There was something novel about the campaign launch of Randy “Iron Stache” Bryce, now the Democratic nominee for House in Wisconsin’s 1st District. In a year when everything has been about Donald Trump—federal elections, governors’ races, obscure statewide offices, NFL pregame ceremonies, retread TV, divine interventionist film, painting, childhood, grammar, dating life—here was something about Speaker Paul Ryan.
Bryce’s first advertisement—cinematic, well-done, if misleading from the start—began by quoting Ryan, his would-be opponent in the general election, on the health care reform debate. It concluded with an invitation for Ryan to “come work the iron” back in Wisconsin while Bryce takes his place.
Trump featured in a four-second clip at the beginning of the two-and-a-half minute spot—and that was it.
Of course, Ryan was set to be on the ballot, not Trump. He was the highest-ranked Republican that Democrats could try toppling in 2018. But in these times, without fail, in politics or culture or private life, Trump has been the name on everyone’s lips, the ubiquitous presence living inside everyone’s heads. Bryce could have made the president his raison d’etre—mentioned him and linked him to Ryan, Trump-and-pivot-to-Ryan, Trump-and-pivot-to-Ryan.
He could have—maybe even should have, given the speaker’s obvious discomfort of his association with the president. But he didn’t. In fact, Bryce mentioned Trump only once toward the beginning of his 12-minute campaign announcement speech last June. He said this behind a podium in Kenosha:
“The guy who’s supposed to go up there and fight for us, Paul Ryan? He’s on the wrong side of this fight. Not only is he on the wrong side, he’s standing up for the millionaires and billionaires. The speaker of the House, one of the most powerful people in D.C., he’s actually leading the way on the wrong side of this.
“Now this isn’t the first time that Speaker Ryan has left his constituents behind and forgotten our needs. Time and time again, decision after decision, over the course of the 20 years he’s been in Congress, the rich have gotten richer, the powerful have amassed more power, and the rest of us are left behind, struggling more every year.
“In fact, Paul Ryan has even gotten richer. How’s that even possible? How does one get elected to Congress and get richer? …
“Paul Ryan has voted for every bad trade deal he’s seen. …
“Washington is broken. The system is seriously flawed. And Speaker Paul Ryan, a 20-year congressman and one of the most powerful people in D.C., is presiding over the fall of the middle class and working people in this country.”
His backers ate it up. And from there, Bryce’s team was cutting cute videos of the candidate faux-FaceTiming Ryan to ask policy-related questions; trying to upstage a town hall featuring Ryan on national TV; pushing op-eds training their focus on Ryan, not Trump; placing him in Milwaukee Magazine for a November 2017 cover story. He seemed to explain his Ryan-centric approach in one of the piece’s lead quotes.
“I had no idea that anyone outside Wisconsin would recognize me,” Bryce told a reporter as the pair dined—in a Los Angeles restaurant.
That was the high point. His political purpose began to evaporate on December 14: the day Politico Magazine reported that Ryan had “his eyes on the exits.”
“In recent interviews with three dozen people who know the speaker—fellow lawmakers, congressional and administration aides, conservative intellectuals and Republican lobbyists—not a single person believed Ryan will stay in Congress past 2018,” reported Tim Alberta and Rachael Bade.
Bryce responded immediately in a video.
“So, Paul Ryan: Word on the street is, you’ve had enough. Haven’t even gotten in the ring yet, and you see what’s coming. You saw what happened in Virginia, saw what happened in Alabama, and you see the coalition that we’re building and the wave that’s coming for you. And you want to get out. I don’t blame you. I would, too, if I was in your position. You’re gonna cash in on this Republican tax scam bill that you have going on, and then you’re going to check out.”
Then he went back to the well of joking about Ryan becoming an ironworker.
The clip was titled “Retire Ryan”—given Bryce’s campaign strategy, he probably still meant that as a goal and not a plea.
Soon, he was quoting Ryan in an interview with Fox News Radio host Brian Kilmeade saying “We (congressional Republicans) ran on a joint agenda with Donald Trump.” He responded to Trump’s State of the Union address after being the guest of Wisconsin representative and Democrat Mark Pocan.
A couple of months and change later, Ryan officially called it quits. Bryce responded with a 90-second video that was shot against a gray background with no theme music. He said he was in “disbelief.” He thanked his supporters for their help getting him as far as they did, and kind of, sort of looked ahead to . . . whatever was supposed to come next.
“Now, it’s not going to be an easy thing to completely replace [Ryan],” said Bryce, in an unintentional explanation of the state of his campaign.
There is a concept in sports called “peaking too soon.” It’s used to describe teams or athletes that reached the apex of their ability before they needed their best—playing the most complete game of the season seven weeks before the playoffs, playing the best match of the tournament only three days into Wimbledon. Sustaining peak performance is difficult even for the most dominant. Usually, there is nowhere to go but down.
And so it is that Bryce, one of the most intriguing figures of the 2018 elections—the Democratic prototype for hyped midterm candidates—seems closer to a nadir than a peak. As of the primary results in Wisconsin Tuesday night, his opponent is another Janesville native, Bryan Steil: a lawyer, a member of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, a 37-year-old with little political baggage, and a seemingly normal conservative Republican.
The Wisconsin 1st is not a cinch—it favors Republicans by only five percentage points, per the Cook Political Report. But the excitement of Bryce’s bid and the energy behind it was the prospect of knocking off the sitting House speaker: an ultimate spike of the football. Now it is merely a contest of flipping a red seat to blue, and Democrats have been to that end zone before.
