Tony Wied Wins Race For 8th Congressional District

Republican Tony Wied defeated Democrat Kristin Lyerly on Tuesday night in the race to represent Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District.

The Associated Press called the race for Wied at about 10:54 p.m. By 5:18 a.m. Wednesday, he had received 240,519 votes, or 57.3 percent, compared to Lyerly’s 178,903 votes, or 42.7 percent, with about 99 percent of precincts reporting.

Wied, a businessman with an endorsement from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, positioned himself as a political outsider. He ran on a platform that leaned heavily on economic policies and public concerns about inflation. 

“Tonight, the voters of District 8 sent a very clear message,” Wied said in a victory speech. “They’re ready to bring common sense back to Washington.”

Wied told reporters that his first order of business in Washington, D.C., is the economy. 

“The No. 1 issue that I continue to hear is our economy. We need to get our economy back on track. The inflation we are seeing is at a rate we haven’t seen in four years. And this current administration is to blame for that. And I’ll get to work on that. We have a reckless spending problem in our country. And I’m looking forward to using my business skills that I learned in my small business, and taking those to Washington with me.”

Lyerly said that while this election is over, she will continue to fight for women’s reproductive rights. 

“No matter what. I am not done. There is so much more work that needs to be done. So I am just going to keep doing the work. Because I need to. My patients – women in Wisconsin – need me to. Families in Wisconsin need me to. So that won’t change,” said Lyerly. 

The 8th Congressional District includes northeastern Wisconsin, including the cities of Green Bay and Appleton. The seat is currently vacant. The Republican incumbent, U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, announced earlier this year that he wouldn’t run for a fifth term and he resigned his seat in April 2024.

Wied’s victory was two-fold Tuesday night as there were two elections on the ballot for the 8th Congressional District. One elected someone to fill the remaining months of the term vacated when Gallagher resigned. The other is for the full term, starting on January 2025 through January 2027. Wied won both elections.

The Republican Wied is a local business owner who won a three-way contest to capture the GOP nomination earlier this year. He was endorsed by Trump and has touted himself as an “America First businessman and political outsider.” Wied was raised in Green Bay, now lives in De Pere and said he has always lived in Brown County. He owned a chain of Dino Stop gas stations, which he sold in 2022. Wied has a wife, Angela, and four sons.

Democrat Lyerly, a physician specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, who has practiced in Green Bay, Oconto, Marinette and Sheboygan. CBS News reported that Lyerly was one of the plaintiffs in a Wisconsin lawsuit that allowed abortions to remain legal after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with her M.D. and a master’s degree in public health. She is the mother of four children.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated.