Sue Chandler delivered a rousing call to action at the rally following our People’s March in Elkhorn on January 18.

Read her remarks below.

We rally today rising from the historical 2017 Women’s March. But we know, this time, The People’s March, is a call for everyone to stand up to the incoming president and his potential policies of intolerance. We each march for our own reasons, but in this moment, we find unity of purpose, strength in this community and hope in the face of adversity.

Trump will try to make us, regular Americans, believe we have no power. That is also what Wisconsin state, and national Republicans want. But we have the most powerful weapons to win this fight against that force, our voice of resistance and our vote.

As Democrats, we can show this nation, and Walworth County, who we are, and the values we share, IF we keep fighting for what we believe. Historically, as WISDEMS Chair, Ben Wikler, said “Great moments of progress often follow our darkest hours.”  We know on Monday, at Noon, we will face a storm of intolerance, incompetence, grift and lies; our darkest hours.  Wikler again, “It’s cold comfort to say that things get better after they get worse. But it’s important not to fall prey to hopelessness as we contemplate all that Trump hopes to inflict.”

Our first big chance to show our resistance and voting strength will be on April 1st, a critical election to fill a vacant seat in the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Whomever wins that seat will hold the tie-breaking vote in future court decisions. In 2023, because we Democrats, and those who share our values, fought against the GOP extremist candidate and worked very hard, we elected Judge Janet Protasiewicz giving this state a majority on the court that is delivering on the promise of a fair and impartial justice system who will rule based on facts and following the law and our constitution. If we lose that majority, all our progress is reversed.

In this election, the State GOP supports a proven extremist, Brad Schimel. You will remember him as the Attorney General during the Walker administration, who ignored a backlog of thousands of untested sexual assault kits allowing predators to remain on the streets delaying justice for victims. He wasted over one-million tax-payer dollars defending extreme anti-abortion policies and tried to sue to make it tougher for Wisconsinites to access contraception. He defended the Republican gerrymandered maps, supported new limits on voting and sued to overturn the Affordable Care Act. He supports enforcing Wisconsin’s 1849 criminal abortion ban with no exceptions. This man on the State Supreme Court will be an appalling disaster for all Wisconsinites and will be a rubber stamp for the whims of Trump and his followers.

In contrast, after collecting nearly 9,000 signatures from across the state, (twice as many as needed) Judge Susan Crawford is the candidate whom WISDEMS and Senator Tammy Baldwin are endorsing. Judge Crawford grew up in Chippawa Falls where she attributes learning Wisconsin values of honesty, integrity and doing the right thing.

As an attorney, she took on tough cases and won, protecting voting rights, access to reproductive healthcare, worker’s rights and teacher’s rights regarding Act 10.

As a former prosecutor and judge, she understands we need Supreme Court Justices who know what it takes to keep communities safe, who will be fair and impartial, who will use common sense and who will not politicize the constitution in an effort to take away our most basic rights.

The choice is clear. Now our fight to win this important Supreme Court seat begins. Now our collective resistance is activated. Now we engage in spreading the word to elect Judge Susan Crawford who will have our backs and serve as a guardrail against those who would sooner sell us out to the highest bidder or impose extreme laws restricting our basic rights and freedoms.  

We know in Walworth County how to organize and win. We were part of reelecting Senator Baldwin. We elected Brienne Brown flipping AD 43 blue. Now we join forces, doing everything we can, to turn out record numbers of voters for Judge Susan Crawford. We will stuff literature packets, make phone calls, bring in food, plant yard signs, drive canvassers, knock doors, write post cards and send letters to the editor. Keep your marching shoes and your resistance spirit ready, because we are stronger together and together we will win.