ABOUT BEN WIKLER

A proud Wisconsinite, Ben first volunteered on a political campaign at age 11 when his godmother, Ada Deer, became the first American Indian woman to win a Congressional primary. From stuffing envelopes and putting up yard signs in elementary school, Ben went on to volunteer for Tammy Baldwin's first Congressional race while in high school, intern for Russ Feingold during college, and launch a career in politics, activism, and new media. 

As the Washington DC Director at MoveOn, he helped lead the national campaign to defeat Trump's attack on the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid. In 2018, Ben and his family moved to Wisconsin, where Ben volunteered with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin (WisDems) as Tony Evers defeated Scott Walker and Democrats swept every statewide election for the first time since 1982. In 2019, Wisconsin Democrats elected Ben as their statewide chair. 

Ben has chaired the WisDems through five years of extraordinarily intense elections—and multiple historic victories. In the 2020 presidential race, Wisconsin flipped from red to blue. In 2022, Tony Evers became the first Democrat to win a Wisconsin Governor's race during a Democratic presidency in more than half a century. In 2023, Wisconsin Democrats fueled a landslide state Supreme Court victory that ended GOP control of Wisconsin's highest court—and the new majority ended the GOP's partisan gerrymander of the state legislature. And in 2024, amidst a national red wave, Wisconsin Democrats reelected Senator Tammy Baldwin and flipped fourteen state legislative seats from red to blue.

To make these victories possible, along with hundreds of other downballot wins, Ben built a widely-hailed team, built a culture of trust and collaboration with elected officials, allied groups, and the grassroots, and raised nearly $200 million—likely a state party record. The New York Times calls WisDems "a well-funded state party apparatus widely acknowledged as the Democrats’ best in the country." Politico calls WisDems “a winning machine.” The Washington Post named WisDems the State Party of the Year in 2020.

Ben and his wife Beth now live in Madison with their three children and their enormous dog, Pumpkin.