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There was a big winner in Wisconsin this year: Fair maps. Our Democracy Defenders helped flip 14 seats from red to blue across both the state assembly and state senate — smashing the GOP’s supermajority that had been in place for most of the last 13 years. These victories also put Democrats on track to take back majorities in both chambers in 2026. While we celebrate these incredible gains, we must also recognize that years of organizing, activism, holding Republicans accountable, and A.G. Holder’s long view made this all possible. To understand how big these victories were, we need to go all the way back to 2011. Upon taking office, newly elected Governor Scott Walker wasted no time focusing on manipulating the Badger State’s legislative maps. He and his extreme allies in the state legislature quickly got to work, changing the rules of the state supreme court to undermine the state’s longstanding chief justice, gutting the state’s nonpartisan elections board, and enacting a horrifying gerrymander, which guaranteed them an unearned lock on power for a decade. When the NDRC was founded in 2017, we began to build an infrastructure for activism and organizing which put a spotlight on just how badly Republicans were bending the rules. In 2018, Governor Tony Evers won and promised to be a fair maps champion. But the GOP-controlled legislature immediately stripped away many of his powers. In that critical moment, we didn’t back down. We took our organizing to another level. Since then, NDRC Chair Eric Holder has made numerous trips to mobilize voters, raised millions of dollars, and brought increased national attention to critical state-level races in Wisconsin. All that work culminated last year in the election of Judge Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, breaking the long-held conservative stranglehold on the body. Republicans knew their days of running rampant with maps were over. The legislature passed Governor Evers’ fair maps ahead of this year’s elections. This cycle, the NDRC endorsed 90 Wisconsin candidates as a part of our Democracy Defenders program. Committed Democrats like you understood the importance of these state-level races that too often go overlooked — and you put in the work. That’s how we won: Laying the groundwork for fair representation by securing fair maps. And that’s how we’ll continue to win in states across the country: Together. Thank you, Team NDRC
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