Author

Ruth Conniff is Editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Examiner. She formerly served as Editor-in-chief of The Progressive Magazine where she worked for many years from both Madison and Washington, DC. Shortly after Donald Trump took office she moved with her family to Oaxaca, Mexico, and covered U.S./Mexico relations, the migrant caravan, and Mexico’s efforts to grapple with Trump. Conniff is a frequent guest on MSNBC and has appeared on Good Morning America, Democracy Now!, Wisconsin Public Radio, CNN, Fox News and many other radio and television outlets. She has also written for The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times, among other publications. Her book "Milked: How an American Crisis Brought Together Midwestern Dairy Farmers and Mexican Workers" won the 2022 Studs and Ida Terkel Award from The New Press.
Defending the Constitution from imminent attack
By: Ruth Conniff - October 4, 2022
In “The Constitution in Jeopardy: An Unprecedented Effort to Rewrite Our Fundamental Law and What We Can Do About It,” (Hachette Book Group 2022) former Wisconsin U.S. Sen. and current president of the American Constitution Society Russ Feingold and Stanford law fellow Peter Prindiville raise the alarm about a constitutional convention that could be called […]
Overcoming Wisconsin’s toxic partisanship
By: Ruth Conniff - September 26, 2022
As I watched the annual State of Education address last week I found myself wondering, is bipartisanship dead? Pushing back on Republican culture war talking points, state schools superintendent Jill Underly used the word “racist” to describe recent Republican efforts to rewrite school curriculum purging so-called critical race theory. Likewise, high-profile campaigns against LGBTQ and […]
Underly calls for more money for schools, lashes out at Republicans in State of Education speech
By: Ruth Conniff - September 23, 2022
In her second annual address on the state of education in Wisconsin, schools superintendent Jill Underly took on conservative attacks on teaching about racism in K-12 classrooms, defended the Evers administration’s proposal to use $1 billion of the state’s revenue surplus toward a historic funding increase for public schools and took some direct shots at […]
V.P. Harris campaigns in Milwaukee, praises AG Kaul
By: Ruth Conniff - September 23, 2022
In a visit to Milwaukee Thursday in the midst of a tight midterm election season in a critical battleground state, Vice President Kamala Harris praised Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul for fighting the rollback of abortion rights. The U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision “intentionally shifted the fight for reproductive rights to the states,” Harris said […]
Evers wants referendum on repealing Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban
By: Ruth Conniff - September 21, 2022
Standing behind a podium in the ornate governor’s conference room in the east wing of the Capitol on Wednesday morning, Gov. Tony Evers pointed to the ceiling and the gilded words inscribed there that proclaim, “The will of the people is the law of the land.” “Well, right now, today, when it comes to reproductive […]
Ron Johnson’s push to ban abortion
By: Ruth Conniff - September 14, 2022
Sen. Ron Johnson is a famous flip-flopper. Take his recent wriggling on the bipartisan same-sex marriage bill for which Wisconsin’s other senator, Democrat Tammy Baldwin, has been busy rounding up Republican votes. Back in July, when the bill passed the House, Johnson said he saw “no reason to oppose it.” But then recently he clarified […]
Big question in the governor’s race: Should Wisconsin dismantle public schools?
By: Ruth Conniff - September 9, 2022
A group of heavy hitters in Wisconsin politics announced Thursday that they are forming a coalition to push for universal school choice and “parents’ rights.” The group, which calls itself the Wisconsin Coalition for Education Freedom, includes Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, Americans for Prosperity, the American Federation for Children, School Choice Wisconsin and the Wisconsin […]
Evers and Underly announce back-to-school budget proposal
By: Ruth Conniff - September 7, 2022
On Tuesday, Gov. Tony Evers and state schools superintendent Jill Underly joined a first day of school kickoff celebration in Milwaukee and released key provisions of an education budget plan they say they will submit to the Legislature early next year if Evers is reelected. The plan increases education spending by nearly $2 billion, drawing […]
Tim Michels and the anti-abortion extremist takeover of Wisconsin
By: Ruth Conniff - September 3, 2022
This week we learned from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Wisconsin’s Republican candidate for governor Tim Michels and his wife donated nearly $200,000 to anti-abortion groups in Wisconsin and New York in 2020 through their family foundation. The recipients include Pro Life Wisconsin, which opposes the use of all contraceptives and aims to revise Wisconsin’s […]
Wisconsin has plenty of money for schools — too bad kids can’t get it
By: Ruth Conniff - August 31, 2022
At a Tuesday morning back-to-school press conference on the front steps of Aldo Leopold Elementary School in Madison, Gov. Tony Evers announced $90 million in new funding for K-12 schools in Wisconsin. “I’m damn proud to be called the education governor,” Evers, the former state schools superintendent, declared. The funds, which come out of the […]
Marquette poll shows Democrats with slight edge in governor’s race, significant lead for Senate
By: Ruth Conniff - August 18, 2022
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has the edge on Republican challenger Tim Michels, according to the latest Marquette University Law School poll, with 45% of respondents saying they plan to vote for Evers, compared with 43% for Michels. Evers’ lead is smaller than it was in the last Marquette poll, which was taken before the primary […]
How Wisconsin voters are reacting to the Jan. 6 committee revelations about Trump
By: Ruth Conniff - August 17, 2022
Former Wisconsin Republican U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble joined a panel on Tuesday hosted by the Defend Democracy Project to discuss the House Jan. 6 Select Committee hearings and how they are affecting voters’ attitudes in Wisconsin. Ribble is one of a handful of Republicans nationwide who have been outspoken critics of former President Donald Trump […]