The Wisconsin Green Party is planning what its leaders call an aggressive effort to recruit candidates for state and local races after Democrats tried to block their presidential nominee from appearing on 2024 ballots.

Pete Karas, who organizes the Wisconsin Greens' candidate recruitment, said the party has found people to run for governor and secretary of state in the 2026 midterm elections and is aiming to field candidates in the other statewide races.

The Cap Times
By Andrew Bahl
December 10, 2024

“We feel the time is now, that it's really time for a leftist party,” Karas said. “We feel like it's going to be more attractive to voters and to candidates.”

The last election cycle brought another round of clashes with Democrats, who unsuccessfully sought to boot presidential candidate Jill Stein from the ballot in Wisconsin amid fears the Green Party vote could hurt Vice President Kamala Harris’ chances in key swing states.

Stein ultimately saw her support drop to half of what it was during her 2016 run. Still, Green Party officials say they believe they have momentum in the wake of the election.

Wisconsin political experts say it will take time to build any sort of foothold at a state or local level, if it ever occurs.

“It becomes kind of a vicious circle if you don't have success at some level on the ballot, some candidate who's showing a path forward for the party, it becomes hard to then recruit people who want to run, and hard to recruit volunteers and donors,” said Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“And if you can't get volunteers and candidates, you're not going to have the success you need to inspire other people to join the effort. So something significant probably has to happen for the (Green Party) to regain its footing.”

Greens make headlines in Wisconsin

Since 2000, the Green Party has fielded candidates for Wisconsin governor three times, most recently in 2018. The candidates have never received more than 44,000 votes in any of those contests. 

The party has not fielded a legislative candidate in over a decade. In 2010, the Greens put up their best performance, when Ben Manski received over 30% of the vote in a Madison state Assembly race.

In an interview, Manski noted he received support from local Democratic officials amid dissatisfaction with their party’s nominee. He also was endorsed by the Madison teachers’ union, as well as the union representing teaching assistants at UW-Madison.

“I think it suggests that Greens could do very well in legislative elections, if they were to choose them strategically,” said Manski, now a professor of sociology at George Mason University in Virginia.

Karas acknowledged the Green Party is seeking to rebuild after having over three dozen affiliated office holders in Wisconsin during the 2000s.

The Green Party lists only one affiliated elected official in Wisconsin, a representative to a citizen body advising the Department of Natural Resources. Other local officials, however, have been endorsed by the Greens.

Editors Correction to the above paragraph: The Green Party lists one affiliated elected official (https://www.gpelections.org/greens-in-office/2024-november-05/), a County Board of Supervisor in Portage County 

The party has attracted most of its recent attention nationally from the presidential campaigns of Ralph Nader in 2000 and Stein in 2016. 

The two candidates also drew ire from Democrats for potentially swinging the outcome of those elections from Al Gore and Hillary Clinton, respectively, by costing them votes in key swing states.

Political scientists often note that it is not clear whether third party candidates actually pull support away from more established campaigns. In some cases, experts argue those voters would just stay home rather than vote for a Democratic candidate over a Green Party nominee, for instance.

But in the wake of 2016, Burden noted that Democrats have taken few chances.

The Democratic National Committee launched ads in 2024 criticizing Stein’s potential role as a “spoiler.” The DNC also filed a lawsuit seeking to block her from appearing on the ballot in Wisconsin, arguing the Green Party did not complete the procedural steps necessary to nominate a candidate.

Wisconsin Greens eye governor, Legislature in 2026

Stein survived that effort, with the Wisconsin Supreme Court refusing to take up the Democrats’ case.

But the Green Party vowed to put itself in a stronger position in future election cycles.

Karas said the party already has a handful of local candidates to run for city council and other positions in 2025 in Milwaukee and Racine.

But it is the 2026 midterm elections where the party is eyeing a bigger impact.

Jill Ferguson, an environmental activist from West Allis, has launched a bid for governor and Karas said he plans to run for secretary of state. The party hopes to secure candidates for attorney general, state treasurer and lieutenant governor as well.

The Greens also found people to run in two congressional districts, the 1st District held by U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Janesville, and the 4th District held by U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee. They also are eyeing candidates for other seats, including the Madison-area 2nd Congressional District now represented by Democrat Mark Pocan, and potentially races for the state Assembly and Senate.

“There's also an argument that we think is unfair, that the Greens only show up every four years and that we're just not around the other times, running for state and local office,” Karas said. “And even though we don't believe that's true … we are up for that challenge in Wisconsin, and it's also going in other states to really get a little more exposure by having more candidates on the ballot.”

Narrow margins could give Greens a bigger role in state elections

Much of the interest in the Green Party, Burden said, comes from those who are critical of the Democratic Party’s stance on the war in Gaza. Even then, he noted, it didn’t mean more voters backed Stein in 2024 than in past years.

When voters cast a ballot for governor or the state Legislature they are even less likely to consider foreign policy as an issue, Burden added. 

“There will be progressive voters or ecologically minded voters who aren't entirely happy with what the (Gov. Tony) Evers administration has done,” Burden said. “But I don’t sense the concern or dissatisfaction that some progressives had with the Biden administration. It's just a different environment. It’s a state office, not a federal one. So some of the larger issues that affect the presidency don't affect things here.”

Still, Burden noted that every little dynamic can make a difference in Wisconsin races often decided by razor thin margins.

“You don't have to even really be a visible or familiar character to the public to gain enough votes to potentially change the outcome of an election,” he said.

In recent years, Manski said the Green Party has run the risk of focusing too much attention on the presidential race, opening the door for merely being identified as “a protest party.” 

An emphasis on state and local politics, he said, would fit with the party’s beginnings as an “anti party party” and its focus on environmental and ecological issues.

“America deserves an opposition party (but) I don't think it's the role of the Greens to do that,” Manski said. “I think the Greens have a much more profound mission, which involves transforming the country from the ground up and the over-focus on the presidential campaign cycle is distracting.”