Advertise on podcast: Battleground Wisconsin

We celebrate the late night victory of the Milwaukee Brewers that has Matt tired during the morning recording of the podcast. Go Brewers! Robert has a packed Tick report this week, including Alpha Gal Syndrome, spread by Lone Star ticks rising in Illinois and the theatrical release of a new horror movie focused on ticks. We take a deep dive into healthcare costs and coverage as a top election issue with new Kaiser Family Foundation research showing Democrats are significantly more trusted on healthcare costs than Republicans. We look at the huge opportunity David Crowley’s embrace of BadgerCare Public Option provides to make real progress on making health care truly affordable and accessible for all. We encourage our listeners to RSVP for Citizen Action’s Political Education Issue Series: BadgerCare Public Option & other Health Care Policy, next Tuesday, October 13th, 6pm. Wisconsin’s election system has devolved into”legalized bribery,” where 3 billionaires (Diane Hendricks and the billionaire couple Elizabeth and Richard Uihlein) have given more than $73 million to Republican committees and candidates in 2026, dwarfing the combined donations of everyone else. When self-dealing billionaires are the largest funders of political campaigns can we have a healthy democracy? Meanwhile, Trump tries to bribe upper middle class voters with $500 ACA refund checks only for people who make 4xs poverty wages or more. More signs of an authoritarian security state? Records obtained in a FOIA request show that using surveillance authority passed after 9/11, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security probed millions of records of nonprofit groups in witch hunts for voter fraud. The report includes mention of undercover agents. One faith based group in MN did not even know it was under investigation until the records were released Wednesday.

In this week’s Tick Report, Trump declares “war” on ticks and mosquitos through an executive order promising a 90% reduction in the populations of the “foreign, invasive” species. Of course, the order makes no mention of global warming as the cause of skyrocketing tick populations. We dive into big news this week that Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley is publicly embracing a BadgerCare Public Option to dramatically expand access to quality healthcare. We debrief the New MU Law Poll which says the governor’s race is too close. Further, the poll finds a stunning 68% of voters say they favor a statewide ban on data center construction for at least a year. We ask why elected officials are so out of step with their own voters. We look at the mega donors who are fueling the Tom Tiffany campaign and state legislative Republican candidates. Finally, Robert schools us on Citizen Action’s new Democracy Defenders program to equip our leaders with action plans to confront Trump regime efforts and disrupt the midterm election. Listen to the show.

Much of the media debate about the 2026 elections presumes voters are making ideological choices between moderate and progressive Democrats, and democratic socialists. This presumption that voters bring strong ideological commitments to the ballot box is refuted by over 70 years of voting research. In this Special Edition of Battleground Wisconsin Podcast, Robert Kraig interviews political scientist Nathan Kalmoe, the Executive Director of the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal at UW-Madison, on what truly influences the voting behavior of most Americans. Kalmoe is the co-author of Neither Liberal Nor Conservative: Ideological Innocence in the American Public (University of Chicago Press).

Following the latest Tick Report where the explosion of ticks and involuntary veganism rages into fall, we take a deep dive into the state of our economy. First: We talk about the Fed’s raising of interest rates today as inflation gets worse in Trump’s economy, marking the central bank’s first rate hike since July 2023 and first in Trump’s second term. Second: We are joined by Peter Rickman, president of the MASH union and special guest Lori Wallach, the Director of the Rethink Trade program, to discuss why the G20 is coming to Milwaukee later this month and how progressive forces are organizing in response. Lori Wallach will be a featured speaker at a teach-in the night before the G20 meeting starts. Lori educates us on the history of the neoliberal global trade economy, its failure to protect working people, and the opportunities to create a new trade regime that centers our communities and our people.

We reflect on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, focusing on how the country has fundamentally changed since that fateful day and how we failed the first responders and civil servants who make this democracy function for all of us. Robert’s latest Tick Report finds Devil’s Lake State Park among the worst to tick-borne illnesses and Missouri residents seeking alternative to meat to help people infected with alpha gal allergies spread by the Lone Star Tick. We debrief Labor Day and look forward to the real opportunity to make progress for workers and labor rights in 2027. Tom Tiffany had a well deserved, rough week, refusing to say if he backs Trump's illegal effort to disrupt mail-in voting, responding to record high Wisconsin prison population (twice MN’s) with a retrograde scheme to build new prisons, opposing marijuana legalization, and being act checked by a major newspaper on his repeated support for overturning the 2020 election. No wonder he is dodging the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association debate with David Crowley. We review some of the low lights of the GOP midterm convention (Trumpapoluza) where Derrick Van Orden repeated his lies on healthcare. Wisconsin broadband fails rural areas after massive amounts of federal and state money was thrown at private companies to complete the job over the last two decades with little accountability, revealing the incompetence of neoliberal economic government policies that rely on the voluntary compliance of monopoly corporations. We conclude this week by strongly encouraging a Vote No on the DEI state referendum this November and discuss how its passage will constrain our ability to fight the sky high Black infant mortality rate, which is a public health crisis.

We open with the tick report, including MAGA conspiracy theories about the supposed nefareous actors behind tick-bourn diseases that conveniently deflect attention from big oil and the fossil fuel utilities' responsibility in accelerating climate change. We discuss the We Energies rate hike media event and Public Service Commission (PSC) hearings this week in Milwaukee and how reining in the big for profit utilities is central to the fight against catastrophic climate change. We announce the latest round of Citizen Action endorsements for State Senate, State Assembly, and statewide office. It’s Labor Day Weekend and we encourage our listeners to attend a Labor Day Weekend event with organized labor, as more progressive Labor unions get behind David Crowley ahead of Labor Day.

In our weekly Tick Report, we remind listeners that It may be the end of summer but don’t let your guard down on ticks and authoritarians. Robert updates us on authoritarian consolidation, as the U.S. Supreme Court left in place Trump’s flagrantly illegal and unconstitutional assaults on mail-in ballots. We highlight the great organizing by western Wisconsin community members and GROWW, that resulted in a judge striking down a CAFO permit from the Wisconsin DNR because it does not do enough to protect groundwater. We briefly review the new MU Law Poll, which unsurprisingly shows a tight rac for Governor. We push back on conventional punditry about the poll’s findings. Then we welcome Peter Rickman, president of the MASH union, to discuss why the richest nations in the world, the G20, are coming to Milwaukee in late September. We preview a rally on September 30th where Citizen Action will join with labor and civil society organizations outside the G20 meeting to call for a new trade model that creates good-paying jobs, raises wages, enforces worker rights, strengthens family farms, protects the environment, enables A.I. accountability and otherwise puts people over profits. Speaking of authoritarians, we close the show with State Representative Amaad Rivera-Wagner who lays out the clear case against Elon Musk for violating Wisconsin’s campaign finance laws, and the head-shaking decision of the LaCrosse County District Attorney to pass on prosecuting the powerful billionaire.

This week we dig into the criminal justice reform most needed in the next legislation session with Mark Rice, WISDOM’s Transformational Justice Coordinator. Before we get to that vital topic, we provide the latest Tick Report which has surprising findings on the true origin of Lyme disease. We also dig into the first week of the general election campaign for Governor, where AI Data Centers have taken center stage and where MAGA Tom Tiffany is trying to label David Crowley as the lap dog of big tech. WISDOM’s Mark Rice discusses the historic day this Friday when for the first time in 25 years incarcerated Wisconsinites will receive commutation hearings. We dive deeper into what more can be done in 2027 to reduce the state’s prison population and discuss new polling showing a majority of Wisconsinites favor a form of clemency for some individuals. We debrief Wednesday evening’s $20 Minimum Wage Town Hall in Milwaukee where over 50 community members and leaders learned more about the legislation, and why it is needed in this moment in history and what it would mean to people who attended the town hall.

Following our weekly tick report, we do a deep dive into the stunning primary election outcome in the race for governor. We unpack why the Francesca Hong campaign was so successful, why it fell barely short, and a brief road map on how David Crowley can engage the progressive base that worked so hard for Hong. Read an excellent Wisconsin Examiner article by Ruth Conniff on what the Democratic primary for governor means for progressive politics?

Following the tick report where we learn, in the words of a CDC scientist, that “the ticks are winning,” we discuss a new study finding wildfire smoke is now the primary pollutant negatively affecting pregnancy. Climate change, including increased heat, extended drought, and a thirsty atmosphere, has been a key driver in increasing the risk and extent of wildfires and the spike in tick borne illnesses. In a rather surprising development, former disgraced New York City mayor Erick Adams shows up to central Wisconsin to shill for data centers, and is booed by local residents. Whose brilliant idea was it to hire the corrupt Adams as a pitchman for Big Tech’s AI binge? Investing in public education and phasing out the private voucher school program jumped onto center stage in the governor’s race this week. Francesca Hong’s commitment to wind down the voucher program which is draining resources from our public schools made headlines in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. The newspaper also reports that Hong was the only candidate who agreed to discuss school funding plans in detail with reporters. Kudos to Hong for demonstrating her commitment to be open and honest with the public about her plans for the largest item in the state budget. We discuss the public debate in the 3rd Congressional District on if it is appropriate for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (the political arm of the House Democrats) to intervene in the primary elections on behalf of Rebecca Cooke, raising concerns of closed door decisions that disempower voters. Robert discusses parallel concerns about Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee and Senate Democratic Campaign Committee interventions in Assembly District 21 and Senate District 17 races. We also react to news that Tom Tiffany raised $4 million of his $5 million cash on hand from three billionaires. We close with a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation finding half of ICE flights conducted by Appleton-based Air Wisconsin are using Milwaukee Mitchell as its hub. Also, Robert tells us if it matters that two federal court decisions block the Trump Regime from rescinding billions in climate change grants. We urge our listeners in the Milwaukee area to attend our $20 Minimum Wage Town Hall, Wednesday, August 19th, 6pm.

We welcome Laurel Wales, Citizen Action's Managing Director, to the show as a guest panelist. Following the tick report, we dive into the latest developments in Wisconsin’s governor primary election, including two new polls that show Francesca Hong surging into a commanding lead. How has Hong confounded the pundits and the experts to become the overwhelming favorite in the Democratic gubernatorial primary? Our panel discusses a ruling by a conservative Wisconsin Appeals Court panel upholding Act 10, overturning a district court ruling. What is the basis for their decision and will the liberal-leaning Wisconsin Supreme Court see it differently? We look at an important New report that raising the alarm bells that threat of authoritarianism is not enough to attract more working class voters to the Democrats. What are the implications for the fall elections and the fight to prevent authoritarian consolidation? We talk about why the G20 is coming to Milwaukee, in late September and debrief our visit to Superior for the Wisconsin Public Education Network's Summer Summit.

We take a deep into the latest MU Law Poll, which finds Francesca Hong and Mandela Barnes distancing themselves from the field. What does the MU poll clearly tell us and what remains unclear and fluid? We look at other Internal candidate polls, which show Francesca Hong with at 35% and 39%, a 20+ point lead over Barnes and David Crowley, who has reentered the race. We also discuss how the headlines about the MU Law Poll misrepresent its findings, and ignore some of its most interesting results. We clarify how the $2 billion Wisconsin tax subsidy for data centers was bipartisan . passing in the 2023-25 state budget with support of GOP Legislature and a Democratic Governor who chose not to line-item vetoed it. We close with a review of Trump Regime impacts in Wisconsin and other States; Milwaukee could be first test case of ICE’s refusal to follow mask ordinance; Trump’s CMS suspends $1 billion in Medicaid funding to Minnesota and California; and Trump’s DOT declares war on “DEI bike lanes” and biker and pedestrian safety. Yes this is for real!

We welcome Citizen Action’s newly endorsed Governor candidate, State Representative Francesca Hong, to discuss her historic campaign and why Citizen Action members endorsed her in a crowded field of strong candidates. Following the latest tick report, we dig into the Wisconsin Election Commission finding Elon Musk likely broke the law with $1 million voter checks and referred him to the Brown County District Attorney for criminal investigation and possible prosecution. Does the Brown County DA have the resources to take on a Trillionaire? Finally, we expose the utilities seeking to halt open bidding competition for new power line projects, and billions in proposed rate increases this year alone.

With Matt on vacation this week Robert welcomes special Guest State Rep Christian Phelps to discuss the new "improved" Trump immigration crackdown, huge Wisconsin budget deficits in education and health care, and the freakout of establishment Democrats about the gains of democratic socialists and strong progressive candidates. Is it a civil war or a way to improve the Democratic Party? Finally, Robert interviews Amy Barrilleaux from Clean Wisconsin about the shocking news that Wisconsin energy demand will increase 40% by the early 2030s due to three large data centers. What are the implications for the climate crisis?

Robert gives us the 250th July 4th Tick Report, nature’s revenge for climate change. This week’s report includes a menacing headline from the Boston Globe, There’s a terrifying uptick in tick-borne illnesses. We educate our listeners on the dangerous and deadly tick-borne disease, the Powassan virus, which transmits in 15 minutes and can include fever, headache, vomiting and weakness. Severe cases can bring brain inflammation, loss of coordination, difficulty speaking, seizures or lasting neurological damage. Ticks and the current heat wave are climate change induced. We discuss new research saying Wisconsin is 2.9 degrees warmer than 1970. We picked up on a story Battleground Wisconsin covered in June, that Democratic-lead states sued the Trump Regime on Medicaid “medically frail” exemption for work requirements. Now, many states and health policy experts say surprise Trump regime regulations are unworkable. Despite the outcry, crickets from Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services. So-called “targeted enforcement” keeps the Trump/Miller assault on rights of immigrants out of national headlines (and politics) but continues under the radar. In recent weeks ICE has amped up operations in Milwaukee arresting many with no criminal records. Masked agents and violent arrests traumatize families in Milwaukee. ICE also is refusing to follow Milwaukee’s mask ban for all law enforcement officers. We take a dive into the final Supreme Court decisions before the justices go on their long summer hiatus. While immigrants’ rights advocates celebrated the birthright citizenship ruling by the US Supreme Court, it is outrageous that it was a 6-3 decision (really, 5-4 on the constitutional question) and not 9-0. Also, SCOTUS further deregulated big campaign cash (modeled on Wisconsin’s law) further elevating the “rights” of the wealthy and well-connected over everyone else. We are joined by Kate Zolandz, an organizer with the National Union of Healthcare Workers, who was fired by the sleazy Rogers Behavioral Health. She tells us about the workers successful organizing drive that has resulted in Rogers firing workers and targeting the licenses of staff fired after union vote. The union has started a new website with more details.