John Bonifaz
“I will focus my keynote remarks on our campaign at www.impeachtrumpagain.org pressing for impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. Trump has committed multiple abuses of power since assuming the office of the presidency again, and more than 375,000 people across the country have already joined this campaign. The Framers created the Impeachment Clause (Article II, Section 4) for the precise moment we face today: a lawless president who tramples on the Constitution and the rule of law and must be impeached and removed from office.”
Biography: John Bonifaz is a constitutional attorney and the Co-Founder and President of Free Speech For People, a national non-profit public interest organization dedicated to defending our democracy and our Constitution. Free Speech For People challenges big money in politics, fights to protect the right to vote and our elections, confronts corruption at the highest levels of our government, holds insurrectionists accountable, and works to advance a new jurisprudence grounded in the promises of political equality for all and American self-government. Mr. Bonifaz previously served as the executive director and general counsel of the National Voting Rights Institute, an organization he founded in 1994, and as the legal director of Voter Action, a national election integrity organization. He has been at the forefront of key voting rights and democracy campaigns in the United States for more than three decades. Mr. Bonifaz is a 1992 cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and a 1999 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.
Mr. Bonifaz’s work has included: pioneering a series of court challenges, applying political equality principles, that have helped to redefine the campaign finance question as a basic voting rights issue of our time; helping to catalyze and lead a national movement for constitutional amendments to overturn the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. FEC ruling and its 1976 Buckley v. Valeo ruling, as well as the doctrines underlying those decisions of money equaling speech and corporations being treated as people with constitutional rights; helping to lead key election protection cases to expand access to the ballot, ensure election security, challenge voter suppression, and stop voter intimidation; and helping to lead historic legal challenges, under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, to insurrectionists seeking to run for re-election. Mr. Bonifaz is the co-author with Ron Fein and Ben Clements of The Constitution Demands It: The Case For The Impeachment of Donald Trump, published by Melville House in 2018, with a foreword by John Nichols.
Contact:
contact@freespeechforpeople.org
www.freespeechforpeople.org
www.impeachtrumpagain.org;
Alan Minsky
Alan Minsky is the Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA).
Biography:
A lifelong activist, Alan worked as a progressive journalist for two decades before joining PDA full time in 2018. He was the Program Director at KPFK Los Angeles from 2009-2018; and the coordinator of Pacifica Radio’s national coverage of elections. Before that, Alan was one of the founders of LA Indymedia. He co-created the original podcasts for The Nation and Jacobin Magazine, as well as the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. His writing can be found at The Nation, Truthdig, Commondreams and other platforms.
Alan’s activism began in college with union solidarity work and opposition to US involvement in Central America. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Alan was active in the counter-globalization and media democracy movements. In 2011, he began organizing for Occupy Wall Street in the months leading up to the occupation of Zuccotti Park.
Alan is a committed anti-racist, feminist and LGBTQ+ rights advocate. He is also an advocate for economic policies that address social inequality, eradicate poverty, and prioritize the interests of working and middle-class households. Alan began working with PDA in 2014.
Contact: Progressive Democrats of America
Email: Alan@PDAmerica.org
Phone: 818-749-9497
PDA Website: https://pdamerica.org/
John Nichols
John shares his perspective on the Wisconsin political condition. He also will review the threats posed to our democratic institutions. He is a long-time friend and supporter of WGN.
Biography:
John Nichols is the author or co-author of more than a dozen books on media and politics. He is the national affairs correspondent for The Nation and associate editor of The Capital Times.
Contact:
Website: https://www.thenation.com/authors/john-nichols/
Book: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3082-the-fight-for-the-soul-of-the-democratic-party
X: @nicholsuprising
George Penn: WISCONSIN UNITED TO AMEND
The social gains of the last 100 years are being feverishly disemboweled. That will continue until who knows when. Social activists are trying to work on issues to improve our country. Win today, we lose tomorrow. It should be clear by now that our successes will not be durable unless we reclaim representation. We will not reclaim representation until we demand and achieve many reforms. The national movement is working on those reforms. In Wisconsin, three important reforms in the works are Fair Maps, Final Five Voting, and WIUTA’s work toward the We The People amendment bill. This amendment to get big money out of politics in the keystone reform. Working only in our favored silos and GOTV is Sisyphean folly. Big money in politics is the critical flaw.
Biography:
George grew up in Yonkers, NY and joined the Navy in 1971. He was a Reactor Operator on a submarine. Leaving the Navy in 1977, George came straight to UW Madison to get a degree in Nuclear Engineering. Inspired by the “energy crisis” in the 1980s, he received a Masters in Energy and Environmental Management at the School of Environmental Studies – again at UW Madison. In the last 20 years of his working career, he ran his consulting company, Global Energy Options. In 2012, he shut down his business to join the movement to get big money out of politics. He works with many Wisconsin patriots on this work to this day. He hopes to continue this increasingly important work until he can no longer.
Contact:
Contact: Email: georgepenn51@gmail.com
Phone: 608-244-6436
WIUTA Website: www.WIUTA.org
WIUTA FB page: https://www.facebook.com/WisconsinUnitedToAmend
Rep. Jamie Raskin D-MD (on pre-recorded video)
Biography:
Congressman Jamie Raskin proudly represents Maryland’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability in the 118th Congress. Previously Rep. Raskin served three terms on the House Judiciary Committee and the Committee on House Administration, and two terms on the Rules Committee and the Coronavirus Select Subcommittee. During the 117th Congress, he served as Chair of the Oversight Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and Chair of the Rules Subcommittee on Expedited Procedure. Rep. Raskin was the lead impeachment manager in the second impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump and served on the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
Raskin was a three-term State Senator in Maryland, where he earned a reputation for building coalitions. He was also a professor of constitutional law at American University’s Washington College of Law for more than 25 years. He has authored several books, including the Washington Post best-seller Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court versus the American People, the highly-acclaimed We the Students: Supreme Court Cases For and About America’s Students, and the New York Times #1 best-seller Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy.
Congressman Raskin is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School and is a former editor of the Harvard Law Review.
MCs
Mike McCabe
Mike will MC the opening plenary session in the morning. He'll give tone-setting remarks about how to constructively and imaginatively respond to the way the rich and powerful are seeking to divide and conquer us. Mike will also introduce the keynote speakers.
Biography:
Mike McCabe is the author of "Miracles Along County Q," led the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign for 15 years, founded Blue Jean Nation, and was a candidate for governor in 2018. Mike has been a farmhand, journalist, educator and civic leader, and had two nonfiction books published before his first novel came out in October 2024.
Contact:
Email: mikemccabe.substack.com
Nick Ramos
Biography:
Nicholas (Nick) Ramos is a lawyer, advocate, and community organizer who serves as the fourth Executive Director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
Before joining the Democracy Campaign, he served as the Wisconsin Voter ID Coalition Coordinator with VoteRiders, a non-partisan organization whose mission is to ensure that all eligible voters have access to photo ID to cast their ballot and have it count. At VoteRiders, he built and maintained partnerships with over 70 organizations across Wisconsin, developed Voter ID Clinics to assist Wisconsinites with IDs, birth certificates, and social security cards, and created a statewide provisional voter follow-up program to help Wisconsin voters cure their ballots.
He also spent four years as the Community Outreach Liaison for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett providing high-quality constituent services and implementing programs dedicated to enhancing the lives of the local veteran and homeless populations. Nick’s love for civic engagement began during law school when he participated in voter protection efforts across Wisconsin during the 2016 election cycle and developed strategies to expand voting while recruiting and training hundreds of volunteers. Nick received his B.A. in Philosophy from Miami University and his J.D. from Marquette University Law School.
