Think tank aims to refocus election-year debate on evidence-based reforms for prosperity
The Badger Institute today officially launched its 2026 Mandate for Madison, a comprehensive policy project providing research-based recommendations to Wisconsin lawmakers and voters ahead of the November elections and the 2027 legislative session.
Building on a similar 2022 effort that led to bipartisan reforms, the initiative aims to shift the political conversation away from “over a quarter of a billion dollars of political attack ads replete with half-truths, ugly insinuations and unmitigated mudslinging,” according to Badger Institute President Mike Nichols.
“We’re undertaking this project for all Wisconsinites and for candidates who want to focus on issues rather than insults,” Nichols said in a president’s note released today. “Every successful candidate will find a copy of the complete Mandate on his or her desk come January of 2027.”
The Mandate for Madison will be released in stages through October, addressing key policy areas such as taxes, education, healthcare, housing, energy, and infrastructure. In his introductory preface, Vice President of Policy and Research Ben Eisen frames the central question for policymakers: whether Wisconsin should continue its shift toward greater economic freedom or return to a more government-centered approach.
Policymakers must resist calls to reverse recent market-oriented reforms,” Eisen wrote. He noted Wisconsin’s rise in national economic-freedom rankings, moving from near the bottom to the second quintile, due to spending restraint, expanded school choice, Act 10 labor reforms, right-to-work laws, and housing-supply measures.
Eisen cautioned that recent spending increases, proposals to double the minimum wage, threats to right-to-work laws, and new energy regulations could undermine the state’s progress. He stated the agenda will offer “evidence-based guidance” supported by data linking greater economic freedom to broader opportunity and prosperity.
The rollout began today with Nichols’ note and Eisen’s preface. Additional research, including a major essay by economist Jim Bohn analyzing border-county data between Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota, will be published on Friday. Subsequent reports will follow monthly.
The 2022 Mandate for Madison, a 300-page blueprint, helped shape policies including authorizing dental therapists, restoring school resource officers in Milwaukee Public Schools, expediting the justice system for crime victims, and increasing funding for choice and charter schools.
Nichols invited candidates and voters to engage with the research as it is released. “We call our project… The 2026 Mandate for Madison,” he wrote. “Topics and recommendations will address taxes, spending, education, healthcare, housing, energy, and other key issues.”
The full series of reports and the completed Mandate will be available on the Badger Institute’s website.
The Badger Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit founded in 1987, emphasized that it does not accept government or political-party funding.
