Scaling Up: Lessons from WisDems’ Remarkable Digital Growth with Ben Wikler

“Democrats can absolutely win, even in the face of this flood of money from the right and every horrific tactic that the right wants to use.”

Y’all know Ben Wikler. He’s currently the head of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin — a role he’s held since 2019.

Here’s a quick relevant fact for you: I live in Wisconsin and do a lot of work in Wisconsin politics. Back in 2018, I was hired by WisDems to help train their comms team on digital — because at the time, they literally didn’t have a single digital staffer. Ben came in shortly after and… let’s just say things changed real quick.

Before leading WisDems, Ben served as the Washington, DC Director and Senior Advisor for MoveOn. One of my favorite parts of his very long and impressive bio: as a student, he was recruited by Al Franken to help write Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them — a book that absolutely needs a second edition.

Ben’s done a lot of cool things to push the Democratic Party forward in innovative and important ways. But now, his tenure as chair is coming to an end — and I invited him on the pod to reflect on what he’s learned and what others can take away from the powerhouse digital program he helped build here in Wisconsin.

Throughout our conversation, we spoke about:

How Ben’s feeling as he steps away — a mix of gratitude, fury, and hope
How WisDems went from a minimal digital program to a national model
What lessons he brought from MoveOn and Avaaz to shape that transformation
The importance of building trust through your digital program
The power of visual communication — if you can’t reach voters who watching TV in a bar with the sound off, you have a problem
What he’d do differently if he were starting from scratch today
Who his biggest adversary was throughout his tenure leading the Democratic Party of Wisconsin
Who he’s looking to for inspiration now
Where he’s spending time online
The diminishing, but still relevant, role Twitter plays for progressive orgs
What he’d do now if he were running the DNC
Where he’s excited to see WisDems go from here

“When you send an email, imagine that you are briefing a President or Prime Minister and you have 30 seconds with them in an elevator on the way to a meeting and you need to establish why this conversation is important, what it is they need to make a decision on and why they might care…”

“Trump turns politics into a show, but we’re not a character in that show unless we’re showing up in every episode.”

Listen to the full episode here or wherever you stream podcasts.

If you prefer video, you can also watch our full conversation:

Find all episodes at HelloMergeTag.com or wherever you stream podcasts.

Links

Website | Twitter | Bluesky | WisDems

Since we spoke several times about Bhavik Lathia, here’s a link to when Bhavik was a guest on the pod.

Big thanks to our sponsor Civic Shout. Learn more about the great work they’re doing to help Democratic campaigns and progressive nonprofits build their lists ethically at civicshout.com/partners.