After winning multiple Congressional and State Assembly seats in New York, the Democratic Socialists are feeling bullish about Wisconsin, the birthplace of “sewer socialism”, a term used to describe the popular socialist platform of tackling public works projects and bringing much-needed infrastructure improvements in places where they were in power. The DSA candidate for governor in Wisconsin, Fran Hong, is leading in the latest polls.

Another DSA candidate, Juliana Bennett (she/her), is running for Wisconsin State assembly. A Black pansexual Gen-Z woman, Juliana is heavily keyed in to her hometown of Madison, the capital city, as a former member of the city council, with experience in expanding housing. She is passionate about defending protesters, getting ICE out of Wisconsin, and sustaining immigrant communities across the state.

Where are you based?
Madison, WI

What is your position/what position are you running for?
Wisconsin State Assembly Representative for the 76th District

How would you briefly summarize your platform?
I am a caregiver, a community organizer, a former alder, and a proud queer Black Democratic Socialist fighting for an affordable Wisconsin where working families can thrive. I have faced medical debt, eviction, and the pressure of living paycheck to paycheck. I am determined to ensure that no family endures the same fate. To me, these hardships are not accidents, but the result of a rigged system and leaders unwilling to fight hard enough. I have fought for my community, with my community, on the city council. Now I have a plan to take our fight to the assembly — to raise the minimum wage, build affordable homes for everyone, and provide no-cost childcare and healthcare across Wisconsin.

What inspired you to run?
I’m running for the State Assembly to build an affordable Wisconsin where working people can thrive. I will fight for Wisconsinites because I know exactly what it’s like when the system fails. Three years ago, my dad survived a major episode of cardiac arrest. He beat a 6 out of 100 odds of living, thanks to the dedicated healthcare workers at our local Meriter and VA hospitals. But his life came at the cost of an over $500,000 medical bill and an eviction from a greedy landlord. At the time, I was on Madison’s City Council and had a degree in real estate, and still, there was nothing I could do to stop the eviction and help my dad. These experiences have pushed me to continue to fight for working-class families at the state level.

What change are you hoping to bring to your district and country?
I am publicly running as a Democratic Socialist with both local and national DSA endorsement. I’m not here to campaign on bandaid solutions. I’m here to deconstruct a system that was designed to prioritize profit over human need. For that reason, I’m running socialist policies across the board, from rent stabilization to publicly-funded childcare to fully funded public schools.

I joined DSA after meeting with a comrade while I was a City of Madison Alder. At the time, I joined because the chapter’s platform and values were directly in line with my own. In particular, DSA was one of the only organizations working towards police abolition. And as the only alder that consistently voted to defund the police, I needed a community that I could work with toward that goal. Over the years, I’ve continued to find and build community in the Madison Area DSA. I went from barely knowing what socialism is to being an active and vocal socialist elected official and now candidate.

My choice to openly run as a socialist is foundational to my campaign for WI State Assembly. There is a history of geopolitical-fueled stigma against socialism in the United States. That history does not necessarily extend to the positive public reception to traditionally socialist policies. Public infrastructure, public transportation, and municipal utilities are generally supported socialist policies, although not ones that most American politicians necessarily equate to socialism.

When legislators advance policies rooted in socialist principles but avoid calling them socialist, it disconnects reforms from the broader worldview that produced them. By running openly as a socialist, I hope to link our policy with ideology, helping people see that these aren’t isolated fixes. Instead, they’re part of a clear vision centered on prioritizing human need over profit.

What do you consider to be your major accomplishments so far?
As an alder on the Madison Common Council, I legalized duplexes citywide, helped pass over 1,000 units of affordable housing, invested millions in homeless and undocumented communities, stood up for Madison’s communities of color, and delivered fair municipal maps. As the federal legislative liaison at the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA), I worked to gain support for affordable housing initiatives at the federal level. I am especially proud to have earned the support of conservative Rep. Van Orden and Rep. Steil for the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (AHCIA). Most recently, I worked as a Chief of Staff in the Wisconsin State Assembly, where I crafted innovative climate legislation and organized across the political spectrum to build support for school funding, veterans benefits, and healthcare. I’m the only candidate in this race that has served on the local, state, and federal level.

I’m stepping up because I’ve been in the rooms of power as a former Alder and as the Chief of Staff to a State Representative, and I have seen how our leaders are not stepping up to meet the moment. I will be the person that rallies our Wisconsin state legislators around a clear vision that reflects the needs of the working class, not big money lobbyists.

What do you feel are the most important issues right now, why, and how do you plan to tackle them?
My top priorities are to lower rent and property taxes; fund our schools; and raise wages. We’ll lower property taxes by 44% and fund our schools with the 17¢ Millionaire Tax, AB 1209. We’ll legalize rent control, and use the $2 billion in tax breaks for data centers to build homes instead. We’ll raise our minimum wage to $23/hr and tie it to cost of living. I also support putting a moratorium on data centers until we pass serious legislative regulations to safeguard against the harms of AI.

America is extremely divided these days. How would you hope to bridge that divide with your constituents to better unite Americans?
My priority is meeting people where they are. I cannot encapsulate the magnitude of the burden our neighbors are facing right now. For instance, I spoke with a social worker who is currently working with about 10 kids experiencing homelessness and a dozen others that are afraid of becoming homeless or deported. I spoke with a single mom who is struggling with transportation because the city cut bus routes on the Northside and there aren’t good affordable grocery store options in the area. I sat on the couch of an 83 year old lady who bought her house for $16,000 in 1969, but now is living on SSSI and trying to figure out how to pay her property taxes that have now tripled. These are real stories from our neighbors that aren’t getting addressed.

We are running a campaign that builds up our community along the way, not just after the election. Every one of our events has a component of mutual aid or community support outside of the campaign. We do our best to work with vendors and consultants who are young, queer, people of color, unionized, and/or local to Madison to support our community. And we are proud to be bringing folks of all ages and many different backgrounds under the umbrella of our campaign.

Juliana with her dog, Winnie. © Adrian Lampron

How do you see your unique identity and background to be an asset to you in office?
I’m a proud queer, Black, working class woman, which has shaped my experiences as a community organizer, alder, and candidate. Our local queer and Black communities have held me up during my toughest times in the past several years. So we are running a campaign that builds up these communities along the way, not just promising help after the election. Every one of our events has a component of mutual aid or community support outside of the campaign. And we do our best to work with vendors and consultants who are young, queer, people of color, unionized, and/or local to Madison to support our community. I’m proud to have many LGBTQ+ leaders and neighbors supporting my campaign and will continue to fight for our community in the assembly. From hiring BIPOC queer and trans artists for events to advocating for healthcare for trans youth, uplifting the queer community is a focal point in our campaign. By centering queers of color in particular in our decision-making, messaging, and events, our campaign aims to create a safe and welcoming space for those that often are left out of the conversation in campaigns.

In the last few years, we’ve unfortunately seen an increase in attacks against trans people and continued hate towards the rest of our community in Wisconsin. As a Chief of Staff in the WI State Assembly, I’ve seen first hand how Republican representatives are trying to push trans people out of public life and into the closet through bills about sports and pronouns. It’s disgusting, and when elected I will continue calling out how these bills contribute to violence and telling trans folks, in particular our kids, that they belong. I will join our Legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus to coordinate our fight against these bills. And I’m very comfortable talking with people who disagree with me, something I did often as a federal legislative liaison for WHEDA, so I will organize across the aisle to stem this tide.

I’ll also work proactively to protect and uplift our LGBTQ+ community across the state. On top of passing non-discrimination legislation, we need to ensure access to affordable healthcare for trans people, proactively support queer kids in school with accurate education and inclusion training for staff, and more.

Two of the top issues of my campaign are lowering housing costs and raising the minimum wage to support the working people of Wisconsin. Queer people, in particular transgender and Black women, struggle so much with getting (and keeping) housing and jobs. Almost all of my queer friends and I are living through these struggles, and they put people in desperate situations. Many trans women of color are forced to live in unsafe conditions or work unsafe jobs just to survive in our transphobic and capitalist society, making them vulnerable to violence. This is unacceptable and we need to take action at the root of the issue.

I’m going to the Assembly to fight back against greed and hate so that everyone can be safe and thrive in Wisconsin. I’ll fight to outlaw discrimination based on gender identity and expression in housing, public accommodations, and employment (to make sure we aren’t dependent on the Supreme Court’s whims). And in particular, I will organize for and pass a Tenant Bill of Rights that includes freedom from harassment for queer people and the right to safeguards against eviction. I’ll also fight for the state to invest more in housing our unhoused neighbors, as many shelters are unsafe for queer people and having no place to go can be a death sentence.

My vision is a Wisconsin where all people have their basic needs met and we can celebrate queer joy safely across the entire state.

What is your motto in life?
“In times of doubt, the best thing you can do is be in community.”

When the pressure from all ends of trying to just survive gets overwhelming, I go to local events, because there’s always something going on in Madison. I meet new people or catch up with those I’ve been meaning to. Sometimes, you just need someone to help hold you up. The best way to find that is in community.

Where can we find out more about you?
Please check out julianabennett.com, which also has my full platform and all my socials!
Instagram: julianaforthepeople
TikTok: julianaforthepeople
X: JuForthePeople
Facebook: julianaforthepeople
Bluesky: Juliana Bennett
Threads: julianaforthepeople

Our Favorite Progressive Candidates in 2026 - Juliana Bennett, Wisconsin State Assembly, District 76