Wins by a liberal judge and a progressive mayoral candidate in two Midwestern states offered a glimpse of the mood of the electorate after the midterms, and it's promising for Democrats. 5 lessons for Democrats from victories in Wisconsin and Chicago:
Confetti rains down at the end of Brandon Johnson’s watch party at the Marriott Marquis in Chicago, on April 4, 2023.
Three political scientists — Kathleen Dolan of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Barry Burden and Kathy Cramer of the University of Wisconsin-Madison — cited the potency of abortion as the clear takeaway from the race, which brought not only a lopsided liberal victory but also unusually high turnout for a spring election in an off year.
In Chicago, a deep-blue city in a blue state where abortion remains legal, the dominant issue in the mayor’s race was crime — and the “tough on crime” candidate, Paul Vallas, lost to Johnson, who walked back his support for cuts to police funding but stood by his position that a fundamentally different approach to public safety was needed.
But Wisconsin showed the breadth of Democratic strength. In the crucial “WOW” counties — Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington counties, a suburban and traditionally red swath outside Milwaukee — Protasiewicz outperformed historical trends even more than Gov. Tony Evers did in winning reelection last November.
Kelly skipped several public forums and ran a mostly negative campaign, Dolan said — factors that might have hurt him. “It’s not like he didn’t have a record of experience on which he could have run, but he didn’t,” she said. “He didn’t build a case for himself.” “This in many ways came down to Paul Vallas,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., who took part in an internet ad for Johnson.Protasiewicz’s opponent, Kelly, was involved in efforts to overturn Wisconsin’s 2020 election on behalf of then-President Donald Trump. In the final days of the court race, he also welcomed the support of a conservative activist who was on the grounds of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
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