APPLETON — Wisconsin has never sent a woman to the U.S. Senate or elected a female governor, and just more than a quarter of the seats in the state Legislature are held by women.
Emerge Wisconsin is poised to change that.
Modeled on a national program, the Madison-based nonprofit is training a generation of progressive, Democratic women how to run for public office and win.
“(The program) helped me to consolidate the campaign structure and it helped me to be more effective in my message,” said state Rep. Penny Bernard Schaber, D-Appleton, who completed the training alongside state Sen. Jessica King, D-Oshkosh, in 2007.
The six-month program covers everything from building a field operations team to the fine print of campaign finance, and each class is limited to 25 women, who must apply for a spot in the program.
“It typically (occurs on) Friday night (and) a Saturday,” said Wendy Strout, executive director. “We also house and feed the program members if they need it.”
After her failed 2006 bid for the state Assembly, Bernard Schaber said leaders within the organization reached out to her to offer guidance.
“They contacted me and said, ‘We know you ran. Do you want us to help teach you how to do a better job?'” Bernard Schaber explained. “They helped me figure out that I did need a campaign manager and that I couldn’t do it all by myself.”
A handful of programs across the country prepare female candidates for the rigors of running for office — notably Maggie’s List, which helps conservative women get elected to federal offices and the “Ready to Run” program by the Center for American Women and Politics — but Emerge Wisconsin is among the most comprehensive.
“This is the first model I’ve seen that is thoroughgoing enough to really be successful,” said former Democratic Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, who sits on Emerge Wisconsin’s advisory board.
Lawton said the group also offers female candidates a network of support.
“This is what has been missing,” Lawton said. “Being a candidate is a lonely thing. … Nobody’s neck but yours is out there. (It’s important) to have a network of women who are going through the same thing.”
Lawton said she and other advisory board members — including the only two Wisconsin women ever elected to Congress, U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee — also provide guidance to the program’s participants.
“We’re available to those women and all of the alumni of that organization are available,” Lawton said. “It is the sense of not only a network, but also a safety net to fall back on when things go awry, which they always will in a campaign.”