Hope on the Horizon

While most in the conservative and center-right communities are understandably going through the stages of grief over the April election results, there is cause for hope. At the 1848 Project, where center-right thinkers are recruited, trained, and given continuing education and professional development opportunities, there were wins on April 1. In fact, 2/3rds of the 1848 Project’s roster won their races, despite the 10 percentage point loss at the top of the ballot. That speaks life into three emerging political trends in Wisconsin:

1. Relationships still matter in local races

2. Absentee and Early voting can and do help increase local race vote totals

3. Nonpartisan elections are where political farm teams are built

Relationships still matter in local races

While much of the messaging in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race was driven by millions of dollars of TV ads, many of which were not even authorized by the candidates themselves, local races are still run on comparative shoestrings. While the Supreme Court race topped a whopping $100 million in spending, a local school or town board race may cost $100. These campaigns are often so organic that they are run by knocking on the doors of neighbors and asking for votes and promoting ideas, events, and voting plans on social media platforms. Neither of these outreach forms costs a dime. While we encourage our candidates to print and hand out literature promoting their candidacies, there is usually neither money nor desire for negative lit designed to attack an opponent.

What we rediscovered this campaign season is that relationships- those established before a declaration of candidacy and those forged while knocking on doors or shaking hands at events—matter, and translate into votes. In fact 66% of our candidates won with these relationship-building tactics. And 66 % is a massive number considering that the 1848 Project includes all of our resourced candidates in our numbers… not just incumbents, and not just those in “red” districts. We count everyone we train.

Absentee and Early voting can and do help increase local race vote totals

Statewide, we saw a half million voters cast their votes early, according to most sources. Both absentee voting and early in-person voting totals jumped by shocking margins- 54% and 102% increases over 2 years ago, respectively. There is a real “down ballot drop off” phenomenon, where some voters will vote only for the top-of-the-ticket races and as a voter moves down the ballot, they will vote in fewer contests because they do not know the candidates. However, there is also a real “trickle up” electoral politics theory, whereby a local candidate can bring atypical spring election voters to the polls who will vote for the top-of-the-ticket, as well as the local candidate they turned out for. For example, if Joe from Joe’s Auto Mechanics is running for school board, and Joe’s two mechanics as well as his parents have never voted in a spring election, but turn out to support Joe (who is running as a fiscal conservative), those 2 mechanics, plus Joe’s 2 parents, will also vote for the conservative at the top-of-the-ticket. That’s a trickle-up impact of 4 votes. Absentee and early voting are here to stay. We must understand and combat down ballot drop off, embrace trickle-up electoral politics, and run candidates in local nonpartisan races who want to serve because they are Wisconsin’s center-right farm team.

Nonpartisan elections are where political farm teams are built

Liberals are using nonpartisan elections to build relationships with voters across America. For decades they have been running locally without “D’s” after their names. They use moderate language in local offices that usually have no bearing on the most contentious of political issues: abortion, immigration, tariff policy. The result is that local voters begin to build relationships with these political wolves in sheep’s clothing. These liberal local officeholders claim to be moderate, but when they run for their next office- with a D after their name this time- and are elected with the votes of neighbors who believed they were “nice” or “meant well” or “never did anything crazy” while they served locally, it is too late. Well-intentioned voters fall for these tricks. Liberals and progressives are counting on it.

That is why it is important that solid fiscal conservatives who believe in government accountability are running for local offices, too. We need to tell the truth to voters from Day 1, do what we promise in office, and then when our farm team is built, and one of our local officeholders runs for partisan office, there is real and sincere trust, and a deserved vote is cast. There is hope. All is not lost. If we reflect, we can recalibrate and realize the opportunity zone of local nonpartisan offices for solid center-right growth.

Rebecca Kleefisch is Wisconsin’s former Lieutenant Governor and President of the 1848 Project, a nonprofit that recruits, trains, and does continuing education for local candidates.