In the wake of unprovoked and unnecessary attacks on Scott Walker’s influence and the lasting impact of his administration, Nicole shares her story as a mom on the front lines fighting for her kids during COVID.
Wisconsin is a notoriously difficult state to poll, and it’s even harder to try to dissect political influence here. There’s a lot of history, deep personal ties, and different factions of loyalty. There are what feel like hundreds of voter profiles and overlapping coalitions. I won’t pretend to be an expert on all of them, because I’m not. I am, however, a corporate Vice President of Marketing and Communications with a deep background in social and PR. I understand success metrics. I understand KPIs.
So when I look at the most successful political movements of the last six years in Wisconsin, on a statewide basis, it wasn’t really anything driven by people under 30. It was the parents’ rights movement: unmasking kids, getting them back in school, and pushing back on ideology in the classroom. That doesn’t mean young conservatives don’t matter. They do. They are vital. I am one of the biggest proponents of bringing in new ideas and moving away from what has become a very stale GOP playbook. I’ve been a loud and consistent critic of RPW. However, when we look at the hard facts of what has actually worked statewide to create real, actionable momentum in recent years, it was the moms.
The group that saw that trend line and understood what was happening was the Walker/Kleefisch apparatus, along with the staff of the Rebecca for Governor campaign. If you don’t know this story, you don’t fully understand how well they know this state, and you certainly don’t understand their influence.
In 2020, like many other parents, I was struggling. I had a five-year-old “distance learning” 4K (we gave that up quickly) and a full-time job. My daughter became restless and sad sitting at home every day during Tony Evers’ “Safer at Home” order. After a particularly difficult conversation with my very Midwestern dad (where he told me that if I didn’t like what was happening in Wisconsin, I should probably “do something about it”), I decided I was going to figure out how to get my daughter back in school, without what I saw as a pointless and ineffective mask requirement.
What followed over the next few years was nothing short of wild, chaotic, and, in many ways, remarkable. A large group of parents formed a network across the state. We met regularly online and spent hours on Telegram trying to figure out our options.
At first, we tried to meet with everyone. Senate offices. Assembly offices. County parties. Most of the time, we were ignored or told some version of “That’s not our job.” There were breakdowns on Google Meet calls, screaming matches with party officials, and constant organizing. So much organizing. We quickly learned that when we showed up at school board meetings with signs and in numbers, we got attention. I started running what was essentially a mini grassroots PR operation out of my house—pitching moms to Fox News and getting outlets like The Daily Wire to cover what was happening in Wisconsin around parents’ rights and getting kids back to school.
Which brings me to Rebecca Kleefisch, and the enduring influence of Walker-era staff and politics.
When no one else would take our meetings or help us understand the political landscape, they did. When others saw what we were talking about as too risky to engage with, they didn’t. They helped us refine messaging, plan events, flip school boards, and understand how to work within the system to drive real change. That change is still showing results today.
The network of operatives, staffers, and elected officials that came out of the Walker years recognized early what would become one of the most significant political movements of the next five years. That’s not accidental. That’s awareness and influence.
So when I see a new strain of “Walker derangement syndrome” emerging, alongside pointed commentary dismissing his influence on Wisconsin conservatives, it bothers me. It’s shortsighted. And it reflects a real lack of understanding about what’s actually been happening across the state. The culture built during the Walker administration didn’t end in 2018. It carried through 2020 and beyond, helping a group of moms build one of the earliest and most active parents’ rights movements in the country.
Among that original group of moms today are state elected officials, school board members, and national media personalities. That didn’t happen in a vacuum. It came from a machine and a culture that Scott Walker left behind.
