Opportunity Wisconsin is a group that claims to be made up of Wisconsin residents advocating for left-of-center economic policies. ¹ According to a profile by The Atlantic in 2020, Opportunity Wisconsin was credited with attaining an unusual degree of success in its efforts to persuade voters against supporting the re-election of then-President Donald Trump. ²

Opportunity Wisconsin has worked closely with The Hub Project, a project of the Sixteen Thirty Fund managed by Arabella Advisors.

Activity

2020 Elections

According to Opportunity Wisconsin program director Meghan Roh, the organization was founded due to concerns that the Democratic Party was failing to communicate effectively with Wisconsin voters, especially concerning economic issues. Wisconsin was historically a Democratic-won state in presential elections, but was won by Republican candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 election. ³

After the 2016 election, Opportunity Wisconsin worked with the Hub Project to convince Wisconsin voters “that Trump’s handling of the economy was actually worse than they thought.” The effort began with a survey of 27,000 voters “designed to identify persuadable Wisconsinites.” Opportunity Wisconsin followed this with focus groups conducted throughout the state that they used to find fiscally conservative voters concerned about bad local economic conditions. ⁴

The Hub Project then used the survey data, focus groups, voting records, and other consumer data to identify 500,000 voters in Wisconsin that fit their demographic. Half of these voters were targeted with an ad campaign in the spring and summer of 2020, and half were left untouched as a control group. The ad campaign primarily consisted of television commercials, social media ads, and mailers featuring working class Wisconsinites who suffered under President Trump’s economic policies. There were also events that featured U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and then-Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes (D). ⁵

According to the Hub Project’s post-ad campaign survey, the campaign lowered President Trump’s economic approval rating by 2.3%, lowered his tax cut approval rating by 5%, and lowered the belief that his general policies helped Wisconsin by 8%. ⁶

The survey did not measure voter preferences between President Trump and President Joe Biden. In the 2020 presidential election, President Biden won Wisconsin by less than 1%. ⁷

2024 Elections

In May 2023, Opportunity Wisconsin announced a campaign to oppose U.S. Representatives Bryan Steil (R-WI) and Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) in their 2024 reelection campaigns. Opportunity Wisconsin claimed that the two U.S. Congressmen “consistently choose the wealthy and big corporations over what’s best for Wisconsin families” by voting against the Inflation Reduction Act and opposing efforts to increase taxes on the wealthy. The organization states that its ad campaign against the U.S. Congressmen will cost millions of dollars. ⁸

Leadership

Meghan Roh is the program director of Opportunity Wisconsin. Since 2020, Roh has been a partner at Specter Roh Strategies, a political public relations consulting firm. Earlier, Roh worked at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for less than a year. From 2011 to 2016, Roh worked as a staffer for Democratic U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and then for U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), for whom Roh had previously worked on her U.S. Senatorial campaign. From 2009 to 2011, Roh served as a legislative correspondent and then press assistant for then-U.S. Representative Ron Kind (D-WI). Earlier, Roh served as assistant to the deputy chief of staff in the Wisconsin governor’s office under Governor Jim Doyle (D-WI). ^{9 10}

Austin Kieler was a regional lead in Opportunity Wisconsin from January to July 2020 and worked on the organization’s ad campaign targeting supporters of then-President Trump. Kieler is a founding partner at AK Strategies and has previously worked as a consultant at National Consulting LLC. He is the founder of People Against Conversion Therapy and claims the organization’s efforts “directly led” to Wisconsin’s first in-state conversion therapy ban in 2018. Since 2013, Kieler has worked in numerous roles at the Wisconsin Democratic Party and for Democratic elected officials and campaigns. ¹¹

Carlene Bechen is on the steering committee of Opportunity Wisconsin. Bechen is the organizing director of the Fair Maps Coalition and the Fair Elections Project. ¹²

Mark Westphal is also on the steering committee of Opportunity Wisconsin. Westphal is the president of the Fox Valley Area Labor Council of the AFL-CIO. ¹³

1. “About Us.” Opportunity Wisconsin. Accessed January 16, 2024. https://www.opportunitywisconsin.org/.
2. Graham, David A. “An Experiment in Wisconsin Changed Voters’ Minds About Trump.” The Atlantic. September 17, 2020. Accessed January 16, 2024. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hEQVPGGLCx8J:https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/experiment-wisconsin-might-reveal-key-defeating-trump/616367/&hl=en&gl=hn.
3. Graham, David A. “An Experiment in Wisconsin Changed Voters’ Minds About Trump.” The Atlantic. September 17, 2020. Accessed January 16, 2024. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hEQVPGGLCx8J:https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/experiment-wisconsin-might-reveal-key-defeating-trump/616367/&hl=en&gl=hn.
4. Graham, David A. “An Experiment in Wisconsin Changed Voters’ Minds About Trump.” The Atlantic. September 17, 2020. Accessed January 16, 2024. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hEQVPGGLCx8J:https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/experiment-wisconsin-might-reveal-key-defeating-trump/616367/&hl=en&gl=hn.
5. Graham, David A. “An Experiment in Wisconsin Changed Voters’ Minds About Trump.” The Atlantic. September 17, 2020. Accessed January 16, 2024. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hEQVPGGLCx8J:https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/experiment-wisconsin-might-reveal-key-defeating-trump/616367/&hl=en&gl=hn.
6. Graham, David A. “An Experiment in Wisconsin Changed Voters’ Minds About Trump.” The Atlantic. September 17, 2020. Accessed January 16, 2024. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hEQVPGGLCx8J:https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/experiment-wisconsin-might-reveal-key-defeating-trump/616367/&hl=en&gl=hn.
7. Graham, David A. “An Experiment in Wisconsin Changed Voters’ Minds About Trump.” The Atlantic. September 17, 2020. Accessed January 16, 2024. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hEQVPGGLCx8J:https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/experiment-wisconsin-might-reveal-key-defeating-trump/616367/&hl=en&gl=hn.
8. “Opportunity Wisconsin: Launches new campaign to hold Steil and Van Orden accountable for votes against Wisconsin families.” Wis Politics. May 2, 2023. Accessed January 16, 2024. https://www.wispolitics.com/2023/opportunity-wisconsin-launches-new-campaign-to-hold-steil-and-van-orden-accountable-for-votes-against-wisconsin-families/.
9. ^[1] “Meghan Roh.” LinkedIn. Accessed January 16, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghanroh/.
10. Graham, David A. “An Experiment in Wisconsin Changed Voters’ Minds About Trump.” The Atlantic. September 17, 2020. Accessed January 16, 2024. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hEQVPGGLCx8J:https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/experiment-wisconsin-might-reveal-key-defeating-trump/616367/&hl=en&gl=hn.
11. “Austin Kieler.” LinkedIn. Accessed January 16, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/austinjkieler/.
12. “Steering Committee.” Opportunity Wisconsin. Accessed January 16, 2024. https://www.opportunitywisconsin.org/steering-committee.
13. “Steering Committee.” Opportunity Wisconsin. Accessed January 16, 2024. https://www.opportunitywisconsin.org/steering-committee.