind you that we talked to Joseph Pecky yesterday.
We've talked to him frequently on Thursdays and he announced his candidacy on the show a week ago.
Gave us an update yesterday.
We heard from William Garcia on Wednesday.
He is the chair of the third congressional district Democrats.
And we have put that interview up on our YouTube page.
So head over to the Up North News YouTube page and you can see that to learn more about him.
And we're going to do the same thing with the next candidate that we're going to be talking to right here, Devin Remaker from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and candidate to be the next chair.
Devin, good morning.
How are you?
a
Yes, I mean, it's just a great new chapter here and it'll be a new chapter for the State Democratic Party as well.
We caught you here before you hit the road and I know all three of you and any others who might get in the race.
I mean, there is nothing but road work involved here, especially this time of year.
You've got the congressional district level
conventions that are happening this weekend and scattered throughout the course of the calendar here.
So you're getting up there and you are familiar name to me, you are familiar name to party stalwarts throughout Wisconsin.
For all the convention delegates, some
are active, some are a little less active.
They may have heard the name, but they haven't met the person yet.
So we love that we've got this radio program where folks who are running for office like yourself, we can just open it up, give you the platform and say, all right, what is it you're doing with the party right now, Devin Remacher?
And what would you like to do as chair?
Tell us all about it.
And great to be here.
So I am currently, presently on leave from the party where I've been a senior advisor to the party since the end of 2023.
And I'm on leave because I want to make sure that as I'm running for this position, there's no sense of impropriety about, you know, my role with the party here at the convention.
But for me, this is a really great opportunity to do something that used to be much more central to my role, which is getting out there and talking to folks.
all over the state.
I've had the honor and the privilege of working for two chairs of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
First chair, Martha Lanning, and most recently for the past almost six years now, chair Ben Wickler.
And I think he has just left us a fantastic foundation to build upon.
I was served as his executive director for almost half of his tenure.
And I really got to see firsthand what it takes to run the party at the level that it's currently operating at, where we have budgets in excess of
almost 50 million.
We have over 200 staff in almost all of these election cycles and it's a pretty big machine and I think that machine needs a little bit of fine-tuning in places but it's something that I don't want to see that we have to hit the brakes on this year.
I want to be able to hit the gas because I think that Democrats have the rare opportunity in 2026 to have the right maps and hopefully knock on wood.
the bright political environment to be able to win a trifecta and do the thing that I think a lot of Democrats are hoping to do, which is get off defense and go on offense and pass the progressive policy agenda that improves people's lives.
So I'm in this race because I think I'll be ready on day one to grab that baton from Ben and run with it.
We're going to continue to look ahead at what the Democratic Party of Wisconsin needs.
But let me just look back a little bit longer and ask you a bit more about your
Prior to working at the Democratic Party, you have ample experience with candidates and elected officials that have taken you to where you are today.
He
essentially has all of La Crosse County, except for the city of La Crosse, or at least when I worked for him, he did.
And it really sort of helped me, I think, get a thorough understanding of how you need, how Democrats can win and how we need to win and reach voters, especially in rural areas, and sort of 50-50 toss-up.
of parts of the state, which I sort of backed up by then going to work for Congressman Ron
Kynes
I started first as his field director and eventually became his campaign manager from 2016 through the start of 2018.
But that was really a great experience.
We had 18 counties in the congressional district.
It's also the congressional district with the most UW campuses and the most UW students in the state.
And I think it really helped me sort of understand
how things could be incredibly different in different parts of the state.
You know, Eau Claire is different than La Crosse is different than Portage is different than Jackson, Pepp and Buffalo, you name it.
And I think there's definitely different needs and struggles from both county parties and the people in those areas.
And I think that working for Congressman kind really, really ingrained in me a sense of how we need to make sure that we're reaching folks everywhere, not just in major cities.
Yeah, that is always been a key point with anybody Running for any kind of leadership position in the state Democratic Party is to have this this broad statewide view of what to do and that there isn't a one-size-fits-all system What before I get to that almost local level of things I do want to say just from a
you know, a 30,000 foot view, you're feeling on where the Democratic Party overall needs to go.
And I say that in light of a very good outcome for Democrats seeing Susan Crawford elected to the Supreme Court, but months earlier seeing Donald Trump win the state of Wisconsin again, there's been
No shortage of post-mortem pieces.
Most recently, Green Bay Mayor Eric Gennrich wrote something in Dan Schaeffer's Reconbobulation Area, and we will have him on the show Tuesday to hear his view of where the Democratic Party should go from here.
But since everybody else is giving their view, we want to hear that from you as well.
In light of recent events, both good and bad, where do you feel the Democratic Party of Wisconsin needs to go to maintain its successes, but then also
pick up ground that, you know, it where it still needs to do like races for the White House and congressional district seats.
Yeah,
I mean,
I think that the Democratic Party here in the state of Wisconsin is incredibly strong.
I think we have a strong set of leaders.
I think that what we really need to do is make sure that we are reaching folks everywhere and not depending on somebody coming to save us from any sort of national committee or national campaign.
And I know that's been a focus of our work for years.
But I think that we saw, particularly in 2024, to me, the biggest gap.
between our message.
And I think it's easy to say, here's the combination of words that everyone's going to be saying this cycle, or here's the magic set of words that we think is going to win people over.
But I think just as important as the words that we say is how we say them, how we approach conversations with people, how authentic that
we and our candidates appear.
And I think that, you know, for as much as it makes Democrats and myself pull my hair out when people say, well, Donald Trump just, you know, says what he means.
And, you know, he seems authentic despite the fact that many of the things he says are completely horrendous and objectionable.
I think that sometimes voters just aren't buying what we're selling, even when they agree with us on the issues.
And we know that they agree with us on the issues, whether it's protecting Social Security, protecting the
right to choose protecting our very democracy.
People agree with us.
sort of fundamentally, but they just don't always buy it when we're trying to say it.
And I think that's part of that is sometimes when we are engaging in conversation with voters and just listening to Pete Buttigieg speak about this as well, it often feels like we are commanding people to come with us instead of inviting them to come with us and leaving space for there to be that 25 to 20% to 10% disagreement.
And I think that could be alienating to folks at a time when we need to sort of be making our tents even bigger.
And I think that one thing I really wanna do at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin is sort of really make sure that when we're doing things like deep canvassing over the course of this year, or when we are training more passengers for our party.
And I think that we can't be competitive if we're only knocking on people's doors once a year.
And
on their
And I think that we need to both empower people with better information, better messaging, yes, but also the tools and the training and the confidence to be able to use it in a way that will bring people with us instead of leaving people behind because politics is ultimately the art of addition.
And I can say an amen to that that one point.
In fact, of the folks putting things in the comment section, the one that stuck out is all of the texts, all of the emails, everything that's about the fundraising.
And yet fundraising is an important component.
The next chair will have to be mindful of fundraising.
As well as messaging as well as organizing the party at the state level and then at the local level as well Which is where I want to take us now to that that local level and you know from me as being a former chair a county chair for Chippewa County You know there's county chairs and county party members all through all greater, Wisconsin that
have at times felt like their input is falling on deaf ears, not getting the resources they need, and things like that.
So as you talk to folks all over the state in your travels, like you will be in Hayward this weekend, what do you tell them about how you will run things if you are the next state chair?
So I think a fundamental part of my platform is having a 72-county strategy.
And I think that has been talked about before in democratic politics, but would I mean it?
as is I want to have 72 county strategies.
So I think that we have had a laser focus on organizing of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
I think that's yielded fantastic results.
But as I was just saying, I don't think knocking on doors is enough, particularly at this moment in time in which we are seeing widespread backlash to the Trump administration, even in places that you wouldn't normally expect to see that.
I was just talking to the county party.
chair in Kenosha and they had 150 people in union growth.
last weekend, you know, taking a stand.
And I think in order to be able to sort of capture all the energy that's out there and the biggest sort of funnel possible and make sure it stays with us heading into 2026 when we have so many critical elections, we need to support county parties everywhere.
And I think that starts with making sure that we have a team of folks that are actually dedicated to working with them going county by county, figuring out if they need more help with membership, more help with leadership.
As you know, it's hard to be a chair.
It's hard to do it in cycle after cycle.
and we need to make sure that folks feel supported and happy.
Devin Remacher is a candidate for the state party
Oh, sorry.
Devin, that's okay.
Devin Remacher is candidate for state party chair for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
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The Milwaukee Brewers lost three out of four in San Francisco this week, dropping the ball literally yesterday and losing to the Giants six to five.
The Brewers are now in St.
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The Bucks are down 0-2 in their playoff series and they will be on NBA TV tonight for game three.
That's coming up tonight in Milwaukee.
Continuing our conversation now with Devin Remacher, who's a candidate for the state chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
And Devin, picking up where we left off here, talking about what needs to be done from an organizational standpoint, we were talking about at the local level of things.
You mentioned the note about year-round events, and I hear that a lot, the need for year-round either canvassing or year-round training.
There is this perception that so many folks just kind of parachute in at election time and ask people for money and ask people for their vote.
That's not exactly true.
I mean, I certainly know from experience that state parties are a year-round operation
But it certainly seems there are some visible things that could be done year round.
I wonder if you share that sentiment and what kinds of things a party could conceivably do differently if you're elected State Chair.
And I think that I've been saying a lot that it feels like the Republican Party and Trump is on surround sound in a lot of our communities in this state.
And if our only way to reach people is by knocking on doors, which is fantastic, effective in something we need to do, we're leaving a lot on the table.
And I think part of that sort of county by county strategy building is going to involve thinking through, okay, in what way can we have more visibility in your community?
How can we help provide support for things that are relatively inexpensive, but I think impactful by having a presence at community events, farmers markets, parade registration fees, making sure that we have a consistent presence on the
continuing the office support program that I started at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin after my experience on the kind campaign, being able to help make sure that there are storefront offices that county parties can have year round.
And I think that the other part of it is there are a lot of folks who want training on how to use tools like REACH to do relational organizing, which is when we have folks contact their friends and family that are saved as contacts in their phone and try to get them to vote and support our candidates.
But they're being left behind because we're doing a lot of those trainings by Zoom.
And some folks just aren't as familiar with how to go to the app store.
And they just need someone to be able to show them, here it is in the store.
Here's where it went on your phone.
This is your login.
It's different than your minivan login.
And really just take that little bit of extra time.
And then they'll get in there.
They'll get in the fight.
And I think there's just, I'm hearing an immense hunger.
People just want better tools.
And they want to be able to do more than just knock on doors.
And I think we need to have a Democratic Party that supports doing that.
And yard signs.
I will say there's a big stigma with yard signs amongst operatives.
And I've been a big believer, let's just get the signs out there, especially in rural areas.
You know who's yard that sign is it?
You drive down the street in Madison, there might be 10 of them, but you don't know.
most of them.
But that yard sign is effectively an endorsement when it's, you know, on the side of a highway with a person, you know.
And I think that we need to encourage that a lot more and not look down upon
it.
Yeah, I mean, it's it I've always said it's affirmation.
And that's what people they may not agree with their neighbor on everything.
But if they see a sign for so and so, you know, that tells them that, you know, somebody trusts them and it's it's worth giving them a shot.
The there's the question that is
An unfair one.
It's unanswerable.
It's putting you up on a tightrope But guess what the entire Democratic Party is on a tightrope when it comes to this
having convictions that might have the party appear too far to the left versus appealing to swing voters, but then people also accuse you of being in the in the mushy middle.
And what I mean by that is this just these past few days, Democratic legislators have introduced bills that would roll back all restrictions on abortion care.
And yesterday a bill was introduced that would
if it were passed in a referendum, become an amendment to the Constitution, known as the Green Amendment, that would make sure we have protection of natural resources.
Now again, there folks will go, good, finally, no more of this mushiness on abortion or the environment.
Say what you're for.
But thanks to Donald Trump and the whole extreme wing of the party, there's a whole bunch of disaffected Republicans that you can appeal to, but also not if you sound
too far to the left.
It's a tightrope that the Democrats are on.
Can you talk a bit about the messaging challenge that you face when there's probably a majority of folks who actually have progressive values, but they don't embrace the Democratic label just yet?
How do you take that challenge and run with it?
So I
I think the role of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and the chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin is to support our elected officials and have their back.
You know, we are not sort of the policy engine in this state.
And I don't begrudge any legislator for any policy position they take that think that they believe will their constituents help get folks elected up and down the ballot may be a little bit different.
I think we need to focus on.
make sure that security of Medicare, fundamental right to Jews, making sure they have dignity to live their lives, how they want to.
It's really sort of where we need to see that, you know, we're not speaking crosswise in our mission to support Democrats up and down the ballot all across the state.
But to me, fundamentally, I think as long as Democrats are saying it,
authentically, clearly in speaking to their voters, that's going to resonate.
And I think that is naturally going to look different in different parts of the state.
Absolutely.
Devon Remaker is a candidate for chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
Devon, it's always great to catch up with you.
Thank you so much for visiting with us.
And I'm sure we'll talk to you again before the convention.
Safe travels.
All right.
Good to see you as well.
Now, coming up on the program next week, what a week.
We've got a former US Forest Service Chief from Wisconsin who's going to talk about the damage from the Trump Musk cuts.
We will have Senator Keldoroy's talking about that bill to restore women's health care rights.
On Tuesday, we recombobulate with Dan Schaefer, who begins a regular stint with us.
We'll also have Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich on what Democrats need to change to win in 2026.
On Wednesday, there's a new bill that raises this point should Wisconsin Utilities get an advantage when it comes to new transmission line projects.
On Thursday, we'll kick off the month of May with a national day of action planned around the country.
And on Friday, Brian Kennedy, Mayor of Glendale, I'm getting more people to run for local office.
I'm Pat Critello.
Have a great weekend.
See you Monday morning.
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