Randy Bryce needs to convince voters to go from 20 years of representation by House Speaker Paul Ryan to a congressman who wants “Medicare for All,” tuition-free public college, and the abolition of ICE. It’s no small task, but Bill de Blasio is there to lend a hand.
The New York City mayor is set to campaign on behalf of the “Iron Stache” in southern Wisconsin this week. Bryce won his primary easily on Aug. 14 and is now running against attorney Bryan Steil for Ryan’s seat in the House. The district might be more competitive than Ryan’s two decades of comfortable victories suggests, but it’s probably still a little too red for de Blasio to be of much help with voters. Trump won Wisconsin’s 1st District by 10 points in 2016; Ryan won it by 35.
Accordingly, the Steil campaign put out a statement on de Blasio’s visit. “It is no surprise that another out-of-state liberal would come to Wisconsin to campaign for our opponent. Just like Mayor de Blasio, our opponent supports government-run healthcare, abolishing ICE and other out-of-touch, far-left policies that resonate on the East and West Coasts,” his campaign spokesman said on Friday morning.
Bryce doesn’t agree that his platform is “far-Left.” Earlier in the week, the ironworker told Steil his decision to characterize his policies that way “shows just how out of touch you are.”
I’m fighting so single moms in Milton get affordable healthcare. So factory workers in Elkhorn earn a living wage. So immigrant families in Racine aren’t ripped apart.
This isn’t “far-left,” @BryanSteilforWI. And the fact that you think it is shows just how out of touch you are. https://t.co/IMlJ8hyMpP
— Randy Bryce (@IronStache) August 22, 2018
But, of course, there’s no question Bryce’s platform still falls on his party’s Left flank— that’s why he’s been endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. (For a man with friends like Chelsea Handler in Hollywood who relies on the help of wealthy coastal politicians like Sanders and de Blasio, the “out of touch” battle might not be a road he wants to go down.) And, honestly, Bryce’s platform is what makes his campaign interesting.
A lot of Democrats in districts like Ryan’s would never want Sanders or de Blasio to come within a hundred miles of their campaign. But Bryce isn’t running from his progressive platform or trying to spin himself as a centrist to fit the district. Instead, he’s testing Jason Kander’s thesis that progressives should run as progressives, even in red states, because, “Voters will forgive you for believing something that they don’t believe so long as they know that you truly believe it.”
To be sure, Bryce’s campaign has problems apart from his platform. But de Blasio’s post-primary trip to the Badger State is a reminder that Bryce is pretty far to the Left, whether he agrees with that label or not.
