Former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold will make a 2016 bid to reclaim the seat he lost to Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in 2010.
In a video announcement released early Thursday, Feingold declared his candidacy to once again represent Wisconsin in Washington, D.C. The decision sets the stage for a rematch with current Sen. Ron Johnson, who rode the 2010 tea party wave to a substantial win over Feingold, a Democrat who served three Senate terms.
In his announcement, Feingold denounced the influence of “multi-millionaires, billionaires, and big corporations … calling the shots” in the U.S. Senate and called for “strong independence, bipartisanship and honesty.”
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Feingold said he planned to spend the summer traveling through Wisconsin, speaking with voters and discussing policy issues.
Feingold’s decision all but guarantees that Wisconsin’s Senate race will be a top target for Democrats in 2016. In a recent Marquette University survey, Feingold outpolled Johnson by a 16 percent margin.
In a written statement, Johnson touted his record building a manufacturing business while attacking Feingold for building Washington into a, quote, “gigantic, debt-ridden, tax-eating, unresponsive and freedom-squashing government.”
Feingold’s video announcement is included below:
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