October 2026: Vilas County, Wisconsin

Presenter: With just a few days left before the election, candidates and their political parties are making their final appeals for votes. We checked in with a longtime Democratic Party organizer in Vilas County, Wisconsin, Elisa Farmilant:

Elisa Farmilant (Vilas County Democrats): I think it was 2004 when Bush and Kerry were running against each other, and that was the year I said: ‘I can’t complain anymore if I’m not doing something, like getting involved and working.’

So I started with the Vilas County Democrats. I have been on this board for 22 years. I mean, there’s been a lot of changes over those 22 years, the biggest one probably being social media. But also now we have a headquarters, a physical building, and so that really makes a big difference as well.

But… it’s challenging. I mean, this is the time of year where we’re sending each other like text messages with words that are just complete gibberish.

Usually if somebody makes a mistake when they’re texting, you can figure out what they mean. But there’s been messages that we’ve sent to each other, I mean, I like, I’m looking at this message going, I have absolutely no idea what she’s trying to say here.

So, and we just get really, you know, we get wound up. Every election you keep hearing: This is the most important election ever, but it’s true.

And the stakes keep rising—like, the Project 2025 people, they’re never going to give up. I mean, if we stop some of their initiatives or make some things slow down or stop, they’re just going to keep pushing their agenda forward.

And I’ve read somewhere that they’ve already accomplished 50% of what they set out to do in Project 2025. And it’s unconscionable. I mean, it’s just ridiculous, and the voter suppression and cheating that the other side is doing.

What was it Trump said? ‘If we lose, it’s ’cause they cheated.’ They’re already, like, being election deniers. And just all the stuff they’re doing to try to suppress the vote, you know: Slowing down mail-in ballots and kicking people off of voter rolls, and taking away ballot boxes, and all those things

I think people really feel that they have to have landslide-type voting, extra-extra-extra majority, so that they can’t contest it.

Presenter: We asked where she focused her efforts this year. Elisa Farmilant:

Elisa Farmilant: As one person living in this state, in this county, what actual physical activities can I do that might actually make a difference?

And for me here, because I’m a Tribal descendant, and in Vilas County, Lac du Flambeau, the reservation, the town and the reservation take up the same square mileage, the square footage—it’s the only town in Vilas County that actually votes Democratic.

And so I’ve chosen to spend my time working on getting voter turnout on the reservation.

And so, we have an office in our county, but then during election seasons we usually have an office in Eagle River, and we get an office in Lac du Flambeau— just seasonal for a month or two months during election seasons.

And the other thing we did is, we printed our own literature and list all the Democratic candidates and there’s three amendments on our ballot. So we put those in what the Democratic Party and the Wisconsin League of Women Voters is recommending how you vote on those.

And then on the back it’s got information about registering to vote, and also just for Lac du Flambeau, the hours the clerk has set aside for in-person absentee voting, which we call ‘early voting.’ The clerks don’t like to call it that. There’s no such thing as early voting, but there’s in-person absentee voting,

So we stand there and hand those cards to people as they’re coming out of the grocery store and say, ‘You can go and vote right now. Right now you can go vote.’

Presenter: In Wisconsin, Democrat David Crowley is seeking to become the state’s first African American governor. The Republican candidate is Vilas County’s former U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany.

Elisa Farmilant: And Tom Tiffany, his voting record? The Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters ranks candidates. He’s got a zero. He has always voted for mining. He is pro-business, he is not pro-environment. He’s maybe he’s even anti-environment, but you know, he just is the opposite of everything that we stand for and that we believe in.

He’s not really working for the people. He is looking out for corporations and for the money people. So it would be a disaster to have him as our governor.

There’s an Indivisible group here called ‘Chippewa Valley Indivisible’ in Wisconsin, and they made signs, these ‘Toxic Tom MAGA Extremism’ signs. And I took their images and I put ’em on buttons and we made about 150 buttons and each one will say like, you know, ‘Toxic Tom,’ you know, ‘voted for national abortion ban. Tom voted against SNAP,’ you know; ‘voted to decrease Medicare, Medicaid,’ you know, like just all of his terrible voting record.

We got it on, his face and his vote on buttons, so we’re going to hand him out. So, I mean, he’s voted with Trump 100% of the time. I mean, he’s not a trustworthy person. They’re not really, they’re not really serious politicians.

And they don’t understand the real issues, like for example, Merlin (Van Buren), who’s running for 34th Assembly here— he’s been on the Rhinelander School Board, so he really understands.

And his opponent has voted for school vouchers every time it comes up and our Northern Wisconsin does not benefit from that at all. I don’t think we have any. I think he said there might be one school here, in our area, in the 34th Assembly, that actually would use a school voucher.

So it benefits the rest of the state, and not our area. But the current person in that position just continues to vote for it because he’s in lockstep with the other Republicans and not really thinking about what’s best for his constituents.

People are wound up. People do not want to see our opponents win because we know how disastrous it’s already been, but how much more damage they can do.

And especially, you know, people in Lac du Flambeau, like I said before, where they really are largely Democratic-voting: They’re awake, they’re aware, especially Native American people who’ve been subject to many, many decisions that have been made by politicians that were… not always favorable, let’s put it that way.

They know how important it is. You know, water protectors? Water protectors are going to vote. People who are concerned about environment and treaty rights, they’re going to vote because they know how important it is.

Presenter: That’s Elisa Farmilant from Vilas County in Wisconsin, facing once again the most consequential election of our lifetimes.