Underly, Kinser Advance in Primary for Superintendent of Public Instruction
Posted Feb. 20, 2025
The Associated Press (AP) has called the State Superintendent of Public Instruction primary election for incumbent Jill Underly and Brittany Kinser. The two candidates now move on to the Spring General Election on April 1.
As of Tuesday evening Feb. 18, with more than 95 percent of precincts reporting statewide, Underly won 38 percent of the vote with 177,397 votes, and Kinser claimed 34.5 percent of the votes with 161, 586 votes, according to the AP. Sauk Prairie School District Superintendent Jeff Wright trailed with 27.5 percent of the vote with 128, 256 votes.
According to the New York Times, a total of 1,250 votes were cast in Sawyer County, with 34 percent of the vote going to Underly, 40 percent to Kinser, and 26 percent to Wright.
Underly has positioned herself as a champion of public schools, while Kinser is an advocate of the state’s private school voucher program and public charter schools.
As noted in the PBS Wisconsin article elsewhere on this page, although the superintendent position
is officially non-partisan, the job of running the state’s public school system is anything but apolitical.
This is largely because of school system funding battles between the governor and the state
Legislature, but also due to high-profile contemporary political issues that include transgender
student policies, school library book access and bans, police in schools, and other contentious
matters. See the Wisconsin Public Education Network survey of the candidates elsewhere on this
page for more information on Underly’s and Kinser’s positions on issues.
Note that the Democratic Party of Wisconsin has endorsed Underly—giving her $106,000 in February,
according to the Associated Press. After Dr. Jill Underly’s primary victory, Democratic Party of Wisconsin
Chair Ben Wikler issued the following statement:
“Jill Underly is a champion for Wisconsin’s public schools, educators, and kids, and is the proven
leader we need at the Department of Public Instruction. As Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jill
helped pass a new bipartisan literacy law, raised standards for math and science, and expanded
career and technical education. Today, Wisconsin’s graduation rate is the highest in state history.
Jill knows there’s more work to do and her proven record shows she will deliver. Wisconsin
Democrats are ready to wage a strong door-to-door campaign to re-elect Jill Underly.
“This record of proven leadership stands in stark contrast to lobbyist Brittany Kinser, who has never
even held a teaching license in Wisconsin. Kinser’s campaign is funded by Republican megadonors
and stage-managed by a former Republican legislator because they love that Kinser has promised
to drain funds from our public schools and give them to private for-profit schools. Kinser even advocated
to remove teacher licensing requirements. Our kids don’t need a right-wing puppet to lead our schools.
That’s why, come April 1, Jill Underly will be re-elected.”
Based on feedback from public school teachers from across the state, Underly also received the endorsement of the Wisconsin Education Association Council following the primary.
According to the AP, Kinser is backed by Republicans, including the state party—which has given her $200,000 so far.
For more information on the coming Underly-Kinser race, see this Feb. 18 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article.
Three Candidates Running in Statewide Primary for Superintendent of Public Instruction
Posted Feb. 13, 2025
Voters will choose between three educators in a mid-February primary election to decide who will continue on in the 2025 race to be the superintendent of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
On that Feb. 18 primary ballot, the incumbent Superintendent Dr. Jill Underly, a former teacher and education administrator who is seeking a second term, will face Sauk Prairie School District Superintendent Jeff Wright and Milwaukee-based education consultant Brittany Kinser.
The top two candidates from the primary election will then compete in the spring general election on April 1.
Among her various reasons for wanting to continue in the the job of administering the state’s public school system, Underly’s campaign website states that “the passion to help every child in Wisconsin discover their dreams and build their best life is what motivates her to lead the charge to make Wisconsin the best state for public education and to raise a family.”
On his campaign website, Wright said he believes that “our communities thrive when our schools thrive” and his related work experience will make sure he “focuses on deepening the core connections between schools, families, businesses and residents.”
And, in a press release, Kinser stated that she’s “committed to ensuring students can read, write, and do math skillfully. I want to restore high academic standards and make sure students have the skills they need for good jobs after graduation.”
According to Wisconsin state statutes, responsibilities for the State Superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction include leadership of the state’s 2,190 public schools and 421 public school districts, as well as teacher licensing, and disbursement of federal aid for schools. The superintendent position, which is a four-year term, also sets statewide education priorities and submits a biennial budget request for public education to the governor and State Legislature. The annual salary for the state superintendent of public schools is $132,351.
Underly emphasizes a long resume of education experience dating back to 1999. Her campaign website states she “has worked in all facets of public education, from elementary school principal, a middle and high school teacher, a school district superintendent, a university academic advisor and administrator, assistant director at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.” She first won election to superintendent in 2021.
Wright’s campaign website lists that he was “recently named “2024 Administrator of the Year” by the Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance” and that he was “first a Social Studies teacher and one of Disney’s American Teacher Award honorees” and “after earning a degree from Harvard University, Jeff served as a high school principal on the south side of Chicago.”
Aside from owning an education consulting business, Kinser’s LinkedIn profile lists previous positions as leading Wisconsin’s Rocketship Public Schools, which are part of a national network of public charter schools and that she was a past president of City Forward Collective, a Milwaukee nonprofit that advocates for and funds charter schools. An email from her campaign states Kinser “has taught both science and special education in public schools” and “was an innovative principal at a public school serving low-income communities, then-State Superintendent Tony Evers honored her with the ‘Beating the Odds’ award.”
Although the position is described as non-partisan, the job of running the state’s public school system is anything but apolitical. This is largely because of school system funding battles between the governor and the state Legislature, but also due to high-profile contemporary political issues that include transgender student policies, school library book access and bans, police in schools, and other contentious matters.
Six weeks in advance of the primary vote, Underly has received the endorsement of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Meanwhile, the political action committee of the Wisconsin Education Association Council — a statewide teachers’ union — recommended Wright receive its endorsement, but the full organization has not yet endorsed a candidate. Note: The full council subsequently endorsed Underly following Tuesday night’s election results. Upon Kinser filing for candidacy, WisPolitics reported that she described herself as a moderate Democrat but she refused to claim any political affiliation when asked by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Note: It was subsequently announced that Kinser is backed by Republicans, including the state party, which has given her campaign $200,000 so far.
Given that the Wisconsin Legislature and governor’s office are creating new biennial state budget proposals and will be negotiating over specifics in the first half of 2025, Underly submitted her financial request for the Department of Public Instruction in November 2024 and is asking for an additional $4 billion in state funding over the next two years. The 2023-25 budget for the agency alloted almost $9 billion for state schools annually.
Whoever wins the superintendent race will take office in early July, which is roughly around the same time frame that the governor has signed the state budget into law during the last two bienniums.
Other Things You Should About the Primary
Hayward Township is on the Feb. 18 ballot, too. See this Ballotpedia site for details.
Visit the MyVote Wisconsin website for more information about voting in the Feb. 18 primary, including what’s on your local ballot.
See Wisconsin Public Education Network Survey of DPI Candidates
Jill Underly with student
Photo: Underly campaign
Brittany Kinser
2025 Spring Election
April 1, 2025
Get Ready to Vote for Susan Crawford on April 1
Susan Crawford for Justice Official Campaign Website (Clicking will send you to a different website)
Judge Susan Crawford Will Face Brad Schimel in Critical Wisconsin Supreme Court Race on April 1
Posted Jan. 23, 2025
Sources: Ballotpedia, Susan Crawford campaign, Democratic Party of Wisconsin
The race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court is set. Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford and Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel are running for a 10-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court on April 1. The winner will replace liberal Incumbent Justice Ann Walsh Bradley who is retiring. The filing deadline was Jan. 7, 2025. The primary scheduled for February 18, 2025, was canceled after only two candidates filed to run.
In the April 2023 election, Judge Janet Protasiewicz won an open seat, defeating Daniel Kelly 55.4% to 44.4% creating a 4-3 liberal majority shifting ideological control of the court for the first time in 15 years. According to Wisconsin Watch's Jack Kelly, "The April 1 race has two possible outcomes: a guaranteed liberal majority until 2028 or a 3-3 split with Justice Brian Hagedorn, a conservative-leaning swing vote, again wielding outsized influence."
Wisconsin’s Supreme Court elections are officially nonpartisan, but candidates often take stances on specific issues and receive backing from the state's political parties during their campaigns. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW) has endorsed Crawford and Schimel is the former Republican attorney general.
DPW endorsed Judge Crawford back in November because she is a common sense judge who has spent her career fighting to protect our rights and freedoms. Judge Crawford is the fair and impartial justice Wisconsin needs on our highest court. In contrast, Schimel is a far-right extremist politician that Wisconsin voters rejected Schimel after just one term as attorney general because his extreme politics and dereliction of duty became too difficult to ignore. He is incapable of putting his own far-right agenda aside to be a fair, nonpartisan justice on the Supreme Court.
Note that ultra-right billionaire Elon Musk has weighed in on the race, posting the following statement on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that Musk owns: "Very important to vote Republican for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to prevent voting fraud!"
Key Messages and Talking Points
Susan Crawford
Top Message: Judge Crawford is a common sense judge who has always been guided by the same basic values she learned growing up in Chippewa Falls. She believes in doing the right thing, she has fought to protect our rights and freedoms, and she’ll be the fair and impartial Justice Wisconsin needs on the State Supreme Court. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is proud to endorse Judge Crawford for Wisconsin Supreme Court.
As a former prosecutor and a judge, Judge Crawford understands that we need Supreme Court Justices who know what it takes to keep communities safe, who are fair and impartial, who will use common sense, and who won’t politicize the Constitution in an effort to take away our most basic rights.
Judge Crawford has taken on some of the state’s toughest criminal cases—and has made sure violent criminals are sent to prison and that our communities are safe.
Judge Crawford has upheld our constitution, enforced our laws, and protected our freedoms. As an attorney, she took on tough cases and won, including cases that protected voting rights, access to reproductive healthcare, workers’ rights, and more. She has always put the people of Wisconsin first and will continue to do that as our next Supreme Court Justice.
For the first time in years, we have a majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court that’s following the facts and following the law—and delivering on the promise of a fair and impartial justice system.
We have to keep the majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court to protect the progress we’ve made and secure a better future for our state.
This election presents a clear choice—whether we defend our pro-democracy majority, or go backwards with far-right justices loyal only to Donald Trump and wealthy special interests.
Susan Crawford Official Campaign Website: Susan Crawford for Justice
Brad Schimel
Top Message: Brad Schimel is an extreme right-wing politician. As Wisconsin’s worst attorney general, he used his power to force his own dangerous agenda on Wisconsinites, including fighting against reproductive freedom and access to contraception. We can’t trust him to be a fair and impartial member of Wisconsin’s highest court.
While Judge Crawford has dedicated her career to protecting the rights of Wisconsinites and being a fair, impartial public servant, Brad Schimel is an extreme politician who will use his power to force his own political agenda on Wisconsin.
Brad Schimel’s extreme record speaks for itself:
Even before Roe was overturned, Brad Schimel was suing to enforce new restrictions on access to safe and legal abortion in Wisconsin, wasting more than a million taxpayer dollars on an extreme, partisan lawsuit seeking to enforce new restrictions on abortion access in Wisconsin.
With Brad Schimel on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Wisconsin families would be left at the mercy of insurance companies and Big Pharma.
While running for attorney general, Brad Schimel accepted thousands in campaign contributions from Big Pharma and refused to join lawsuits seeking to hold big drug companies accountable for the opioid epidemic ravaging Wisconsin.
As attorney general, Brad Schimel led Wisconsin into a disastrous lawsuit seeking to overturn the Affordable Care Act and rip away health care from over 306,000 Wisconsinites, calling the ACA a “train wreck.”
As Wisconsin’s top cop, Brad Schimel didn’t care about keeping Wisconsinites safe. Schimel let thousands of untested rape kits pile up under his watch, delaying justice for victims of sexual assault—including more than 2,000 children—and allowing violent offenders to walk free.
In his first two years in office, Brad Schimel tested only 9 out of over 6,000 untested rape kits and lied about it in an effort to mislead the public about his own incompetence.
He has even failed to hold sexual predators accountable, routinely cutting deals to let them off the hook and even blaming underage victims instead of the criminals who harmed them.
Brad Schimel is an extreme partisan. As attorney general, he defended the Republican gerrymandered maps, supported new limits on voting, and sued to overturn the Affordable Care Act. We can’t trust him to be a fair or impartial justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
General Election Information
Post-November 2024 Election Thoughts from Ben Wikler, Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair
Nov. 10, 2024
Here are highlights from a message sent by Ben Wikler, Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair, to Wisconsin Democrats after the Nov. 5 General Election.
On Election Day, I thought we were winning the presidential race.
We came up short.
Losing was a gut punch. Enormous peril lies ahead.
As we prepare for what’s next, we also have to find space for curiosity about what just happened.
We’re beginning to see the outlines: a red wave. A nationwide shift toward Trump of 6 percent. But in Wisconsin, we nearly defeated that wave.
The shift here was just one quarter the size: a 1.5% swing from 2020. Not because Trump was weaker here than elsewhere, but because we were stronger. Thanks to tens of thousands of heroes—our candidates, the campaign, party infrastructure, allies, and volunteers—we persuaded and turned out even more voters for Harris than we did for Biden in 2020. We lost Wisconsin by just 0.9%—the smallest margin of any state in America.
2024 was a high turnout year, second only to 2020 nationwide. But in most states, turnout went down slightly. In Wisconsin, overall turnout went up—by 1.3%, the most in the country.
All of your work had a critical impact. You helped Tammy Baldwin win re-election. You flipped four state Senate and ten state Assembly seats on our new fair maps, setting the stage for majorities in 2026.
That reality doesn’t lessen the blow of knowing what Trump is poised to inflict on the country. But it fills me with profound gratitude for your work. To everyone involved in this fight, thank you.
Here’s my first-pass analysis of what just happened, and a note of appreciation.
Two Things Are Clear
In 2024, voters nationwide—across, from what we can tell, geography, gender, generation, race, and ethnicity—shifted towards Trump. This wasn’t any particular group’s “fault.” Don’t fall for that trap.
We’re just at the beginning of figuring out what happened. Be wary of anyone who tells you that X, Y, or Z thing would have changed the outcome.
But two things are very clear from the big picture.
The first key thing is that the post-COVID inflation era has marked a global wave against incumbent parties. In 2024, for the first year on record (with 120 years of data), every wealthy-country ruling party has lost ground, regardless of whether it was left or right of center. Across Belgium, France, Japan, Austria, Portugal, the US, and the UK, the average swing was 20 points.
Worldwide, political scientists are arguing, this is a reaction to high prices. Inflation leads voters to punish whoever’s in power, even if they didn’t have control over it. The fact that US voters swung less hard against Democrats may be due to the greater success in the US, relative to other countries, in bringing inflation down.
This tracks with what we’ve heard consistently for the last two years—in polls, in exit polls, and on doors. Many voters have been furious about high prices. The question was whether we could win the presidential race despite that headwind, given everything else (and yes, there was so much else). Like other parties worldwide, we didn’t.
The second thing that jumps out is that, in the states where Harris and Trump campaigned the hardest, Harris overperformed. And she overperformed in Wisconsin most of all.
Harris’s campaign had a bigger effect than Trump’s. As Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report, one of the nation’s most clear-eyed analysts, puts it:
—Latest numbers: across the seven battleground states, the '20-'24 swing towards Trump was ~3.1 pts. Across the other 43 states (+DC), it was ~6.7 pts.
—Bottom line: the Harris campaign swam impressively against some very strong underlying currents.
You can see the same thing in turnout numbers.
. . .this is a tale of two elections—because while turnout dropped slightly in non-battleground states, it actually went up, very slightly, in the seven battlegrounds.
And it rose most of all in Wisconsin: turnout here rose 1.3%, the highest in the nation.
In other words, that feeling so many of us had—that energy on the ground was explosive, that the campaign was soaring, that we were finding new Harris voters all over the state—that was real.
Harris earned more than 30,000 more raw votes than Biden. She earned more votes than Obama in 2012, and almost as many as Obama in 2008—when he won a 14-point landslide victory. She added votes in 46 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties—rural, urban, suburban, and small-town alike.
Unpacking the Numbers
“Urban core” counties moved 8 percent towards Trump nationally—but Milwaukee only moved 1 percent.
Milwaukee County actually delivered more net votes (Dem votes minus Republican votes) for Harris than it did for Obama in 2008 or 2012.
“Major suburbs” moved 5.7 percent towards Trump nationally—but in Wisconsin, they moved 0.1 percent to Harris. Her margin grew, slightly, in each of the WOW counties.
“Medium metros”—counties with mid-sized cities—moved 4.9 percent towards Trump nationally, but in Wisconsin, just shifted 1 percent towards Trump. Dane County, the fastest-growing in the state, for the first time delivered the most net votes for Harris of any Wisconsin county.
And “Rural counties and small cities” nationally moved towards Trump by 4 percent. In Wisconsin, these 57 counties accounted for 36 percent of the overall vote, and 29 percent of the vote for Harris. But the Trumpward shift in rural Wisconsin counties—2 percent—was only half the national shift. And Harris racked up more raw votes than Biden in 35 of those counties, even though Trump added more.
Gains in the Legislature
We can, should, and must do all we can to think through, what, in small ways and big, we could have done better. And there is much to learn, perhaps painful lessons, about what led to this outcome.
But we can be rightly proud of what we achieved in Wisconsin.
It all mattered.
It mattered because Tammy Baldwin won her Senate race. This was another classic Wisconsin photo finish: a 0.9 percent, 28,958-vote margin, overcoming an absolutely horrendous $100 million flood of attack ads. Baldwin ran a dynamite campaign. And all of our work to lift up Democrats up and down the ballot played a critical role in her race. You helped make that happen.
It mattered because, in the state legislature, Democrats flipped all four of our targeted state Senate seats, shattering the GOP’s supermajority and putting Democrats on track for a majority in 2026. Two seats to go.
Meanwhile, Dems picked up 10 Assembly districts—ending the massive Republican margin created by gerrymandered maps. If we flip five more seats, we’ll win an Assembly majority in 2026 as well.
And it mattered because of the way we won—by staying true to our values, by organizing, by building community and working together and taking nobody for granted and counting nobody out.
Some Thanks
So: some thanks are in order.
First, to our candidates. . . Second, thank you to the campaign and party staff that worked themselves to the bone on this election. None of this would have been possible without you. . . Roughly 100,000 volunteers this year took part in the fight in Wisconsin. Let’s thank them all. . .
Every one of the 100,000 people who volunteered, including tens of thousands who knocked on doors and made phone calls in Wisconsin this year, helped Tammy Baldwin win Wisconsin, helped make huge gains downballot, and helped ensure that Harris came closer to winning here than any other battleground state.
Our Values Will Endure
We didn’t win all that we wanted to win. But the values that lead us to do this work will endure. We will keep striving to learn and improve. And together, in times to come, we will bend the moral arc of the universe towards justice.
Ben Wikler
Recruiting Candidates for Local Office
October 2, 2023
Recruiting and nurturing candidates for local office are two of the most important roles a local Democratic party can play. Electing officials who uphold and advance Democratic party values and principles at the community level is critical to the health of our democracy and our society.
City council, county board, township board, school board and more: No elected office is “too small” to fill with responsible, civic-minded citizens committed to promoting justice and opportunity for everyone in their communities.
Besides providing valuable service to their communities, local officeholders also gain the experience to move on to higher offices at the state or national level, if they wish.
Whether you want to nurture community members to run for office, or you’re thinking of running yourself, you’ll need information about resources. Here are a few places to find help for first-time candidates:
· Wisconsin Progress is a Wisconsin-based candidate recruitment and training organization dedicated to advancing the progressive movement and electing leaders to champion our most important causes. Select the “Trainings” link from the top menu of the Wisconsin Progress website for the latest information on training opportunities.
· Emerge Wisconsin is an organization that recruits, trains and provides a powerful network to Democratic women who want to run for office. Select the “Candidate Training” link at the top of the Emerge Wisconsin website to apply for the six-month, cohort-based program or to nominate someone for the program.
· Adelante is a Wisconsin-based organization that supports candidates of color through training and networking support. Adelante wants to make sure every voice is heard and that marginalized communities have a seat at the table. Keep up to date on the Adelante website for future opportunities.
· The Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) “Candidates” page contains valuable information about getting on the ballot and running for local, state, or federal office. (This page is also linked from the WisDems site, under the “Run for Office” tab. Select the “Run for Office” block to access the WEC page.)
· The WisDems “Candidate Resources” page is available under the “Run for Office” tab. Select the “Candidate Resources” block and then request access to this password-protected page.
· The National Democratic Training Committee page contains information about training for Democrats interested in running for office, working on a campaign, or driving progressive values through local leadership. Training is free, but you’ll need to register to access tools and resources. WisDems periodically partners with the National Democratic Training Committee to provide training and tools for potential candidates.
Identifying and Assisting Local Candidates
October 6, 2023
Recruiting and nurturing candidates for local office are two of the most important
roles a local party can play. Electing officials who uphold and advance Democratic
party values and principles at the community level is critical to the health of our
democracy and our society. See the “Run for Office” page (link below) of the WisDems’
website for residency requirements, eligibility rules and more information for local
candidates.
Steps for Recruiting Candidates
Following are steps suggested for use by party members in identifying and
assisting candidates for local office.
Prioritize races: Ask yourself which offices are most important to you and why.
This will help you identify potential candidates. Local offices include the following (Source: Wisconsin Elections Commission):
Partisan
Sheriff
County Clerk
County Treasurer
Clerk of Circuit Court
Coroner
Register of Deeds
Non-partisan
County Executive
County Supervisor
Municipal Offices, e.g., mayor, city council member, clerk, treasurer, judge, assessor
School Board member
Special District posts
List issues important to the local party: Naming these issues will help you identify
potential candidates who share your positions on these issues.
List candidate qualities important to the local party: Naming these qualities will
help you identify potential candidates who possess them.
Identify potential candidates: Consider people who are already leaders or
otherwise active in your community. These include:
● Sawyer County/LCO Democratic party members
● LCO Tribal Council member
● Appointed members of public boards and commissions
● Non-profit organization leaders1
● Business leaders
● Youth group leaders
Decide where to focus your energy: This will depend in large part which race or
races you wish to prioritize in a particular election cycle.
Persuade a possible candidate to run: A party member or members with
connections to a potential candidate should plant the idea of running in their
head. Getting someone to “yes” will likely take several conversations. Remember
to:
● Explain how they could make a difference in the community.
● Explain how they would personally benefit.
● Offer to help them run by providing moral support and assistance with the
nuts and bolts of running, including connecting them with wisdom’s and
other candidate training resources.
Assisting Candidates
Once the party has persuaded someone to run for a local office, individual party
members may provide volunteer and/or financial support. Remember, though,
that the party will not endorse a candidate or provide financial support as a party
until he or she survives a primary or runoff—if applicable.
Again, candidate recruitment is one of the most important functions of a local
party. Every party member should keep an eye out for people who can further
Democratic principles and values in our community.
For More Information
Run for Office - Democratic Party of Wisconsin (wisdems.org)
