Campaign #199: Tricia Zunker in WI!

On the heels of one victory in Wisconsin, we resume writing there to boost winning turnout for Tricia Zunker in the May 12 Special Congressional Election.

The vacancy in Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District was created when former Rep. Sean Duffy (R) left office on September 23, 2019. Duffy won his last election in 2018 by a margin of about 22 percentage points. Before Duffy took office in 2011, former Rep. Dave Obey (D) held the 7th District seat for 42 years.

Major race rating outlets rate the district’s regularly scheduled general election as solid Republican or safe Republican. The 2017 Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was R+8, meaning that in the previous two presidential elections, this district’s results were 8 percentage points more Republican than the national average.

To remain in office for a full term, the winner of the May 12 special election would need to win a partisan primary on August 11, 2020, and the district’s regular election on November 3, 2020. Gov. Tony Evers (D) originally scheduled the general election for January 27, 2020, but moved the date to May 12 due to conflicting state and federal election laws.

Zunker has served on the Wausau School Board since 2018. In 2013, she was elected by her People, the Ho-Chunk Nation, to serve as Associate Justice of the Ho-Chunk Supreme Court. She was re-elected to that position in 2017.

From her office in Wausau, Tricia teaches remotely as a professor at three institutions. In each of these academic environments, she works with non-traditional students, helping them achieve their academic goals that would not be possible in a typical brick and mortar setting.

Her key messages include healthcare for all as a right, fighting for policies to protect local farmers, ending predatory lending practices, and fully funding public schools so that early childhood education can be a reality for all children.

The Republican has a fundraising advantage of just over $144,000 cash on hand as of January 29, 2020. (Date of the last required filing.) He’s out-raised her by 6 to 1.

Top race trackers all score this as either Solid Republican or Safe Republican. There are 125,000 registered Republicans, 63,000 Democrats, and 148,000 Independents (rounded figures based on the latest 2020 scoring). So, if you’ve read this far and are still interested, thank you!

Democrats in the district will be riding a wave of momentum from Judge Jill Karofsky’s victory. As they begin to receive your fun, friendly, fully-handwritten notes to vote (by mail), we’re hoping it will energize them even more. Voter turnout will be as unpredictable as the April 7 election was. One thing going for us may be that with the recent experience being so fresh on voters’ minds, maybe more of them will vote absentee.

In any event, we have our list of addresses. We have our message items. And we have roughly three weeks to get the word out and help Tricia Zunker become the newest Congressperson from Wisconsin.

You know what else we have? We have YOU.

We’ve been writing to Wisconsin Dems in this district for ten days. We are 52.4% complete thanks to 2,837 amazing volunteer writers. These #PostcardsToVoters will reach every single Democratic voting household in the 7th Congressional.

We’re not just writing to one special carve out of the voter file that campaigns would typically need to limit themselves because of budget, time, or volunteers. With fewer options for GOTV because of the pandemic, your fun, friendly reminders will carry greater importance in boosting winning turnout.

With luck, the entire list will be done in a week. With luck and your continued belief in our shared mission.