Dems hope vote-by-mail effort will work elsewhere

It was a shocking margin of victory in what was expected to be a close race: An 11-point blowout by a liberal judge over a conservative incumbent for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Now Wisconsin Democrats are working to export their template for success — intense digital outreach and a well-coordinated vote-bymail operation — to other states in the hope it will improve the party’s chances in local and statewide elections and in the quest to unseat President Donald Trump in November.

Their top officials have gone on a virtual nationwide tour, extolling the virtues of their digital campaign efforts in hopes Democrats and liberal activists elsewhere can replicate their victory, when Jill Karofsky, a liberal judge, ousted state Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly.

The first chance comes Tuesday in a special election for a Republican-heavy House district that covers the northern third of the state. It is the nation’s first partisan contest since Wisconsin’s April 7 election, and it will provide more evidence as to whether Democratic vote-by-mail success in that race is repeatable.

State party officials have spoken regularly with counterparts in other states, addressed a national virtual gathering of union activists and wrote a public memo with Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight organization detailing lessons learned that can be applied elsewhere.

“You do get to learn from these things,” said Ramsey Reid, the battleground states director for the Democratic National Committee.