Citizen Action Weekend 2025 Newsletter, Friday, May 2th
Attend Annual Meeting, Tomorrow, Saturday, May 3rd, 10am, Virtual
We hope you can join us for Citizen Action of Wisconsin’s 2025 Annual Meeting on Saturday May 3 at 10 AM over zoom.
At the annual meeting we will review major accomplishments and urgent updates on our major federal, state, and local campaigns. We will feature: Member reports from Citizen Action’s 6 regional organizing co-ops across the state and next steps for 2025 and beyond, including: Leading the fight to prevent slashing cuts to Medicaid to fund tax cuts for the rich; How we can win BadgerCare Expansion in this state budget; State action on the climate crisis and the unaffordable price of utilities; Citizen Action’s upcoming state capitol lobby day on May 27; and Winning back the Legislature in 2026.
Welcome NEW Citizen Action Northeast Coop Organizer, Gloria (Garnet) DeGrave
We are excited to announce Gloria (Garnet) DeGrave as the new organizer for the Citizen Action Northeast Coop.
Gloria has lived in North East Wisconsin for the majority of their life, with a few notable exceptions including attending University in downtown Minneapolis. Gloria comes from a working class background and has experienced first hand the struggles of growing up near the poverty line. Their family faced huge healthcare costs while their single father struggled to provide with his self employed business to take care of the family. Gloria started working themselves when they were just 14. Gloria’s formal education includes leadership development and public speaking.
Gloria has been fighting for change in North East Wisconsin for several years, putting in countless hours knocking on doors, staffing phone banks, and attending or organizing demonstrations. They have served in leadership and on boards of other local activist organizations and have trained new activists at the local, regional, and national level. They have been organizing with Citizen Action since 2022, before joining the staff.
Gloria is a product of the movement politics academy and ran for local office in Green Bay with Citizen Actions Endorsement in 2024.
Gloria is passionate about teaching people to engage with local politics beyond the polling booth and giving them opportunities to make a change in their own communities.
Contact: g.degrave@citizenactionwi.org
Citizen Action Driftless Organizing Cooperative Update: Driftless Healthcare Action Team Meeting
The Driftless Healthcare Action Team met Wednesday, April 30th at 6:00 pm in La Crosse. We had a great group and made great progress, determining next steps in our fight to stop Medicaid cuts discuss next steps and team roles and responsibilities. We took some time for a little training on the 3 Faces of Power and how that will guide our work here in the Driftless Region. It was decided that we will meet in person every 3rd Wednesday of the month and do a zoom training every 1st Wednesday of the month. Watch this space and your email for upcoming training topics.
Our meetings are hybrid so you can join in person or on zoom. The next meeting will be June 18th at 6PM. In the meantime we have a lot of work going on in the Driftless so please reach out to me if you want to get involved!
Other Upcoming Driftless Events:
Storytelling Workshop – Learn how to share your story with legislators and how to collect healthcare stories from your friends and family: Mid May – TBD
Citizen Action of WI Annual Meeting via zoom: Saturday May, 3rd 10am RSVP
Capitol Lobby Day – Put your new storytelling skills to work and share your concerns with your Representatives in Madison. Transportation and lunch will be provided. RSVP
In solidarity, Kristie Tweed; Driftless Co-Op Organizer, 608-317-1331 or kristie.tweed@citizenactionwi.org
Citizen Action in the News
Citizen Action held a news conference in Eau Claire to promote the Climate Accountability Act.
See news coverage from Eau Claire Leader Telegram; ABC TV 18 Eau Claire; and NBC TV 13 Eau Claire.
The bill, introduced in March, requires the State Legislature to meet the international greenhouse gas reduction targets by cutting emissions in half by 2030.
Citizen Action was joined by Senator Jeff Smith, Rep. Christian Phelps, and Assembly lead sponsor Supreme Moore Omokunde. The bill, the first to address the climate crisis at the scale and speed necessary, has already drawn 36 co-sponsors.
Take action in support of Climate Accountability Act.
SIGN UP to attend Citizen Action Capitol Lobby Day, Tuesday, May 27th
Attend Hands Off Medicaid Town Hall MKE, Tuesday, May 13th, 6pm
Co-sponsored by: Milwaukee Area Labor Council
Congress has announced plans to cut Medicaid by nearly a trillion dollars — money they’ll hand over to billionaires. These cuts will run people out of their homes, tank local economies, and cost lives. We need to join together and fight back.
Wisconsin’s Medicaid program covers 1.2 million people. It contains BadgerCare, a health insurance program for low-income residents; FamilyCare and IRIS, which fund nursing home care and home healthcare services for seniors and people with disabilities; Birth to 3, which provides comprehensive services for infants with developmental disabilities, and several other programs serving vulnerable populations who would otherwise be excluded from healthcare infrastructure. It is also the largest payer of mental health services, one of the primary funders for substance use disorder rehabilitation, and a budgetary lifeline for hospitals and physicians serving rural and low-income patients.
Join us as we learn about what’s at stake for all of us, hear from our neighbors who are directly at risk, and talk about what we’re doing to fight back and how you can get involved.
Whether you’re already ready to march, you have a story to share, or if you have questions that need answers, join us on May 13th at 6:00pm.
Questions? Contact: Timothy.Faust@citizenactionwi.org
Listen to “May Day 2025: The power of permanent organizing”Battleground Wisconsin Podcast
At the top we celebrate the decades of permanent community organizing of Voces de la Frontera that makes May Day so powerful in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. This annual celebration of multiracial democracy has helped prepare us to meet the moment in these times of Trump.
Next, we update the latest in the fight to protect Medicaid from slashing cuts to pay for tax giveaways to the rich, including a new report demonstrating how cuts to Medicaid would harm patients and increase health costs in Wisconsin.
Robert gives a report on this week’s final JFC public hearings on the state budget and we preview the next steps in the process. We continue to encourage Governor Evers to use his powerful veto to win concessions on properly funding public schools and expanding Medicaid. We hope many of our listeners will join our upcoming Capitol Lobby Day, May 27th to support our state budget organizing.
Robert closes with a run down of this week’ worst Trump fallout, including: Wisconsin joining a lawsuit on Trump’s unilateral cancellation of Americorps; the arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan and its aftermath, putting Wisconsin at center of immigration fight.
Listen to the show.
Social media post of the week
