Democrats' Democracy Problem Not Limited to National Politics

The anointing of Kamala Harris as Biden’s heir apparent is the latest reminder that the Democrat Party is ironically undemocratic. This is not just a problem at the national level. Wisconsin Democrats are just as guilty.

No one voted for Sarah Godlewski to become Wisconsin’s Secretary of State, and Democrat primary voters had no other choice but Mandela Barnes for their senate nomination in 2022. And yet, the Democrat Party of Wisconsin was able to make that happen through backroom deals that are worth revisiting here.

In 2022, US Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) was running for reelection, and Democrats believed he was the most vulnerable Republican senator in the country. They were so convinced Johnson would lose that they thought whoever won the Democrat Primary would basically be the state’s next US Senator. That’s probably why the Democrat’s primary field was so crowded with 8 candidates vying for the Democrat nomination. Despite such fierce initial competition, one-by-one the candidates dropped out and endorsed Mandela Barnes. As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel described it in July 2022:

On the day of the primary election, Barnes was the only choice left. However, the other candidates’ names still appeared on the ballot, and it was obvious that Barnes was not the unanimous preference to take on Johnson. Despite being the only candidate still running, Barnes only got 78% of the vote. Democrat voters obviously weren’t thrilled, but the Democrat Party of Wisconsin had already made the choice for them.

Barnes’ last challenger to drop out of the primary race was Sarah Godlewski. The Marquette Law School Poll at the time had her trailing Barnes by only 7 points and 17 percent of voters said they didn't know who they were voting for yet. Another poll showed that her support was growing the fastest, and that when voters were given more information on the candidates, Godlewski led Barnes by 10 points. And yet, Godlewski dropped out of the race less than one month before the election. This was also surprising because Godlewski was currently serving as the State Treasurer and was not running for reelection. Dropping out of the Senate race meant she would be unemployed in January, unless, of course, she was getting something else already lined up that the public didn't know about.

Meanwhile, Doug La Follette had served as Wisconsin’s Secretary of State for 48 years, and, apparently, he had one more race left in him. Despite his entrenched incumbency and historic name recognition, La Follette barely eked out a victory that fall against his Republican challenger, Amy Loudenbeck, by a mere 7,442 votes. It’s unlikely any other Democrat would have been able to win the seat. In hindsight, Democrats needed La Follette to run one last time, even if he didn't really want to.

La Follette only served two months into the new term before he announced he was retiring. Gov. Evers immediately appointed Godlewski to be his replacement. Republicans accused the Democrats of backroom dealmaking. It was now obvious why Godlewski had mysteriously decided to drop out of the Senate race at the last minute. They said Wisconsin's voters were duped, and that Evers should call a special election to fill the suspicious vacancy.

“This suggests a pre-meditated action to award the power of incumbency to a partisan ally. It is an insult to voters of Wisconsin and our democratic process," Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said.

Godlewski claimed to be surprised by the appointment. Evers said it was “odd” that anyone thought that the appointment had anything to do with Godlewski dropping out of the primary. Whether anyone bought that or not didn’t matter in the end. Evers and the Democrat Party had no interest in allowing democracy to determine who would serve as Wisconsin’s Secretary of State, just as they had no interest in allowing democracy to determine who would be the Democrat candidate in the US Senate race.

Democrats are pulling the same schemes on the national level. As Dan O’Donnell pointed out in his column for the MacIver Institute this week, Democrats have not allowed their voters to pick the party’s presidential candidate since 2008. The party made backroom moves to prevent Bernie Sanders from securing the nomination in 2016 and 2020. The selection of Kamala Harris in 2024 demonstrates, once again, that Democrats really don’t care what voters want. Not one person voted to make Kamala Harris the Democrat nominee to run for president, just as not one person voted to make Sarah Godlewski Wisconsin's Secretary of State.

The nomination of Mandela Barnes and the appointment Sarah Godlewski in Wisconsin further prove that that Democrats don't just make shady manuevers at the national level to circumvent the will of the voters. This way of doing business is pervasive throughout the entire party at all levels.