Wisconsin Democrats opened their convention in Oshkosh saying a blue wave is coming, but the real power behind the wave might be from women.
A month ago, House Speaker Paul Ryan warned Wisconsin GOP member at their state convention, any advancement they made could be wiped out by a “blue wave.”
Democrats are taking that message and running with it.
“We are going to turn out Democrats to vote and win and we are going to create a big beautiful blue wave,” said Martha Landing, chair of Wisconsin Democratic Party.
Democratic leaders say part of that is coming from women who want to run.
“Women are taking to the streets and we are seeing them activating so many people in the community. The enthusiasm is there,” said Landing.
Erin Forrest of Emerge Wisconsin, a Democratic organization that teaches women how to run for public office, said they have seen a massive jump in interest. In years past around 20 women took the training. Last year, they had to double their classes. In total nearly 75 women signed up and are now running for offices.
“We have 47 Democratic women, I think, running for the state assembly which is almost half of those seats. That is fantastic and not typical of what we see,” said Forrest.
Forrest said they do not expect them to win all the seats. But their research finds win or lose, it is much more likely the person who runs after them will also be a woman.
It’s exciting women here at the Democratic convention.
“Women’s voices balance the field and have good ideas,” said Susan Jelly of Richland County.
“It’s about time we had that representation from our elected officials,” said Tomika Vukovic of Glendale.
The Democratic State Convention runs through Saturday night.
