WASHINGTON — Recent social media ads by Tom Nelson’s campaign focus on shuttered paper mills across northeast Wisconsin.
“This isn't just about these communities,” he said. “It's not just about manufacturing workers. This is about America.”
The plight of those factories is a crucial part of his platform and he says it’s consistent with his years fighting for the rights of unionized workers.
“This is at my core,” Nelson said. “I grew up here. I’ve fought with the workers to save these jobs. I know just how important this is to American economy. And again, not just for manufacturing paper workers, but for all communities.”
While his primary opponents are looking to introduce themselves to voters, the Outagamie County executive and former Wisconsin State Assembly majority leader is leading with his legislative proposals.
He held a press conference last week outside of a Madison grocery store to unveil his plan to tame inflation and fix the supply chain. He calls it the “Full Nelson Jobs Plan” and he says it has an emphasis on opportunities for union workers.
“My public service has always been focused on bread-and-butter economic issues, because I believe those are the issues that people are concerned about,” Nelson said. “Those are the issues for which I can make any constructive difference.”
Nelson has been playing the long game. He was the first Democrat to enter the race, announcing his candidacy in October 2020, weeks before the last presidential election. Nearly a dozen more candidates have since enter but he’s been among the top four Democrats in fundraising and polling.
“We got an early because I'm not a millionaire or I’m not a billionaire,” Nelson said. “I don't have lots of name recognition. But I wanted to give this campaign enough time so that we could build a grassroots network around the state.”
Nelson’ hopes to pull off an upset like Democrat Russ Feingold did 30 years ago.
“In 1992, Democrats had a three-way primary in which Russ Feingold was in third place,” Franklin said. “He was far from the front-runner position, and the top two candidates savaged each other so much that Feingold emerged as the easy victor in the primary. Because the top two just beat each other up, it made them both unattractive to voters.”
There are a few differences between then and now. There are more candidates in the running and the presumed top two candidates have been pulling their punches against each other. So far, they’ve only been targeting Incumbent GOP Senator Ron Johnson instead.
“I think that I'm the kind of candidate that people in Wisconsin are looking for,” Nelson said. “They're looking for someone who has humble small town roots, that really knows how it is to put food on the table, how important it is to support a manufacturing town, what this means to the broader community to the rest of the country, in fact.”
But this isn’t Nelson’s first statewide race nor is it his first try for Congress.
He was a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in the 2010 election that made Republicans Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefish governor and lieutenant governor.
Six years later, he lost a race for Congress to Republican Mike Gallagher. Republicans are dismissing Nelson as a threat.
“Tom Nelson’s desperate campaign is as much of a pipe dream as the extreme left policies he supports,” Anna Kelly, Communications Director for the Republican Party of Wisconsin wrote in part in a statement to Spectrum News.
Nelson says, if nominated, Democrats could trust in him to be the one to unseat Sen. Johnson.
“Well, I'm the only candidate from a red part of the state who's won elections and reelections six times,” he said. “Three as the legislator and three as a county executive. I can get good legislation passed, and I know how to get the government to work. I’ve been doing that for the last 10 years. I can do my job. And I can get elected.”
It’s a bold pitch to voters from the presumed underdog in the race. But Nelson’s confident his experience and plans will finally take him to Washington.
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