WISRED – a well-respected local elections initiative founded by the Republican Party of Waukesha County, designed to help vet and promote conservative candidates in school board, court, municipal, and county board races in southeastern Wisconsin.
WISRED – a dirty word in liberal circles.
Election Day is coming up and will be here soon. Absentee voting has already begun. There are many people running for various open seats, and credit must be given to anyone willing to toss their hat in the ring. Campaigning is hard work – going door-to-door out in the elements (and March weather has not been kind), talking to anyone willing to listen and gracious enough to open their doors, leaving flyers by mailboxes, putting up yard signs, making videos for social media, having meet and greets, attending various events, etc. All are time-consuming and require a huge commitment on behalf of candidates.
These days most, if not all, elections are far from “non-partisan.” Some may not like this fact, but it has become a reality even in a self-described “non-partisan” race like for a school board (or the WI Supreme Court). Voters want to know the candidates. They want to know their values. They want to know their morals. Many voters DO want to know if the candidate running is a conservative or liberal.
Enter WISRED. WISRED, as mentioned earlier, is a local elections initiative founded by the Republican Party of Waukesha County, which screens candidates and finds and supports those with true conservative values. WISRED caused quite a stir when it first came on the scene a few years ago. Its goal is to help elect conservative candidates in a variety of local elections – whether the race is partisan or not. Of course, there were the cries of “keep politics out of non-partisan races”, yet if one examines those organizations who support liberal candidates, one finds: WEAC, The Democratic Party of Wisconsin, Blue Sky, Fair Wisconsin, and Get Involved Wisconsin, to name a few. Several of these organizations have been involved in campaigns way before WISRED came on the scene, yet where were the cries back then about keeping politics out of school elections?
On a personal level, I ran for re-election to the Arrowhead School Board last year. I was honored to be backed by WISRED. I am proud to be a conservative and wanted voters to know it. In 2023, my opponent claimed to be “non-partisan,” yet was endorsed by Blue Sky – an organization that promotes a liberal ideology. My opponent was also supported by a local group known as “Come Together.” Come Together also claims to be non-partisan, but it is difficult to find any candidate that they back that is a true conservative. The candidates they endorse seem to have liberal to ultra-liberal leanings, as do the very people in charge of Come Together.
Waukesha County, based on demographics, is a conservative area. The majority who reside here want to vote for those who they know will focus on education – not indoctrination. They do not want a “woke” agenda in our schools. They want students getting an education on the basics: reading, writing, arithmetic, and history. They want to ensure our children appreciate what a wonderful country the United States of America is – warts and all. We do not want students being taught to hate their own country based on claims of “systemic racism” and other ideological nonsense.
WISRED is one of the answers fighting against such by promoting conservative candidates. WISRED postcard mailers have become a reliable source of information for voters. People actually wait to receive such information before an election, and they will even bring the WISRED postcards to the polls on Election Day. So, if the left and Democrats can have organizations like Blue Sky, Come Together, the Democratic Party, or others, endorse candidates, why can’t WISRED?
Could it be because WISRED has a great record of winning elections? In 2022, the win margin for conservative candidates backed by WISRED was 87%. In 2023, the win margin was 86%. Looking forward to April 2nd, I expect that WISRED-backed candidates will continue to see the same level of success, much to the chagrin of the left.
In closing, a current candidate for re-election to the Waukesha School board, Anthony Zenobia, summed up the sentiments of a lot of those people backed by WISRED. In response to a published candidate questionnaire in the Waukesha Freeman (3/2/24), this question was asked of all candidates: “There continues to be a division between local government and school boards. How do you work with others you don’t necessarily agree with?” Mr. Zenobia’s response: “Division stems from tyrannical government policy opposing the will of the people who have lawfully and peacefully assembled to redress grievances like: Covid mandates, DEI, CRT, sexually graphic and explicit materials, and gender ideology as means to control and indoctrinate minors. Elected officials who support these policies and the small radical groups who champion them, while ignoring concerned parents, are being replaced. For several elections, the democratic process has been self-correcting local government, and with it, our nation’s school boards are more reflective of the people they represent. I will be cheering these patriots all the way!”
This article has been updated to say that WISRED is an initiative founded by the Republican Party of Waukesha County, not the Wisconsin Republican Party.
