Liberals and Progressives Win
Key races in Wisconsin show that Democrats are on a winning streak and Progressive are gaining momentum.
Two big elections happened last night. The mayoral race for Chicago and a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat.
The Wisconsin seat was won by Judge Janet Protasiewicz, a Democrat, which will change the court to a Democrat majority for the first time in 15 years. The timing is also crucial as over the next couple of years the court is likely to weigh in on abortion rights and gerrymandering.
Under the conservative majority, the Wisconsin Supreme Court limited unions, upheld restrictive voting rights and limits on drop boxes for ballots, stopped campaign finance investigations into Republicans, and okayed highly gerrymandered district maps.
Most recently, with the overturning of Roe v Wade, Wisconsin fell back to an 1840 law that bans abortions outside of for the purpose of saving the life of the mother.
This was the big issue for voters during this election and thanks to a 2002 Supreme Court Ruling from a Republican case, which determined that judges had a first amendment right to discuss their personal opinions on issues as long as they don’t say how they would rule on a case, Protasiewicz was free to say her personal beliefs on abortion and districting rules during the campaign, which boosted her appeal.
Also thanks to a 2015 Republican campaign finance law, Democrats were able to donate large amounts of money to Protasiewicz’s campaign.
The end result was the most expensive judicial campaign in US history, coming in at over $40 million raised by all candidates/parties. Besides showing how expensive politics continues to be in America, it also shows the lengths the Democrat party is going to in order to regain ground in local politics across the nation, focusing on crucial battlegrounds where a single election can significantly change the tide.
Just as they did with Brandon Johnson’s mayoral campaign for Chicago.
Brandon Johnson is very progressive and mostly embraced his progressive stances on the campaign trail. Being the 3rd most populous city in America, it became a battleground for Progressives to show that they can win major contests.
Johnson endorsements:
Bernie Sanders
Elizabeth Warren
Jamaal Bowman
Ayanna Pressley
8 more US Congressmembers
30+ Local politicians
And more
This was a major moment for Progressives, even more so because Johnson’s challenger, Vallas, was painted as a Republican despite defining himself as a moderate Democrat.
This meant that a race which was technically Democrat vs Democrat, was seen by some as a proxy battle between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans did donate to the Vallas campaign, and Vallas also received endorsements/funds from Anti-LGBT groups and MAGA individuals. All of which undoubtedly hurt his campaign in such a liberal city.
Despite all of this, the race was incredibly close with Johnson taking away 51.4% of the vote for victory (as of this time only 91% of the vote has been tallied, this could adjust slightly).
It was another expensive, long and hard fought battle for the Democrats, and even more so the Progressive movement. This moment shows that Progressives can win big races while campaigning on their progressive positions.
Brandon Johnson was part of the Defund the Police movement years ago. And while he didn’t use that slogan during his campaign, he didn’t back down from stating he wanted to invest in councilors who could handle certain calls, such as domestic disputes, to free up police to handle violent crime in the streets. A much more polished message about changing police funding without the slogan that was so easy for opponents to misrepresent.
Crime was one of the largest topics throughout the whole campaign as Chicago sees an increase in violent crimes such as carjackings. The other large issue was schools.
Chicago has a struggling public school system where Vallas previously worked as an administrator, and Johnson previously worked as a teacher. Johnson spent a lot of time focusing on and amplifying Vallas’s negative school policies and school records across the country.
Vallas has worked on numerous school systems in multiple states, where he pushed towards charter schools, resulting in public schools being shut down in some areas.
While all of these are factors, and in a race as tight as this one any factor could be the one that leads to victory, another big difference was in how the campaigns were approached.
Vallas had major funding initially and he used that for traditional advertising. Whereas Johnson began as a more grass roots movement, making the big focus of his campaign knocking on doors and getting the word out.
Johnson began the runoff in a distant second. Week after week the margins got closer as the grassroots hard work paid off. Then all of the endorsements began to flow in and it all coalesced into a victory that Progressives needed to improve national momentum.
There will be a lot of pressure on Johnson over the next year. With a big Presidential election on the horizon, both Republicans and Democrats will be keeping an eye on Chicago. If Johnson builds a positive approval rating and city statistics begin improving, Democrats will tout it as an example of how effective Progressive leadership can be.
If he falters, has any missteps, or even if the general economy simply gets worse, Republicans will be ready to pounce and highlight the issues in Chicago as ones that the whole nation would face under the “radical far left agenda”.
It is a stressful job made all the more intense by the national attention. But Johnson looks eager and ready to take on the challenge. His goals are highly ambitious, however the reality of bureaucracy may dampen his hopes of how much can change in a short span of time once he officially takes office.
With all eyes on Chicago, we now wait and see what Progressives can do.