Chris Larson is a Wisconsin state senator representing the Seventh District.
In the spring of 2016, progressive State Senator Chris Larson ran against incumbent Chris Abele for Milwaukee County Executive. Larson defeated Abele in the primary only to have Abele outspend him with $5 million of his family’s money to Larson’s $250,000 that was raised in small contributions from the people of Milwaukee County. Abele’s slick television ads distorted the truth and they were run at the end of the campaign so Larson didn’t have the time or the money to set the record straight.
Now Abele is at it again, funding Larson’s opponent with over $498,000 and climbing. That’s 83 times the legal individual limit toward a campaign and more than both candidates have raised. Abele gets around this by using his PAC group “Leadership MKE,” which is also supporting rightwing candidates in other elections this Spring.
Recently, we learned that Trump’s extreme anti-public school U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, and her anti-public education group “American Federation for Children” is also spending tens of thousands of dollars against Larson in her efforts to elect people in line with her extreme rightwing positions on education. Larson has been a strong proponent of public education and has made no secret of how the state is falling short of its obligations to provide every student a quality public education.
We were excited about this County Executive race since we thought it would be a fair and honest election, without the pernicious influence of shadowy outside interests. Early on it appeared none of the candidates were accepting dark-money funds, so the voice of the voters would prevail—unlike past races where Abele literally bought the election.
But power is hard to give up, especially for those born to excess. Now Abele is back with his flood of dark money supporting another candidate with anti-democratic campaign tactics. Including recent spending, Abele has now spent over $8 million with mixed results trying to tilt local elections toward politicians he prefers.
This outside money is distorting our elections and we ask the recipients of this campaign money to condemn and vigorously reject this effort to buy elections. So far, the recipients of this money are remaining silent. Their silence speaks volumes.
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We recently contacted Chris Larson to discuss this travesty of justice.
When did you learn that Abele was trying to buy the election for your opponent?
Unfortunately there is a shadowy trail of coordination between Abele’s dark money group and the campaigns he props up. About two months ago, we first saw a strange high-quality YouTube posting of random b-roll of another campaign’s candidate with no sound. You could tell it was put out there ready to be used by a dark money group to make slick ads. While the Republicans did gut our campaign finance and coordination laws, this is still super shady. Once we saw the b-roll we knew there was going to be big spending and this was no longer going to be a fair fight. The other big indication was when a well-heeled Washington attack research group started gathering information, it's the same group that Abele’s money hires to distort the truth.
What reaction are you getting from voters as you talk with them these days?
Voters are clear about this. They are telling us that they’re sick and tired of the corrupting influence of outside money in our election, especially in the middle of this crisis. People are concerned about what’s going to happen next. Especially with the misinformation and bungling of this crisis from Donald Trump, they want an experienced leader who will tackle this crisis head-on at the local level and make sure working families are no longer left behind. People want an experienced County Executive who will be a champion for them and accountable to them.
How is Abele using his money this time and how can people be aware that this is his “dark money” trying to buy an election?
He's spending a vast sum on social media ads and videos, mail, texts, and calls in support of my inexperienced opponent. If you're online checking on friends amid the COVID-19 crisis, you'll likely be targeted by online ads from his group. If you want to say “no” to Abele, Devos, and their attempt to buy this election, ignore the ads. Pretty soon, they’ll also be flooding mailboxes with slick brochures. In small print on these, it’ll say “Paid for by LeadershipMKE” and often that is the only way to know who is trying to influence your vote. Make sure to recycle those right away! We expect that Abele’s group will also dump a lot of money into radio ads in the final days of the campaign. Every time voters see a slick ad in this election they should ask themselves who paid for it and what they want. I am proud of our campaign’s clean campaign pledge, our transparency, and our rejection of influence by dark money.
What can Milwaukee County voters do to help stop this corrupt process of buying the County Executive elections?
We need our supporters to vote by requesting an absentee ballot and mail it back timely. The best way to make your voice heard is at the ballot box. Your vote sends a signal about the kind of public servant you want—one who has built their campaign on grassroots support, experience, strong vision and thoughtful proposals, or one whose campaign is bankrolled by an outrageous flood of Abele and Devos money. Together with our vote, we can turn the page on this dark chapter of our history. But it has to come from all of us, acting together.
How has COVID-19 changed the nature of this campaign?
First, this crisis has made it very clear that we really need to look after each other as neighbors. No one expected this and we’re each adjusting in our own way. At home, my wife and I are doing our best to homeschool Atticus and Stella. For the campaign, we normally can beat dark money spending with door-to-door canvassing, house parties from our community leaders, and getting to every fish fry we can in order to talk with our neighbors. We’ve had to shift over to digital and phones, but obviously it’s not the same. This environment also gives an advantage to those who have the most money and the loudest megaphone so we just have to work that much harder to get people to know my history of standing up as a bold progressive. That’s why I’ve been doing videos on Facebook Live to reach supporters and putting out resources for voters as the situation changes. We’ve really relied on folks sharing things on social media and with their networks. Those individual endorsements really matter. We believe in a people-powered campaign and we’ll continue to campaign that way until the very end.
Do you make a distinction between what Abele is doing and what Betsy DeVos is doing?
I really don’t. In both cases, outside super-rich people are meddling in our democracy. Both Abele and DeVos are trying to evade accountability by spending way over what would be legal if they give directly to a candidate. What Abele and DeVos are both doing is fundamentally undemocratic. Both have been part of efforts to strip control away from our public schools and, along with most of the public, I’ve stood up to that. Milwaukee County needs an experienced progressive leader that is ready to tackle tough problems on day one. I’m not sure what Abele and DeVos want and what strings come with their money and I hope we don’t find out.
What is the danger of relying on big money donors?
You just don’t know who your candidate is accountable to, or who will actually be wielding power when they’re in office. It’s especially important in this moment, as we’re figuring out how to respond to one of the biggest crises Milwaukee has ever faced. You’ve seen how big corporations have used the coronavirus package as an excuse for a lobbying bonanza in DC. We need to know that as we look at the need for an extended economic recovery, we have leaders who will put our communities and neighbors first—not big donors.
Who are the groups and individuals who are supporting your campaign?
Ours is a true grassroots campaign. We have the support of every progressive group that has endorsed in the race. On top of that, every progressive labor organization that has endorsed in this race has endorsed my candidacy. That includes the Democratic Party of Milwaukee County, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Black Leaders Organizing Communities (BLOC), American Federation of Teachers Local 212; the Teamsters Local 200 and 344; the strong public education advocates at MTEA and WEAC; public employees at AFSCME; the transit workers at ATU, United Food and Commercial Workers, South Milwaukee Firefighters, Milwaukee Firefighters, the Milwaukee Building Trades, and the sole endorsement from the Milwaukee Area Labor Council.
We also have the Sierra Club and the immigrant rights advocates at Voces de la Frontera Action. In addition to these organizations, we also have the support of dozens of great local officials, including school board members Marva Herndon, Megan O’Halloran, Tony Baez, Bob Peterson; former school board member Ronald S. San Felippo; State Representatives Jonathan Brostoff, Marisabel Cabrera, and Chris Sinicki; and State Senators LaTonya Johnson, Tim Carpenter, and Bob Wirch; former State Representatives Sandy Pasch, Jon Richards, and Fred Kessler. Honestly, we’re adding more groups and individuals every day so folks should check our website (voteforlarson.org) for all the latest ones.
You are the progressive Democrat in the race, but how bipartisan are you?
It is true that I am proud of our county and our shared progressive values and I certainly don't shy away from fighting for them, but the fact of the matter is that my experience and efforts have helped me build solid relationships with Republicans and Democrats alike in local and state government. While negative campaign ads and statements may try to obscure the truth, the numbers don’t lie—just this session alone I have worked to co-sponsor more than twice as many bi-partisan laws as my opponent. I think that it illustrates my leadership style and our Milwaukee work ethic: we roll up our sleeves and get things done without needing to continually claim credit. As County Executive I will work with everyone, listen to all, and will ask for good ideas from every corner of our community. I’ve been doing that. We held 108 town halls in my nine years as senator. That’s why I pledged to hold public coffee hours annually in each municipality.
There has been a lot of discussion about who has the experience needed to lead our county forward, especially in these unprecedented times. How do you compare to your opponent?
First, I respect and get along with my opponent. While he and I share a number of views, we do have significant differences that voters should be aware of. In fact, one of the reasons that the dark money groups have had to spend so much money trying to influence this race is to downplay the experience deficit of my opponent. Our community and neighbors need a strong and steady hand to lead Milwaukee County now more than ever before. I have been elected to and served on both the County Board and the state Senate. I have four times the legislative experience of my opponent and represent three times as many of our neighbors in the legislature, in both the city and the suburbs. I have strong relationships with other legislators and a better understanding of legislative work that has been done on Milwaukee County related issues. That’s how I earned Legislator of the Year from Shepherd Express for the last 8 years (thank you!).
I’ve also worked hard to include people in the process, holding 9 training sessions to help elect 4 dozen new leaders to local and statewide office. I have a degree from UW-Milwaukee in Finance and given the budget shortfall our county faces, experience will be critical to helping fund our priorities and structure an economic recovery that helps everyone. Finally, the Milwaukee County Executive manages our state's largest county and an effective executive needs to manage over 4 thousand staff and $1.2 billion in priorities. I have a career of experience, including serving as the former leader of the Senate Democrats.
What is your vision for Milwaukee County?
From growing up in Greenfield, attending high school in Bay View, to graduating from UW-Milwaukee, I’ve lived in Milwaukee County my whole life. I'm running to make sure that we've got somebody who's looking out ahead for all of us. Otherwise, we're at real risk of just continuing down the same downward spiral we’ve been on of cuts and pitting one priority against another while letting a brighter future slip away. It comes from a different ideology, which is that I think of government as a community. Or, more directly, as a family. What we do as a community is work toward big goals we never would be able to do alone: like build roads, maintain parks, and run a transit system. At the same time, we take care of each other when it’s needed because we hope that there will be folks to take care of us when we need it. It’s the everyday things you do to help out your neighbors. Things like shoveling your elderly neighbor’s sidewalk. You do it because it’s the right thing to do and if you weren't able to get out and shovel, you’d hope that your neighbor would do it for you. I believe that caring for others starts in your home and extends to your block, then out to your neighborhood. If we start thinking about our county in this way, then we look at each other not as strangers but as neighbors. In one neighborhood. Because that’s what we are: 952,085 neighbors who picked the greatest place in the world to live. If we can do that, it becomes a whole lot easier to tackle our biggest problems: Ending family homelessness once and for all. Getting dedicated funding for transit so folks can get to jobs. Revitalizing our amazing park system so everyone has a place to relax and breath easy. Strengthening our public schools so every child has access to a quality education. Serving and protecting all of our seniors. Ending institutional racism and bridging the divide so we’re no longer the most segregated community in the country. We can do this together. I’m Chris Larson, I’m your neighbor, and I’m asking for your vote to be your Milwaukee County Executive.
Voters can request an absentee ballot today at myvote.wi.gov so they can vote from home. Per state law, ballots must be received by Tuesday, April 7.
