Citizen Action Weekend 2025 Newsletter, Friday, December 5th
Friday, December 5th
Laurel Wales, New Managing Director, joins Citizen Action Wisconsin team.
This week a very experienced and skilled organizer with local and national experience joined Citizen Action’s senior staff team. Laurel Wales is the new Managing Director at Citizen Action Wisconsin, where she will play a leading role in building Citizen Action’s issue campaigns, electoral program, organizing, and training programs to the level we need to defeat authoritarianism and build a democracy that delivers for average people on the big issues. With more than a decade of experience in organizing and movement leadership, Laurel has held several senior roles at People’s Action Institute, the national network of power building groups Citizen Action is part of, including Chief of Organizing Programs, Director of PowerBuilding, and Deputy Director of Movement Politics.
Laurel has trained, mentored, and supported organizers across the country, shaping programs that develop leaders, strengthen grassroots infrastructure, and advance collective action. Her earlier work includes key field, training, and leadership positions on major campaigns across Minnesota, from the Minnesota DFL to MN United for All Families and Senator Al Franken’s 2014 campaign.
Rooted in a deep commitment to community and justice, Laurel brings a blend of strategic insight, operational leadership, and on-the-ground organizing experience to every role she takes on. She is known for her ability to build strong teams, develop sustainable organizing models, and move organizations toward ambitious, values-driven goals.
A graduate of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities with a major in Sociology and specialization in Political Science, Laurel blends academic knowledge with practical experience. Her passion for social justice and community empowerment is evident in her extensive career dedicated to fostering organizational effectiveness and cultural development within nonprofit and political arenas.
Originally from Minnesota, she has fallen in love with the driftless area in southwest Wisconsin, which she has called home for the last 5 years. Outside of work, Laurel enjoys camping, hiking, traveling, and spending time with family and friends—refueling in the outdoors and the relationships that ground her.
Donate to Citizen Action of Wisconsin: 2026 will be a critical time to defend and renew democracy.
By: Robert Kraig, executive director
At Citizen Action we understand that the threat to democracy is twofold: not only the assault on its basic mechanisms but also the democracy’s failure to deliver what everyday Americans need from their government.
Citizen Action is building the grassroots power across the state to protect democracy from an authoritarian onslaught and to enact cutting-edge reforms on pressing issues like affordable health care, energy costs, the climate crisis, and raising wages for working people. To do this we are building the power to defeat entrenched corporate interests that dominate state government.
Citizen Action is the leading grassroots group building deep membership across urban, rural, and suburban Wisconsin!
2026 will be a critical time to defend and renew democracy. One of the greatest threats to democracy is the inability of our elected leaders to stand up to powerful corporate interests and enact the reforms needed to build a prosperous, sustainable, and equitable society.
Here are some of the bold progressive issues Citizen Action is fighting for:
- Health Care: We are the leading grassroots organization in Wisconsin fighting to make affordable universal healthcare a human right, not a commodity to be managed in the interest of profit-crazed health insurance corporations, Pharma giants, and hospital conglomerates. We are leading a bold policy agenda at the State Capitol which will lower health care costs and shift power from the health care industry back to average Wisconsinites.
- Energy Prices: Due to the power of big utilities, electricity and heat have become unaffordable for many Wisconsinites, especially working people in urban centers and rural areas. The data center building boom will only make the situation worse. Working with legislative allies, Citizen Action unveiled a Utility Rate Cap bill in November which guarantees that heat and electricity prices are affordable.
- Climate & Economic Equity: We are the leading social justice group in Wisconsin focused on the climate crisis. Early this year Citizen Action worked with legislative allies to introduce the Climate Accountability Act, the first bill in Wisconsin history to require the state government to meet the international greenhouse gas reduction targets and create good green jobs for people locked out of the economic opportunity across urban and rural Wisconsin.
- Raising the Minimum Wage: Citizen Action is working with labor leaders to give Wisconsin a pay raise.The affordability crisis is caused by a double whammy of artificially depressed wages and skyrocketing cost of essentials. The simplest and most effective solution that makes work pay is to raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour. This is what a $15 minimum wage is worth now, after inflation, since the idea was first proposed ten years ago.
- Fair Taxes: We are working to stop the endless tax giveaways for the wealthy and well connected, and fighting to make billionaires and self-dealing corporations pay their fair share.
- Focus on Breaking the Grip of Structural Racism: Our multi-year investment in deep organizing in Milwaukee’s hard pressed African American neighborhoods is bearing fruit with the emergence of a powerful new group of members organizing for climate justice, clean renewable energy, utility rates, and to close the outrageous disparities in health outcomes between Black and white people.
We are one of the only grassroots organizing groups building deep bases of members across the state. We have substantial membership in 5 major regions of the state, spanning urban, rural, and suburban Wisconsin. Please help us prepare for 2026.
Sign petition calling for statewide pause of approvals of A.I. data centers.
“More than 1,000 Wisconsin residents have signed a petition to pause approval of data center projects until state leaders place more guidelines on their energy and water use. The petition, created by environmental advocacy group Clean Wisconsin (and supported by Citizen Action of Wisconsin) calls for policymakers to stop approving data centers powering artificial intelligence until the state creates “a comprehensive plan” for regulating the projects.
“These enormous projects are using resources we all share. We must ensure that when an AI data center comes to Wisconsin, it will benefit — not harm — our communities,” Mark Redsten, Clean Wisconsin president and CEO, said.
“That means real transparency, it means allowing time for community members to be fully informed, and it means comprehensive planning at a statewide level,” he added.
Sign Clean Wisconsin petition calling to pause approval of data center projects until state leaders place more guidelines on their energy and water use.
Learn more about the Climate Accountability Act, requiring the state Legislature pass a concrete and enforceable plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.
Learn more about the Utility Rate Cap Bill. Several states have laws capping the percentage of income people have to pay for utilities. Wisconsin has no limit. Citizen Action members worked with State Representative Darrin Madison on the state legislation that will cap the percentage of income households must pay for electricity and heat to the affordable level of 2% of income. The bill is a win-win for family budgets and for the environment.
Take Action in support of Rate Cap Bill.
Citizen Action meeting with member and daughter.
By Aron Newberry, Citizen Action Driftless Organizer
I met with a potential new member and environmental expert, Beth, at a coffee shop around 5 p.m. Beth showed up a few minutes late because her 11-year-old’s figure skating practice was canceled, so she brought her along. The daughter still had her skates on (guards on the blades), which set the tone for the meeting.
Beth needed her phone for the contacts and notes she wanted to pass along, so her daughter was left with nothing to do. I handed her a piece of paper and a pen. An hour later she handed us a sketch she’d made of the meeting.
I think she did a great job!
I’m attaching the drawing and a quick reenactment photo. It’s a good snapshot of the kind of folks Citizen Action is reaching and organizing with busy people juggling work, kids, and life, but still showing up to talk about climate and community.
If you live in the Driftless area, let’s meet. Contact me at: Aron.Newberry@citizenactionwi.org
Citizen Action Southeast Organizing Co-op Weekly Update
Dear Citizen Action Southeast Co-op members and friends,
As we close out the year, our Southeast Co-op continues to build momentum, leadership, and collective power across the region. Here’s what’s happening:
🏥 Health Care Team – Next Meeting December 10
Our Health Care Team is meeting next week on Tuesday, December 10, and we’re actively planning our next Health Care Town Hall for early 2026. The team is growing in numbers, energy, and direction — and we’d love to have more voices at the table as we build power for Medicaid expansion and health justice.
$20/Hour Minimum Wage Team – 1st Organizing Meeting, Tuesday, December 16th, 6pm, Citizen Action Office, 4716 W. Vliet St. Citizen Action is organizing grassroots support across Wisconsin for new state legislation to raise the minimum wage to $20/hour and index it to inflation. The simplest and most effective solution that lifts all boats and makes work pay is to raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour. Join us!
🌿 Climate Team – Next Meeting in January
Our Climate Team is expanding with new members and fresh ideas! We’ll meet again in January, where we’ll continue developing strategies around clean energy, public transportation, and utility justice. If you’re passionate about climate, this is a great time to jump in.
🚪 Canvassing
Canvassing continues to go well across the region! We’re connecting with community members, identifying leaders, and building our base deeper every week. Come join us for a day of conversations and community building.
🤝 Movement Politics Team (New!)
We’re excited to share that we are forming a Movement Politics Team — bringing together members who want to support progressive candidates, run for office themselves, and challenge systems of power through electoral organizing. Stay tuned for updates on how to plug in.
For more information or to get involved, contact: ruben.aquino@citizenactionwi.org
Wisconsin Supreme Court elections have drawn an ‘obscene’ amount of spending.
Democrats seek to revive public financing of Supreme Court elections after previous attempts failed.
“Wisconsin is becoming the centerpiece for billionaires trying to influence elections,” Rivera-Wagner said. “This is just unacceptable.”
Citizen Action in the News
Citizen Action’s Robert Kraig was on the Earl Ingram Show to discuss the new politics needed to revitalize American democracy and make it deliver for the working and middle class.
Listen to “People vs Power” Battleground Wisconsin Podcast
We discuss the latest shocking affront to basic human decency by the Trump Regime, starving food insecure American families by cutting off SNAP to states that have not shared the private personal data of recipients with the regime’s security forces. Governor Evers and Attorney General Kaul are right to tell Trump to pound sand. Will the federal courts or Congress stop them from triggering a hunger crisis in the U.S.?
We review a fascinating discussion earlier this week at a U.S. Senate panel which began as a discussion of extending ACA tax subsidies but evolved into a broader bi-partisan discussion of the broken and unaffordable healthcare system. Senators Bernie Sanders and Tammy Baldwin point out there is a consensus the system needs fundamental reform. We dig into the details and its implications for progressives and healthcare reform advocates.
We are joined by State Representative Darrin Madison to discuss the 2% of income utility rate cap bill. The legislation is still seeking co-sponsors until Monday December 8th. We urge our listeners to call their legislators today and email them by following this link. We look at how this bill connects to the current data center explosion, and the increasingly vehement and bipartisan protests, which are being ignored by most politicians.
Listen to the show.
Social media post of the week
