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Ben Wikler: “Leonard Leo, who led the Federalist Society, got a $1.6…”

Featuring: Ben Wikler, Democratic | Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin

Ben Wikler Discusses Transition from Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair and Reflects on Political Landscape

Published May 23, 2025 | Video Starts at 10:28

They have Fox News Channel, they have a massive investment in online platforms and these, you know, huge influencer networks. They have, they've been doing all this work. Leonard Leo, who led the Federalist Society, got a $1.6 billion grant to launch an initiative. to take the Federalist Society model into winning culture. And you know, he's spending all this stuff on the, on the right. And so that exists, it's just not in the Republican Party. (10:28–10:39)

CLAIM

Asserts that Leonard Leo received a $1.6 billion grant for an initiative related to the Federalist Society model.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Ben Wikler

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“They did turn out more people than any Supreme Court candidate in the history of Wisconsin had ever gotten.”
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“Trump is currently touting things that happened under Biden. There are 11 car plants being built in the United States.”
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“We did cut child poverty in half.”
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“Elon Musk has announced that he's going to stop spending so much money in politics.”
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“It's widely reported that this is because of the blowout where he fell on his face in Wisconsin.”
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“Musk's PAC put out a memo saying that Schimmel's message needed to get Trumpier.”
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“Republicans have built a permanent campaign in the form of for-profit companies.”
Ben Wikler Discusses Transition from Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair and Reflects on Political Landscape | Uploaded May 23, 2025 | 10:10-10:13
“Governor Evers ran on fixing the damn roads and has been the bulwark in the defense of democracy in this state.”
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“Thanks to Biden Initiatives, the initiative to make sure folks can get access to federally funded federal research is now coming into…”
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“There was only a couple of times in American history that have had this kind of ping pong back and forth.”
Ben Wikler Discusses Transition from Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair and Reflects on Political Landscape | Uploaded May 23, 2025 | 19:24-19:30
“We're the only state in the country where for two presidential elections the presidential campaign has come along and it has said your…”
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“In every other state they set up a separate coordinated campaign.”
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“Here we have one continuous program, whether county parties and other neighborhood teams all across the state.”
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“Devin has really led and driven that work.”
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“Ranked choice voting encourages a level of civility because if someone's not your supporter, you still have an incentive to try to earn…”
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“Wisconsin, unlike a lot of states, we have a pretty broadly participatory system for choosing chairs, vice chairs, treasurer, secretary, the…”
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“Anyone until the 24th of May can ask their county chair to make them a delegate to the state convention.”
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“I think we need more communicators, period.”
Ben Wikler Discusses Transition from Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair and Reflects on Political Landscape | Uploaded May 23, 2025 | 33:34-33:36
“I've not heard anyone say that our messaging was off in the spring Supreme Court election.”
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“I think that there's a lot that folks across the country honestly can learn from, from the way that Wisconsin Democrats communicate.”
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“There's a federal budget debate over whether to execute the biggest transfer of money from the poor to the rich.”
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“This is trillions of dollars that would be cut from Medicaid, from health care for, you know, often for, for working families.”
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“Transferred in the form of massive tax cuts for the ultra wealthy.”
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“Trump was trying to rip money away from regular folks and give it to his, you know, multi billionaire buddies.”
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“We actually pay for health insurance. At the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, we have a 401k match.”
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“In most states it's five or fewer staff in Wisconsin, we haven't had less than 50 staff since I staffed up in the fall of 2019.”
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“I think Tony Evers has been extraordinarily effective.”
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“In every budget [Tony Evers has had] a set of things that I dearly want to be in Wisconsin policy that Republicans have ripped out of the…”
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“The idea of winning a trifecta in 2026 and actually passing these things into law is something that I relish.”
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