WFP Memo: WI Supreme Court Election

TO: Interested parties
FROM: WI Working Families Party
RE: WI Supreme Court Election

BACKGROUND

The Wisconsin Supreme Court race is now officially the most expensive judicial race in American history, with spending totaling over $100 million. Elon Musk is trying to buy the race for Brad Schimel, and he’s spent over $25 million. This election is the first real test of the people vs. Musk, a narrative we urged our coalition to advance early in the campaign. It is the first statewide test of the opposition movement against greedy politicians like Donald Trump and Brad Schimel and the billionaires like Musk who back them.

To meet this challenge, the Wisconsin Working Families Party executed one of its largest spring field programs leading up to the Spring election. As of this writing, the Wisconsin Working Families Party has had more than 25,605 1-on-1 conversations with voters via canvassing and phones — as far as we can tell, more direct conversations than any other independent effort on behalf of Judge Susan Crawford. And 703 volunteers sent 36,868 personal postcards to voters about the Supreme Court race. All told, the Party made 661,330 attempts, 44,841 contacts, and 15,408 voters identified for Judge Susan Crawford.

WI WFP also identified that Brad Schimel’s “tough on crime” message — following the  Trump/Musk/Republican fearmongering playbook — rang hollow for state residents. Together with Vera Action, a criminal justice thinktank, Wisconsin Working Families Party spoke to voters instead about public safety, protecting investments in public education, affordable housing, and accessible and affordable healthcare. Instead of empty promises, the WI WFP message spoke to Judge Crawford’s commitment to address crime by getting illegal guns out of communities and increasing access to mental health and addiction resources.

Our ground game strategy was to identify and reach persuadable voters, even until the very last minute; that strategy is paying off: 

  • We met Daniel on Sunday. He told us he wasn’t going to vote because he couldn’t get to the polls. We hooked him up with resources and he texted us back just today to let us know that he just voted for Crawford and Dr. Jill Underly for State Superintendent of Schools 
  • One of our last knocks last night was Fabian, a young Latino male voter who was voting for the first time, and voting for Crawford.
  • Just this morning, volunteers helped Yvette who was at the wrong polling location. As a caregiver, she didn’t have time to go later in the day, so they drove her to the correct polling location and then dropped her off at home (all within half a mile) so she was able to vote for Crawford.

Read below for more detail:

WHAT WE ACCOMPLISHED

  1. Voter contact milestones:
    1. 15,408 total Crawford IDs: Identified more than 15,408 voters for Crawford using a Rapid Voter Feedback script.
    2. 29,688 doors knocked: As of Tuesday, April 1, WI WFP knocked 29,373 doors in support of Judge Susan Crawford, Dr. Jill Underly, and down ballot candidates across the state. 
    3. 190,628 dials: Callers attempted more than 190,628 voters.
    4. 406,740 Texts sent: Our texting effort reached voters statewide.
  2. Relational postcard contacts:
    1. 143 volunteers sent 19,364 relational postcards urging contacts to vote NO on the referendum.
    2. 703 volunteers sent 36,868 postcards on the Supreme Court election.
    3. For a total of 752 volunteers sent 56,232 relational postcards.
  3. Endorsements and Key Votes:
    1. 20 local candidates: WI WFP endorsed a strong slate of candidates fighting for working families in state legislative races. You can view these candidates here.
    2. Kenosha and Racine education funding referendums: We partnered with the Kenosha Education Association and the Vote Yes for Our Kids! Campaign in Racine to contact voters about school funding referendums.
    3. Vote No on the Voter ID Amendment: We ran a large relational postcard campaign urging voters to vote NO.
  4. Messaging
    1. Serious on Safety: WFP took the lead to bring Vera Action into the fold by hosting a briefing with VP Insha Rahman that was attended by dozens of partners. State Director Corinne Rosen also appeared with VP Rahman on the Block & Build podcast. 
  5. Earned media
    1. Working Families Power mobilizations: Our allied c4 group, Working Families Power, took the lead on logistics and promotion for birddogging Brad Schimel and hosting protests to get Elon Musk’s money out of politics. They mobilized over 1,000 people in one marquee event in Green Bay. Our organizer, Sinceree, was interviewed by TMJ4.
    2. TikTok: We started experimenting with TikTok and earned 60,000 views in two short weeks of content.
  6. Strategic Partnerships:
    1. Raíces Acción: We partnered with this new Racine-based Latino organization to reach a significant number of Spanish-speaking voters, enhancing our impact across diverse geographies.
    2. Seed the Vote: Our collaboration with Seed the Vote expanded our reach, knocking over 13,168 doors through this partnership alone.
  7. Randomized Control Trial (RCT): 
    1. We completed a Randomized Control Trial with Movement Labs to test the efficacy of our text and phone program. We will provide updates as soon as we get complete voter data from the voter file.
  8. Paid media:
    1. We worked with Vera Action to place ads on Facebook to our targeted voter audience: