As the head of one of the counties hit hardest by COVID-19 in Wisconsin, Tom Nelson has been on the front lines of the pandemic.
Though he’s not a healthcare worker or a scientist, Nelson has had to make tough calls as Outagamie County executive. He’s dealt with the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturning Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’s stay-at-home order as early as May and a deeply divided state government in the middle of lawsuits related to Evers’s mask mandate, and he’s prioritized adding public health staff to his proposed 2021 county budget.
Nelson, a 44-year-old Democrat, says his experience leading local government in the most dire of situations makes him well equipped to take his ambitions to Congress, which still can’t even reach an agreement on its negotiations for a second pandemic relief bill millions of people are relying on.
That’s in part why he made an eager announcement, even before the Nov. 3 presidential election, that he would seek to take on Sen. Ron Johnson, a high-profile Republican, in 2022.
“The times are tailor-made for a local official like a county executive to seek the U.S. Senate because local officials have been the ones who have been leading the country in a fight like COVID,” Nelson said in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
What remains unclear is whether Johnson will campaign to keep his seat. After saying in 2016 he would not seek a third term, in 2019, he was noncommittal about 2022, including a possible run for governor. The Washington Examiner reached out to Johnson’s team for comment.
Wisconsin has been in the national eye as one of the most critical battleground states that could determine the outcome of the presidential election. Many of the headlines over the summer focused on protests, which at times turned violent, that erupted across the state after Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old black man, was shot seven times in the back by a police officer in Kenosha, a suburb of Milwaukee.
More recently, the state has dealt with mass spikes in COVID-19 cases, seeing its worst week of virus-related deaths earlier this month. The state is drawing near to 200,000 cases and has seen over 1,700 deaths since the virus’s outbreak.
Outagamie County, in the northeastern part of the state, has been one of the toughest hit, says Nelson. The county, which houses Appleton, sits on the cusp of Green Bay and Johnson’s home city of Oshkosh.
Nelson’s served as its executive since 2011 but served three terms in Wisconsin’s state Assembly prior to that. In his final two-year term, he was the Assembly majority leader.
The Democrat also launched an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2016 but lost to Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Republican from Green Bay.
But this time around is different, Nelson says. He believes “out of touch” Johnson has long been a poor leader for Wisconsin. He in particular criticized the Republican over his vocal support to confirm Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett before Election Day, despite his opposition to such a move in 2016.
Nelson also thinks Johnson has downplayed the virus, despite contracting it himself earlier this year. Just days ago, Johnson claimed the nation had flattened the curve.
“He’s got tremendous influence, and I don’t see any leadership coming from him,” Nelson said. “Our community is suffering. We’re one of the [hardest hit coronavirus states], and that includes his hometown.”
Johnson, 65, is the only congressional relationship Nelson claims has been weak for the state, citing that even House Republicans like his one-time challenger Gallagher have at least shown interest in local communities.
“Sen. Johnson is an outlier, and it’s just gotten to the point where enough is enough,” Nelson said.
Should Johnson, who’s been in the Senate since he defeated Democratic incumbent Russ Feingold in 2010, decide to run again, defeating the incumbent would be no easy feat.
Johnson, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, is a popular figure among Republicans. He’s got a friend in President Trump, and his name has become nationally recognized after months of spearheading the Senate GOP-led investigation into the business affairs of Hunter Biden, son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
But Nelson’s county has become well-known for its swing politics, becoming a hot spot for presidential candidates to pop by over the years in hopes of winning over what could be some of the last remaining independent voters in the country. Outagamie County went twice for Barack Obama before going for Trump in 2016. In 2020, it’s a toss-up.
Nelson believes that knowledge of serving a politically diverse community makes him someone who can work across the aisle, a quality that’s quickly becoming lost in an increasingly polarized environment.
Whether 2022 could be a good year for Democrats has yet to be seen, but for Nelson, he says his motivations run deeper than his party’s future.
“That’s not the reason you run for office,” he said. “Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, you should run for office because there are issues out there and you want to address [them].”
Nelson is regarded as likely the first declared candidate for the 2022 election cycle.
