Chippewa Valley Indivisible

In a historic shift, Chippewa County voted blue in the April election — the first time since 2008. The result sent a clear signal: the political landscape in western Wisconsin is changing, and Chippewa Valley Indivisible’s years of grassroots organizing played a key role.

This wasn’t a fluke. It was the product of sustained effort — Bridge Brigades, voter registration drives, community conversations, and showing up week after week. Taylor County’s swing is part of a larger pattern across CD07 that has Democrats and progressives energized heading into the midterms.

The message is simple: every door knocked, every sign held, every conversation had — it all adds up. And in April, it added up to history.

When a late-March blizzard threatened to derail the third No Kings mobilization, CVI answered it the only way CVI would: by building a painted snow sculpture at Owen Park spelling out “No Kings 3 — March 28” and posting it with the line “We ain’t afraid of no stinkin’ blizzard!”

The Monday before the march, Rachel Maddow put that photo and post on air — reading the line with a laugh — as she introduced Ezra Levin and the news that Bruce Springsteen would join the Minneapolis rally. Then, on March 28, roughly 6,500 people marched through Eau Claire anyway, with 600 more in Chippewa Falls. After the event, Maddow featured CVI again in her lead-story roundup of protests across the states.

The numbers told the story of the entire No Kings arc: 3,200, then 6,000, then 6,500 in Eau Claire. In Chippewa Falls — population roughly 16,000 — turnout went from 140 to 280 to 600. Two cities mobilized at once, each time larger, and this time through a blizzard. WEAU, WQOW, and Civic Media all covered the march.

A mobilization that keeps growing, and a group whose sense of humor travels as far as its turnout.

On March 18, 2026, CVI hit a milestone that no one would have predicted a year earlier: 52 consecutive weeks of public protest in the Chippewa Valley. Every single week, without exception, CVI members showed up.

Rain, snow, summer heat, sub-zero cold — none of it stopped them. The weekly visibility actions became as reliable as the sunrise, a standing reminder that the Chippewa Valley is paying attention and isn’t going anywhere.

WQOW marked the anniversary with both a text story and video. For CVI, it wasn’t about the number — it was about what the number represented: a community that decided showing up is not optional, and then proved it 52 times in a row.

On February 21, CVI joined coalition partners — including El Centro de Conexion de Chippewa Valley — for a rally outside the Altoona Police Department, demanding answers about local law enforcement cooperation with ICE.

By design, the press credited the impacted immigrant community rather than CVI. When your advocacy is about other people’s lives, the right move is to put those people forward and step back.

WEAU and the Wisconsin Examiner both covered the action. The Examiner’s reporting questioned the sheriff’s account of four people detained by ICE — the kind of accountability journalism that happens when a community refuses to accept official narratives without scrutiny.

CVI’s role was what it always is in immigration work: build the infrastructure, support the community, and let the people most affected lead the conversation.

On January 10, more than 180 community members gathered at the Peace Circle in Chippewa Falls for an ICE accountability rally — one of the largest winter turnouts the valley had seen.

The message was clear: immigrant families are our neighbors, and our community won’t look the other way. Speakers called for transparency, accountability, and an end to the fear that had settled over parts of western Wisconsin since the ICE surge began weeks earlier.

The rally’s Facebook post reached 87,000 people — a sign of how deeply the issue resonated across the region. CVI’s rapid-response network, built in the weeks before, was already moving thousands of pounds of food and supplies to families in need. This rally put a public face on the private work.