Let me start by thanking every one of our supporters who DID SOMETHING to try to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz: writing postcards, making phone calls, canvassing, handing out informational flyers on campuses, giving generously to candidates, putting out yard signs, even just urging like-minded family and friends to vote. Nationally, we fell well short of the goal; among the other battleground states we fell short, too. But Wisconsin came the closest of all the battleground states: Harris/Walz lost by a mere 1.5%. And while almost every county in the US shifted toward Republicans, our so-called WOW counties all shifted LEFT! Together we did vital work. So take some time to refresh and renew. We will need to go back to work in a big way after the New Year to elect Susan Crawford to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, thus preserving the liberal majority.

There's of course plenty to say about the national political scene. Every day, the news is full of Trump's activities. And his nominations for key government positions — like Secretary of Defense, Attorney General, and Secretary of Health and Human Services — are abominations. Amid questions about whether any House Republicans on the Ethics Committee will vote to release the Matt Gaetz report to the Senate Judiciary Committee or to the public, the New York Times and the Washington Post provide endless coverage of the president-elect's picks with scant critique. Left-leaning cable news hosts wring their hands. Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski traipse down to Mar-a-Lago to make nice and make up to Trump. I could spend the entire newsletter lamenting these events. But I won't.

It's just my view, but watching as each individual car is added to the train whose wreck we can easily foresee is mostly pointless and a waste of our collective breaths. Instead, I want to focus on the election results in Wisconsin where, in fact, the outcomes were fantastic. You already know that Democrats flipped 10 Assembly seats and four key state Senate seats, including the seat now to be held by Jodi Habush Sinykin. And Tammy Baldwin won re-election even if her opponent remains petulant and obstinent. What I have to add to the story is evidence that the work Grassroots North Shore (and the Democratic Party) collectively did has a visible outcome once you look at the data. A subset of the data is available on our website. (You can download the full spreadsheet here. )

Ninety-two percent of all US continues shifted red — toward Republicans. Although Harris lost Ozaukee County by about 10.40%, the "blue shift" in county was about 1.1%. Here's Ben Wikler's take:

Harris WON Cedarburg with 50% of the vote to Trump's 48% (the remaining 2% having gone to third party candidates or write-ins). She also won Thiensville, 50.21% to 49.79%. Tammy Baldwin lost Cedarburg by a mere 92 votes and Jodi Habush Sinykin by only 49 votes. In Mequon, Harris lost the city by 92 votes out of 17,268 ballots cast for the major party candidates for president. Hovde squeaked by Baldwin in Mequon by 1233 out of 16,675 votes for US Senator and Stroebel beat Habush Sinykin by just 341 votes out of 17,191 cast.

Democratic candidates — Kamala Harris, Tammy Baldwin, and Jodi Habush Sinykin — won big in all seven North Shore communities. Harris's margins ranged from a low of 57.60% in River Hills to a high of 84.15% in Shorewood. The same is true for Baldwin and Habush Sinykin. The numbers Habush Sinykin garnered from North Shore communities propelled her win. Turnout in these seven municipalities equalled or topped 90%!

The ballot question (Constitutional amendment) won with 70% of the vote statewide, but not in the North Shore. I want to dwell on this fact because the activities Grassroots North Shore was able to undertake focused on defeating that ballot question even though none of the Democratic literature our canvassers were distributing even mentioned the matter. The almost 9,000 phone calls we made to follow up on the postcards we had previously sent delivered strong messaging about the ballot question. Most impactful, several of the canvass staging locations in the North Shore provided volunteers with talking points and a bookmark-style handout for their routes. The result of these efforts is visible in the voting patterns. In the six communities where we delivered the VOTE NO bookmarks, four voted to defeat the ballot question: 53% to 47% in Bayside; 54% to 46% in Fox Point; 69% to 31% in Shorewood; and 55% to 45% in Whitefish Bay.

Glendale (49% NO and 51% YES) and River Hills (41% NO and 59% YES) bucked the trend. But even in these two communities, the percent of NO votes was much higher than the percent of NO votes state wide (30% NO and 70% YES).

We did not win Wisconsin this time. But our dedicated work was decidedly not in vain. Our North Shore communities' vote for Democrats by widening numbers. And the work Grassroots North Shore and the Democratic Party of Ozaukee County are doing in those communities is clearly paying off and building for greater impact in the future.

And let us not underestimate the new distribution of power in the legislature. The gerrymandered maps under which we labored for 14 years have given way to fair maps that reinstate many truly competitive districts, giving both parties opportunities to form a majority. Not only is that a fitting outcome for a state as purple as ours, it means that whichever party temporarily holds the gavel will increasingly have to work with the other party to move Wisconsin forward. BUT fair maps for the future are far from guaranteed!

We will need the legislature to pass and the governor to sign a law that protects the state from future gerrymanders, by either party. And ultimately Wisconsin will need to pass a constitutional amendment to ensure fair maps going forward.

Meanwhile there is more work to be done. And SOON. The technically non-partisan race for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat is already in full swing. Susan Crawford, a former prosecutor and current Circuit Court judge, is already running hard for the seat. She has been endorsed by the Democratic Party. More importantly, she has been endorsed by all four liberal justices: Ann Walsh Bradley (who is retiring and whose seat Susan Crawford is seeking), Rebecca Dallet, Jill Karofsky, and Janet Protaseiwicz. Electing her is a short-term guarantee of fair maps in 2026 and 2028.

Many of you gave your all in 2024. Take time to take care of yourselves, to support fellow progressives, to enjoy the company of friends and family through the holidays coming up. We may not be able to combat every pernicious policy the Trump administration pursues, but it's clear we can impact the lives of Wisconsinites in the communities where we live. So join us as we gear up to fight the next battle here in Wisconsin. What we can lose: the right to bodily autonomy, fair maps, protection from the devastations of climate change and a host of other critical issues. What we can gain: a fairer and less doctrinaire high court.

I apologize for failing to produce a newsletter last week — I was really busy trying to find and analyze the election data relevant to the work of Grassroots North Shore. And I plan to take Thanksgiving week off too. So expect the next newsletter as we begin December. Let the holidays commence!

EVENTS

Thursday, November 21

Friday, November 22

Saturday, November 30

Friday, December 6

other important links

Become a Member of Grassroots North Shore	Milwaukee County Democratic Party
Support Grassroots North Shore	Ozaukee County Democratic Party

Visit Grassroots North Shore on Facebook and Like Us!