The election for U.S. Congress is a little more than a year away.
Some candidates for the 7th district in Wisconsin, which encompasses much of northern Wisconsin, have started their campaigns.
Fred Clark, a Democrat from Bayfield, says he spent much of this past summer talking to voters of all political leanings about how changes in Washington D.C. were impacting them.
“We've seen dramatic changes coming out of Washington, coming out of this administration. Some people agree with some of them. Some people don't,” said Clark. “It's time that we have a conversation about how our democratic process, it was envisioned by the framers of our Constitution, is supposed to work, and I want to see Congress do its job.”
Clark talked with WXPR’s Katie Thoresen about his campaign. The following interview was edited for clarity and brevity.
Katie Thoresen: Why are you running for the seventh district of Congress?
Fred Clark: I made a decision to run for the seventh district for Wisconsin after spending a lot of time this summer driving around this really huge region of northern Wisconsin. We were talking to voters. We were talking to Democrats and Independents and Republicans, and just really trying to get a handle on what people were thinking and what they were experiencing around a lot of the changes coming out of Washington. There's been a lot of bad news that is landing on the laps of most Americans as a result of the big billionaires bill that is a massive increase to our national debt that is going to be affecting healthcare access for lots of people. We really wanted to get a feeling for what people are experiencing under the new administration, and what they're expecting from their elected representatives.
KT: Can you talk a little bit about your experience that you believe qualifies you for this office?
FC: Most of my career in Wisconsin, I've worked as a forester and a land manager, but I spent three terms in the state legislature representing a district in central Wisconsin. Since then, I've been involved in conservation and environmental policy, as well as being a hopefully good member of my community up in Bayfield County, volunteering and doing good work there. I've really enjoyed public service. I didn't necessarily intend to go back into public service, but honestly, I just think that we're in an extraordinary moment in America right now, and I believe we're in a moment of political transformation, and that's what really helped lead to my decision.
KT: What do you think is the most pressing issue for people in this district?
FC: There are a couple. One is people are absolutely paying attention to the changes that have been made to healthcare access. We're talking about the cuts to the Medicaid program that will fall on the lowest income segment of our population, but people are also now aware that the elimination of the tax subsidies for the Affordable Care Act will mean at least a doubling of premiums for most people in the Affordable Care Act exchanges. These are middle class people, these are farmers, these are business owners, these are people that didn't have access to good insurance from other means. A lot of them are going to lose their coverage because they can't afford to keep it. That's going to mean more people without the care that they need, and it's going to mean higher and higher premiums for the people that remain. Ultimately, that's going to affect health care access for everybody, because a lot of rural hospitals and clinics that are already stressed financially may simply leave the field and stop offering services.
Clark says he plans to cover as much as of the 7th congressional district as he can talking to voters leading up to election day.
“I would like us to have a conversation about democracy and about what we expect from Congress,” said Clark. “Whether we change minds or not, I want to learn from those conversations and also really have a discussion about what we need in Washington.”
The 7th Congressional District is an open race as current Representative Tom Tiffany is running for Governor.
WXPR will continue to bring you information about candidates as part of our election coverage.
