Scaling Up: Lessons from WisDems’ Remarkable Digital Growth with Ben Wikler

"Democrats can absolutely win, even in the face of this flood of money from the right and every horrific tactic that the right wants to use."

Y’all know Ben Wikler. He’s currently the head of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin — a role he’s held since 2019.

Here’s a quick relevant fact for you: I live in Wisconsin and do a lot of work in Wisconsin politics. Back in 2018, I was hired by WisDems to help train their comms team on digital — because at the time, they literally didn’t have a single digital staffer. Ben came in shortly after and… let’s just say things changed real quick.

Before leading WisDems, Ben served as the Washington, DC Director and Senior Advisor for MoveOn. One of my favorite parts of his very long and impressive bio: as a student, he was recruited by Al Franken to help write Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them — a book that absolutely needs a second edition.

Ben’s done a lot of cool things to push the Democratic Party forward in innovative and important ways. But now, his tenure as chair is coming to an end — and I invited him on the pod to reflect on what he’s learned and what others can take away from the powerhouse digital program he helped build here in Wisconsin.

Throughout our conversation, we spoke about:

• How Ben’s feeling as he steps away — a mix of gratitude, fury, and hope
• How WisDems went from a minimal digital program to a national model
• What lessons he brought from MoveOn and Avaaz to shape that transformation
• The importance of building trust through your digital program
• The power of visual communication — if you can't reach voters who watching TV in a bar with the sound off, you have a problem
• What he’d do differently if he were starting from scratch today
• Who his biggest adversary was throughout his tenure leading the Democratic Party of Wisconsin
• Who he’s looking to for inspiration now
• Where he’s spending time online
• The diminishing, but still relevant, role Twitter plays for progressive orgs
• What he’d do now if he were running the DNC
• Where he’s excited to see WisDems go from here

You can find this full episode on YouTube, at HelloMergeTag.com or wherever you stream podcasts.