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Zunker To Challenge Tiffany Again In Fall Congressional Election

Just six days after losing a northern Wisconsin congressional election to Republican Tom Tiffany, Democrat Tricia Zunker announced she will run for the seat again this fall.

Tiffany beat Zunker by 14 points last Tuesday in a special election for the open seat.

“I’m standing up for what I believe in. I invite you to join me in the arena. This November, let’s dare greatly and win this seat,” Zunker said in a video.

Zunker is the Wausau School Board chair and a Ho-Chunk Nation judge.

“This is unfinished. We have a lot of things to do. Everything that I was running on, I continue to run on. We need to ensure affordable, accessible healthcare, drastically lower the cost of prescription drugs, address the farm crisis. We need to get through COVID-19 and make sure our families and small businesses have what they need,” Zunker said in an interview WXPR.

She said the 14-point loss represented momentum compared to the even-more-Republican lean of the district in the past.

She’s hoping to be able to start campaigning in person at some point.

“It’s such an expansive district, and to be able to get to meet people throughout this district, and hear their concerns, and how I can best represent them as their congresswoman, it’s different than virtual campaigning,” she said. “There’s something to be said for looking people in the eye and having those direct conversations.”

Tiffany will be sworn into Congress on Tuesday. He’s filling out the remainder of the term of Republican Sean Duffy, who resigned last year due to family reasons. Tiffany will run again in the regularly-scheduled election in November.

Last Tuesday’s election was the second this spring including in-person voting during the COVID-19 health emergency.

A Democrat has not been elected in the district since 2008, when Dave Obey won the last of his 20 terms in Congress.

On election night, Zunker had hinted she might run again.

“We laid the groundwork for a Democratic win in November,” she said that night. “We came this close because our message of affordable healthcare, help for small businesses and farmers, and protection of the environment resonated throughout this district.”

Ben worked as the Special Topics Correspondent at WXPR from September 2019 until November 2021. He now contributes occasionally to WXPR. During his full-time employment, his main focus was reporting on environment and natural resources issues in northern Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula as part of The Stream, a weekly series.
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