‘We Have a Base Here’: The Fight for Voters in a Conservative Stronghold

You can see the mayhem of the political moment in Wauwatosa, where Bonnie Lee is campaigning for the state assembly. Shattered glass of homes and storefronts is scattered in the streets. Demonstrations have rocked the community after the Milwaukee County district attorney declined to prosecute a police officer who shot a man whom authorities say was armed. Night after night this month, crowds attacked cop cars, looted, and broke windows in neighborhoods across the community.

“They were sweeping up the glass as I was talking to them,” Lee, a Republican and director of outreach ministry at Northwest Baptist Church, says in a recent phone interview of the residents she hopes to represent. “Our precious Wauwatosa has gone down this path that we’ve seen in other large cities.”