Ben Wikler is one of the two front-runners for the position of Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). In today's The Capital Times, GMU professor Ben Manski recalls Wikler's early years:
One night in 1997, a group huddled in a meeting room in the Madison Metropolitan School District’s creaky administrative building, debating whether Coca-Cola should have sweeping rights to market its sodas in school buildings.
On one side of the table were School Board members, most of whom supported the exclusive corporate contract. On the other side was a teenage Ben Wikler and a group of students, activists and teachers concerned about the deal. The meeting had grown tense.
“There was a member of the School Board who was yelling at Madison high school students and others,” recalled Ben Manski, then an organizer and University of Wisconsin-Madison student. “Ben both remained calm and also resolute.” . . .
When Wikler and other students entered the fray, Manski said, it was the latest in a long line of student protests in the Madison school district. Wikler, he said, tapped into that in a particularly rich way.
“It was clear that he had decided that he was going to be involved in the project of making history and that he was somebody who was going to remain committed to public service,” Manski said.
Adding later in the profile that:
Manski, Wikler’s former compatriot in the movement opposing Coca-Cola, knows well the rigors of running a political party. He went on to become co-chair of the national Green Party. Manski now works as an assistant professor of sociology at George Mason University in Virginia.
While some of Wikler’s work as party chair has drawn pushback — the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s efforts to block primary challengers to President Joe Biden from the ballot drew criticism nationally — Manski said Wikler is a rare person who is respected even by those who are cynical about the Democratic Party. Wikler, he said, “hasn’t faltered” in pursuing his goals, whether that was blocking a soda contract or running Democratic Party operations.
“We're living in a period in which there's a need for very broad coalitions and trust is necessary for those coalitions to function,” Manski said. “What makes him trusted by me and also by others … is that Ben Wikler has that necessary combination of idealism and pragmatism.”
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January 29, 2025