U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., told Wisconsin delegates the keys to winning in November will be collaboration and organization.
Kelly, a retired astronaut and Navy captain, said all the things he’s accomplished were as part of a bigger team.
“And when we work together, when we collaborate, when we support each other, when we organize, we can accomplish great things,” Kelly said during the Wisconsin delegation’s breakfast.
He said Dems saw that in the elections of Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
“We know how to win elections, and we know how to win them in difficult states, like Arizona, like Wisconsin,” said, noting he now fills the late GOP U.S. Sen. John McCain’s seat in the Senate.
“And you know, how did we run that, win that race? Well, we had more volunteers, we knocked on more doors, we made more phone calls, we raised more money,” he said. “If you could do those four things, Tammy Baldwin will win in Wisconsin. And Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will win in Wisconsin, as well, and we will win this election.”
Delegates also heard this morning from Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Beshear called on Wisconsinites to “lead us to victory” by taking the fight to every corner of the state.
“In Wisconsin, I know you’re going to deliver the presidency for Kamala Harris, and I know you know how to do it, that there aren’t red counties or blue counties, that every vote in every county matters, that we win by fighting on the toughest of terrain,” he said. “We win by talking to every single family. We win by taking no one for granted.”
He said Wisconsin will break for Harris as it did for Biden in 2020.
“But you all got out there, you delivered four years ago, and I know you’re going to deliver this time for the United States of America,” he said. “So Wisconsin, lead us to victory.”
Bennet praised state Dem Party Chair Ben Wikler’s leadership.
“If we had Ben Wikler as chair of every single party in this country, we wouldn’t lose another race in America,” he said. “It is, it is extraordinary. It is extraordinary to see what you are doing in Wisconsin.”
Bennet pointed to Dem victories in Wisconsin such as reelecting Gov. Tony Evers and winning a liberal majority on the Supreme Court. He also noted the present fight to reelect Baldwin and flip the Legislature.
“I know you know Tammy well, but let me just say you can’t take anything for granted in that race,” he said. “We have a razor-thin majority in the U.S. Senate.”
He said the nation is watching what happens in Wisconsin.
“Wisconsin, the entire country’s eyes are on you,” he said. “Thank you for what you’re doing.”
Moore knocked Republicans who are asking people if they are better off than they were four years ago.
She said four years ago during the pandemic people were confined to their homes, losing jobs and facing a lack of availability of child care. Meanwhile, schools were closed, food prices spiked and people were hoarding toilet paper, she said.
“So when we message to our people, we cannot let them take us back down a rabbit hole of what happened four years ago,” she said. “It’s time to move forward, y’all.”
Moore noted the central role of women in managing family finances, health care, child care and purchasing groceries, noting Harris’ plans to address issues in those areas.
“One of the problems that the Democratic Party has had is that we have not been able to get the majority of women to vote for Democrats. I mean, it’s just unbelievable that any woman would vote for Donald Trump,” she said. “But that was, that was the past. That was the past. What we have got to do is present them with the future agenda of the look — we got a woman in the driver’s seat.”
Godlewski blasted Republicans for gaveling in and out of a series of special sessions called by Evers, including one on child care and another on abortion access after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.
“And so this November, we’re going to make sure that the Republican Legislature understands that you need to listen to our voice and these policies that you have been avoiding for so long that so many Wisconsinites believe in,” she said. “Say goodbye to those extremist days, because Wisconsin Democrats are coming back and taking back the Legislature.”
Godlewski called the Republican side bullies, saying Trump is a “fraudster and a felon” and knocking JD Vance’s positions on same-sex marriage and abortion.
“[T]he great thing about Kamala and Tim is that, as a former prosecutor and a public school teacher, they know about bullies really well,” she said. “ And as I said once, I’ll say it again, they don’t back down to bullies. They take them down.”
Johnson said it’s places like Wisconsin that Democrats can hold up as success stories.
“You know it’s the fundamental values of places like Wisconsin that our party gets to champion for the rest of the world, because in your state, you have a cross of so many different ideas, people, industry.” he said. “You are really the embodiment of our nation.
“That’s why your state is literally called a battleground state. It’s not just simply about votes, it’s about ideas, and it’s about the promise of our future, and that’s why I’m so grateful that the future is in the hands of Wisconsin to make history when we elect the first Black woman of Asian descent, Kamala Harris, to become president of these United States.”
