In June 2013, Wisconsin Democrats gathered in Oconomowoc (yes, Oconomowoc) and adopted a set of resolutions that read like the concerns of a party rooted in the kitchen-table politics of working Midwesterners, just with a different set of policy ideas on how to fix these problems. Fair enough.
Thirteen years later, they gathered in Madison this past weekend to vote on resolutions that included abolishing ICE, affirming that transgender women are women, packing the U.S. Supreme Court, and mandating that data centers generate 100% of their electricity on-site with at least 70% of it from renewable sources. It’s quite the leap from worrying about minimum wage and reforming our immigration system.
The move from 2013 to 2026 is worth examining, not just as a political exercise, but as a window into how profoundly and how quickly the center of gravity has shifted in the state’s Democratic Party.
Start with immigration, because that difference is the starkest.
In 2013, Wisconsin Democrats considered resolution 13-JHD-01, calling on Congress to enact “comprehensive immigration reform that provides a reasonable path to citizenship and social integration for workers, family members of U.S. residents, and young people raised in this country.” It was a mainstream position, the kind that Republican senators like Marco Rubio were willing to negotiate over. The language was measured. The goal was a workable policy.
The 2026 resolutions propose abolishing ICE and prosecuting law enforcement. The draft resolution declares that the federal government created ICE “out of fear and racism” while also calling for ending mass deportations, ending private immigration detention, and supporting the prosecution of immigration officers for human rights violations.
This is not a tweak or an evolution. This is a different ideological universe. In 2013, Wisconsin Democrats wanted a working immigration system. In 2026, they want to tear down the agency that enforces it, characterize it as a product of bigotry, and potentially criminalize its agents.
Here’s something else that’s telling: the 2013 resolutions, all of them, do not contain a single mention of transgender issues. Not one. This wasn’t an oversight or a deliberate omission. In 2013, it simply wasn’t on the agenda of a state Democratic convention. Kitchen table issues were.
In 2026, the Platform and Resolutions Committee recommended two resolutions specifically affirming transgender identity and protecting access to gender-affirming care for minors. What wasn’t a Democratic Party concern at the state convention level in 2013 is now a formal party resolution in 2026.
Similarly, nowhere in 2013 will you find a call to expand the U.S. Supreme Court. The 2026 resolutions include exactly that. “Court packing” is a dangerous partisan precedent that will truly erode our democracy. But, in a dozen years, “court packing” went from a radical failed idea of the past to a recommended party resolution in Wisconsin from a party that makes liberal use of the slogan “No Kings.”
But step back and look at the full picture. The 2013 Wisconsin Democratic Party wanted to raise the minimum wage, protect the post office, and implement stricter environmental standards. The 2026 Wisconsin Democratic Party wants to abolish a federal law enforcement agency that it says was created by racism, pack the Supreme Court, affirm gender identity and support surgery for minors by formal resolution, and set unreliable and unaffordable renewable energy mandates for the tech sector.
We can argue all day how far to the left the Democratic Party has shifted in the last dozen or so years, but one thing is clear. The 2013 resolutions were the product of a party arguing with Republicans. The 2026 resolutions read more like a party arguing with the version of itself that existed in 2013. Somewhere between Oconomowoc and Madison, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin left a lot of ground, and a lot of Wisconsinites, behind.
