Monroe County

Paul Piotrowski is a decorated former Navy officer who served his home of Stevens Point for over 26 years, most recently as City Clerk. He’ll put the middle class first in the economic response to coronavirus and work to get help for working families and small businesses that are struggling here at home. Piotrowski worked a good blue-collar job and gets that college might not be for everyone, but a good-paying job should be. He'll also fight to expand access to affordable health care and protect people with pre-existing conditions from losing their health care. His opponent, first term Senator Pat Testin supported giving up to three billion dollars in corporate giveaways to FoxConn. After accepting campaign donations from health insurance PACs, he single-handedly blocked protections for pre-existing conditions from passing the State Senate. Testin would ban abortion and defund Planned Parenthood. He has actively opposed the state’s Safer-at-Home order and backed the lawsuit to prematurely end it while cases of coronavirus were still growing. Piotrowski is the progressive choice.

Brad Pfaff grew up on a dairy farm in Western Wisconsin and continues to farm today. He has a son with diabetes, protecting coverage for pre-existing conditions and getting the cost of drugs like insulin down are personal for him. Pfaff knows there are many people willing to work hard but who college isn’t the right path for. He’ll push for funding to bring more job training programs and invest in technical colleges. Pfaff is pro-choice and has called for more investment in education. Republican candidate Dan Kapanke served in the Senate before being recalled in 2011. His tenure was marked by votes that favored his corporate donors. He has also been a subject of multiple ethics scandals, including using taxpayer resources to staff a campaign event and using money from a charity foundation to pay down personal debts. Kapanke has voted for corporate tax cuts and defunding BadgerCare and supported repealing the law that protects people with pre-existing conditions.  He also favors repealing the Affordable Care Act. He is anti-choice and has been endorsed by right wing groups that want to outlaw abortion. Brad Pfaff is more progressive than Dan Kapanke.

John Iver Baldus wants to be a new voice for Central Wisconsin. Baldus believes in nonpartisan redistricting, Medicaid expansion, investing in infrastructure repair, and an approach to COVID-19 that is informed by science and experts. Incumbent Assemblywoman Nancy VanderMeer has ignored public health experts on the pandemic, opposing the Safer at Home order and writing an op-ed that asserted that total containment of the virus should not be a goal. Baldus is the more progressive choice.

Representative Jill Billings believes in investing in healthcare, the environment, and children's issues. She has taken legislative action on all of these issues and has bigger goals for the future. Billings has authored Opportunity Zone Legislation to support local economies, secondary education scholarship legislation, the Water Pollution Notification Act, and others. Billings supports nonpartisan redistricting, Medicaid expansion, and further action on PFAS contamination. Her opponent is Republican candidate Jerome Gundersen. Billings is the progressive choice in this race.

Josefine Jaynes is invested in making her community a place where young people want to return to after college or technical school. She believes that building a vibrant economy is crucial to this effort, as well as investing in affordable housing and small businesses. She is facing Republican incumbent Loren Oldenburg. Jaynes is the more progressive candidate.