House Speaker Paul Ryan’s potential successor released his first TV ad on Tuesday, introducing himself to the voters who have spent two decades re-electing Ryan to Congress. And he used his own name to do it.
Bryan Steil, a 37-year-old manufacturing attorney who once worked in Ryan’s congressional office, announced his candidacy in late April. The ad unveiled Tuesday debuts three weeks before the GOP primary election in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District, a race he’s likely to win by a comfortable margin. And Steil (pronounced “style”) is using his last name to seal the deal. In the 30-second spot, Steil repeats the word “style” five times, contrasting “Wisconsin style values” with “Washington style politics.” The effect is to kill two birds with one stone: repeating his name a total of seven times, and teaching viewers how to say it. “Even though our conservative Wisconsin style values might be out of style in Washington, you can count on me, Bryan Steil, to fight for them in Congress,” he pledges.
In a district where Ryan has cruised to easy victories for 20 years, Steil needs to win the trust of his supporters. But if the deep-pocketed, viral sensation known as Randy “Iron Stache” Bryce manages to come out on top of the Democratic primary (and that’s not a given), the race could get a lot of attention this fall. And the district isn’t as red as Ryan’s record of easy victories might suggest, so Steil’s early rejection of “Washington style politics” makes sense if he’s anticipating an anti-establishment progressive opponent in the general election, and considering Trump won the district in 2016.
The primary is on Aug. 14.
