Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s Crucial Fight: Wisconsin’s Senate Seat Could Shift Dem Majority
The stakes are high for Sen. Tammy Baldwin. The Wisconsin lawmaker is running to keep a seat that if flipped red could compromise Democrats’ majority in the Senate. Wisconsin is all but certain to be critical in the 2024 race.
But, in a recent interview with Democracy Docket, Baldwin’s focus was elsewhere. “Ask me about gerrymandering,” the lawmaker exclaimed, before detailing how she and others have fought for fair maps in the polarized state. In February, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed new maps into law, marking a departure from the state’s heavily-partisan gerrymandered districts.
First elected to the Senate in 2012, Baldwin is seeking a third term in Congress. Although Republicans are vying to flip Baldwin’s seat, polling shows Baldwin leading her challenger, Eric Hovde, a wealthy businessman endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Both candidates won their primary Tuesday.
In Democracy Docket’s latest candidate Q&A for the 2024 cycle, Baldwin talks about her federal proposal to expand access to the ballot box, Kamala Harris’s historic presidential bid and why she also wants to reform the filibuster.
Responses have been edited for style and clarity.
Why are you running for reelection?
I’m running for reelection because I want to have somebody who’s fighting for working Wisconsinites, not just the powerful and well-connected. I feel like this is a time where we need to continue our work on, first, lowering the cost of things. That’s something that’s on the minds of my constituents, including the work that I’ve done to lower the cost of prescription drugs and health care. I’m trying to put Wisconsinites back to work.
But we’re also trying to secure rights and freedoms back that we’ve lost. After the Dobbs decision, especially in a state like Wisconsin with a statutory criminal abortion ban that was passed in the year 1849, we need to secure those rights and freedoms back for half of our state.
We also need to defend our democracy. We’re one of the states that (tried to send) a slate of fake electors (to Congress). It’s a state where the Republican-led Legislature has tried to make it harder for people to vote. Winning back our rights and freedoms that have been trampled on is a key priority.
In 2023, you introduced the Freedom to Vote Act, which would among other things establish early voting guidelines and no-excuse vote by mail. How do you plan to advance this legislation?
First of all, I want to localize the Freedom to Vote Act because we’ve had a Legislature in Wisconsin over many years that has passed certain measures to make it harder to vote. It’s important to me that we have federal guardrails to prevent states like Wisconsin from making it harder for people to vote and making it easier for votes not to be counted, which is deeply disturbing.
You asked how we advance this legislation. The last time we tried, we had a majority of senators who supported the Freedom to Vote Act, which was tied together with the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
We had a majority on that. But as you know, in the United States Senate you have to overcome a filibuster. Filibuster requires 60 votes to overcome one, and so we had a simple majority to pass the bill, but we didn’t have the 60 votes we needed to get to the debate or close the debate on the bill. So what do you do? We proposed at that time to reform the filibuster.
We came short. We weren’t able to reform the filibuster. But I hope that if we’re successful in this election, and if we elect Kamala Harris as president, if we have a Democratic majority in the US Senate (and) a Democratic majority in the House, that we will be able to finally advance the Freedom to Vote Act combined with the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
You mentioned the Wisconsin drop-box prohibition, which was reversed recently by the state Supreme Court. Detractors say drop boxes lead to fraud. What is your stance? Are they a good thing for Wisconsin voters?
Drop boxes are a great thing for Wisconsin voters. Widespread use of them in Wisconsin began during the pandemic (when) people were encouraged to distance. People were encouraged to not be in crowded spaces and so on Election Day, if you were vulnerable to COVID, it would not be a good idea to stand in a long line with hundreds of other people to vote in person.
And a lot of the drop boxes — now I’m talking about my home community in Madison, Wisconsin — a lot of the drop boxes were put at fire stations, which, of course are staffed 24/7 and they had cameras focused on them, and so they were really safe in terms of an effective way of allowing people to access one.
My opponent in this US Senate race has been crying falsely that these are going to lead to some sort of fraudulent activity, and he said they should be guarded 24/7.
Well, as I said, most of the ones in Madison are at fire stations that are staffed 24/7. There’s just no truth to that. And it’s people trying to sow doubt in our democratic process, like the former president, and we need to stand up to that and say, we should be making it easier for people to vote.
Speaking of Trump, the aftermath of the 2020 election was a tumultuous time in the country and Wisconsin. What is your message to Wisconsin voters who might be reluctant to head to the polls?
Our vote is our voice in our democracy. Let’s go back to the basics: We are a government of, by and for the people, and if the people don’t participate, that makes that less so.
Secondly, recognize misinformation and disinformation when you see it. In April, Donald Trump was holding a rally in Green Bay. And from that stage, he claimed that he had actually won Wisconsin in 2020. There is no truth to that.
In a state like Wisconsin, where the votes are counted by locally-elected clerks of towns, of villages, of cities, we should trust these officials. We elect them, and they do a darn good job of making sure every single eligible vote is counted, and we should have faith in what they’re doing.
Gerrymandering is a key issue in Wisconsin, where Gov. Evers recently signed fair maps into law, marking a potential turning point for partisan gerrymandering in the state. Why is this issue important to you?
Wisconsin, in the last 14 years, has been one of the most gerrymandered states in the country. Most of our statewide elections are 50/50. You may recall that former President Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 by less than a percentage point, and President Joe Biden won in (2020) by less than a percentage point. So we have these razor-thin margins. Our Legislature is two-thirds Republican, one-third Democrat.
How can this be the same electorate? Well, that’s gerrymandering.
We’ve been fighting the gerrymander for a long time. But (earlier this year), we finally got fair maps. And what I’m seeing around the state — I’m campaigning everywhere in Wisconsin — is we have contested races where we haven’t had in certain districts for years, because people look at such a deeply red, deeply Republican district that no Democrat even thinks about running.
Conversely, in the blue districts, we have contested races. We have voters with real choices this year. I think it’s increasing the enthusiasm about being involved. There are places where voters have not had anybody knock on their door running for office for years because the incumbents just go unopposed. That’s changed, and I think that’s so exciting.
Kamala Harris’s presidential bid seems to have injected new life into the Democratic Party. How will you capitalize on the momentum we’ve seen with Harris’s campaign?
It’s palpable in Wisconsin. As I was campaigning in the last couple of months I would have people whisper to me, “I’m worried. I’m worried about our whole ticket.” When President Biden did what I think is one of the most patriotic things I’ve ever seen, put the country ahead of self, which he’s always done, he stepped aside and then endorsed Kamala Harris. I endorsed Kamala Harris.
When the Dobbs decision came out and Roe v. Wade was overturned, Harris took the lead in fighting to restore (abortion rights), and I think she will take the lead as president to do the very same thing. There’s no question that these are all fundamental constitutional rights, our vote is our voice and Roe has to do with our bodily autonomy. These are incredibly important rights and freedoms that have been peeled back that we need to restore.
We were thrilled that (Harris’s) first stop at the top of the ticket was in West Allis, Wisconsin. I’ve never seen a more energized crowd. People are just so excited. It’s new energy, a new beginning.