Senate District 12

First-time candidate and Minocqua family farmer Ed Vocke is running to be a voice for working people in Northern Wisconsin. His priorities include non-partisan redistricting, clean water, and local control. He favors Medicare for All. He is running against the Assistant Majority Leader in the State Assembly, GOP Rep. Mary Felzkowski. Felzkowski opposes Medicaid expansion and is a lifetime NRA Member. Vocke is the progressive choice.

Minocqua business leader Kirk Bangstad is running because he believes that strong values inform good policies and that those values are lacking in the state legislature. Bangstad believes in expanding Medicaid, creating a BadgerCare public option, and ultimately transitioning to BadgerCare for All. He believes that a living wage for all is achievable through a $15 minimum wage, a clean energy economy, and increasing broadband access. Bangstad also supports nonpartisan redistricting, ending mass incarceration, decriminalizing recreational marijuana, directing public funding exclusively to public education, and eventually making technical colleges and 4-year colleges tuition-free. Assemblyman Rob Swearingen is in favor of deregulation and has failed to listen to experts and scientists during the pandemic. He was among the legislators who forced Wisconsinites to choose between their vote and risking their health in the April election and is opposed to the mask mandate. Bangstad is the progressive choice.

Lifelong District 35 resident Tyler Ruprecht decided to run for Assembly because he did not see anyone else stepping up to provide the leadership he felt was necessary for the 35th AD. On healthcare, Ruprecht stands for expanding BadgerCare and creating a BadgerCare public option while eliminating deductibles and improving rural hospitals. He also believes in raising the minimum wage, ending CAFO subsidies, legalizing marijuana, nonpartisan redistricting, expanding broadband access, and promoting clean water and clean energy. His opponent, Calvin Callahan, is opposed to red-flag gun violence prevention laws, is anti-choice, and believes that the free market will solve Wisconsin's healthcare problems. Ruprecht is the progressive choice in this race.