Devin Remiker elected as new Democratic state party chair

WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Democratic delegates elected Devin Remiker as their new chair at the Wisconsin Democratic Convention on Sunday.

Remiker will take over a party that had been led by Ben Wikler for the past six years. Wikler has been credited with building the infrastructure needed to capture several key statewide elections wins, including two high-stakes Supreme Court races since 2023 that allowed liberals to take and keep control of Wisconsin's high court.

Wikler also oversaw an operation that won a second term for Gov. Tony Evers, and under new, more competitive legislative maps drawn by the court in 2024, are now two seats away from have a majority in the state Senate.

Remiker, a Two Rivers Native, received 485 votes, beating out Joe Zepecki, a Milwaukee-based consultant, who got 415 votes. William Garcia came in third place, and ballots for him were divided between Remiker and Zepecki on the basis of which candidate was Garcia voters' second choice under a new single-ballot ranked choice voting system Democrats used.

Remiker told reporters his first order of business will be finding new ways to connect with people who don't necessarily follow politics.  

"We haven't kept pace with finding people that aren't necessarily focused on talking about politics," said Remiker. "But weave it into those interests and help connect the dots to how politics impacts nearly everything in everybody's lives, and I want to do a better job having messengers who are equipped to do everything from video streaming to sports to standard political talk."

Remiker will officially begin his term as party chair on July 1.

Critics questions menu choices, endorsement

Some Democratic delegates, who did not want to be identified in criticizing Remiker, questioned whether he was the best choice for winning over non-college-educated voters in working class areas who've been increasingly less likely to back Democrats.

They pointed to Remiker's decision to serve escargot at a fundraiser Friday and prime rib Saturday in his hospitality suite. While critics said the choices were out of touch, Remiker confirmed the offerings and said he was simply looking to serve Wisconsin supper club classics. 

One Zepecki supporter also questioned outgoing chair Ben Wikler's decision to endorse Remiker after initially saying he wouldn't give an endorsement. Wikler said he initially did not want to give an endorsement when he was still vying to become the Democrats' national chair. Zepecki himself criticized Wikler's decision to give an endorsement.

"My initial intention was to be neutral. After than concluded and I made the decision not to run for another term and the field settled, I spent some time thinking about it, and realized I had a very clear sense of who I thought would do an outstanding job as a state party chair," Wikler said. "And I owed it to the party and the delegates to share what I'd seen."

Wikler said Remiker had been incredibly helpful behind the scenes with the state party, and he believed the endorsement was a way of highlighting the good things Remiker had done. Wikler added he saw no issue with what Remiker decided to serve, echoing that both prime rib and escargot are supper club staples.

Two other Democrats at the convention who backed Remiker said they did so because they believed he had a more defined plan for turning out Black voters, a key bloc in statewide contests. A Remiker-backing delegate also sent a text noting Remiker was specifically serving "prime rib sliders" on Saturday.  

As the convention wrapped, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin released a statement on the newly elected Remiker:

We're proud to welcome Devin as our newly elected Chair of the WisDems!

We're sad to say goodbye to Ben Wikler, who turned our party into a national powerhouse and model for what state parties can do. But we're also so excited for the next era of WisDem's leadership to help bring us into 2026 with the momentum we need to win up and down the ballot.

We hope you'll join us in welcoming Devin and continuing to build on all of the progress this grassroots team has made.