Tag: Milwaukee

“Milwaukee inspires me and breaks my heart every day,” says Angela Lang, the executive director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC). “It is such a beautifully complex city and it’s full of potential.” Interacting with people in her community almost every day, Lang sees immense hardships but also uplifting resilience. She is the kind of person who witnesses struggles in her neighborhood and feels moved to take action. In her eyes, there is a path for change and a way to achieve a better future. “All we have to do is tap in and engage folks in a really meaningful way,” she says. By organizing her community and encouraging participation in the political process, she gives others the power to fight for their rights. Lang grew up on 32nd and Wisconsin, well aware of the dichotomy of the neighborhood’s low-income housing in the shadow of Marquette High School, a school most of her friends would never be able to afford. She also watched as her single mother struggled with breast cancer while working multiple jobs. Fast forward to 2017, when Lang and five elected officials (Sen. LaTonya Johnson, Rep. David Bowen, Ald. After hearing the concerns of everyday people and taking time to understand their hardships, BLOC began training canvassers (or ambassadors, as BLOC calls them) to educate citizens about the political system.

MILWAUKEE — Former President Barack Obama urged Wisconsinites to vote Democratic at a Friday rally and slammed his presidential successor, Donald Trump, for stoking incivility and telling lies in the months leading up to the Nov. 6 election. He told attendees that the “character of the country is on the ballot” in this midterm election and that the “only check on this behavior is you and your vote.” Obama arrived at North Division High School in one of Milwaukee’s most impoverished neighborhoods to shore up support for a slate of Democratic candidates including U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, gubernatorial candidate Tony Evers, 1st U.S. House District candidate Randy Bryce, attorney general candidate Josh Kaul and state treasurer candidate Sarah Godlewski. About 3,500 people crammed into the North Division High School gym. Another 600 watched the rally from an overflow room, according to Milwaukee Fire Department Capt. Jordan Ponder. Nanette Davis, 54, was one of many African-Americans standing in the crowd as Obama delivered a roughly 40-minute speech. She said Obama improved housing and health insurance for Milwaukee residents like herself. She voted in the 2016 election, but said many others in her community didn’t. Nearly 60,000 fewer votes were cast in 2016 than in 2012, and Trump won Wisconsin by about 23,000 votes. Some political scientists and Democratic party strategists attributed the lower turnout in part to the newly activated voter ID requirement.

Scott Walker watched as former Gov. Tommy Thompson exhorted a friendly Republican crowd to help Walker prevail in his surprisingly precarious race for a third term. “The recipe is Scott Walker. You know like a good chocolate chip cookie, it sort of melts in your mouth? You know it really feels good.” But the old recipe for victory may not be working in a midterm election where Democrats appear poised to do well across the country. Ominous polls have Walker in trouble, and he’s sounding the alarm to supporters. Democrats, after years of failure and frustration, are daring to hope that they may finally slay their political white whale. If the onetime presidential candidate and Republican rising star loses, it would qualify as one of the bigger upsets of the midterm election because of his record in difficult situations before — winning election and re-election despite two victories in his state by Barack Obama, and turning back a 2012 recall attempt by Democrats incensed by his attack on public-sector unions. A Walker loss to Tony Evers, the bland 66-year-old state education superintendent who enjoys Egg McMuffins and playing the card game euchre, would also give Democrats hope for the future in a state that Republicans have had a firm grip on for eight years. Walker’s approval rating remains below 50 percent and President Donald Trump’s is worse, even though Trump carried the state two years ago.