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Ben Wikler: “Wisconsin was kind of a test run for Project 2025.”

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

Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy

Published July 31, 2026 | Video Starts at 07:48

And to all the folks here at the Commonwealth Club and the global affairs, the World Affairs, Commonwealth Club, World affairs thing that we're at. Yeah. So Wisconsin was kind of a test run for Project 2025. I write that Project 2025 is reheated. Project 2011. Citizens United happened. The Tea Party wave in Wisconsin and a whole bunch of other states. (07:48–07:54)

CLAIM

Asserts that Wisconsin served as a preliminary model for Project 2025.

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

“Elon Musk decided he wanted to re gerrymander our state [Wisconsin].”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 21:09-21:13
“The entire U.S. house majority that Republicans have only exists because of a race that was decided by 401 votes.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 24:37-24:46
“The total number of votes that would have moved the House majority, 7309.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 26:56-27:01
“For 80 years, filibusters were only ever used to defeat civil rights legislation.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 45:05-45:11
“Eighteen states plus D.C. have already passed the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 55:46-55:52
“We're just 48 electoral college votes away from having this thing take effect.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 55:55-56:00
“They won the state supreme court race again by 1/100 of 1% of the votes cast in the state.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:01:45-1:01:51
“The first thing that we have to do when we win the House and the Senate is we need to end the filibuster.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 00:00-00:07
“We need to end the filibuster.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 00:04-00:07
“Changing the filibuster should be done on day one, the next time Democrats have majority in the US Senate.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 00:35-00:39
“Republicans targeted state legislatures because they knew something that Democrats had kind of forgotten at that moment, which is the rules…”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 08:03-08:15
“The Constitution puts states in charge of running the elections, not the federal government.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 08:14-08:19
“They passed what one judge called the most restrictive voting law in the country.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 08:48-08:52
“They gerrymandered the living daylights out of the state as part of a national plan called Red Map.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 08:55-09:01
“The Bradley foundation, which is one of the biggest far right funders, is based in Wisconsin.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 11:14-11:19
“The John Birch Society is headquartered in Appleton, Wisconsin.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 11:24-11:30
“The only way that that changed, as we learned, was it was not through one heroic candidate. It was not through one watershed election that…”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 12:09-12:24
“In Wisconsin in 2018, despite everything Scott Walker had done to rig the political system, despite a huge avalanche of money on the right…”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 17:27-17:41
“The legislature came in and convened a special session and ripped powers away from the governor and from the Attorney general.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 18:23-18:30
“The right wing Supreme Court rubber stamped it.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 18:30-18:33
“The US Supreme Court threw out a federal lawsuit, refused to do anything about gerrymandering.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 19:00-19:05
“The governor vetoed Republicans attempts to gerrymander the state and then our right wing state Supreme Court chose the right wing maps that…”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 19:04-19:13
“In 2017, no Democratic candidate even ran for state supreme court because it was so clear the right had the money and the power and the…”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 19:33-19:41
“The Republicans don't give up. They decide they're going to impeach Janet Protosewitz with their state legislative majority before she can…”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 20:26-20:37
“The Supreme Court de gerrymandered the state [of Wisconsin].”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 21:05-21:08
“The people of Wisconsin rose up and threw out Elon Musk and his preferred candidate by 10 percentage points.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 22:38-22:45
“Republicans poured in money and they won [a North Carolina state Supreme Court race] by 401 votes.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 24:53-24:53
“The guy who won became the Chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court and rammed through a reversal of a recent previous decision and…”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 25:02-25:13
“If we had won that North Carolina state Supreme Court race, then Hakeem Jeffries would be the speaker of the House.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 25:23-25:30
“If we had won [the Georgia state Supreme Court race], then we could have flipped the majority on the state Supreme Court in Georgia in 2028.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 25:23-25:46
“All of Donald Trump's terrible ideas, including his trillion dollar cut to health care, would have gone out the window this spring.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 25:29-25:37
“States can dictator proof themselves before 2028.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 27:25-27:30
“We finally have a shot to do that [win unified control of Wisconsin] thanks to the fair maps.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 27:32-27:35
“Trump is obsessed with his ballroom, his triumphal arch, and claiming victory every week or two in the war in Iran.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 28:08-28:15
“The Republican's eye is off the ball at this moment.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 28:15-28:18
“In Wisconsin, the third congressional district, the first congressional district, which is not on anyone's radar, but we have a serious shot…”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 30:54-31:03
“The governor's race [in Wisconsin] is a toss-up.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 31:07-31:09
“Any of the candidates [in the Wisconsin governor's race] has a path to victory.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 31:10-31:13
“The Republican candidate, Tom Tiffany, was part of the plot to overturn the 2020 election.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 31:14-31:20
“Tom Tiffany tried to throw out Electoral College votes as a member of the U.S. House.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 31:19-31:19
“In 2017, the state assembly majority came down to a tie. One more vote would have flipped the majority in the House of Delegates in that…”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 39:42-39:52
“City councils in Wisconsin, they set the budgets for election administration. How much early voting time will there be? How many polling…”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 39:57-40:07
“Andre was getting his haircut after the election and his barber said, what happened with your city council race? And he said, well, it was…”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 40:06-40:16
“The plan for how we fix this mess that we're in recognizes that even when Democrats win so many of the things that, that lead us to vote…”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 41:58-42:10
“It is totally against the Founding fathers intentions, it is against American tradition, it is against every good idea about this country…”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 43:18-43:35
“The system is working the way [Republicans] want it to because it prevents restoration, expansion of democracy.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 47:13-47:21
“The only way to change [policy in this country] is to abolish the filibuster.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 47:49-47:53
“It should be done on day one, the next time Democrats have a majority in the US Senate.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 48:29-48:34
“The US Supreme Court just gutted the Voting Rights Act.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 49:34-49:37
“It overturned Roe versus Wade.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 49:36-49:39
“It did Citizens United.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 49:38-49:40
“We could win a trifecta and still not get anything done if we have this corrupt, rogue, out of control U.S. Supreme Court.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 49:49-49:49
“The number of Supreme Court Justices expanded and contracted over and over.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 52:47-52:52
“If we win trifectas in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona and New Hampshire and all of those states pass Nipvik, then we…”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 56:22-56:43
“Elections that could come down to in New Hampshire, a state legislative chamber in 2022 came down to 21 votes just recently.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 57:44-57:52
“We can reform the way the U.S. senate, the U.S. supreme Court, the president and the state's work through actions on elections that are…”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 58:14-58:26
“In North Carolina where they lost that state supreme court seat by 401 votes in 2020.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:01:21-1:01:27
“They won another state supreme court race even while Trump won in 2024.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:01:41-1:01:46
“The Republicans tried to stop to not seat the victor in that race. There was a titanic legal battle and they won.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:01:50-1:01:58
“They have a path to flipping the majority in their state Supreme Court by 2028 and then ungerrymandering that state.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:02:00-1:02:07
“The America in meltdown right now that we're experiencing is the America built office by office in the and block by block by this Republican…”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:03:06-1:03:15
“In a lot of states, it's like 90% of the money comes in in the final two months of the election.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:03:31-1:03:37
“At the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, we started paying for everyone's health insurance and then we paid for health insurance for family…”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:04:11-1:04:17
“Only 12 states pay their Democratic Party state chair.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:05:19-1:05:23
“Wisconsin and Florida were the two states with the closest governor's races in 2018.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:07:27-1:07:32
“Right now, Democrats have won 17 of the last 21 statewide elections in Wisconsin.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:08:07-1:08:12
“This year, we could win the governor's race, the attorney general's race, three U.S. house seats.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:08:21-1:08:21
“Since the year 2000, there have been more changeovers than before or after the Civil War and Reconstruction.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:10:41-1:10:47
“Our systems are stuck. They veto any kind of real change that allows one party to build an enduring majority.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:11:12-1:11:20
“Republicans get in and over and over, they screw everything up.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:11:19-1:11:23
“Democrats come in and we do some amazing stuff that changes people's lives.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:11:31-1:11:36
“Our systems right now are stuck. They block us from being able to unrig the American political system.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:11:38-1:11:45
“We can look back to the New Deal coalition and think about how to build an enduring majority that works for everyone.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:11:51-1:11:57
“Things that right now are contested in every election will become the agreed upon bedrock for American life.”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:12:07-1:12:14
“There's so much about American life right now that the economic precarity that people feel where the bottom could fall out at any moment, we…”
Ben Wikler With Bradley Whitford: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy | Uploaded July 31, 2026 | 1:12:31-1:12:41