Wisconsin’s Weird Batch of Republican Hopefuls
For the first time in years, Democrats finally have a legitimate chance of winning the Assembly and Milwaukee Beagle hopes to do our part to make this happen. A great motivator is to look at those we are running against. This batch of Republicans hoping to enter the Assembly are as weird and fascist as ever and must be stopped. Let us take a look at what we are facing this election cycle.
The Weird
It can be difficult to know where to even start, so let us begin with candidates who are just plain weird. Like ‘Peeping Tom’ Bob Donovan running in District 7 who was cited for spying on folks in restrooms and then kinda sorta denied it but not really. In District 88, the Republican candidate is legitimately named Benjamin Franklin. Or Rob Brooks in District 59 who, of all things, thought it was necessary to come out strong against giving kids free bikes. And then there is current representative Dan Murphy and candidate in District 56 who oddly sees Tony Evers as a dictator? Murphy was so worked up about Evers deciding how to appropriate Covid relief funds (a power well within his role as governor and as the recent referendums affirmed, a power the people of Wisconsin want him to continue to have) that he proclaimed in debate “We might as well just have kings who have armies that fight one another.” A bit of an odd escalation to say the least.
The Dangerous
Of course we cannot just focus on the Republican’s weirdness and risk minimizing the real danger that they present. Many like Dan Knodl, in District 24, Rick Gundrum in District 58, and the previously mentioned Rob Brooks and Dave Murphy signed onto a letter asking then Vice President Pence to overturn the 2020 election results. As also to be expected, outlawing abortion in Wisconsin is a top priority for Republicans. District 85 candidate and current representative Pat Snyder brings a whole new extreme to being anti-choice and has even proposed legislation that would force doctors to tell women seeking an abortion about abortion ‘reversal’ treatments. Wait, you can reverse an abortion? No, in fact you cannot. None of these treatments are backed by evidence and the medical community at large is against them. That did not stop Snyder from trying to force doctors to share dangerous snake-oil medicines with patients. Bills like these are par for the course for Snyder, who also authored and cosponsored bills allowing parents to claim fetuses (feti?) as dependents on their income taxes (but of course takes no real action to improve the child’s life once they are born) and punishing health care providers who perform abortions.
Unsurprisingly, the Republican candidates also have some truly terrifying plans for our schools. Current representative and candidate in District 82, Scott Allen has proposed arming teachers as a way of preventing school shootings. Allen and previously mentioned Murphy have also proposed bills to punish school employees and librarians if they distribute ‘obscene’ materials to children. And of course there is no shortage of Republicans proclaiming to want to ‘protect’ girls sports which is really just a thinly veiled attack on trans folks. In their attack on trans individuals Republicans like current representatives and candidate in District 99 Barb Dittrich and previously mentioned Dan Knodl amplified the blatantly false reactionary outcry about Imane Khelif, an assigned female at birth olympic boxer, actually being a male. Dittrich in her post about the topic even went as far as to compare two consenting adults participating in the sport as the equivalent of spousal abuse. That is disgusting and no one who is actually on the side of abuse victims would ever compare these two.
Dangerously Weird
Bringing us back from that horrific take, thankfully, sometimes you do not have to choose between dangerous and weird because so many of these candidates are both. Running in District 98 is Jim Piwowarczyk, the founder of Wisconsin Right Now (WRN). You may recognize that name from the links in your unhinged conservative uncle’s Facebook posts, but just in case, WRN is a far right online publication who we will not bother linking to here in order to not amplify their vitriol. All you really need to know about them is that they are the type of publication that refers to Kamala Harris as ‘Comrade’ or ‘Komrade’ Kamala (apparently they cannot even decide how they want to spell comrade). In other weirdness he is also the father of Jenna Piwowarczyk who is the founder of ‘Swifties for Trump’ (the actual group and not the AI fever dream promoted by Trump). She holds extreme views like her father, writing articles with titles like “Terroristic Sympathizers: How TikTok is Advocating Sharia Law to Gen Z” for example
Another dangerous weirdo is current representative Elijah Behnke running for District 4. Besides proudly bragging about being against mask mandates and Covid-19 vaccine requirements, he also weirdly thought it was necessary for law enforcement to be aware that Catholic Charities was holding a webinar about resettling refugees. I guess Behnke wants cops to…take down the internet? Needless to say racist fear mongering about refugees and migrants has very real and dangerous consequences like the El Paso mass shooting.
Turning the Assembly Blue
This is who we are fighting against. Banning abortion, migrants, and refugees, overturning democracy, attacking trans rights, promoting conspiracy theories, and keeping kids from getting free bikes(?) are the types of priorities Republicans will try to bring to the Assembly. We know this well, as they have already done this during their many years as a super majority. Obviously we have to keep these fascist weirdos from controlling the Assembly and in order to do that Democrats must flip 15 Assembly seats. Various data analyses by both Marquette University and Milwaukee Beagles have identified these competitive races that we think have the highest chance of flipping. How can you help? If you live in the district, knock doors for their campaign, spread the world. You can also always donate or phone bank for them regardless of whether or not you live in the district. By working together we can turn the Assembly blue! You can expect Milwaukee Beagle to publish more deep dive articles on these races as well.
A list of all the potential races to flip the Assembly. Note, a previous version listed District 30 as St. Paul. This has been corrected.
