{"id":3435,"date":"2023-06-13T21:31:57","date_gmt":"2023-06-13T21:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=3435"},"modified":"2023-06-13T22:02:07","modified_gmt":"2023-06-13T22:02:07","slug":"how-university-of-wisconsin-campuses-were-turned-into-get-out-the-vote-machines-by-obamas-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=3435","title":{"rendered":"How University of Wisconsin Campuses Were Turned Into \u2018Get Out the Vote\u2019 Machines by Obama\u2019s Network"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/civic-nation\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Is this the UW version of Zuckerbucks?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Wisconsin public universities have been using tax dollars to function as increasingly organized \u201cget out the vote\u201d machines for Democrats since 2016 through their extensive participation in a national effort that is financed and run by a non-profit group whose board members and CEO are all<\/strong> former members of the Obama administration or who were involved in Obama\u2019s campaigns.<\/p>\n

In Wisconsin, 18 colleges and universities are participating in the \u201cALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge<\/a>, many public universities, including the University of Wisconsin\u2019s campuses in Milwaukee, La Crosse, Superior, Oshkosh, Stevens Point, and Parkside, and technical colleges in Milwaukee and Madison. Foundations that are described as left-wing help fund the challenge.<\/p>\n

Student voting on University of Wisconsin campuses has skyrocketed, and most of those votes go to Democrats, with liberal Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz outpacing even Tony Evers\u2019 percentages on campuses this April.<\/p>\n

To be clear, the non-profit behind the \u201cALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge,\u201d Civic Nation, claims it is nonpartisan. \u201cCivic Nation is a nonprofit ecosystem for high-impact organizing and education initiatives working to build a more inclusive, equitable America,\u201d its website says.<\/a><\/p>\n

The ALL In Campus Democracy Challenge is part of<\/a> six Civic Nation efforts that reached 11.3 million people in 2022, including \u201cWhen We All Vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campuses claim their efforts are also, saying they don\u2019t push specific candidates. Wisconsin news outlets have written glowing articles touting campus successes through ALL IN, failing to mention<\/a> the extensive Obama ties. ALL IN is just one of the web of voter registration efforts underway on Wisconsin\u2019s campuses, but it\u2019s a major one.<\/p>\n

Just how extensive are the Obama ties? Extremely.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Inside Higher Ed raised concerns<\/a> about the partisan Obama ties to the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.<\/p>\n

According to that July 2016 article, some universities had \u201cconcerns about the effort\u2019s perceived lack of independence from the Obama administration in the run-up to a major national election\u201d when the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge was announced by Civic Nation. In fact, it was rolled out in a White House meeting a few months before the 2016 election, the article says.<\/p>\n

The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities decided not<\/strong> to endorse the effort. \u201cIt was hard to know where one ended and the other began,\u201d said David L. Warren, president of the private college association, according to Inside Higher Ed. \u201cThe issue of the White House and Civic Nation, either separately or together, moving in this direction struck me as an entangling perception at best that I did not want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet UW-Madison signed right up, in 2016, according to the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n

We question whether the University of Wisconsin\u2019s public universities would be so deeply engaged in an initiative entirely run by, say, former campaign workers for President Donald Trump. Would the media allow them to paint such an effort as nonpartisan? We highly doubt it. And therein lies the problem.<\/p>\n

Civic Nation<\/h2>\n

The \u201cALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge\u201d is an initiative of \u201cCivic Nation,\u201d a non-profit, according to its website.<\/a> \u201cBuild Movements. Drive Change,\u201d the Civic Nation website says over a large photo of former First Lady Michelle Obama.<\/p>\n

\"Civic<\/p>\n

When it announced a different initiative in 2023, Civic Nation did so with a video message <\/a>from former President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince 2019, Kyle Lierman has worked as Chief Executive Officer of Civic Nation,\u201d according to Influence Watch. \u201cPrior to this, he worked as a field director for \u2018Obama for America\u2019 during Barack Obama\u2019s first presidential campaign in 2008 before joining the Obama Administration in 2010\u2026.From 2018 to 2021, he worked simultaneously as the CEO of When We All Vote, a voter outreach organization and initiative of Civic Nation that is funded by New Venture Fund, part of the left-wing \u2018dark money\u2019 Arabella Advisors network.\u201d<\/p>\n

Civic Nation\u2019s board chair<\/a> is Valerie Jarrett, Obama\u2019s former senior advisor in the White House who now leads the Obama Foundation. Civic Nation Board secretary Tina Tchen is the Executive Vice President for the Obama Foundation. She served as <\/a>Michelle Obama\u2019s Chief of Staff.<\/p>\n

Board Treasurer Sam Brown<\/a> is the Former Director of the White House Business Council for Obama who \u201cserved as the Finance Chief of Staff for the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Committee and for the Obama-Biden 2012 campaign.\u201d He held the same role for the Democratic National Committee.<\/p>\n

Cecilia Mu\u00f1oz, a Civic Nation board member, was Obama\u2019s domestic policy adviser. According to NBC<\/a>, she once wrote that Trump\u2019s \u201charmful, over-the-top words weren\u2019t just offensive on their face; they gave legitimacy to similar hostile and racist feelings held by others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pete Rouse, another Civic Nation board member, was Obama\u2019s interim chief of staff<\/a> and a counselor to the president.<\/p>\n

According to Daily Variety<\/a>, board member Joe Paulsen \u201cis a trusted veteran of the Obama world, having served as special assistant to the president at the White House and deputy chief of staff. He has worked with the family since 2007, joining in the early days of Obama\u2019s precedent-shattering presidential campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Board member Jason Waskey \u201cis a longtime Democratic strategist who worked on the 2008 Obama campaign,\u201d according to Influence Watch,<\/a> which says he co-founded Civic Nation.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Civic Nation wrote in a press release, \u201cLast year\u2019s midterm elections saw one of the highest youth voter turnouts in a midterm election in the last 40 years \u2013 an estimated 23 percent of young people ages 18 to 29 turned out to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Universities aren\u2019t hiding this effort; they are proud of it. They, too, paint it as a non-partisan effort to increase civic engagement among young people. While this is a laudable principle in abstract, in practical reality, the efforts have the obvious impact of driving out the Democratic vote because college students are so lopsidedly in support of Democratic politicians.<\/p>\n

The University of Wisconsin-Madison proudly touts that it \u201chas joined more than 575 other colleges and universities around the country by committing to the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge,\u201d an action it took in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Challenge recognizes postsecondary campuses committed to improving democratic engagement, increasing student voter participation rates, and graduating students with a lifelong commitment to being informed and active citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Remember that former President Donald Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 by just over 22,000 votes. In 2020, he lost by just over 20,000 votes. In a state with such slim margins, the aggressive efforts by universities to get out the campus vote could change future election outcomes.<\/p>\n

Campus Voting has Skyrocketed<\/h2>\n

UW-Milwaukee\u2019s ALL IN report underscores the degree to which tax dollars and public employees are involved in these voter registration efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are extremely grateful to all the campus partners who help make our campus voting initiatives a reality. In addition to the wonderful campus departments who set up for our events, create and share promotional materials, photograph and promote our events, and help facilitate our programs, we also work with many partner organizations,\u201d UW-Milwaukee wrote.<\/p>\n

UW-Madison\u2019s ALL IN plan says things like, \u201cThe City Clerk will mail registration forms and instructions to all eligible students living in campus residence halls, using information provided by the university. University Communications will maintain a central source of information about voting for students online at vote.wisc.edu.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan continues, \u201cStories about BadgersVote and upcoming election deadlines will appear in \u2018The Weekly,\u2019 an electronic newsletter distributed to all students. Slides for sharing in classroom or online through course web sites will be distributed to instructors through the Provost\u2019s Office. University Communications will produce several engaging videos about the voting process to be distributed on social media, by email.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just for starters. See the rest here. <\/a><\/p>\n

UW-La Crosse\u2019s ALL IN plan says<\/a>, \u201cOn our student portal, Wings, every student has a direct link to the Wisconsin Voter ID Enrollment Verification form which can be used to verify a student\u2019s local address and their enrollment at our university when registering to vote. Additionally, our university has a webpage dedicated to voter registration and education for students.\u201d<\/p>\n

It adds, \u201cThrough collaboration with the faculty senate establish election day as a day without classes or have shortened classes to ensure students, faculty, and staff have the opportunity to vote.\u201d That\u2019s just for starters.<\/p>\n

In the state Supreme Court race in April 2023, student turnout was indeed massive. A third-party liberal group, Project 72 WI, also mobilized campuses, so ALL IN was not the only effort (but it has been a sustained, long-term one). Protasiewicz raked in 91% of the UW-Madison student vote, compared to 85% for Evers last November, according to data obtained by Wisconsin Right Now. Other campuses also saw dramatic student vote growth for Democrats: UW-Milwaukee\u2019s students voted 90% for Protasiewicz, up from 85% for Evers.<\/p>\n

Civic Nation has expanded the campus voting effort across the country at warp speed.<\/p>\n

The 2022 impact plan<\/a> for Civic Nation reads, \u201cIn 2022, the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) grew our network of participating campuses to 963 college campuses in all 50 states and Washington, DC. We worked with these campuses to promote nonpartisan student voter registration and turnout efforts, leading to a near-record-high youth voter turnout in the 2022 midterms. In partnership with ALL IN, 534 campuses submitted action plans for increasing nonpartisan student engagement \u2013 a 91% increase over 2018. Campuses engaged in ALL IN had average 2020 voter turnout rates that were 3.7 percentage points higher than other campuses.\u201d<\/p>\n

UW-Milwaukee Voting Rates Increase<\/h2>\n

UW-Milwaukee posted a report<\/a> that says its student voting rate increased to 58.1% in 2020, a 4.7% increase from 2016. \u201c58% of 18 to 21-year-olds voted in the 2020 election, a stunning 11-percent increase from 2016,\u201d UWM crowed<\/a>. \u201c15% of students voted early, 32% voted in-person on Election Day, and 50% of students voted not in-person.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear that public money is involved. \u201cMany of our staff are involved in Panthers Vote and support CLDE (civic learning and democratic engagement) in their departments,\u201d UWM wrote.<\/p>\n

UW-Milwaukee delivered 720 more voters in 2020 when compared to 2016, according to reports on ALL IN\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

UW-Madison Voting Rates Increase<\/h2>\n

From 2014 to 2018, student turnout at UW\u2013Madison increased by nearly 18 percentage points. From 2016 to 2020, student voting increased 7.4% to 72.8% on the UW-Madison campus.<\/p>\n

The voting rate of registered students rose from 81.1% to 85.4% and the registration rate increased from 80.7% to 85.2%.<\/p>\n

Comparing 2016 to 2020, UW-Madison delivered 2,072 additional student voters, and 5,203 more in 2020 when compared to the 2018 midterms.<\/p>\n

\"Civic<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to a report<\/a> compiled for UW-Madison.<\/p>\n

BadgersVote<\/h2>\n

At UW-Madison, voting registration efforts are organized under an initiative called \u201cBadgersVote<\/a>,\u201d described as \u201ca campus-wide initiative that strives to provide University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison students with everything they need to know in order to participate in their elections. The BadgersVote Coalition is comprised of many individuals, units and departments across campus and the city of Madison.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe origins of the BadgersVote Coalition stretch back to 2013. The Morgridge Center began emphasizing the importance of voting after the arrival of Kathy Cramer as the new faculty director,\u201d the UW-Madison website says. Cramer is the author<\/a> of a book called, \u201cThe Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker.\u201d<\/p>\n

What some might call UW-Madison\u2019s voting registration get-out-the-vote efforts are more extensive than ALL IN.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdditionally, the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison is one of over two hundred campuses in thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia designated as a \u2018Voter Friendly Campus,’\u201d Madison says on its website. \u201cThe initiative, led by national nonpartisan organizations Fair Elections Center\u2019s Campus Vote Project (CVP) and Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA), held participating institutions accountable for planning and implementing practices that encourage their students to register and vote in 2020 elections and in the coming years. The designation is valid through December 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Fair Elections Center is described<\/a> as left-leaning by Influence Watch, which writes, \u201cFair Elections Center (formerly the Fair Elections Legal Network) is a left-of-center litigation and election policy advocacy nonprofit created in 2006. The group originated as a project of the center-left funding and fiscal sponsorship group New Venture Fund.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, UW\u2013Madison \u201cjoined the other Big Ten institutions in a new competition to promote civic engagement in 2018: the Big Ten Voting Challenge.\u201d According to UW-Madison, \u201cUniversity of Wisconsin\u2013Madison students achieved the second-highest voter turnout among the 14 member institutions of the Big Ten Conference in the 2018 midterm election.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Andrew Goodman Foundation joined the ranks of the Morgridge Center partners in 2016, placing paid student interns in positions on campus to increase voter engagement and civic awareness,\u201d the UW-Madison website says.<\/p>\n

But that foundation is also left-of-center, according to Influence Watch<\/a>, which writes, \u201cAndrew Goodman Foundation (AGF) is a left-of-center nonprofit that advocates for student voting through lawsuits, supporting legislation, and on-campus get-out-the-vote campaigns.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the 2018 midterm elections rolled around, the Big 10 Voting Challenge Committee became the infrastructure of BadgersVote<\/a> by bringing independent operators together to create cohesive messages.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSince its founding, BadgersVote has accumulated more funding for voting initiatives and increased the number of students involved in civic engagement on campus. The BadgersVote Student Coalition consists of interns housed in the Morgridge Center who work for a variety of organizations, including the Andrew Goodman Foundation, the League of Women Voters, Campus Election Engagement Project (CEEP) and several other community partnerships,\u201d says the website.<\/p>\n

What of the League of Women Voters? Also not perceived as non-partisan by many, according to Influence Watch, it says it is. \u201cThough the group is officially nonpartisan under IRS nonprofit rules, it has been widely criticized for pushing left-leaning policies,\u201d Influence Watch reported. <\/a>\u201cThe League\u2019s current platform supports tax-and-spend policies, government-run healthcare, a wide range of increased welfare handouts, a ban on certain low-priced handguns, and support for international organizations including the International Criminal Court to which even the liberal Obama administration did not cede U.S. sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students spearheaded the coalition\u2019s charge to conquer social platforms. Today, BadgersVote has accounts on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram \u2014 where they reach nearly 1,000 engagements per post. BadgersVote interns also launched a YouTube channel and a podcast in 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scrubbing the Obama Ties<\/h2>\n

News stories touting<\/a> the campus efforts don\u2019t bother to tell readers ALL IN\u2019s ties to Obama.<\/p>\n

For example, in 2021, WTMJ-TV ran a story <\/a>headlined, \u201cUW-Milwaukee awarded for student voting efforts.\u201d The article says, \u201cThe ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge awarded UW-Milwaukee with its 2021 Best Action Plan Award, for the campus\u2019s efforts to encourage student voting.\u201d<\/p>\n

UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone told WTMJ: \u201cWe have a responsibility as an educational institution to prepare students to be informed and active citizens. Not only is the student voice important in elections at all levels, but we also want to encourage our students to become lifelong voters and engaged community members.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no mention of the extensive Obama ties to All In.<\/p>\n

According to Influence Watch, Civic Nation \u201cis a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 2015, headed by President Jason Waskey (CEO of Blue Crab Strategies LLC) and Executive Director Jenn Brown. Touting itself as an organ of widespread positive social change, Civic Nation funds several large charitable initiatives: Erase the Hate, College Promise, It\u2019s On Us, ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, #VoteTogether, and United State of Women. Civic Nation functions as a sort of organizing hub for its partner, Creative Alliance, a left-leaning marketing group which produces advertisements and online content for its subsidiary and partner organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to its website, which touts the effort as \u201cnonpartisan,\u201d the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge\u2019s funders include foundations described by Influence Watch as left-of-center, such as the Kresge Foundation, the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund, and Kohlberg Philanthropy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe foundation provides grants to numerous left-of-center organizations, focused on legal policy related to health programs, the environment, and education,\u201d Influence Watch says of Kohlberg.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Kresge Foundation is a left-of-center advocacy-philanthropic organization based in Troy, Michigan\u201d that promotes illegal immigration and other liberal causes, Influence Watch says.<\/a><\/p>\n

Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund: Located in San Francisco, this foundation \u201csupports advocacy for left-of-center positions, including trying to expand and protecting voting eligibility,\u201d according to Influence Watch.<\/a><\/p>\n

UW-Milwaukee also says that it has collaborated with the Andrew Goodman Foundation, Civic Nation, League of Women Voters, and ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, among others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/civic-nation\/ Is this the UW version of Zuckerbucks? Wisconsin public…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":3437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-right-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3435"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3440,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3435\/revisions\/3440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}