The Democratic Party of Wisconsin Endorses Jill Underly for State Superintendent

The Spring Primary made one thing clear: there is one true progressive public schools champion in the race for State Superintendent, and that’s Dr. Jill Underly. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is proud to endorse her campaign to become our next Superintendent at the Department of Public Instruction, a job once held by our own Governor Tony Evers.

Dr. Underly has more than two decades of public education experience, and has served kids pre-kindergarten through college, as a teacher, a principal, a mentor, and a district superintendent.

Sign up to get involved in Jill Underly’s campaign at: https://underlyforwi.com/join-the-team/.

NEWS ROUNDUP January 16, 2021

A LOT has happened this week, and you might not have been able to keep up with it all (that’s okay). Here’s a quick round-up:

1. Trump was impeached! Again. Every Democrat in the Wisconsin Congressional delegation voted for impeachment. Thank you Congress members Kind, Moore, and Pocan for doing your duty and standing up for American democracy!

Every Republican House member from Wisconsin voted against impeaching Trump for inciting violent insurrection at the Capitol. This includes:

    • Scott Fitzgerald
    • Mike Gallagher
      → Mike Gallagher even admitted that “Trump bears responsibility” for the mob violence in DC. Yet he still voted against impeachment. All words, no action, abject hypocrisy.
    • Tom Tiffany
    • Bryan Steil
    • Glenn Grothman

2. Governor Evers gave his State of the State address, and laid out a powerful agenda for the people of Wisconsin. You can watch the full speech here, and here are some highlights:

      • Governor Evers declared 2021 the Year of Broadband Access, calling for a $200 million investment in Internet infrastructure.
      • Governor Evers announced that he will be calling for a special session of the legislature to overhaul Wisconsin’s antiquated unemployment system—crucial at a time when so many people need to access it.
      • Governor Evers talked about his People’s Maps Commission, and the urgent need to end gerrymandering in Wisconsin, and strengthen democracy.

3. The WisDems launched a six-figure ad buy calling on Ron Johnson to resign for his role in inciting the violent insurrection in DC last week.

Click here to watch our Ron Johnson ad (and donate, if you can, to help us reach more people)!

Info from Wisconsin Dems

2019 Wisconsin Democrats State Convention

Photos from the 2019 Wisconsin Democrats State Convention held in Milwaukee WI. at the Potawatomi Hotel and Casino on June 1 and 2. (Left to right:  Carrie Pitt, Governor Tony Evers, Jan Koch, Patty Luff, Denise Riley, Dan Weidner and Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barns.)
(Left to right:  Patty Luff, Carrie Pitt, Jan Koch, Chuck Koch, Senator Tammy Baldwin, Dan Weidner and Denise Riley)

DNC Announces Framework for the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary Debates

Washington, D.C. — Since his campaign for chair of the Democratic National Committee, DNC Chair Tom Perez has promised to conduct a presidential primary process that is transparent, fair, inclusive, and puts the party in the best possible position to take back the White House in 2020.

Perez has followed through on this promise by passing historic reforms that have expanded the use of primaries, made caucuses more accessible, reduced the influence of superdelegates, and increased transparency of the DNC’s budget and operations. He is continuing this effort with his approach to the presidential primary debates.

Perez and his team have held more than 80 meetings over the course of many months with a variety of individuals who have knowledge of and experience with the debate process.

Today, Chair Perez is pleased to announce the DNC’s framework for several key elements of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate process.

“To win back the presidency in 2020, Democrats must lead with our values. That began with the historic reforms to expand and increase trust in our party, and it will continue by conducting party business fairly, transparently, and inclusively throughout the 2020 primary process,” said Chair Perez. “To that end, we have listened and learned about debate experiences from a wide array of stakeholders.

“My goal in this framework is to give the grassroots a bigger voice than ever before; to showcase our candidates on an array of media platforms; to present opportunity for vigorous discussion about issues, ideas and solutions; and to reach as many potential voters as possible. That is how we will put our nominee in the strongest position possible to defeat Donald Trump, and how we will help elect Democrats up and down the ballot.”

KEY DETAILS OF THE 2020 DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY DEBATE CALENDAR:

  • The DNC is announcing 12 presidential primary debates over the course of the 2020 cycle, with six debates in 2019 and six in 2020.
  • The first two debates will occur in June and July 2019. After a break in August, there will be one debate per month for the rest of 2019.
  • The DNC currently plans to hold its last debate in April of 2020. All early-state debates will be held in 2020.
  • The DNC will not bar candidates from participating in forums in which one candidate appears on stage at a time. The DNC will ask candidates to refrain from participating in debates other than the 12 debates sanctioned by the DNC.
  • In order to give our candidates a platform to make their case to voters, the DNC will seek to maximize the viewership of each debate.
  • The DNC will announce specific dates, locations, sponsors and more in 2019.
  • Given the fluid nature of the presidential nominating process, the DNC will continuously assess the state of the race and make adjustments to this process as appropriate, and always transparently.   


FOR THE FIRST TWO DEBATES:

  • The first two debates will occur in June and July 2019.  In order to accommodate a potentially large field of candidates, both may occur over multiple consecutive nights.  
  • In the event that the qualifying field of candidates requires these debates to be held over multiple nights, the lineup for each night will be determined at random, with qualifying candidates assigned one night per debate. The random selection of candidates will be done publicly.   
  • In addition to meeting the filing and constitutional requirements to run for President of the United States, candidates will qualify for the first two debates by meeting criteria that include both polling and other objective measures that reflect a candidate’s support, such as grassroots fundraising.  

The specific criteria for the first two debates will be announced in January 2019.

Democratic Party of Wisconsin Statement on Extraordinary Testimony from James Comey  – Democratic Party of Wisconsin

The following is the statement of Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Martha Laning with regards to former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee today:

“Today’s testimony from former FBI director James Comey made it clear that the President lied in describing the reasons he fired Comey in May. Comey’s testimony also showed that the President attempted to influence the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.

Source: Democratic Party of Wisconsin Statement on Extraordinary Testimony from James Comey  – Democratic Party of Wisconsin

Call to Action: President Donald Trump’s Firing of FBI Director James Comey

By: DPW Chair, Martha Laning

Like many of you, I was shocked when the news broke last week that President Trump had fired his FBI Director, James Comey. Immediately I thought that it was an affront to Democracy for the President to fire the very person leading an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. As DNC Chair Tom Perez said after the news broke, we need to wake up and smell the cover up.

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