[1] Socialism was by no means new to Wisconsin, a fair percentage of the émigrés from Germany in the dozen years prior to the Civil War, the so-called "Forty-Eighters," had been exposed to radical ideas and been participants in a continent-wide battle against absolutist monarchy.

[4]: 32  Berger assumed the role of both editor and publisher of the publication,[4]: 32  and his emergence in this capacity marked a turning point in the history of the socialist movement in the state.

Berger grew his paper by attempting to de-emphasize revolutionary change in favor of incremental reform, and made a conscious effort to forge alliances with the trade union movement of his city and state.

[2]: 11  Additional political demands included abolition of the United States Senate and the veto power of the executive branch, and the elimination of the standing army and restrictions upon immigration.

[2]: 10 The direct forerunners of the Social-Democratic Party of Wisconsin Included the German language Sozialistischer Verein, in which Victor Berger played a leading role, and a small English-language group styling itself as the "Fabian Society," in which Frederic Heath was the most active participant.

"[2]: 13 The alliance of reformers and radicals had no great delusions of their prospects of success, but instead sought to make their united effort at the polls a cause for building the organized strength of the working class.

On January 2, 1897, trade union organizer and orator Eugene V. Debs announced in an open letter that he was severing himself from the increasingly conservative People's Party, owing to his conversion to Socialism.

On July 7, 1898, Eugene Debs made his first public speech on behalf of the Social Democracy at a meeting held at West Side Turner Hall in Milwaukee before a large and enthusiastic audience.

[2]: 20  In a surprising move intended to unite the warring factions of American socialism, an offer was made to Daniel DeLeon to come to Wisconsin from New York City in order to edit the new paper.

[2]: 23 The electoral platform guiding these candidates has been described by one historian as one of "detailed reformism," including calls for city-owned utilities, public works projects, free textbooks for schoolchildren, and the development of recreation areas in poor sections of the city of Milwaukee.

[2]: 23 The Social Democratic campaign was taken statewide for the first time in the fall of 1898, with a platform calling for establishment of a progressive income tax and a new property tax to replace the current system of taxation, universal suffrage for all literate adults, establishment of the initiative and referendum, abolition of the veto power of the governor, abolition of the Wisconsin State Senate, and prohibition of child labor and night work for women.

[4]: 35–36  This set of substantial reforms was not met with favorably by the electorate as the Social Democratic ticket generated results no better than the Milwaukee mayoral effort, polling a mere 2,544 votes in a statewide race.

[2]: 30  Dissatisfied former member of the SLP in Milwaukee bolted for the Social-Democratic Party, swelling its ranks and reducing the physical and rhetorical volume of its left wing opponents.

[2]: 31  Although the SDP leadership remained leery of the former SLP members, organizational unity eventually followed, formalized by a convention in Indianapolis which was gaveled to order on July 29, 1901.

One key factor behind socialist success in this race was a breakthrough by the SDP among working class Polish-American voters, who had traditionally supported candidates of the Democratic Party.

[7] The party did not run a candidate for U.S. Senate in 1922, avoiding a race which was handily won by popular progressive Republican Robert M. La Follette, Sr. over his Democratic challenger by a margin of nearly 5-to-1.