This story was created as part of the NEW (Northeast Wisconsin) News Laba consortium of six news outlets covering northeastern Wisconsin.
Voters in northeastern Wisconsin will elect a new representative to Congress on Nov. 5, with both candidates for Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District coming from the private sector.
Republican Tony Wied, a businessman from De Pere, and Democrat Kristin Lyerly, a gynecologist from Ledgeview, are both running for the seat previously held by former U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Republican who resigned earlier this year.
Wied and Lyerly will each be on the ballot twice on Nov. 5, for both a general and special election. The special election would allow the winner to complete Gallagher’s term in Congress.
Wied, who owned a chain of Dino Stop convenience stores until 2022, received the support of former President Donald Trump when he entered the race as a political unknown.
He banked on Trump’s endorsement during a busy Republican Party primary, and he also campaigned on his experience as a small business owner.
“I will follow the approach I have always taken in running my business, raising my family and leading myself for the past 48 years,” Wied said during a recent debate. “I opt for a pragmatic approach. I’m not someone who shouts and attacks people. I am someone who tackles problems.”
Lyerly has been an outspoken advocate for reproductive rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. She became a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s pre-Civil War abortion law.
She ran for an Assembly seat in 2020, but lost to incumbent state Rep. John Macco, R-Ledgeview. She said she has voted Republican for much of her life.
“I didn’t vote for a Democrat until I was probably in my 30s, and I didn’t become a Democrat until right before I ran for office,” Lyerly said during the debate. “I am an independent thinker. I am someone who listens to people, just like I do in the office when I talk to a patient.”
From inflation to abortion, Wied and Lyerly disagree on the issues
During their recent debate, Wied and Lyerly discussed inflation, abortion, immigration and education.
On inflation, Wied said he wants to cut government spending to bring down costs. He calls inflation a “tax” on the lower and middle classes.
“It’s no different than any of you in your own households. You have to look at each individual budget, and that is what I will present to Congress,” he said. “We need to have a balanced budget. We have to move towards less expenditure.”
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In addition to government spending, Lyerly argued that “corporate greed” also played an outsized role in driving inflation. She proposed creating new federal programs to address rising housing costs that have contributed to inflation.
“We can use federal lands for public development,” she said. “There are many things we can do as members of Congress that will help take the pressure off the housing market and get new homebuyers into their homes.”
As for abortion, Wied has said he believes the issue is a matter for the states and not the federal government. During the debate, he was asked what he thought Wisconsin’s abortion policy should be. He did not answer explicitly.
“It won’t be at the federal level, so that’s not on my plate,” Wied said. “I’m going to continue to work hard on the things I can control in the United States House of Representatives.”
Meanwhile, Lyerly said she believes women “should have the freedom to make our own choices” about their bodies. She called Wied’s position of leaving abortion policy up to the states a “policeman.”
“That tells me that in states with bans, where mothers die at three times the rate of states without bans, you don’t have a problem with that,” she said.
On immigration, Wied said he supports bringing back the pandemic-era “Remain in Mexico” policy and completing the border wall.
Lyerly said she would support a bipartisan border security bill negotiated by Senate Republicans and Democrats but derailed by Trump.
“The people who pulled my opponent’s strings said no (to the bill),” Lyerly said. “They said no because they want to use it for politics. They want to use it to incite fear.”
Wied argued that the bill did not do enough to restore the Trump administration’s policies.
“This bill does not go far enough,” he says. “We need to close this border (and) find an effective immigration policy.”
During the debate, a University of Wisconsin-Green Bay student asked both candidates for their opinions on lowering college costs and student loan relief.
Wied was not in favor of student loan forgiveness, but Lyerly said she was open to the idea. Both said more needs to be done to get students into the right careers, but Lyerly criticized Wied for his support for ending the U.S. Department of Education.
“By eliminating the Department of Education, it would eliminate some funding streams for students,” Lyerly said. “Not only that, but it would throw states and local municipalities into chaos.”
Wied said he believes the Department of Education is essentially micro-managing schools.
“You should have the control to run your schools here locally, and I don’t believe the federal government is teaching our children,” he said. “There are federal bureaucrats who continue to interfere with the education of our children.”
What do their supporters say?
Whether it’s Wied or Lyerly, the winner of the 8th District will become an officeholder for the first time. Supporters of both think their candidate is ready for the challenge.
Bob Gryboski of De Pere said he has known Wied for years. Gryboski runs a construction company with his brother and thinks Wied’s business background makes him the right candidate.
“As a small business owner, you meet people at all levels of the income scale, and you have to communicate and work with those people to get things done,” Gryboski said. “He will have a very good feeling for the community in general.”
Gryboski said he thought Trump’s support would help Wied, even as he acknowledged the former president was “a polarizing individual.”
“I agree with many of the policies that (Trump) supports,” Gryboski said. “If Tony gets that support, it would indicate that he will obviously support a lot of the policies as well.”
Shawano resident Lora Perdelwitz is a Lyerly supporter who got to know the candidate during some campaign stops in Shawano. She says she feels like Lyerly listens to voters the same way she listens to her medical patients.
“I want someone to represent me who has this quality because if you listen to the people you represent, you can represent what their wants and needs are,” Perdelwitz said. “The things she’s talking about are consistent with my wants and needs right now as far as reproductive rights go.”
Perdelwitz said Trump’s support for Wied is “incredibly concerning,” saying the Jan. 6 insurrection is still top of mind for her.
“To me, that’s a huge red flag,” she said. “If you use his support to get votes, it’s a little scary.”
According to the Federal Election Commission, Lyerly had raised and spent more money than Wied as of September 30.
Lyerly raised more than $2 million, spent about $1.4 million and had about $603,000 in cash on hand heading into the final leg of the race. Wied raised more than $1.3 million, spent about $1.1 million and had about $230,000 in cash on hand.
The 8th Congressional District has been held by Republicans since 2011, and the Cook Political Report rates the seat as “solidly Republican.”
This story is part of NEW (Northeast Wisconsin) News Lab’s fifth series, covering issues important to area voters. The lab is a local news collaboration in northeastern Wisconsin and consists of six news organizations: the Green Bay Press-Gazette, Appleton Post-Crescent, FoxValley365, The Press Times, Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Watch. The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Journalism Department is an educational partner. Microsoft is providing financial support to the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation and the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region to fund the initiative. The lab’s mission is to “work together to identify and fill information gaps to help residents explore ways to improve their communities and lives – and strengthen democracy.”
This article originally appeared in Green Bay Press-Gazette: Wied, Lyerly face off in Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District race
