Democratic 3rd Congressional Seat Candidate Aims To Tap Into Sanders’ Base

Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District will have its first Democratic primary in a decade.

It’s also the first time in 18 years that the seat won’t be challenged by a Republican in the November election. Primary voters will choose between a long-standing incumbent and a political outsider for their next congressman.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders might have thrown his support behind presidential rival Hillary Clinton, but a retired high school history teacher in Eau Claire is hoping to keep Sanders’ populist revolution burning. Myron Buchholz is looking to defeat 18-year-incumbent U.S. Rep. Ron Kind in the Tuesday primary.

Buchholz said he thinks he has a shot at winning the 3rd Congressional District seat, many counties in the district overwhelmingly supported Sanders in the April presidential primary.

“He’s calling for a political revolution and calling for regular, everyday working-class people to get involved,” Buchholz said. “I am retired and able to get involved and travel around, talk to people and campaign. I have been a Bernie Sanders fan for quite a while. Well, he speaks to the heart of the matter, to populist, working-class issues, and that’s what I always have been.”

Buchholz has found his own success in speaking to people. He’s been building a grassroots, volunteer dependent campaign for months. A volunteer team of more than 200 people has been going door to door throughout the district to spread the word.

Josh Allison is one of Buchholz’s volunteers working in the Eau Claire area. He said he was drawn in by the candidate’s similarity to Sanders.

“Once the April primary was done in Wisconsin, I started looking for Bernie-crats,” Allison said. “And I looked up Myron, read up on his policies, got to meet him. He’s, I mean, he is a Bernie-crat.”

Another Buchholz supporter, Steve Carlson, said he’s unhappy with Kind. He’s looking for a more progressive candidate who will take positions like opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and supporting a $15 minimum wage.

“We are a bunch of regular folks who decided we would kind of take matters into our own hands,” he said. “Josh was inspired by Bernie, so was Lynn. We were all Bernie people. This is the political revolution in the third district of Wisconsin.”

While Buchholz has been getting his name out around the district, Kind said he’s also been hard at work campaigning. He acknowledged Buchholz’s effort and applauds him for trying to get into politics.

“That’s the democratic process,” Kind said. “If someone thinks they can do a good job and they have ideas that they want to offer the people, then I’ve never discouraged anyone from running for office and I know how hard campaigning is, so it takes a lot of work. I certainly commend anyone who feels they have something to contribute to the democratic process and would like to step forward and offer to serve.”

Kind said every election is a job review for him and he hopes the people will approve of the job he’s doing. Analysts point out that odds are in his favor, with House incumbents winning around 90 percent of their challenges.

But that’s no reason to write Buchholz off yet, said Joe Heim, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

“Because the district did go for Bernie Sanders, he’s at least got an argument that Ron Kind should be reflecting that wing of the party,” said Heim. “It really kind of depends on how much interest is generated on the part of particularly the Bernie Sanders people. If they really feel strongly about this, they’ll get out in force and make it an interesting contest.”

Buchholz said if he can fully tap into that Bernie Sanders base, he might have a real chance at taking the 3rd Congressional District seat.