WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, Aug. 13, voters in Wisconsin can head to the polls for the partisan primary election.
Of the three Republicans vying to replace former GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher in the eighth congressional district, which encompasses the Green Bay area, Former State Senator Roger Roth is one of two candidates with legislative experience.
Roth said he is running for Congress to tackle several issues.
“Washington broken, border in chaos, inflation hurting the middle class in Northeast Wisconsin, and America’s image around the world in decline under Joe Biden,” Roth said in a recent interview with Spectrum News.
A homebuilder and a captain in the Wisconsin Air National Guard, he’s served 12 years in the state legislature, in both the Assembly and Senate. He said these experiences will make him ready on day one.
“If you look at how the Founding Fathers envisioned this nation to operate, they expected that good men and women would go to public service, come back home, go back to public service, come back home. That’s what I’ve done,” Roth said. “But it’s important to have that understanding of how to legislate… I’m excited to take that to Washington, work with Trump, get this country moving in the right direction.”
Although he praises former President Donald Trump, Trump does not return the favor. Trump has endorsed another candidate, Tony Wied, and calls Roth a RINO, a “Republican in name only,” and even said he should “drop out of the race immediately.”
Still, Roth is sticking by Trump; for example, saying he supports completing the construction of Trump’s border wall. And he echoes Trump’s stance on abortion: He supports restricting the procedure, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. Roth blames inflation on overspending in Washington, something he said he’d fight against.
“At the end of the day, you need men and women in Washington who are committed to holding the line on spending. I am that person,” Roth said in a recent debate with Wied and State Sen. André Jacque, R-De Pere, the third GOP candidate. “That is what I’ve done in my time in the legislature with Scott Walker, which is why he’s endorsing me, and that’s what I’ll do as your next Congressman.”
In addition to having the support of Wisconsin’s Former Governor, Congressman Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, who served in the state legislature with Roth, is also supporting his primary run.
“Roger Roth has a strong and diverse understanding of the issues facing Wisconsinites, developed through his legislative service, including presiding over the Senate as president; this depth of knowledge will be invaluable to him as a new member of Congress,” Fitzgerald said in a statement.
Reid Ribble, the Republican who held the seat before Mike Gallagher, said Roth’s two opponents, Wied and Jacque, appear to be going after the most conservative Republican voters, which could be a positive for Roth in the primary.
“Wied and Jacque fighting it out the way they have been could actually bring their ceiling down, opening a pathway for Roger Roth to win the primary,” Ribble said. “And I don’t know that they’re actually as aware of that as they should be.”
Roth ran for the eighth congressional district seat in 2010 but lost to Ribble in the primary. Roth also narrowly lost a run for lieutenant governor in 2022, but that’s not stopping him from giving public office another try. And, he welcomes the competition from Wied and Jacque.
“Iron sharpens iron, and the cream rises to the top. And there’s great people that are running in this race, and I’m excited that they’re in it,” he said. “Another thing the Founders intended: They didn’t want people to walk into office. They wanted us to compete on a value of ideas.”
“I’m able to take my message across northeast Wisconsin, and it resonates with people. They recognize that I’m the blue collar homebuilder,” Roth continued. “I’m the guy that was willing to put on a uniform and deploy three times to Iraq. I’m the guy married to a beautiful woman with five little kids that are struggling just like everyone else has to make ends meet. We have those difficult kitchen table conversations. They want that kind of representation in Washington, and I look forward to bringing that.”
The Republican who emerges victorious from the primary election will face the only Democrat in the race, Dr. Kristin Lyerly, an OB-GYN, in the November general election.
There will be a special election in August and November, too, due to Gallagher’s early departure from Congress. The winner of the special election will serve from early November through Jan. 3. The general election winner will serve a two-year term beginning on Jan. 3.
Recent voting trends in the district suggest a Republican is likely to win the seat.