Isaia Ben-Ami wants the Democratic Party to reclaim freedom.
Ben-Ami, a candidate to represent downtown Madison and the near East Side in the State Assembly, acknowledges it’s a watchword frequently associated with Republicans, but doesn’t think it should be.
“The Republican narrative around freedom has always been about what the government allows you to do, not what you’re empowered to accomplish in a community,” he said in an interview for the 365 Amplified podcast, set to air Friday.
“The reason I’m (running for Assembly) is because I think that our party needs to be the true focus on freedom.” he said. “I think we are the party that wants to give people the freedom to live in affordable housing, to have access to critical health care and to have a quality education and a quality public school.”
Ben-Ami said he’s part of the “left-wing contingent” of the Democratic Party, a member of both the Dane County Democrats and Madison Area Democratic Socialists. He’s running to succeed Francesca Hong, herself a member of the Assembly Socialist Caucus who is running for governor.
And despite debate at the national level between more traditional Democrats and the left wing of the party, Ben-Ami said his vision is “for this party to be a bigger tent.”
“I really don’t think that we are too far apart on a lot of issues,” he said. “I see the people who have made moves in the Democratic Party, (New York Mayor) Zohran Mamdani, (US Rep) Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, (US Senator) Bernie Sanders, people who are Democratic Socialists, who brought more people into the Democratic fold, who trusted a Democrat to be the leader in their community … I think we need to respect and see that that is where our party is going, and we should capture that energy and use it to enact the policies that are going to make Wisconsin a better place to live for everyone.”
Ben-Ami has not held elected office, unlike his opponents in the Democratic primary, Madison Alder Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford and former alder Julianna Bennett. He has, however, experience in the Capitol, where he’s been an Assembly staffer since 2020.
As staffers, he said, “We’re in the meetings for caucuses. We are talking to other representatives around the state, and getting their perspectives … There are very different perspectives, even among Democrats, because of geographically where they are and the different local concerns that people are facing. And I think after building those relationships and really getting an understanding of how the process has worked and how I think the process could change to be more efficient, to bring real change to voters, that’s the experience that really sets me apart and I think will help earn the trust of voters.”
He said the primary issue he hears about when knocking on doors is property taxes.
“I know a lot of people, especially elderly folks, who may no longer have a job, may be on a fixed income, but still have their family house and they don’t want to sell,” he said. “They want to stay in their communities. It’s where their kids are, their grandkids are. They want to stay there. But the property taxes continuing to go up is really a problem.”
And that, he said, owes a lot to the way Wisconsin funds public education through property taxes.
And there’s a chance that the new representative for the deep blue district could work on those issues as a member of the majority. New electoral maps helped cut a nearly veto-proof Republican majority down to nine seats in 2024. Those maps and a general leftward shift in the country could flip both the Assembly and the Senate to the Democrats in 2026.
“If we get the trifecta (Democratic control of both houses and the governor’s office), it’s all about making it happen so that we don’t lose it,” Ben-Ami said. “I believe it was just 10 years ago where we had the majority. Didn’t get the things we needed to get done. We didn’t pass the minimum wage. We didn’t enshrine abortion care into into our our statutes so that we could protect women. These are the things we need to do day one of a democratic trifecta, and we need leaders who are going to hit the ground running.”
The Democratic primary is set for August 11 and the general for November 3.
