The Democrats’ nominee pool in the 6th Congressional District is down to two, and one of them is getting a couple of major endorsements.
Brad Smith, who walked in Manitowoc’s Memorial Day Parade on Monday, appears to be the frontrunner for the Dems as he has received the official endorsement from the Wisconsin Education Association Council and the largest teachers’ union in the country, the National Education Association.
While these endorsements are a very big deal for the man who never thought he would even get into politics, Smith tells SeehaferNews.com that for him, the most important thing is the response from the actual people of the 6th Congressional District.
“The campaign has built just a ton of grassroots momentum,” he explained. “There’s 11 counties in the sixth District…of course, including Manitowoc…We’ve got people that are volunteering and organizing underneath them in every one of these counties, so many so that when we were collecting nomination papers, we got 2,150 that we turned on in ten days.”
And it’s not just the vocal Democrats that are voicing support.
“I’ve gone to Farmers Bureau meetings, which are super, traditionally, Republican conservative, chambers of commerce, talking with teachers, you name it,” he revealed. “Everybody is talking about the same thing right now. Their number one challenge…health care affordability, access, and concerns about how it looks.”
Smith is definitely fighting an uphill battle. Since 1917, the 6th Congressional District has elected two people to the office.
Michael Riley took over the seat in 1930 to finish the term for Republican Florian Lampert, who died in office, and Riley was reelected three times.
The only other Democrat to hold the seat in the past 109 years was John Abner Race, who served one term.
Additionally, Glenn Grothman has held the seat since he was elected in 2014 and has won each of his races by a minimum of 10 percentage points.
He is also coming off a 22.5 percentage point win over John Zarbano in 2024.
Brad says it’s time for a change.
“He’s been in politics for 30-something years,” Smith noted, “Stuff’s changing. It’s changing fast, like the data center development and what A.I. is going to do for build outs locally. Glen’s like, I think he’s 70 years old, and he’s been around for quite a while. I don’t think he’s going to be able to effectively legislate on stuff like that, nor would a lot of people who are that age and older in Congress. I think it’s time to have some fresh blood in there.”
Smith also noted that he is not your typical party shill.
“My aspiration…is that my votes are always based on the people’s needs and what they’re asking for here first, party second,” he explained. “That will probably mean that sometimes you might see some variation on that. Sometimes you’re exactly in lockstep, and sometimes you might have a different viewpoint based on what we hear people need here.”
That policy is a bold take in a time when the partisan divide is at an all-time high.
But the question remains, is it a realistic goal on a large scale?
“Boy, that is a huge question. I hope it is,” Smith said. “If you talk to me and talk to people, when I first got this journey, I said a huge part of the reason why is I’m just sick of how vitriolic and how big the divide has gotten. My family lives on all sides of the spectrum.”
At the end of the day, there is really only one reason Smith threw his hat into the ring.
“I deeply care about this place,” he said bluntly. “My wife’s whole family came straight here to Manitowoc from Germany. My family is in other parts of the Sixth District. We’ve lived here our whole lives, and we just care about this community, and so I’m really excited to try and do everything I can for our people, first and foremost.”
You can learn more about Brad and what he sees as the big issues by visiting BradSmithForCongress.com.
