Citizen Action Weekend ’26 Newsletter, Friday, February 6th
Donate/Join Citizen Action of Wisconsin!
Help us meet the organizing challenges of this moment!
Attend First Citizen Action Governors Forum in La Crosse, Saturday, February 28th, 9:30am.
Citizen Action of Wisconsin’s 2026 Governor endorsement process will consist of in-person candidate forums in our five co-op regions around the state, and one virtual forum.Forum attendees will be asked for feedback on what they heard from candidates, and that feedback will be used to guide our endorsement decision.
Attend the first forum in La Crosse!
LA CROSSE (Hosted by: Southwest Driftless Organizing Cooperative)
WHEN: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28th
DOORS OPEN 9:30am, FORUM 10am-12pm
WHERE: First Congregational UCC, 2503 Main Street, La Crosse.
For more information, please reach out to Priscilla Bort, CAW Political Director, at priscilla.bort@citizenactionwi.org with any questions or needs.
Citizen Action Southeast Organizing Cooperative Weekly Update
🏥 Health Care Team Update
Our Health Care Town Hall was a huge success—the panel was strong, the audience was engaged, and we had great media presence lifting up the fight for affordable, accessible care. This momentum matters.
We’ll be holding our next Health Care Team meeting later this month (date TBD). If you want to plug into the work and help shape what’s next, reach out directly—we’d love to have you involved.
🌿 Climate Team — Don’t Miss This Town Hall
Our Climate Team is hosting a Utility Justice Town Hall on February 24 at 6:00 PM at the Center Street Library. This will be a very important event, bringing community members together to talk about utilities, climate justice, and real solutions.
👉 Don’t miss it — sign up here.
📅 Next Climate Team meeting: March 3 at 6:00 PM
We’re continuing to grow and welcome new members—reach out if you want to join the team.
✊ Movement Politics Team
Our Movement Politics Team is still conducting endorsement interviews, and we’re looking for more folks to join this work. If you’re interested in interviewing candidates and building people-powered political strategy, now is a great time to jump in.
Questions or want to get involved?
Contact: Rafael Smith: Rafael.Smith@citizenactionwi.org
Citizen Action Northwest Organizing Cooperative member attend annual Coalition Winter Gathering in Eau Claire
Community organizers based in Northwestern Wisconsin, including Citizen Action of Wisconsin’s Northwest Organizer Jeremy Gragert, gathered with members for the Coalition Winter Gathering last Saturday in Eau Claire, where they looked ahead at what could be accomplished together in 2026.
Organizations represented also included Power Up Eau Claire, Wisconsin Conservation Voters, JONAH of the Chippewa Valley, Wisconsin Public Education Network, Chippewa Valley Votes, Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed (WECAN), and League of Women Voters.
Updates from the Citizen Action North Central Organizing Cooperative
On Thursday, January 29th, a grassroots group of neighborhood residents, along with supporters from Citizen Action of Wisconsin, attended a meeting with standing room only. This is after nearly a decade of advocacy from neighborhood residents.
There is a piece of property, owned by the City of Wausau. It was historically used for industrial purposes, but it’s right next to a diverse working class neighborhood. It has a history of environmental contamination, and thanks to the diligence of residents and supporters, the City has listened. They do not plan to allow any further industrial expansion on this property, and they held this meeting to get feedback from the citizens on what they’d like to see done with that property. Wausau also plans to remediate the site, to remove the contamination.
This is a huge victory, and shows that when citizens come together, we can win! Thank you to everyone that has advocated for this neighborhood over the years.
On Saturday January 31st, and Sunday, February 1st, members of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, joined nearly 500 people in Wausau on Saturday, and on Sunday, an action was held in Merrill, to demand Ice Out!
With how devastating 2026 has been so far, it is moments like this that can give us hope. It doesn’t end at the protest. We need people to run for all levels of government, and to be more active in local politics, as well as state and national. Thank you to all who joined these historic actions. Let’s keep up the pressure!
Citizen Action in the News
Citizen Action members held well attended health care town halls this week in Milwaukee and La Crosse. The events explained how the massive cuts imposed by the Trump Regime are damaging an already broken health care system. They also laid out Citizen Action’s member-powered strategy to make major breakthroughs here in Wisconsin to put us on the path to guaranteeing quality affordable healthcare for all.
See news coverage from CBS 58 Milwaukee, WIZM Radio La Crosse, and CBS TV 8 La Crosse.
Citizen Action’s Robert Kraig was on the Jeff Santos Show to discuss the latest Trumpian assaults on democracy and what grassroots activists and leaders can do to restore true democracy.
Listen here. (Interview with Robert @ 2 hour 6 minute mark of podcast).
Listen to“Governor candidates embrace a BadgerCare Public Option” Battleground Wisconsin Podcast
We discuss how Democratic candidates for Governor are competing with each other to embrace the BadgerCare Public Option bill, which will soon be introduced in the state legislature. We are joined by Citizen Action’s Healthcare Action Coordinator, Kristie Tweed, to discuss widespread public support for bold action on healthcare costs and coverage. Kristie tells us about town halls Citizen Action members are holding throughout the state and how you can get involved as we push for passage of BadgerCare Public Option.
We expose the power flex by big business hacks at the Milwaukee Metropolitan Association of Commerce (MMAC) which has filed suit to block proposed Port Washington ordinance to give residents a vote on public subsidies in big economic development deals. The business lobby, which promoted Foxconn, has a history of challenging democratic decision making, believing big corporations have a right to our tax money.
Trump doubles down on threats to seize control of state elections, as lackey Congressman Brian Steil introduces a shocking voter suppression bill that does the bidding of the would-be dictator in the White House. We discuss why Wisconsin will be ground zero for the attack on the 2026 election and what we can do about it. Also, we discuss the ICE kidnapping of a Madison area soccer player’s mom (who had legal status) at a soccer tournament, yet another example of the searing human toll of Trump’s lawless crackdown.
Listen to the show.
