morning, Eric Holder strode into a
brick union hall on the west side of Milwaukee, across from
a credit union and an auto body shop. The Merrill Park
neighborhood was once the center of the city’s Irish po-
litical machine, fi lled with stately Victorian houses—in-
cluding the childhood home of Spencer Tracy—but it was
now mostly African American and economically depressed.
Holder had dressed down from his usual suit and tie: He
wore a black fl eece jacket, white button-down, and dark
blue jeans. He was warmly greeted by Angela Lang, the
29-year-old executive director of Black Leaders Organ izing
for Communities ( ), a local group that works to in-
crease voter turnout in Milwaukee’s black neighborhoods
from an o ce in the union hall’s basement, which was
fi lled with campaign fl yers and maps. It was the 68-year-
old former attorney general’s third visit to Milwaukee in a
year, and Lang addressed him as “our No. 1 cousin.”
DEMOCRATS ARE FOCUSED
ON THE WHITE HOUSE.
ERIC HOLDER IS FOCUSED
ON THE FUTURE.
MAP
QUEST
BY ARI BERMAN
The reason for Holder’s visits was Wisconsin’s assault
on voting rights. The Wisconsin had passed a voter
ID law, designed to depress Democratic participation,
that took eff ect before the 2016 election. As a result,
turnout in Milwaukee’s black neighborhoods dropped
by more than 20 percent.
Not long after the election, Holder launched the
Nation al Democratic Redistricting Committee (),
a political action committee that aims to unrig the system
that has entrenched Republican control of the country’s
most important swing states. He’d received the backing
of top Democrats, including former President Barack
Obama, who in December 2018 folded his own politi-
cal operation, Organizing for Action, into Holder’s to
give the fi ght against gerrymandering more clout. Now,
while other top Democrats are focused on the White
House, Holder has set his sights on neighborhoods like