Operation Swing State Co-Founders Patrick Hanley & Ben Head endorse Ben Wikler for DNC Chair

Ben Wikler is the leader Democrats need to unite the Democratic Party, take the fight to Republicans in every corner of the country, and earn back Americans’ trust and votes.

In 2024, we founded and led Operation Swing State, a volunteer, grassroots coalition of 80 Illinois political groups, including county, ward, and township Democratic parties, Indivisible chapters, labor unions, and progressive allies. 6,500 Operation Swing State volunteers knocked on more than 250,000 doors in neighboring swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin, connecting with more than 50,000 voters. Places we canvassed bucked national headwinds, contributing to razor-thin margins that elected Tammy Baldwin and Elissa Slotkin to the U.S. Senate.

From the earliest days of our partnership, Ben saw the value in Blue state organizing and helped us get Operation Swing State off the ground. Ben gets the importance of organizing every single day, across state lines to win for working people. Since Ben was elected Chair in 2019, Wisconsin Democrats have dislodged the state from Republican control, winning a decisive State Supreme Court race in an off-year election that will protect abortion rights and setting the stage for Democrats to compete and win with fair legislative districts.

Ben knows that trust-building calls for year-round organizing, not a few weeks of scrambling in the fall. He understands that voters need to hear from Democrats well before November of an Election Year and he has the plans to make it happen. 

A renewed national party will organize and communicate where voters are: at the doors, of course, but also on social media, podcasts, radio, gaming platforms, broadcast, and entertainment media, and wherever else. The party should take no state, no volunteer, no voter for granted. Democrats in Illinois or Utah or California or Mississippi each have important roles to play, alongside our battleground neighbors in Wisconsin, Michigan, or Pennsylvania. 

The Democratic Party remains the greatest hope and brightest light for our shared future, for families and communities to thrive, and for all of us to live together in a greener, fairer, more prosperous country for our kids and grandkids. 

Our party needs energy now. We need a fighter. We need a chair with the drive and motivation to build up state and local parties nationwide, taking no community for granted. Ben Wikler is the leader that the Democratic Party needs to unite, to fight, and ultimately, to win.

Patrick Hanley & Ben Head

Co-Founders, Operation Swing State