Why am I dedicated to down-ballot races across Wisconsin? Simple – smart political strategy. We all know the Wisconsin legislative districts were incredibly gerrymandered after the 2010 census. In some elections, the WI GOP collected 64% of the legislative seats while only receiving 46% of the vote. What if we could take advantage of that?
This study by Run For Something, based on 61 gerrymandered counties from eight states, showed an interesting trend – reverse coattails. In other words, in districts strongly gerrymandered for the GOP, as long as a Democrat was on the ballot, regardless of how they performed – Joe Biden received up to 1.5% more votes on average than in districts where a Democrat did not run.
Considering he won Wisconsin by less than 1%, this is worth paying attention to.
In our 2020 race for Wisconsin State Senate District 28, where a Democrat did not even run in 2016, we saw a 24% increase in Democratic voting compared to 2012. And while Joe Biden saw an 18% increase on average across the state over Hillary Clinton, he saw a 25% increase in our district because we were on the ballot.
So, what do we do with this idea of reverse coattails? We encourage and help down-ballot races! We know this Wisconsin US Senate race is potentially a toss-up. Consequently, ensuring every local and state legislative race has a Democrat running will help our race and Governor Ever’s race as well. Also, this US Senate race will be one of the most well-funded races in 2022 because of the stakes – control of the US Senate. So, we are pledging right now, to do everything possible to provide resources and assistance to all down-ballot Democratic candidates across the state. Those races will likely make the difference.
Read the PDF: https://runforsomething.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/RFSBlueLabs-Reverse-Coattails.pdf