Join us on August 24th for a luncheon and to listen to our panelists debrief and review the RNC presidential primary debate being held in Milwaukee, WI on August 23rd. Together with a table of experts we will break down and analyze the future of the 2024 Presidential race. This event will be moderated by Jeff Mayers from WisPolitics. Live Stream available thanks to Wiseye.org/live.
August 24, 2023
Check-in: 11:30 a.m.
Program: Noon-1:30 p.m.
UWM Joseph J. Zilber
School of Public Health
1240 N. 10th Street
Milwaukee, WI
This event is free and open to the public but we do request registration to ensure appropriate accommodations.
Meet our Round Table
Senator Julian Bradley
Raised in Wisconsin, Julian graduated from La Crosse Central before earning a degree in political science and economics from the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. Julian worked as a telecommunications manager for Century Link from 2002 to 2019 and worked as an operations manager for Northwestern Mutual from 2019 to 2020. He currently resides in Franklin, Wisconsin. During his first term, Senator Bradley has put his private-sector experience to work as chairman of the Senate Committee on Utilities where he has focused on ensuring reliable energy and broadband access for Wisconsin families and businesses. As a member of the Joint Committee on the Review of Administrative Rules he has fought to protect Wisconsinites from unneeded and burdensome regulations. In less than three years, Julian has authored numerous bills to protect our communities from repeat and violent criminals. An avid sports fan, and former pro-wrestler, Julian has been a long-time grassroots activist in the Republican Party, having been elected as a county chairman and to the Republican Party of Wisconsin executive committee. Julian likes to give back to the community by volunteering in his free time, especially focusing on career readiness and youth literacy.
Charles Franklin
Nationally recognized government scholar and pollster Charles Franklin has been director of the Marquette Law School Poll since its inception in 2012 and became a full-time member of the faculty in 2013. Franklin led the Law School Poll during the highly scrutinized 2012 election cycle, establishing Marquette as the definitive source for information concerning public opinion in Wisconsin. Under Franklin’s direction as a visiting professor at Marquette, the poll became the largest independent polling project in state history. It accurately captured voter attitudes before every major election in 2012, including the gubernatorial recall, U.S. Senate and presidential races. Since joining Marquette as a professor of law and public policy in August 2013, Franklin has used the poll to continue tracking political races of interest to voters and explore additional public policy issues. Prior to joining the Marquette faculty, Franklin was a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison beginning in 1992. In 2005 Franklin co-founded Pollster.com, an award winning website for the analysis of polling data. The site received the Warren J. Mitofsky Innovators Award in 2006 from the American Association for Public Opinion Research, was featured in the New York Times Magazine’s Year in Ideas of 2007, was cited by data graphics author Edward Tufte for best visualization of the 2008 election and by Time magazine as one of the 50 Best Websites in 2008. In 2010 the Huffington Post acquired Pollster. He is a past president of the Society for Political Methodology and an elected fellow of the society. Along with his co-author Liane Kosaki, Frankin received the Lasting Contribution Award of the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association in 2009. He served for eight years as a member of the Board of Overseers of the National Election Study. In 2008 he was co-director of the Big Ten Poll which correctly estimated the presidential outcome in all eight states with Big Ten universities. His articles on partisanship, public opinion and the Supreme Court and U.S. Senate elections have appeared in a number of major journals and book chapters. He has been a member of the ABC News election night analysis team since 2002. Franklin received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan.
Craig Gilbert
Craig Gilbert is a fellow at the Marquette Law School’s Lubar Center and former Washington Bureau Chief of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He has covered every presidential campaign since 1988 and chronicled Wisconsin’s role as the nation’s most enduring political battleground. Gilbert has written extensively about the battle for the swing states of the industrial Midwest, the region’s shifting political map, its polarized politics and widening urban-rural divide. His work has been recognized by Editor & Publisher, the National Press Foundation, the National Headliner Awards, the Milwaukee Press Club and the Columbia Journalism Review, which called him the “most political science friendly reporter in America.”Gilbert was a Knight-Wallace fellow at the University of Michigan and a writer in residence at the University of Wisconsin. He is a past and current fellow at Marquette Law School, where he works with pollster Charles Franklin, analyzes polling and voting trends and writes a political column for the Journal Sentinel. Gilbert covered politics for the Journal Sentinel for more than 30 years. He previously worked for the Miami Herald, the Kingston (NY) Daily Freeman and was a speechwriter for New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He has a B.A. in History from Yale University.
Scott Jensen
Scott Jensen is a senior strategist for the advancement of school choice by the nation’s largest school choice organization, the American Federation for Children. Previously, Scott Jensen served for 14 years in the Wisconsin Assembly including three terms as Assembly Speaker. He also served as Chief of Staff to Gov. Tommy Thompson (R-Wisconsin.) He earned a bachelors degree in political science and economics from Drake University in 1982 where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and he earned his master’s in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1984. Scott Jensen lives in Brookfield, Wisconsin with his wife and three children.
Megan Novak
Megan Novak has served as State Director of Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin since April. Novak began her political career having served as Legislative Assistant to Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and Assistant Finance Director for the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate. She then served as Legislative Advisor in the Wisconsin Department of Administration and Senior Policy Advisor in the office of Governor Scott Walker before joining AFP-WI as legislative director in 2019. She believes every Wisconsinite has the right to freedom and opportunity to achieve the American Dream. This belief has inspired her career in public service and her dedication to advancing policies that put Wisconsinites first. Under Novak’s leadership, AFP-WI has successfully supported measures to increase economic opportunity and education freedom for Wisconsin families and businesses. AFP-WI has grown its grassroots advocacy reach and expanded its efforts to advance meaningful policies that make Wisconsin the best place to live, work, and raise a family. Novak is a proud Wisconsinite. She was born and raised in Fond du Lac and later attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She currently resides in the Madison area with her family.
