I grew up in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with my paternal family roots in Squirrel Hill, the site of the infamous massacre of Jews in 2018.  At the time of this catastrophic hate crime, I authored a column describing my Squirrel Hill roots, “My Roots are in Squirrel Hill – And I Can’t Stop Crying”, the link to which follows: (https://www.insidernj.com/roots-squirrel-hill-pittsburgh-cant-stop-crying/)

I graduated Northwestern University and then attended and received my law degree (J.D.)  from the University of Wisconsin School of Law.  I loved Wisconsin, particularly the city of Madison, the state’s capital city, where the law school was located.  The people of the state exhibited a warmth and sense of community that I have found in few other places in the world.

I also loved the historic traditions of Wisconsin.  Two individuals and one town typified the best of these traditions.

The first was a truly great American, Robert LaFollette, who served as both governor and US Senator. He was a Republican and Progressive who created a tradition of reform in the state known as the “LaFollette Tradition.”  His son, Robert, Jr. also became a US Senator, serving until he was defeated by a truly evil man, Joseph McCarthy, whose Senate committee lawyer, Roy Cohn, was the original lawyer and political guru of Donald Trump.

The second individual was Vince Lombardi, the coach of the Green Bay Packers, the greatest coach in the history of professional football.  I loved Vince, both for his striving for professional excellence and his unyielding battle against racial discrimination in sports long before it became fashionable.

The town was a small village, Ripon, Wisconsin, the birthplace of the Republican Party in 1854.  I loved the original Republican Party of Ripon.  The Ripon Republican Party liberated our nation’s African-American community from slavery.  I despise the Republican Party of Donald Trump, which seeks to suppress the African-American vote in order to win elections.  And how ironic it is that the State of Wisconsin, the birthplace of the anti-slavery Republican Party is now one of the two states where the Trumpist Republican Party makes its most continuing and intense effort to suppress the African-American vote, the other being Georgia.

And after the announcement on April 14 of the outcome of the election in Wisconsin on April 7, my birthplace of Pennsylvania and the State of Wisconsin share a distinction of being the states which in stand-alone statewide elections signaled to America the defeat in the next election of the incumbent president.

In April, 1991, Republican Pennsylvania US Senator John Heinz was killed in a plane crash.  The then Democratic Governor Robert Casey appointed a fellow Democrat, Kennedy administration veteran and civil rights activist Harris Wofford to serve as interim US Senator until the special election scheduled for November, 1991.  Wofford would face Richard Thornburgh, the former governor and the US Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and the then President George H.W. Bush. At the beginning of the contest, Thornburgh was a prohibitive favorite.  Wofford’s own internal polls showed him down by 40 points.

But then, Wofford proceeded to make one of the greatest comebacks in American electoral history.   He made the election a referendum on the poor economy of the then Bush administration and the lack of any Bush health care initiative.  The famed political consultants, James Carville and Paul Begala were hired to hone the Wofford message.

The upset victory of Wofford on election day was rightly viewed as a repudiation of President George H.W. Bush and gave the nation the signal that Bush 41 would be a one-term president.

And in the race for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, the victory announced on Monday of Democrat Jill Karofsky, my fellow University of Wisconsin School of Law alumnus, over Republican incumbent Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly likewise gives America a signal that Donald Trump, who gave Kelly a strong endorsement will be a one term president.

The three states that gave Donald Trump victory in the Electoral College in the 2016 election were Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.   Trump won these states because the African-American community did not turn out to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016 as it did for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.  Joe Biden currently leads Trump in all three of these states.

In a column I authored at the beginning of this year,  “ 2020 will be the year of the African-American voter,” (https://www.nj.com/opinion/2019/12/2020-will-be-the-year-of-the-african-american-voter-opinion.html?outputType=amp)  I predicted that the African-American community, which polls show to be overwhelmingly anti-Trump, would turn out in far greater numbers for Joe Biden in 2020 than it did for Hillary Clinton in 2016, winning for him both the Democratic nomination and the general election.  And the Karofsky victory gives major support for my prediction.

This Wisconsin Supreme Court election was of towering significance to the African- American community, both within and outside the state.  It is the Wisconsin Supreme Court that will rule on complaints of the Democrats and African-American community regarding Republican efforts to suppress the African-American vote.

As a result of the outbreak of the Coronavirus, Democratic Governor Tony Evers ordered the election postponed.  The highly politicized Republican majority Wisconsin Supreme Court on April 6 issued a ruling backing the Republicans, overruling Evers, and ordering in-person voting to proceed on the originally scheduled election day of April 7, the next day.

What was Donald Trump’s reaction? Rather than refraining from involvement, he actually attempted to intervene in the election, opposing a postponement, despite health experts who advocated it, and called on his supporters to “get out and vote NOW” for Kelly.

On Election Day April 7, thousands of voters congregated for hours in long lines, defying social-distancing guidelines that led to the postponement of primaries in several other states. Milwaukee opened just five of 180 polling places due to a shortage of workers.

In short, the failure to postpone the election massively increased the danger of voters contracting the Coronavirus.  This danger was particularly acute to African-American voters.

On Election Day, the African-American Community of Wisconsin proved to be the heroes of democracy.  African-American voters, reacting to Trump braved the danger to their own health and turned out at the polls in far greater numbers than expected and were the major factor in the Karofsky victory

The heroism of the African-American community of Wisconsin in overcoming the most serious obstacles to turn out at the polls and send a message to Donald Trump will be repeated on Election Day by African-Americans not only in Wisconsin but in Michigan and Pennsylvania as well.  Joe Biden will triumph in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, reversing the result of the 2016 election.  Donald Trump is finished.

On January 20, 2021, back up the truck at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington and pick up the possessions of the departing occupant, Donald Trump.

Alan J. Steinberg served as Regional Administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as executive director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.