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 the author of "Milked: How an American Crisis Brought Together Midwestern Dairy Farmers and Mexican Workers" which won the 2022 Studs and Ida Terkel award from The New Press. She 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. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her husband and three daughters.
Biden’s run-in in Iowa is not a good sign
By: Ruth Conniff - December 6, 2019
It’s not a good sign when your candidate starts doing pushups on the campaign trail to show that he’s fit for office. Just ask former Gov. Tommy Thompson, who dropped and ripped off 50 for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board during a contentious Republican Senate primary in 2012, right before he went on to […]
Trade deal presents political conundrum for Democrats
By: Allison Stevens and Ruth Conniff - December 2, 2019
WASHINGTON — With only a few legislative days left before Congress adjourns for the year, House Democrats are eager to show that they can legislate while also pursuing an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. A massive trade deal represents their best shot at showing they can do so — but passing it would hand […]
All we want for Christmas is civility
By: Ruth Conniff - November 28, 2019
My family attended the annual neighborhood holiday party at the governor’s mansion this year. My 13-year-old was pumped. The last time we went, she was 5. That was before eight long years of Gov. Scott Walker and the bitter polarization of politics in our state. The governor’s mansion, which looks like a mini White House, […]
League of Women Voters files motion to intervene in voter roll purge
By: Ruth Conniff - November 25, 2019
Responding to a lawsuit that seeks to purge 234,000 Wisconsin voters who might have changed addresses from the voting rolls, the League of Women Voters filed a motion last Friday to intervene in Ozaukee County Circuit Court. The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed the lawsuit against the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) for not […]
Does the truth matter?
By: Ruth Conniff - November 21, 2019
As one stand-up government official after another speaks credibly and directly about Trump’s “drug deal” in Ukraine — to borrow a phrase from that great progressive John Bolton — the Republicans, including Trump, have been bullying witnesses, conducting a smear campaign against a highly respected ambassador who bravely fought corruption, and questioning the loyalty of […]
Wisconsinites cool on impeachment even as hearings heat up
By: Ruth Conniff - November 20, 2019
On the same day Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified to the House Intelligence Committee about an explicit quid-pro-quo offer from the Trump administration to Ukraine, the new Marquette University Law School poll showed support for impeachment has declined among Wisconsinites. Why is that? “On the Republican side it’s not hard to understand,” says poll director Charles […]
Supreme Court candidates differentiate themselves in heated first debate
By: Ruth Conniff - November 20, 2019
In their first debate the three candidates for Wisconsin Supreme Court laid out radically different approaches to the law. Dane County Judge Jill Karofsky wasted no time in attacking incumbent Justice Daniel Kelly. In the opening moments of the debate, Karofsky declared, “I find it amazing that we have a justice on the Supreme Court […]
Ron Johnson slams Vindman, says only president can determine foreign policy
By: Ruth Conniff - November 19, 2019
In a letter to House Republicans on Monday, Wisconsin’s U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson evoked Hillary Clinton’s emails and questioned the loyalty of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman. Johnson, a Republican, addressed the letter to Reps Jim Jordan of Ohio and and Devin Nunes of California, who had requested “any firsthand information … about President Trump’s actions […]
Ron Johnson: Ukraine talks should never have been public
By: Ruth Conniff - November 18, 2019
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) appeared on Meet the Press on Sunday to decry the impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump, saying the whistleblower who first flagged Trump’s request that Ukraine investigate the Biden family, even as military aid to the country was delayed, “exposed things that didn’t need to be exposed.” “Those individuals that leaked […]
Republicans have it backwards on impeachment
By: Ruth Conniff - November 15, 2019
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson called it a “very sad farce.” The impeachment proceedings that began this week in the House of Representatives were, according to various Republicans, a “witch hunt” (Donald Trump), based on “hearsay” (Rep. Michael Turner-R,Ohio) about something that “did not happen” ( Rep. Jim Jordan R-Ohio) and a convoluted case that the […]
WILL files lawsuit demanding Wisconsin purge voter rolls
By: Ruth Conniff - November 14, 2019
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty announced on Wednesday that is is suing the Wisconsin Elections Commission for not purging the voter rolls of voters who may have moved to a new address. The action could affect 234,000 registered Wisconsin voters who may have moved, by insisting that they be taken off the voting […]
Sean Duffy to lobby for financial industry
By: Ruth Conniff - November 14, 2019
Sean Duffy, the former Republican congressman who is now a commentator on CNN, has a new job on K Street, Politico reports. Duffy will become a senior counsel at BGR Group, a Republican-leaning lobbying firm. As a former member of the House Financial Services Committee and the House Budget Committee, Duffy will head up BGR’s […]