Greta Neubauer thinks Democrats can flip the Wisconsin State Assembly

I am at the Democratic National Convention, and here in Chicago there is a lot going on.

Most of this is taking place inside the United Center, but there are other events happening

all over town.

Yesterday afternoon, I attended one of those events hosted by an organization called the

Next 50, a group that focuses on the next generation of Democratic leaders with a particular

focus on those in state legislatures.

The event was called the Reverse Cotel's Roundtable, and it featured several state legislative

leaders from swing states, including Senator Mallory McMoro from Michigan, state representative

Sam Park from Georgia, and Greta Newbauer, the Democratic leader in the Wisconsin State Assembly.

After the event, I had the chance to sit down for a conversation with Newbauer.

We talked about Reverse Cotels and how races at the bottom of the ticket might help candidates

at the top. We talked about the changing enthusiasm for Democrats with Kamala Harris as the nominee,

and we talked about Tim Walls and what he and Democrats have been able to do with a one-seat

legislative majority in Minnesota. We also talked about new maps and the chances for Democrats to

win the majority in the assembly. She thinks it can happen. She even predicted that they win 52 seats.

We also talked about the Republicans like Robin Voss advancing more constitutional amendment

referendums. We also talked about what legislative Democrats have done in Wisconsin to protect

the governor's veto during the most recent session. We talked about a lot more, too.

I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Democratic Assembly leader Greta Newbauer. Let's reconbagulate.

So Reverse Cotels, tell me about how Reverse Cotels is going to matter for us with new maps.

Yeah, so we have seen in the districts that are newly very competitive, Shaboygan,

Wassa, Hudson City, real enthusiasm in those communities. People are so excited to be able to

participate in an election at this level, at the legislative level, that is competitive.

So a couple of folks I'd like to talk about, Yilin Zhang and Wassa, you know, just an amazing

candidate in office and so is in high school. Incredible enthusiasm for his campaign. He's a

month leader, would be the first model representative. And we are just seeing volunteers come out of

the woodwork to help him in that race. Again, people who've been really frustrated because

they know that there are enough voters in that area that it should be competitive for Democrats,

but it just hasn't been the case for 10 years. Shaboygan often lit against in the redistricting

cases from Shaboygan because it was such a classic example of Jerry Mandering and Joshian,

who's running theirs, 20 plus year school superintendent, ran the economic development chamber,

just a really well-known community leader. And we had folks out knocking doors with him last week

who were saying that they came across a number of Trumpian voters. So we are just finding these

great candidates who are well-respected in their community who have a lot of relationships,

who are able to bring out new volunteers. And then they're talking to voters who are really excited

about, you know, being one of, again, being in real, participating in a really close election.

Many of these legislative races will probably be decided by a few hundred votes. There are so many

close districts under these maps, 10 seats where if you later on Biden's results from 20,

it would be two percentage points plus or minus for Biden. So that means that those are districts

that can be won or lost on the doors. Our candidates understand that, the voters understand that.

And the last thing I'll say is just that I do think that candidate to voter conversation is

really important. We, of course, are going to do everything we can to give our candidates air

support with mail and digital and in some cases television. But we all know Wisconsin voters are

going to be absolutely flooded with media over the next couple of months. What can break through

that is the actual candidate at the door saying, I want to represent you. What are the issues you

care about? Here's what I'm going to do about those things. And so our whole campaigns really are

designed around getting the candidate to talk to as many voters as possible. So with those conversations

that you're having on the doors, how have those conversations changed in the past six weeks,

going from Joe Biden at the top of the ticket to Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket.

And then second, how do you feel like those conversations can then impact the top of the ticket?

I mean, we're here at this, you know, reverse co-tails round table. How do you see that playing out?

Yeah, so the conversations are different. I have been knocking on doors in my own district.

It's a new district to me and a lot of it, about 65% new. So I wanted to get out and introduce

myself to those new voters. We're knocking on true persuasion doors right now. These are people

who we don't know, how they align politically or we've never spoken to them before. And I was having

a lot of conversations that started out with Biden's age. Even when I was saying, hi, I'm your new

representative. My name is Greta. Here's some of the things that I've been working on. One of the

first things that I was hearing back was some concern about both people who are the options for

the president. See. And of course those conversations are really shifted. I find that we're talking

now much more about the future. We're not relitigating two past presidents. We're talking about what

Kamala Harris has to offer. I am finding a lot of enthusiasm and people who are actually asking me

how to volunteer on the doors. And we are certainly seeing with women, with young voters, with

voters of color, you know, real identification with Kamala and real excitement that she could

be their president. So that is a very exciting thing. There are certainly still a lot of persuadable

voters out there. A lot of people I talk to who say they haven't made their minds up. And that's

why we keep knocking on the doors and having those conversations. It's a very second question.

Well, I guess how those direct conversations can, you know, come back throughout the

foreboding for Harris. Right. So I think what we're seeing now is real

consolidation of Democrats for Harris. So I did have some conversations in the spring with voters

on a Democratic list who said they had concerns about voting for Biden. We're not having that anymore.

Right. Those folks who identify as Democrats, they're voting for Kamala Harris. And then

what that allows us is to really focus on those folks who are actually undecided. Those people who

are still getting the news, thinking about their choice, often these are voters who pay less attention

to politics. Right. These are people who often are raising costs at the doors. And they really do

want to hear what our plans are to address those things. And it's different when I can say

actually, yeah, we have a bill on child care that we would like to pass next year if we're able

to do that. And that will increase the availability of lower costs. It cuts through in a different way

than a male or a redding at the door for Kamala Harris or for our candidates. And so I think we're

going to be able to do for the top of the ticket is find those folks who are dissolutions with

politics in general and hopefully bring them back into voting. And if they show up to vote for

Eileen Zhang or Doshian, they're probably going to be voting for the rest of the ticket as well.

So Tim Walsh is speaking tonight at the DNC. You mentioned during your remarks before that you

had a chance to speak with him recently. Can you tell me about that conversation and about how

what he's been able to do and what what Democrats have been able to do in Minnesota?

Can that provide a template for Democrats and Wisconsin? Yeah, absolutely. So I met Tim Walsh at the

Eau Claire Rally. Incredible energy there. And of course it was sort of him. Welcome to Wisconsin.

There were a few folks I think who drove across the border to attend that one. But people were

thrilled to have him. And I think many people in Wisconsin look at Tim Walsh and they see sort of

their favorite coach or teacher or uncle or somebody they know from church or something like that.

So a lot of identification I think of Wisconsinites with dolls. What I said was we're working for

the majority this year in Wisconsin. We have a real path in the assembly and he said you only need

a majority of one to get amazing things done. And we have seen that in Minnesota. Many of us

have family or friends my mom's from Minnesota who look to our neighboring states of Minnesota and

Michigan see the recent trifecta and see that they really have been able to meaningfully improve

people's lives in those states. People who were in poverty who are not kids who did not have

physical meals who do rights protected that were under attack women's rights workers rights

and more. So that's just been a really amazing thing to see and I think we certainly identify

with those states their neighbors to us they're not so different. The reason that Wisconsin is behind

is because we were the right wing's testing ground and the gerrymander and these attacks and

voting rights really a lot of publicans to consolidate power in a serious way. And we have now been

digging out of that hole for a number of years but have finally crossed on to the other side

of having a functioning legislative contests right real competitive districts and

it's just a very exciting time. We look to these other states to in terms of how quickly they were

able to move and how effective they were in consolidating around top priorities and then passing

those into law. Yeah you obviously sat next to Senator McBorrow for that panel here what types of

things you know you think you might be able to learn from her you know just in your individual

interactions but also just from what they've done in Michigan as well. Yeah so I've been speaking

with the leaders in Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania actually and there are a number of things

that we all have in common our states have some similar dynamics we're all battlegrounds we're

in the spotlight again this year. Let's just say what could it be? They all have a common yes

but they've they've been able to make some real games and in the in the house in the assembly

in Michigan they have another similarity to us which is that they had about a 50% new caucus

last cycle and that's the situation we're setting up for as well. So we've been talking to them

about how they prepared to govern hoping and working towards a majority but not having it yet

with all of these new people coming in and so I have been picking their brains about that and

figuring out how we can start working through these really detailed policy questions to be prepared

for January but certainly hearing about the the messages that they hit on and their races the

themes that were resonating with voters the the structure of the organization that they had is

really helpful. We have of course a very lucky in Wisconsin we have a really strong state party

the governor is very invested in state legislative work and so we do have really an amazing

operation this year that I think is providing fantastic support to our candidates and these

targeted seats but it is a lot of seats for one year and so you know always more work to do to

make sure that they are talking to voters and and making sure their message gets out there.

Those constitutional amendments that you talked about and that you know I think democratically

aligned voters shut down last week in Wisconsin. First what was your reaction to the results

when you saw them last Tuesday and then you're also if you could expand on your reaction to

what Speaker Boss had to say about the Republicans wanting to continue on the path to do more of

these types of constitutional amendments. Republicans in Wisconsin particularly in the legislature

got used to being able to compete on an unfair playing field. They talk about how they

have great candidates but we're going to see how their candidates to hack up in actually fair

districts and they also change the rules for funding campaigns so that they would be able to

accept unlimited contributions from individual donors so that they would be able to outrage and

outspend Democrats many of whom were funding their campaigns with grassroots work.

They are now experiencing the Democratic Party being able to counter them and being able to push back

and being able to actually be able to actually compete in every way that Republicans have for

a number of years and so it's just a very exciting moment of course for us to see

all of the work. I often when I'm talking to folks locally talk about how going into those

county party offices right in the winter maybe in February before those spring elections or in

August as people are slogging knocking on doors right those persuadable voters before a fall election

people kept doing the work the grassroots kept showing up and knocking on doors and working to

flip Supreme Court seats and the governor's race and when the governor's race and protect the veto

even though they didn't know how it was going to turn out and that we were ever actually going to

get to this moment where Wisconsin could be on a new path and so what I see in the constitutional

amendment both this August was all that bearing fruit we have the right message we have resources

to put behind that for many years of building up so many ways of reaching voters and reaching donors

and then we've got the grassroots infrastructure with hundreds of organizers already on the ground

talking about every level of the ballot and the constitutional amendments what I found knocking

on doors was over the last month before the election we went from people not really knowing they

were on the ballot or understanding them to people understanding them. Democrats got the message

that these constitutional amendments were power grabbed by Republican legislators and people

in the middle also got that message and it turns out they didn't really like it and they thought

that it was not a good thing. I heard from a colleague about a conversation with a Trump

voter on the doors who said in a crisis situation I actually want resources to be able to go out

with the federal government and even I know what the Republican legislators will do if they're

able to muff up the process and so it's really powerful I think for all of us to see that voters

understand what Republicans have been up to and they are tired of the power grabs. We also saw

really great turnout overall which is an exciting thing for us for November because we need

enthusiasm to do high we need voters to turn out everywhere and that's what we saw on the election.

Yeah and then with Vos too do you think that his comments about wanting to do more of these

constitutional amendments I think that's gonna play out. So Republicans understand that the

Jerry Mander has protected them from the little of the voters and they are going to do everything

that they can to make use of that Jerry Mander for as long as they can. They made that really clear

in the last two years where they tried to fight fair maps at every turn thankfully they were not

successful but they hope that they will be able to hang on for one more term with these

majorities and be able to put policies in place that allow them to have an advantage long term.

We have voter ID in law they want it to be in the Constitution because they know that it benefits

them they know that it suppresses the votes of people who historically have voted democratically

including young people and voters of color and low income voters and so it's really important

that we don't allow them to do that. They are going to pass a constitutional amendment on voter ID

next session if they're allowed to and send that to the voters it's already past once. So it's one

of the really important reasons that we need to get the Assembly majority this year and we can

allow them to come back without majority next time. They also are talking about an abortion ban

surprising to me that they would do that in this political moment when they have seen how voters

respond to their efforts to take away reproductive rights but they continue on they continue on

and so we all know what they're up to they're trying to get around to Governor Evers the

popularly elected governor of Wisconsin by passing these constitutional amendments we just can't

let them do it we have to get the Assembly majority this year. So then what's the road map to

getting that Assembly majority there? I mean really it's just working very hard our candidates are

doing great work they are not being on hundreds of doors every week we have 52 seats the governor

Evers would have won if we had these maps in 22 we have 49 that by one or three that you would have

lost by half a percentage point. So the path is is there these voters voted

democratic historically and our candidates are going out to make sure that everyone both turns out

and shows up for that. And so again our our focus is making sure that those candidates are on the

doors that that close margin right two percentage points plus or minus for Biden 10 seats in that

category those are numbers that you can shift by being on the doors and by working hard. Republicans

have not done that because they have not needed to for 10 years and so they're not used to

kidding out and doing the work and knocking on the doors and actually persuading voters their

messages are not resonant with the people of Wisconsin that they don't have the grassroots

infrastructure the party is weak because Trump is pulling all of the dollars for himself

and on our side we have a unified incredibly motivated and enthusiastic coalition that is going

to do everything they can to flip them assembly this year to win these critical senate seats

congressional's Tammy Baldwin and then come on here sometimes. Care to make a prediction

for for how this is going to go 52 52 that's the prediction that's the plan again that's the

seats by and one and then three he lost by half a percentage point and we've got Ealing Jean

Christie Welch and Alison Page and those very very close seats these are really really good candidates

these are people who came to us because they wanted to be part of this historic moment in

Wisconsin because they have the leaders in their local communities and they want to govern

that's why they're running and so they're doing everything they can to to flip the assembly and

to help us pass this great policy very good well thanks so much I have one other question that's

been a little bit of a curiosity of mine yeah since you've had this two seat kind of buffer

with the protecting the veto um you know I know there was one incident involving uh representative

Doyle from lacrosse the lacrosse area um are there any other examples of that you can share

about the links that you've all gone to to protect that veto in these last two years?

yes so um pretty quickly after election night in 22 we realized in close to margins we're

going to be that there was a Republican superiority in the senate and then we were digging in on

the rule changers that Republicans had made on their ability to take up veto overrides those

meant that they could take up veto overrides as many times as they wanted which was a change um and

that they could make an argument um start that over I guess what I'll say is that they might try to

take up overrides um in many different circumstances so we were concerned they could try to take

them up during skeletal session days in Madison when there had been no calendar session

and no warning and so uh I had to ask our members to be in Madison a lot of last year and a half

they um they were in Madison for every skeletal session they they were there for every hour

that the Capitol was open we had folks checking with us to let us know that they were in the building

we had um we we bought this they called pager duty which is essentially an alert system um so

that we could get the message out to every member uh and staff member as quickly as possible

it calls you until you pick up the phone it texts you and emails you until you confirm I've got

the message I'm coming to the floor of the assembly thankfully we did not have to use that um

but our members were there every single skeletal session day and every single session day

and so we didn't have many close calls because people were there um they understood the assignment

and um they missed you know their family funerals and birthdays and many of them had part-time jobs

that they really had to let go of the wayside because they had to be in Madison a lot and that's the

job they understood that but it was it was a lot it was different than it has been in the past being in

the assembly um and then of course there was one sort of dramatic incident which was the Republicans

thought they had the numbers it was late at night it was about 11 o'clock um and they were looking

around and they thought that they might be able to take up overrides but um Steve Doyle had been in

his office all day because he had COVID we made people come in and sit isolated in their offices

with COVID because we needed them there um and so they started doing a call at the house to take

up each overrides and Steve came running in and his mask to make it clear that he was in fact there

and they did not have the numbers that's pretty remarkable yeah so they often you know so for those

who don't follow this is closely Republicans do often keep you in the dark about when those

sessions are happening like like how does that play out when you have that close to a majority and

you have to like do they call call things with you know whatever required notice that they they

have to give you and all that I mean how does that largely play out yeah so generally how it

works is they we will have a sense of when the session days are going to be there's days held

on the calendar in the skeletal days and then they will let us know you know informally if you

guys before and then sort of formally you know uh yeah forgetting that the exact notice but a couple

days um that's sort of the collegial way to do things uh and then they would put things on the

calendar so we'd have some time to prepare right look at the bills understand how we want to go

our concern was that during these skeletal sessions days that were held um they might just

walk onto the floor at any moment with absolutely no notice and start taking up veto overrides

we would have challenged that in court um but we didn't know if they would try to do that and we

couldn't allow them to have the opportunity um to uh pass a bill on unfair maps and try to make

an override or uh attack trans kids and override or you know this is bad uh tax policies and override so

we just had to be there um and again with the ability that they gave themselves the Republicans gave

themselves to take up vetoes as many times as they want we worried someone could be in the bathroom

right someone could have stepped outside to take a phone call and they take up veto overrides

immediately so everyone was tracking where all the members were uh at all times during session days

to make sure that people would be able to run back and and uphold the veto if needed pretty well

pretty well uh i bet you're looking forward to you know perhaps a style of governing

but it's a little bit different yes yes yes you know i had some Republican colleagues say

well i wouldn't take up a veto overrides with no notice but i'm not in charge so you know uh

we'll see let's see seems like there's some within the Republican caucus in my pocket

yeah we'll hope that it's going to be a different time yeah we're very good thanks so much

you