Two Wisconsin Congressmen are engaged in an ongoing, public feud that has escalated to personal attacks online and an in-person quarrel that was captured on camera.
U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democrat who represents a Madison area district, and U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a Republican who represents an adjacent western Wisconsin district, have exchanged numerous insults on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Earlier this month, Van Orden mocked Pocan’s physical appearance by posting a censored picture of a naked man holding a sex toy who Van Orden thinks looks similar to Pocan. He has posted or referenced the photo in relation to Pocan in at least 12 different posts on X since Aug. 5.
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Pocan has responded with name-calling and accused Van Orden of lying and abusing alcohol. He also held a town hall meeting in Van Orden’s district and challenged him to a debate, but the Republican declined.
Former U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble, a Republican who represented a district that includes Door County, Green Bay and Appleton, knows both Congressmen. He told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that he’s concerned about the pointed nature of their exchanges.
“I don’t know that I’ve witnessed one as personal as this,” Ribble said. “They take it personally, and then they feel like they’ve got to respond back. I think that that’s a mistake.”
The dispute boiled over into an in-person confrontation in July, when Pocan was being interviewed by Spectrum News on Capitol Hill.
Van Orden interrupted the on-camera interview and the two exchanged insults. Pocan accused his colleague of posting on social media while drunk; Van Orden told the Democrat to seek counseling.
Ribble said this quarrel could hurt Wisconsin. He noted that states sometimes compete against each other for federal funding, like for infrastructure projects, and the Congressional delegation has to work together across party lines for the good of the state.
“It’s those types of things where Republicans and Democrats in a small delegation like Wisconsin are competing for money with a large delegation, like from Texas,” Ribble said. “You have to be able to pull all those votes and voices together, as a Republican, to get Democrat colleagues to apply some pressure to other Democrats to vote with us when we need to have something.”
The escalating tensions come as Van Orden has reported multiple credible death threats against him and his family this summer, and Pocan’s name was on a list left by the accused shooter that killed a Minnesota lawmaker and injured another in June.
Pledge for peaceful dialogue
Shannon Watson, the executive director of the Minneapolis-based nonprofit, Majority in the Middle, said our current political climate feeds on outrageous and outlandish statements that can lead to violence.
She believes that everyone has a role in deescalating our country’s bitter, heated politics.
“There’s a role for elected officials to say, ‘Yep, I could do the outrageous things, but I’m not going to,’” Watson said. “There’s a role for constituents and voters to say that ‘We’re going to reward people who are being serious.’ And then there’s also a role for media to play in covering the stories, not just of the people who are being outrageous, but covering the more boring things that highlight the members who are working together to solve a problem.”
Majority in the Middle is asking politicians in its state to pledge to be more respectful to each other. The organization recently gathered a bipartisan group of lawmakers in Minnesota to sign the pledge to have civil dialogue and tone down speech that might promote violence.
Watson argued that civic education can also defuse anger. If voters get a better understanding of what elected officials do and don’t do, they will be more equipped to hold them accountable.
It can also help people bridge political divides with each other and better recognize that someone’s political affiliation doesn’t necessarily define who they are as a person. Her hope is that connecting people at the community level can drive change up the political ladder and create a less divisive political ecosystem and prevent violence.
“Being kind doesn’t mean that you are endorsing somebody else’s political views,” Watson said. “The more we can actually subtract the politics out of our relationships, the better we’re going to be, because then that gives us an opportunity to find common ground.”
