President’s note introducing the 2026 Mandate for Madison
By the time all the campaigns are over in November, Wisconsinites in this 2026 election cycle will have been subjected to over a quarter of a billion dollars of political attack ads replete with half-truths, ugly insinuations and unmitigated mudslinging. Plus an occasional attempt to burnish an image or restore a reputation.
Today, we kick off our attempt to refocus the debate in scores of statewide and downballot races on information we know smart voters and candidates crave — research and analysis, data and insight into the policy choices the winners will face come January of 2027.
We call our project, to be released incrementally through October, The 2026 Mandate for Madison. Topics and recommendations will focus on everything from taxes and spending to education, healthcare, housing, energy, and a wide range of other important issues.
Four years ago, our initial Mandate for Madison was chock-full of research and ideas that have helped make Wisconsin a better, more prosperous place. The 300-page book helped set the stage for dental therapists, putting cops back in schools, a more stable justice system and more funding for choice and charter schools.
As you’ll see in the Preface penned by our vice president of policy and research, Ben Eisen, we’ll be publishing a lot of new ideas and research this time around but also reminding all Wisconsinites that, no matter who wins, we cannot afford to abandon key, free-market victories of the past.
We undertake this project for all Wisconsinites interested in how we make this state a better place, and for candidates who want to focus on issues rather than insults. Every successful candidate will find a copy of the complete Mandate on his or her desk come January of 2027.
We work for no one other than you. We don’t take money from either the government or any political party. Never have and never will. Instead, we are ever-grateful to supporters who want to see the Badger State prosper through individual aspiration, civil society, healthy markets, limited government and true freedom.
This project is as much a product of their hard work as ours — and we are thrilled to begin to roll it out starting today.
Mike Nichols
Badger Institute President
