3rd Congressional District Candidate Forum (1 of 4)

Congressional District Forum featuring the Democratic Primary Candidates.

This special is presented exclusively by Civic Media on WLCX LaCrosse,

WCFWHD2, the tap Chippewa Falls, WRC E. Richland Center, and WFHR, Wisconsin Rapids.

The first of four forms is being held on the UW-Stevens Point Campus.

Your moderator tonight is William Garcia,

Chair of the Third Congressional District in LaCrosse County.

Now, let's go live to UW-Stevens Point and moderator William Garcia.

CD Democrats of Wisconsin. That means I have chair of the 18 counties,

mostly in Western Wisconsin, right across the port of the Mississippi,

that make up the Third Congressional District.

It is our job and our hope to elect Democrats up and down the ballot in 2024, November.

So I want to thank you for being here today. It's my pleasure to introduce our moderator.

Will Shredder is a graduate of UW-Stevens Point. While it's school, he served extensively

on student government and a student body president. Currently, Will works at University of Wisconsin

Steven's Point in the College of Natural Resources, and he serves as a volunteer for local

Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops on the Friends of the Schmekel Reserve Board and recently

elected to the school board in Steven's Point. Ladies and gentlemen, will you check?

All right, thank you, William, and thank you all for coming today. I'm rather tall, so we'll

see if this works. So this is, again, hosted by the Third Congressional District Democratic Party

and also the Portage County Democrats. Each candidate will have one minute and 30 seconds to answer

our questions along with a three-minute opening statement. We have drawn names by randomly to see

who goes first for that. They will be held up by our wonderful timekeeper William right there

for cards. There's also answer or time for possible follow-ups.

And then we'll also have a couple of breaks at 7 and at 7.30 for the station ID of the stations

that are hosting this for us. So our first person to go for an opening statement will be Rebecca Cook

and I will give it away to you. Great. Well, thank you so much. I want to start off by thanking our

third CD, Chair William and the Portage County Democrats for all the work that you put into organizing

this forum and the forums across the Third Congressional District. I'm Rebecca Cook. I grew up on

a dairy farm over in the Eau Claire area, a group showing cows and 4-H, but like a lot of Wisconsin

farmers, we had to sell our cows because of the price of milk and competition with larger dairies,

which was tough, you know, and is a story of a lot of Wisconsin farmers. And it's a key reason

why I'm running for Congress to really take on corporate monopolies that are robbing us of our

farming heritage and crippling rural communities. But we're tough and we pick ourselves up. I worked

to put myself through college before coming back home to Eau Claire where I started my own small

business that I ran for seven years before closing it in 2022, really competing against cheap

Chinese goods. I ended up starting my own hospitality business and also run a non-profit organization

that supports women entrepreneurs throughout 19 counties. And I wait for three nights a week

while I'm running for Congress by day. And you don't see a lot of folks with my kind of background

stepping up to run for Congress or in Congress itself. You see a lot of career politicians. You see

a lot of elitists. You see a lot of radicals like Derrick van Orden who who is very much a bully.

He yells at senate pages. He reduces librarian's to tears. And he lacks the temperament to

represent us in Congress. We need someone who's going to re instill faith in our democracy.

And that's another reason why I'm running. We deserve a representative who is a doer,

who's going to roll up their sleeves to get things done for folks in Western Wisconsin.

Not start a fist fight with folks that are on the same party lines or even across the aisle.

I'm going to deliver on kitchen table issues like increasing access to affordable quality

health care, taking on corporate monopolies that are price-gudging consumers at the gas pump at

the grocery store and at our housing market. And I'm going to defend reproductive freedoms.

I'm looking forward to continuing the conversation tonight and talking about issues that are

important to all of us here and the third CD. So thank you. Thank you. Our next candidate to go

for an opening statement is Eric Wilson. Good evening. Thank you everyone for being here and thank you,

William, for putting everything that you do into the third CD and it's exciting to be here.

My name's Eric Wilson and I am running because of actually gun violence.

November of 2022, there was a shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs.

It was an attack on my LGBTQ community. That was the night that I said enough is enough and we

deserve better. That was the moment that I was inspired to figure out what I can do and jump

into this because I think we all have that moment. There's a lot of despair out there but it

truly is what can we do? I come from a family of coaches, teachers, small business owners,

just north of Eau Claire and truly understood the value of helping others and standing with each

other. I went to school down in Madison and studied economics. I got some medical issues.

I had a reconstructive surgery on my chest and I got infections in both sides.

At 19, I had 11 surgeries under my belt and I came out of it with medical debt.

This system is not set up for us. We are putting children, we are putting young adults in situations

where they have to fight for not only their life but their finances and we can do better as a

society. I'm running for Medicare for all because I want to make sure that everyone has the

ability to not just survive but to thrive. It's talking about the difficult issues that are at

the forefront of everyone's minds. We can't avoid them any longer. It's talking about responsible

gun ownership. It's talking about a ceasefire. It's talking about Medicare for all. It's fighting

for our democratic values which are taking care of people. If we tie everything back to that,

that's why I'm in this race because I care about everyone and I want to make sure that no one

feels isolated like I have had to growing up. I want to make sure that people have what they need

to be their best selves and to rebuild Wisconsin's community that we have gotten away from.

We should be able to grab a beer and talk about the difficult things and not just fight like Derek makes

us. And so, America Wilson, I'm excited to be here and I'm excited to be involved in the conversation

about our community here. Thank you and our last candidate to give an opening statement is

Katrina Shankland. Good evening everybody and thank you so much to third congressional. It is on.

I'm going to start over. Good evening everybody. Thank you so much to our third CD Democrats as well

as UWSP for hosting us. Thank you to civic media for live streaming this. I'm Katrina Shankland

and I'm running for Congress to build on the work we've all done together in the state of Wisconsin.

I've been a legislator here in Portage County for the last 12 years and I've been incredibly proud

to represent 60,000 people here in central Wisconsin and I'm running for Congress now to not only

take on Derek Van Orden but extremist like him in Congress who care more about fighting with each

other than they do about fighting for us. I am running to be a voice for all of us to make

government work for us. We have a congressional session right now that is the least productive since

the Great Depression because House Republicans led by chaotic and extremist Derek Van Orden

is getting in the news, are getting in the news for all the wrong reasons whether it's screaming

at U.S. Capitol pages or screaming during an intelligence briefing. We need smart, tough

experience and battle-tested candidates from every district in our country to take on the serious

pressing problems that keep the people of Wisconsin up at night. In the state legislature,

I've represented a purple district. I've won six elections. I vote perform the top of the ticket

every time. In 2022, I was the Democrat who got the most votes. Why is that important here in

Portage County? Because we get one shot at taking out a radical extremist like Derek Van Orden

who compared abortion to genocide and wants to take away even more of our rights like repealing

the Affordable Care Act. So I am running to be a champion not only for our democracy and freedoms

but to codify Roe v. Wade into law to make sure that all of you have a voice in government whether

it's about social security and making Medicare and the Affordable Care Act work even more for folks

or whether it's protecting and holding the lines on our voting rights or freedoms. And you can count

on that because I've already done that here in the state. I've passed 225 bills into law all

while serving in the minority and you can take that to the bank. So I'm excited to be here tonight

and looking forward to the conversation. Thank you. All right, now we're going to move into our

questions. We have 10 total questions. We'll see if we can get to all of them tonight. As a reminder

each question you will have 90 seconds, which I'm sure is plenty of time to answer these very complex

issues that we're facing as a nation. I am just going to take these names and pick a random one

and then we'll just go clockwise from there. Rebecca, you get to start. Our first question is about

national paid leave. Will you support a national sick leave law that covers all workers?

The answer is yes. When you have a sick family member or you know you're expecting. I was actually

just talking with my mom preparing for tonight and she was reminding me of when my grandfather was sick

and needing to take time off work to be able to care for him. And I'm supportive of the family

at Medical Leave Act. But this is also not a one size fits all policy. So thinking about how we can

get not just our largest employers but small and mid-sized businesses to be able to adopt policies

like that I think is really important. And that's in contrast to someone like Derek Van Orden who has

so many anti-worker anti-family policies. I'm going to be working to deliver for those very

types of things when I'm in Congress. Thank you. Eric Wilson. Yes, absolutely. It's pretty simple,

I think. It's very common sense though. We need to be supporting people. We are not machines.

Maybe some of us but we might be getting there but we're not machines and we need time off.

And so that should just be across the board. I mean we need to be able to go to the doctors

appointments. We need to be able to take care of family members. We need to be able to live

and it's pretty common sense. I mean I can go on and on about it but it's straightforward of

yes absolutely. And we need to expand and not just give it the little basics of say a week.

Like we should have two to three to four weeks worth of leave to be able to take care of the ones

that we love. And ourselves. Thank you, Katrina Schenkland. So the United States is one of the few

industrialized countries in the world that doesn't have a paid family leave program. And we know

that only about a quarter of folks who are privately employed have access to any kind of paid

family leave through their employer. In fact recently we saw an organizing campaign at UW

system specifically for paid family leave. One of the UW system regents said he had no idea.

They weren't already eligible for family leave. That was paid. And that really speaks to the

crux of the issue. We need champion to understand that it isn't just about saying yes but it's about

knowing the Build Back Better Act which passed the House but not the Senate component specifically

had paid family leave in it 12 weeks. And unfortunately some democratic senators decided that that

was too much for them. And I think we need champions who are willing to say hey when you're sick

when you have a baby when you have to be a caregiver while also holding your job because

you're the breadwinner for your family you deserve several weeks or months of paid family leave.

And on the state level I was an author of a bill for years to create an insurance program

specifically to help people pay in for their paid family leave. And I'll be a champion on this

as well as earn sick days in Congress. Thank you and I actually do have a follow up to that one.

So it's easy to promise something but how would you go about getting that done in Congress?

And we'll just start with Rebecca again. How would I go about getting that done in Congress?

Yes. Like I said I support bills like the family medical leave act and that's something

that I would be supportive of and vote for. Thank you Eric.

Yeah the legislation is there. We just need the votes. And so like it's working with our colleagues

it's working with people to push them over the edge to get it across the line.

Like and so yes it's building a coalition of people that understand that this is what we need

to have a thriving economy, country, humanity. So it's it's getting people on board the

legislations there. Thank you and Katrina. I think recognizing that there's several bills out

there. US Senator Kirsten Gillbrand from New York has a paid family leave and medical act

as well as the Billback Butter Act which I mentioned there's specifically a paid family leave

program enacted by the House but not concurred on by the Senate in Congress. And where was the

sticking point? It was US Senator Joe Manchin a Democrat. That really speaks to when we choose

in Democratic primaries to vote for our values we should be asking clear questions like do you

support paid family leave or not and how are you going to get it done? And I will be that champion.

Thank you. All right we'll move on to our second question and Eric you will start with this one.

The second question is about child care. The child tax credit had a notable positive effect on

children and young families while it was in place post pandemic. We are coming to recognize the

critical need of young families to have improved access to child care services in our communities

according to the US census in our in our county as in Portage County. There are 1440 children

under the age of four and there are only 300 licensed daycare slots. This shortage of licensed

daycare is an issue typically of greatest impact on women has your campaign offered a position

or plan that might improve these circumstances that are keeping women from the workplace.

Yes we need to be we need to be advocating for for everyone. We started kindergarten here in

Wisconsin and so it's it's continuing on fighting back to what we what we started. It's making

sure that after there is paid maternity leave we are giving all children the opportunity that

they need. It's Ro was talking about you can tell by the age of six if someone will end up going

to college or not and so it's it's making sure that we are putting it we can do it. We can put it

in place to make sure that there is child care until there is preschool and moving on. It not

only helps our economy. It allows people to all families to have the opportunity to be working

to do what they want to do. Child care currently is not only inaccessible it's unaffordable.

I mean you're you're paying a college tuition for children and it's not sustainable for families.

For people my age it's a big deterrent of having kids because we simply can't afford them but

as a community as a society we can afford it and that's how we help invest in in younger generations

and continuing to build our communities. Thank you Katrina. I have supported Wisconsin's

child care count which was funded by the American Rescue Plan Act. Arpa dollars governor Tony

Evers put in 340 million dollars every two years until this most recent budget since the pandemic

when child care really became access became even more exacerbated than usual. We saw that without

child care counts which raised wages for our early childhood educators 40% of child care

providers in Wisconsin would have either shut their doors altogether or raised tuition to the

point of unaffordable to many working families. I have a constituent who told me she's a dentist

in a rural community she has three kids one on the way she can't find a child care slot for the baby

so that dentist will be forced to shut her doors she can't find the child care slot and all those

working families who are waiting for that dental appointment months if not a year will be forced

to find new ways to make things work too. So this has rippling effects not only on the care

economy but the entire economy. I would champion not only supporting a federal block grant for

additional support like child care counts but there are a number of bills including the child's

tax credit that I've supported on both the state level and voted for it as well as with support

in Congress and I'm going to work really hard to not only work with employers but employees to

make sure that we have affordable child care as well as well paid child care providers so

everyone has access to child care. Thank you and Rebecca. You know I think that the pandemic

really put magnifying glass on the child care issues that we have in this district and across

the country. When I was running for Congress last cycle I had an opportunity to sit down with some

child care providers in Black River Falls all independent providers that were providing out of

their home and coming together to create a child care cooperative so that they could make

higher wages as providers and also offer more services. I also met with some folks and lacrosse

that had an interesting approach, a cooperative model of bringing small businesses together. A lot

of times you see larger businesses have the capacity to offer child care for their employers

and I'm interested in these kind of innovative ideas from people within their own communities that

are seeing these challenges and coming together and thinking about how can we get more federal

funding to back some of these issues. This is also you know it's a workforce issue. Then this is

what we talked about in particular keeping women out of the workforce. I'm somebody that is

supportive of the child care tax credit and there's been opportunities for extension of that

but those are the types of exact bills that Derek van Orden has not been supporting but that you

can count on me to support when I'm in Congress. Thank you. Our next question is about the border

of the U.S. Mexico border which we love to talk about here in Wisconsin for some reason and our

first candidate to talk about that will be Katrina Shankland. Our current congressman has stated

the crisis at the southern border is Biden made and Biden manufactured. Among other things he

suggests building a border wall and ending catch and release. Most do agree that something needs

to be done to address this crisis. What recommendations would you suggest and be willing to

support to tackle border control? This is why people hate politicians because people like Derek van

Orden chose to reject a bipartisan deal that was compromised in good faith upon both Democrats

and Republicans as well as President Biden who was prepared to sign it and it really shows that

he is not fit to serve us in Congress when he is prepared to reject a deal and he had the power

to not only marshal more resources to our U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents but also

he had the ability with his one vote to support ending the trafficking of fentanyl into our communities

across Wisconsin and the country and I'll tell you if there's a bipartisan compromise that seems

right for Wisconsin and right for working families and seniors and right for the country I'll vote

for it unlike Derek van Orden who chooses to spend most of his time on Twitter getting into fights

with his constituents and calling people names I think we need real leaders who are focused on

delivering solutions. My dad immigrated here in the 80s that's the last time we had comprehensive

immigration reform and it's because radical and reckless politicians like Derek van Orden

that were unable to move the needle I'm a problem solver and I'm always willing to reach my hand

across the aisle on real issues like this and you can count on me to not only advocate for real

solutions but to call out any politician who chooses to play politics with people's lives and

with our security. Thank you Rebecca Cook. For years we've seen Congress take a patchwork

approach to comprehensive immigration reform I've had an opportunity to build relationships with

folks in Arcadia farm workers in our agricultural industry as well as many folks who are part of

our manufacturing industry that are migrant workers and you know I think that they're it's

important to secure the border but also important to recognize what a key part of the workforce

at migrant workers are and figuring out how we can have a pathway to citizenship these are folks

that are hard workers that have been paying into a system that they're not seeing the benefits from

and I think it takes people that are willing to work across the aisle to get this done you know

there has been policy that's been put forth it's bipartisan that Democrats came to the table for

but then Republicans took away because they wanted it to be a talking point for Donald Trump's

campaign and we need people that aren't always going to tow the party line but that are going to

get things done and you know I think really we need to have comprehensive immigration reform to

pull folks out of the shadows and to be a part of the communities that they're continuing to contribute to.

Thank you and Eric Wilson. Yeah I mean Derek's unhinged about this this topic but it does

bring the light something we need to make sure that we are securing the border and it actually

brings up a good point of we need to be making sure that we have an immigration system and a

border that is keeping humanitarian human life in mind we shouldn't be caging children we shouldn't

be putting people into camps we should be doing the systematic thing to actually get the reform

and have a system that is acceptable in a timely manner right like you shouldn't have to wait

10 years just to start the process that's part of the issue with this and so I am I am for

bipartisan bill I'm making sure that we are doing this reform I am for making sure that we don't

have fentanyl coming across the southern border I am for abolishing ice I want to make sure that

we are doing things to rebuild families not tear them apart immigration is needed in this country

we have to have we have sectors that absolutely require agriculture hospitality we need to have an

accessible system to make sure that these communities and these industries are able to not just

survive we need to have we need to move forward quickly in in creating it thank you and Katrina

are we go already my bet sorry we make mistakes we make mistakes so our next question is about

inflation and we will start with Rebecca Cook inflation rose last month some things we can help

to control and some things we don't have control over as a government or a potential congressperson

what are some things that you can do however to help control higher costs for individuals with

everyday needs such as food and energy take it away absolutely this is something that I understand

all too well having been a small business owner and really have had having had to grapple with

a lot of the rising costs and the ways that they impacted my small business and what it really

comes down to is having a backbone in congress and taking on corporations that are price scudging

consumers off the backs of their workers you're hearing so much about these reports of these

record profits the corporations are having and we need to have legislators are willing to step up

to enforce antitrust legislation you see a hyper consolidation in so many different industries

an agriculture where there's forming you know meat processors and so you know thinking about

how can we enforce those antitrust laws and and not causing up to special interests like someone

like Derek Manordan is doing and taking dollars from big corporate interests and invoting

in in supportive bills that are important to them and that's not something that I'll ever do

and as as somebody that's ran a small business and somebody that understands what working

families need in West Central Wisconsin thank you Eric Wilson yeah having an encounter in

economics background I understand where and how we got here big corporations do not care they

are in it just for their bottom line they have equity companies coming in where they strip everything

out they raise the prices and then they they drop out it is all just flowing to the top

and so it's it's making sure that we have antitrust laws that we are breaking up big corporations

we will systematically always move back to consolidation because there is economies of scale

and so does the role of our government the role of elected officials to make sure that we are putting

the guardrails in place to break them up when they get too big because at that point they just

they set their prices right we're seeing it in housing we're seeing it

um in agriculture and food in in everything and so it's it's breaking it up um it's also fixing

our tax system and making sure that corporations have a progressive tax I mean that will help control

some of these issues thank you and Katrina Shanklin is it inflation or is it greed flation we've

also heard shrink flation but I prefer greed flation because the vast majority of these

what current companies are calling you know inflation are actually coming if you look at the

last few quarters they're almost entirely related to corporate greed and that's important because

it means we can do something about it when they say it supply chain issues and we look into it

and it's actually not we know that they're just using consumers to continue to get wealthier while

hoping that you'll have cereal for dinner like one CEO recently said because of the cost of groceries

I have constituents I saw one in the last two times in the last two weeks who brought up the cost

of meat she knows it by the penny she knows the cost of milk and eggs by the penny you know why

because she's tracking when and how she can finally afford to get hamburger that's not okay we

have work to do as a country and here's what we can do and I'm really excited about it because our

US Senator Tammy Baldwin is taking the lead on this with other great senators like Elizabeth Warren

there is a bill specifically to empower and help the FTC the federal trade commission to enforce

price gouging laws we need consumer protections we need watchdogs people who will have your back

every day of the week and that's something I've committed to because representing you all here in

central Wisconsin I know what we're up against and I know what it's going to take to get things done

in congress because the powerful special interests sure like to hand out money to people who want to

be their lackeys and I'm not one of them thank you and just to fill out some time before our

ID read of Foscow's small follow-up here so this inflation issue really hurts municipalities school

districts and counties so real quick what what can you do as a congressperson to help help those

issues starting with me yes we'll start with you yeah I think that there's you know a way in which

we can allocate federal dollars to be able to support small municipalities you know we have

a large budget to be able to work with to be able to send those types of resources to West

Central Wisconsin so I think there's a lot of opportunities to be able to do that thank you Eric

yeah I mean it's it's also energy energy is a huge inflator of this and so it's making sure

that we are putting caps on things and and giving right like it's a it's a needed good and so

it's enforcing what we already have thank you and Katrina I agree that inflationary cost like

energy and health care are really hurting our municipal governments and counties but I also know

that the state is not paying its fair share to our local municipalities that's why in the

legislature I championed our new shared revenue law so every penny on the nickel goes to every

town village city and county in the state of Wisconsin for specifically core government services

like waste removal infrastructure courts and public safety I'm proud to have championed that I'm

proud to have stood alongside governor Evers as he signed it into law I'm going to be an equal

partner in congress so that our local governments don't have to decide between pay cuts and ending

services all right thank you and at the station rate is doing it's thing now so we're just going to

wait for a couple of years you're listening to a live broadcast of the third congressional district

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with our questions so we will start with Eric for this question and this question is about

agriculture family farms have been disappearing across Wisconsin and especially across the

third congressional district if elected what would you do to address these challenges and support

our Wisconsin farming tradition it's making sure we pass a farm bill and it's also making

sure that we are building the infrastructure for our farmers right like we can do things

climate change is real I'll make that statement and it's coming and so it's how are we going to

help our farmers prepare for it how do we help reduce costs for our farmers it's things such as

making sure that the tax credits are extended where they can get solar on their farms to reduce

their bills it's making sure that we are providing providing options so they can they can work sustain

about sustainably and aren't just stuck doing one crop it's making sure that we have the financing

in place for young and and people that want to start small farms it's very difficult to start

a new farm and so we have to be providing options for people to be able to do so and making sure that

we aren't just having international companies or international individuals coming in and buying

our farmland big companies here or like we need to be protecting and making sure that we are

enforcing antitrust and giving everyone the opportunity here that wants it to farm because

it is it's part of Wisconsin it's part of who we are my brother-in-law is a dairy farmer and

they just had to sell their cows and it gets into this same thing that Rebecca's been talking

about is we need to provide support and if elected I will make sure that everyone has that support

thank you Katrina in the legislature in the legislature I work on in the legislature I've worked

on a number of issues related to agriculture as a proud member of the agriculture committee

and representing Portage County I have the experience to get things done just today the dairy

business association named to me with their legislative excellence award for the 2023 to 24

session because I champion family farmers every day of the week unlike Derek Van Warden who

he and his party want to got 20 billion dollars out of the farm bill in conservation contrast that

with me this guy's never passed a bill through the agriculture committee I serve on the agriculture

committee as a Democrat in the minority I've passed three new laws to support farmers with conservation

put more money in their pockets keep soil on the ground and make sure that we're protecting our

precious water quality both surface and ground water so you can count on me to do that in Congress

to work hard for a farm bill that prioritizes family farmers and farmers want to stay the same

size instead of continuing to grow because of the rise of monopolies we've seen that tremendously

in agriculture family farmers are facing a lot of pressure right now I want to help them I also

want to help new fam and beginning farmers I've introduced legislation with my colleagues

in the state house to help them with a tax credit I want to champion that in Congress too

it's not easy to be a farmer the best thing we can do is try to make it easier for them as policy

makers that's what I've done with the experience in the capital I'll take that with me to Congress

to continue supporting our farmers thank you and Rebecca yeah this is an issue that's very

personal to me as we're one of the many farms in Wisconsin that had to sell our cows because of

the price of milk and and competition with larger dairies and we've got a farm bill right now

that really it works to support agricultural conglomerates and doesn't pay a whole heck of a

lot of attention to small and mid-sized farms you know I think it's important to also recognize

what's happening in our country where there's a lot of foreign nationals that are coming in

to buy our land which presents a real challenge from a national security perspective from a food

security perspective and from an industry perspective you know for having folks come in to do

that and then we have somebody like Derek Van Orden who has self-proclaimed himself as the

cheese king in Congress yet it's failed to to get a farm bill passed and it's taking a lot of

those special interest dollars from those corporate egg businesses that have put family farms like mine

you know out of business and I think it's important that we consider you know opening up trade routes

to other other countries there's been a statement by Derek Van Orden equating trade to China

like trading with the Nazis I think it's important for us to be expanding trade routes here in the US

all right thank you our next question is about drinking water and we will start with Katrina

Shankland many families in the third congressional district can no longer trust that the water

from their tap is safe due to nitrate and PFAS levels over the government standard if elected what

would you do to help these families and address clean drinking water this has been the issue that

I've been the most passionate about here in Portage County as a state legislator with experience

getting things done I have launched a 10 million dollar grant program for seniors working families

and businesses all over Wisconsin who can't drink from their contaminated wells if you have a

private well because of nitrate PFAS bacteria radium arsenic and other contaminants you are eligible

as long as your household income is under 100k because I worked with governor reverse to get that done

that means that at least 600 families in Wisconsin can out drink water from their taps so remediation

first prevention concurrently I launched a nitrate optimization program that the DBA actually just

today heralded as a great leadership opportunity for farmers to help them manage their commercial

fertilizer loading so that way we can prevent water quality issues and contamination from happening

altogether that's extremely costly not only to taxpayers but to our public health and here in

central Wisconsin we feel that one in four folks cannot drink water from their private wells

I want to marshal federal resources building on the progress democrats made with the infrastructure

laws to support communities like the town of Campbell in front child and western Wisconsin who

can't drink water from their taps because of PFAS to get the drinking water treatment that they need

but I also want to expand that even further for nitrate contamination because regardless of

contaminant every person in Wisconsin deserves to drink water from their taps thank you and Rebecca cook

PFAS are a real issue here in the third congressional district and throughout western Wisconsin

especially in particular in french island where they're getting water bottles brought in to drink out of

this is in 2024 you know clear we have issues in our own well system I know Chuck is here from

from friendship and there's issues there in those municipalities and we've got to call for more

research testing and remediation and it's something that these small municipalities are not

going to be able to do on their own talking about that from the the prior question it's going to

take federal funding to really tackle this oh Claire is looking at a 20 million dollar price

take to remediate this in our city wells and has gone just two million dollars allocated to them

at the federal level so I'm somebody that is a huge proponent of this and want to get things done

and it it takes having somebody that's willing to to talk about water quality at the congressional

level and and work to get those resources moved to our communities thank you and Eric Wilson

well we are 60 percent water so I would say water is pretty important um and it's it's making

sure that we are protecting it as well it's not only the remedying of PFAS and other nitrates

in our in our water it's making sure that we are systematically doing it from the start to the

finish look it's also making sure that we are getting people money to get rid of old lead pipes

and making sure that we are investing in the infrastructure across our cities my hometown they're

having to tear up all of the all of the roads so that they can replace the pipes because they put

it off for 20 years that is not uncommon it's something that we're going to have to do and so it's

not just the filtration systems it's a lot of infrastructure stuff and replacing pipes that we're

going to have to work on as well look any amount of poison is poison and so we can't have different

levels of of poison in our water and so it's making sure that we have all of the necessary

necessary resources so that everyone has safe water it if we don't have water we don't have life

and so we need to throw everything at it all right thank you our next question we will

start with Rebecca Cook and this is about higher education and higher education costs

the third congressional district is home to six universities more than any other congressional

district in the state of Wisconsin and our universities are struggling UW-Platville has closed

its branch campus at Richland Center UW-O-Clair and UW-Stevens Point are considering closures of

their branches and and many are and many of our universities in the district are facing

structural deficits in addition student loans continue to be a top issue for young people in

Wisconsin as a member of Congress what would you do to address these issues so I'm somebody that

has benefited through FAFSA with the support of Pell grants to be able to go to college but I

also work three jobs we're going to college and we need to as a Congress work to address

higher education and it's not just a band-aid solution it's really looking structurally

at a lot of these predatory lending programs that are putting students in these situations to

begin with and it's also you know encouraging students to alternate paths towards the middle class

we you know in addition to the sixth college campuses and universities we have in this district we

have a robust technical education system you know looking at apprenticeships and associate

degrees and so presenting alternatives to students to be able to pursue I think is important as

well all right thank you Eric Wilson higher education yes make it free we need to like if I am

elected I will make sure that we are making our higher education our tech schools are we need to

be funding public education we will fall behind as a country if we don't completely invest in

education it's our future and so it's making sure that we not only have the schools we have

student loans it is a big burden on all of us everyone that has student loans and if we unlock

that if we get rid of the student debt it opens up a whole new world of people to to go into the

workforce does not have to worry about them being saddled by by this weight they can buy a house

they can buy a new car we open up a whole new economic future if we're willing to invest in our

in our kids in our society I would love to go back to school I would love to get a master's degree

in psychology and that's limiting to people when you know that there are thousands and thousands

of dollars of debt that you're going to have to go in I worked during school as well and you

just can't cut it you can't make enough money to pay your own way through school and so it's not

only that you're working a job you're figuring out who you are as a person which is a lot of work

and also trying to get grades we shouldn't be forcing people to take 18 credits have two jobs

and try to survive for four years to get through we should be investing in it thank you and

Katrina Shanklin access and affordability both are key and here in Wisconsin we have a gem in both

our UW system and our Wisconsin technical college system I've had a bill package for years

called reaching higher for higher education which I developed and introduced in close partnership

with faculty staff and students at our UW system campuses last night I was in northern grant

talking to folks from all over the area that UW Richland Center used to cover it stores closed

so did four other campuses or four other campuses are on track to out of our 26 access and affordability

are important we can't even talk about financial aid and affordability if we don't have campuses

that are open I'm deeply concerned at the Republican attacks on public higher education funding

and I've witnessed them firsthand in the capital and stood strong against them especially here

when UW Stevens Point was attacked you can count on that same level of ferocity when it comes to

protecting public education at all levels from pre-K early childhood to our public schools to our

higher education and here's where the federal government can make a difference whether it's

funding idea for our public schools or whether it's supporting our public higher education institutions

with not just financial aid but additional support like they did during the pandemic to help them

keep their doors open that's something I'm going to champion because I have noticed it's rural

communities that suffer the most when these doors shut down I'm worried about places like River Falls

and Platville and Stevens Point and Menominee and LaCrosse and Eau Claire and you can count on me to

continue worrying and be your advocate in Congress thank you our next question will start with Eric

Wilson this one is about affordable health care medical costs and prescription drug prices

continue to climb many communities across western and central Wisconsin are facing hospital

closures and lack of access to medical care how would you address this issue as a member of Congress

Medicare for all if we are not fighting for Medicare for all we are not supporting our democratic

values of taking care of everyone right it it solves a lot of the issues that we have it ensures

that we have access in rural communities it ensures that you don't have to go to the pharmacy

and play roulette on which drugs you can afford or not afford it ensures that people can get

the preventative care and abortion care that they need it's ensuring that we again we're not robots

we need we need health care and it's much cheaper if we do preventative rather than reactionary

we shouldn't have to choose between our health or our pocketbook and so not

not pushing for Medicare for all is a disservice to everyone and so I am I am an advocate and I'm

the only one here that is pushing to get us there because we deserve it thank you Katrina

shankland so this question really it's to an issue in the Chippewa Valley they both Chippewa

falls in a Claire had hospital shutdown the emergency departments oncology and so much more are in

disarray and chaos and there was very little warning 1400 people lost their jobs 500 oncology

patients are driving an hour away to access care while the birthing center and oh Claire is no longer

an option and people are also having to figure out where to go that is not acceptable and we need to

work on every level of government government to make sure that a this never happens again and be

recognizing that 30% of rural hospitals in this country are in the same boat where their costs

are not matching their revenues and so one of the big issues here in Wisconsin we're one of

just a handful of states left that haven't accepted the Medicaid reimbursement why is that

important we forfeited two billion dollars over the last decade because of Republican in action

and dysfunction why is that important that two billion dollars could have been reinvested in

raising Medicaid reimbursement rates which would have kept our provider's doors open i've heard

this all over the third congressional district people are deeply worried not only about having

affordable health care but having a hospital an emergency room a provider's doors to walk into

when you're sick when you're expecting when you need preventative care when you need dental care

all of these things matter i have the experience working on health care in the capital to bring that

knowledge with me to Washington and fight hard against special interests to make sure we're

protecting rural health care access across Wisconsin thank you and Rebecca cook

increasing health care access and affordability is a top priority mine if you visit my issues page

on my website it's at the very top you know i i have aging parents that you know go to Mexico on

there once a year they go down there to get their dental work done because it's cheaper to do

there than it is in our own country and i want to expand Medicare to cover and vision dental

and hearing the very things that deteriorate as folks age you know i think the Affordable

Care Act was a start i think there's there's a lot of improvements that we need to make to make it

stronger my dad was recently diagnosed with cancer at the beginning actually of my campaign and

he went in to get his prescription drugs for the first time thirteen hundred dollar copay for a

one month supply one drug eighteen hundred dollars for another which is astronomical and you've got

politicians that are lining their pockets with special interest dollars well their constituents

are suffering in that kind of way um you know Katrina mentioned the hospital crisis in Eau Claire

which is my hometown and very familiar with that um was out talking with workers that had lost

their jobs many with uh with no notice and so um i i've i worked to uh connect with folks at

Gunderson health care marsh field clinics to really understand some of the issues that their

health care systems are facing to keep some of our smaller clinics and uh hospitals fully funded

and open this is in contrast to Derek van Orden who if you go to his website has a one sentence uh

health care policy which is to repeal Obamacare with nothing to replace it and that's who we have

representing us in congress right now all right thank you and i think uh we're actually ahead of time

which is insane for a forum um so good job for um being short short-winded politicians um

so i work i think i'm gonna give you a minute for follow-up questions so one of my follow-up

questions for this is regarding insurance even if you do have insurance to your workplace or

Medicaid or Medicare for example even then you have astronomical costs prescription drugs you

might be denied coverage so um what can we do and what can you do as potential um congress people

to address that issue and we'll start with Eric again yeah i have he'd worked in the medical

insurance industry i understand the inside of the beast i understand there are teams in place

to deny expensive claims and so there is a lot of special interest money that does not want us to

move to a Medicare for all system because that's where they are making their money it's their cash

cow and so how do we fix it we have to get them out of the middle of it and that by coming together

and having one system we have negotiating power we can push back on pharmacies we know how much

things are gonna cost we don't have to go to the doctor and guess we have we can have impact

assessments we can make sure that every area has the right amount of MRIs that they have the right

amount of um emergency care mental health we we can fix a lot of these issues if we get insurance

out of the way they uh have a place right like we still have to process the information that

and make sure that people are getting getting their prescriptions but they don't need to be running

our system all right thank you um Katrina Schenkland i don't hear from many people who think that

their insurance plan is affordable so even though we have great programs that have increased

the amount of people who are covered by insurance plans we have a lot more work to do in this

country and in the state to make it truly affordable for everyone i want to build on the work of

the inflation reduction act there are some key programs in there that i think democrats did a

great job with they could have gone even further had just a few democrats who stood in their way

listen to their constituents and really worked hard to crack down on the overpriced um big pharma

so one of the things i think is a tax credit specifically for the affordable care act subsidies

which are going to expire in 2025 another piece expanding on the Medicare negotiation for pharmaceutical

companies and really working to close a donut hole not only on part D but cracking down on scam

plans so i want to work not only on Medicare but Medicaid reimbursement rates as i said earlier

i also want to make sure our affordable care act is truly affordable for everyone and finally

championing making sure Wisconsin finally expands Medicaid thank you and Rebecca cook

so i actually get my health care through the through the marketplace and it's always been

catastrophic insurance and never covers much and whenever every time that i go to the doctor

i'm always paying out a pocket i actually went to urgent care a couple of months ago and i have an

eighteen hundred dollar bill to pay from that so i understand these issues very much firsthand

and i think that the affordable care act did a lot to expand health care coverage

in our country but i think there's a lot of states that chose not to pick up pieces of it you

we have a lot of oligopolies of insurance that really exists especially here in Wisconsin and it

takes somebody that's going to take on you know some of those pharmaceutical as well as insurance

companies that you know i think are taking advantage of consumers all right thank you our next

question we will start with Katrina Shankland this concerns Native Americans and Native peoples

the third congressional district is home to the Ho Chiang nation and many other Native American

communities these communities are often uniquely challenged by issues such as broadband access

climate change or environmental degradation how would you support the Native Americans and work

with Native nations as a member of congress Wisconsin is special we are home to eleven federally

recognized tribes and several other tribes to and one of my favorite days in the state capital

as a legislator is the state of the tribes address where we get to hear directly from a tribal

leader about the issues most important to them when i first ran for congress one of my first

calls was to the Ho Chiang nation president one of our own here in porch county john green deer

because i knew i wanted to be a partner with our tribes every day of the week and i have participated

and been honored to participate in a tribal consultation at Ho Chiang nation as governor evers

only a legislator appointed to the green ribbon commission we're working together on expanding

sustainable energy access for them which is a very complicated issue as it relates to tribal land

and the tax credits that are available so here's what i'm learning not only our is Wisconsin special

in home to eleven federally recognized tribes but we have work to do as a state and federal government

to build and deepen our relationship and support not only their leadership but their key issues

and i want to be an equal partner with them in congress just as i have been in the state legislature

thank you Rebecca cook so this past fall i was honored to be invited by the Ho Chiang nation to their

labor day power was actually a 90 degree day so it was one of the only elected like our candidates

and elected officials to turn up but it was a really really powerful day getting to build relationships

with president green deer as well as other members of the Ho Chiang nation and you know i know that

tribal sovereignty is a top issue at a federal level for them to retain their inherent powers

of self-government i also know things like cultural preservation is so important to tribal members

and being able to participate in something like that like a powwow really opened my eyes to that

and how important it is to supporting those types of things as well as being a steward for

our natural resources clean air water protecting our land and those are things that i'm you know i'm

looking forward to being a partner with the Ho Chiang nation on as well as continuing from a

federal level to be able to help fund health care systems as well as housing initiatives within the

tribe thank you and Eric Wilson yeah it's making sure that we're we're continuing to respect

sovereignty and understanding that they are equals in and how we are working on things it's

making sure that they also have the resources that they need to build thriving communities it's

making sure that we're investing in in clean energy i know there's a lot of big initiatives that

help them help them be sustainable it's investing in their education system their health care system

they are part of our community they are respected members and we also have to continue to show up

it's showing up when we were in black river falls for the third third convention i was one of

the only people that went to the coalition event and making sure that we were talking to it was

Peggy Flanagan was there and sharing about how we we are building and investing in our communities

not just here but across our district across our state and across our nation and so it's

respect and showing up thank you and then just as a follow-up before our station ID and we'll start

again with Katrina for this question it can be kind of difficult to make sure that native voices

are heard at the table when we're discussing things like pipelines clean energy water clean water

even stuff like that like the other questions we've had before so how would you as a member of

congress and sure that they are included in these conversations in the nation's capital i really

appreciate that follow-up question because that's integral to good leadership and good government

when we exclude voices especially voices like our tribal nations we really devalue them and i

have seen governor evers take a massive leadership role on the state level by really doing much more

than previous governors have and i want to be a model public servant like him as your member of

congress i want to have the same level of tribal consultations and meetings on every issue whether

it's sustainable agriculture energy housing health care and more thanks for the question thank you

Rebecca cook yeah i think it's building and deep relationships and and doing that uh whether

it's an election year or not right and inviting people to be a part of round tables and discussions

about issues that impact all of us and in particular with tribal nations and i think it's inviting

folks to have those conversations um like i mentioned i've built some really strong

relationships with the whole chunk nation here within our district and it's um continuing to bring

them to the table um to host round tables and things like that um thank you and Eric Wilson yeah

it's both it's making sure that we are showing up um and understanding how how important things

are to them making sure that we are respecting their way of life and it's also always having

a seat at my table like they will always have an opportunity to share where they're at share where

they want to go in the future um and share what issues are important to them and so my commitment is

they will always have a seat thank you and we're just gonna wait for the ad read

you're listening to a live broadcast of the third congressional district democratic primary

candidate forum stay with us for more live coverage from uw stevens point

baton alba show state senator kelda rois in richland county the uva system made the

unilateral decision to completely vacate the campus by july 1st of this year it's so

short-sighted to think it costs a little bit more money to run it and there aren't as many

students so let's just shut it down a smart business owner would say now is a time to invest

because we know every person that comes to the door here is going to get

40 fold the investment from how they're going to be able to give back to our state

the tod alba show weekdays new till two on your local civic media radio station and on the app

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nightline with p-twawa an honor of national cheeseball day what food totally

disgusts you for me it's anything where cheeses cram together and soft why you would put it all

into a ball or a log or a loaf i don't understand what about you can't read you got a disgusting food

i like tuna it just can't be from in a can it just has the worst smell in me it's nasty nightlight

with p-twawa weeknight seven till nine on your local civic media radio station and on the civic media app

so this question concerns rovy wade the overturn of rovy wade has left was gonson in a legal limbo

in regards to reproductive health care access and there are now actions being taken against

contraceptive care and IVF treatments what is your opinion on these issues and what would you do

about them if elected thanks for the question this is a top motivator for a lot of folks in this

district and around the country when rovy wade was overturned last cycle when i was running for

congress i talked to the good friend of mine that i went to high school with who was expecting

and ended up having to have an abortion during her labor and delivery and the doctor had

to pause to take a phone call to figure out if he or she would be arrested for performing with

the procedure which is ridiculous that in that was in 2022 but in 2024 that that's the state

of reproductive rights in our country and as a member of congress i'm going to fight like how to

codify rovy wade into federal law it's not my position to be in a doctor's office making choices

for you and your family about your health care nor has it been for many many years right

this is in contrast to Derek van Orden who is at points called for a nationwide abortion ban

i think this is one of those top issues that you'll see so many democrats obviously agree on

and the alternative with the far right is is incredibly detrimental and dangerous

thank you Eric Wilson yes it's very straightforward i will fight to codify this

into law at a federal perspective as a man i have no say in this i we should not be making decisions

for women it is their choice it is a body autonomy issue and making sure that that decision is not

mine it is between her her family and her doctor and so i i will keep it very simple but i

i stand by women in making sure that you have you have we need to fight for your rights

we need to fight for you and make sure that you have the right to your own body

thank you and Katrina shankland when we flip the house blue the next thing we're going to do is

codify rovy wade into law and we're not going to stop there we need federal protections

not only to codify rovy wade but the right to privacy reading the dobs decision i'm very

concerned about the implications they attacked marriage equality and i'm really proud of you as

senator baldwin for leading on the equality act and i'll continue to fight for that anytime there's

a republican threat but they also attacked the right to privacy and we need to take that seriously

we need experienced folks who understand that when it comes to abortion it's always the individual's

decision between their doctor themselves their faith and their family should they choose it's not

politicians right or choice and i have a hundred percent pro-choice rating as a legislator who's

been in the capital fighting against republicans attacks and extremism for 12 years

Derek van Orden compared abortion to genocide he also in 2020 said that he didn't support any

exceptions including rape, incest and he told pro-life Wisconsin to get their unqualified endorsement

that he supported personhood which directly is in a front to IVF in contrast i'm a legislator who

introduced and co-authored twenty or twelve month birth control bills so that you can get

twelve months worth of birth control at the pharmacy and a bill to cover fertility treatment

because people who have fertility issues shouldn't have to fight insurance companies to have a

family that's the approach that i will bring to congress holistic comprehensive family planning

and access to medical care for everybody all right thank you we will start this question with

Eric Wilson this question is about unions many good paying union jobs have left the third

congressional district union membership is down and hostile policies in Wisconsin and nationwide

have harmed worker rights what is your opinion on these issues and what would you do about them if

you are elected we need to be protecting workers rights we need to be protecting people

the only thing that's going to fight back against big corporations is people and organizing so

it's the right to organizing i come from a teaching family my dad was in the teachers union before

it got broken up and i understand what a good union gives to people it allows us to buy

houses it allows us to have have workers rights i wouldn't be able to work today if it weren't for

unions and fighting for LGBTQ rights and fighting for for everyone to have

have access to things as we are fighting climate change we also need to make sure that

in the laws we are drafting that the jobs are union jobs they're good paying jobs

and and so as we are moving forward in infrastructure in bringing back manufacturing as we're

always talking about integrating it with new technologies which are advancing we need to protect

workers and we need to be making sure that unions have a place in our in our district and in our

our communities thank you um kitchen in shankland i grew up in union household it's how i became

an organizer because when i saw workers rights under attack i knew we all needed to fight back and

that's why i'm here today as a state legislator running for congress who's going to continue to

fight for working families and seniors and i know that unions are one of the greatest organizations

membership driven democratic small d to not only raise our wages and benefits but also ensure

that everyone has a voice and safety in the workplace and i think that's crucial i led the charge

in the state capital to repeal right to work restore collective bargaining rights restore

prevailing wage laws which are just as pivotal in congress and i will be a champion of not only the

pro act getting that done to make it easier to organize and join a union but also other bills to

restore collective bargaining rights to all employees across states like Wisconsin were act 10 led by

scot walker who i stood up to um what really hurt not only our public sector unions but think about

the kids in classrooms and the underfunding we've seen of our public schools i've lived that

with you and we fought together along the way and that's why i'm running for congress to continue

to be a voice for working people it's why i have the endorsement of 12 labor unions for this campaign

and i'm incredibly proud to announce that that includes the afl cio so we're going to continue

fighting for working families and seniors and we're going to make sure that everyone has a voice

in the workplace by enacting and enhancing worker protections in congress thank you and rebecca cook

so i grew up in a union family my brother is a union firefighter down in Madison and my sister

works for the teachers union education in minnesota and i can't think of a bill that would change

families lives in western wisconsin and around the country more than the pro act which would undo

the work that scot walker and his cronies did with act ten uh in addition to that i support davis

bacon prevailing wage provisions i want to ensure that every federal project that comes to this

district has a project labor agreement attached to it i'm also a big supporter of registered

apprenticeship programs we've seen iraps try to undermine our registered apprenticeship programs

and i've made a point uh while running for congress the cycle to tour the laborers training

facility the painters training facility last cycle when i ran for congress i had the support

of stiu painters fire fighters this cycle i've received an endorsement from communication workers

of america and polso workers and i'm proud to have their backing in support i'm a working class

candidate i'm working at a restaurant while i'm running for congress seven days a week

the tip minimum wage in misconsin is two thirty three an hour so you can count on me also to get a

federal minimum wage of fifteen dollars an hour passed when i get to congress um this is unlike

derrick van ordin uh who is absolutely not a friend to workers and is somebody that

buddies up to folks like scott walker that have passed in the most uh atrocious worker policies

in our in our state thank you and just as a follow up to this uh we were just having a conversation

earlier today about not just unions but kind of outsourcing and unions and outsourcing kind of go

hand in hand with manufacturing a lot of paper mills have closed in the third cd along with

foundries other factory jobs so starting with erick um what would you do to bring good paying

jobs to the third cd yeah it's continuing things like the chip sack i would be in support of

making sure that we are continuing to meld both the technologies that we're advancing and the

manufacturing jobs that we have here i mean it's new it's new steels it's new luminums it's using

using the foundation we have to rebuild the jobs that we can continue to support here it's it's

making sure that our communities have those um we we took a a misstep in my opinion and shipped a

lot of jobs and we have the ability to bring it back if we're willing to invest thank you

continue shakeland i appreciate this question living along the wisconsin river we know paper mills

and in the legislature i started up a bipartisan paper caucus part of why i did that was i knew

our paper mills along the wisconsin were struggling because of global competition and our workers

like the workers at verso in wisconsin rapids represented by the steel workers um we're struggling

and i worked hard across the aisle to to try to pass bills we pass them through the assembly the

senate didn't concur to keep our paper mills doors open and help them actually become worker owned

cooperatives really localizing our jobs making it impossible for local workers to outsource their

own jobs to other countries right we own our future then and i i'm really proud of that work we made

it halfway i'm going to continue working on that in congress but i also want to build on that not

just for supporting our local manufacturers who i meet with frequently as a member of the legislature

talk about workforce issues and how we can help and work forces their number one issue right now

so investing in higher education and um technical education is an important part of that but i

also want to call out privatization here in portage county we are not alone in fighting forces

that are trying to privatize our locally owned county nursing home and with that same issue when

we look at outsourcing of jobs versus privatizing local jobs same problem lower wages less control

and oversight i've been a champion on that issue i fought three times to help protect our county

own nursing home i'm going to continue to work hard to protect our local jobs and grow them in

Wisconsin and across the country thank you and reka cook yeah so for the last seven years i was

really proud to run a small business it sold made in america goods so in particular you know pushing

by america legislation which are things that senator tammy baldwin um have put forth into congress

but i think uh the other piece is what are we doing to attract manufacturers um to our communities

like how livable our communities are we investing in our schools are we investing in our health care

to try to do some talent and attraction to get some of these bigger corporations to want to

headquarter in some of our smaller communities to um to build the kind of workforce uh that we need

and it talks and that comes back to all the things we've been talking about tonight from health care

to to housing to child care it's all these components um if we want to try to reinvigorate our

economies through our western Wisconsin thank you and we will move into our final question before

our closing statements here uh we will start with katrina shankland um for this one this one's

about social security and medicare republicans have signaled that they desire to cut social security

and medicare if you are elected what would you do to protect these programs i love this question

thank you so much medicare and social security must be protected but we also need to work hard

to make the promise of them for future generations not only possible but achievable

as i travel across the third i hear from a lot of people who don't think that when they retire

social security will be there for them they're in their thirties and forties we can do better people

like derrick then ordin and house republicans are trying to slash medicare and social security by

forty percent while raising the retirement age and then scapegoating seniors let's be clear

everyone deserves to retire with dignity and economic security i will be a champion on this

because i've also championed retirement security in the Wisconsin state legislature working with

and building a coalition of retired folks who wanted to mirror the Wisconsin retirement system

and have a private plan similar i know that we can build those coalitions to not only protect

and protect the promise of medicare and social security but expand it so social security works

as a national organization that works on both of those issues they don't typically endorse

in democratic primaries they endorse in this one because they know there's going to be very close

margin should we flip the house and they need democrats they can trust a hundred percent of the time

to not only hold the line on social security and medicare but pass bills like the 2100 social

security act paying social security into 2100 to protect the promise for future generations

that's who i am as a person that's what i believe for all of you i know we all deserve it

and we're going to fight like hell together to make that happen thank you we're back to cook

so my parents are both on medicare and social security and they very much rely on both of those

programs in that check to be able to get by i'm a big proponent of expanding medicare and social

security and in particular i think that the social security camp that it should be higher for

higher earners to be paying into that system from a medicare perspective i talked about this

earlier about health care expanding medicare to cover vision dental and hearing the very things

that deteriorate as folks age these are social safety nets and i think it's important for us to

fully fund them to fully protect them you look at how a society treats vulnerable populations or

how a society treats their youngest populations of their oldest populations and i think it's really

a testament to to what we care about and to me i care a lot about those parts of our society and i

have to thank all of you in this room due to but then you have far-right Republicans like

Derek van Orden who are looking to slash those programs and it's unacceptable thank you and

Eric Wilson i'm the youngest of six my dad actually retired before i got to high school so i

have been on social security and i understand having grown up with my dad how people are dependent

on social security and it's not acceptable to say that we're just going to

lift the cap or that we're going to shut it down it's we need to lift the cap and

get rid of it i mean everyone should be paying into the system that provides for our

for our society and for our community Elon Musk should not have to be done paying

his tax four minutes into the year come on we can do better and so it's protecting social

security it's not only just expanding Medicare it's pushing it all the way to make sure

that we have the safety nets in place and that people have the health care that they need and they

deserve and so you will not find a bigger advocate than me and fighting for Medicare for all

and making sure that we are protecting social security all right thank you so we move into our

closing statements now rinder this is three minutes that you have to address the crowd and take

it as an opportunity to address the community here about anything that we didn't cover during the

forum today so there's any issues you want to touch on feel free to use it as that or to provide

context for earlier statements i'm just going to randomly take one oh Katrina shankland you will go

first thank you so much for the opportunity and thanks for everybody who is a part of this very

important forum i am running for congress because i know that we have a serious issue in congress

it isn't just Eric van Orden it's the people like him who are creating chaos creating more problems

than solving them fighting their constituents instead of fighting for us and as a proven leader in

the Wisconsin state capital i know that i can help break up that noise and also be a voice for all

of you to get things done in congress we need fearless leaders who have the experience to work

across the aisle without compromising on our shared Wisconsin values we need people who know exactly

which lever to pull and when to get Roe v Wade codified into law and to make sure that when we're

fighting for clean drinking water we're not forgetting about nitrate like unfortunately so many

people do but here in rural Wisconsin we feel it every day we need people who understand that

running for congress is a key part of not only making a difference by bringing people together but

also continuing to organize on issues to get things done in congress that's what i've always done

as a statewide leader on issues like water quality and higher education somebody who organizes to

be effective and that's why i've gotten two hundred twenty five bills that i've either introduced

co-authored a co-sponsored into law in twelve years i've never served in the majority what that

means is i put my hand across the aisle every time for every bill i introduced and i got things done

like lowering the cost of up up up an effort and we passed three different bills into law to do that

protecting first responders expanding rural health care with our states new community parametric law

passing three new laws to put more money into farmers pockets to protect our soil and water

and protect our water quality i've also been a champion for issues like public education which we

didn't get into but i would love to talk more about our public schools as well as democracy and look

i know democracy's on the line that's why we're all here tonight twenty twenty four is important

it's existential in many ways and we know that people like Derek van worden are not only

unfit to serve in congress because of his disqualifying temperament and character but his extreme

positions on issues like abortion on issues like gutting the affordable care act social security

and medicare and we need people who are willing to stand up to extremist like him but also reach

across the aisle to get things done when i say i can do that you can trust me because i just did

that for all of you for the last twelve years in the state capital and i'm so proud of the work

we've all done together because those achievements were not done in a vacuum we worked shoulder to

shoulder building coalitions organizing on the issues and winning and we're going to do so much more

when we have a congress who cares about us and a member of congress who shows up at your town halls

and listens first and then acts on your behalf so i hope to earn your vote by August 13th

and i really welcome the conversation and continued campaigning and really appreciate everybody

for being here today thank you Rebecca cook so i think if there's one thing that all of us can

agree on here tonight it's that Derek van orden has got to go um we've talked at length about how

his policies are not right for folks here in west central sconson and everything else is just

plain embarrassing i'm the person that's going to defeat Derek van orden uh what sets me apart

from folks here tonight are my lived experiences so many of us have lost our farms so many of us

are struggling to pay our health care bills so many of us have shuttered our small businesses

and so many of us are really living paycheck to paycheck and when i'm out talking to voters

around the district i hear a lot of the same stories i know that altogether we're going to turn out

democratic voters in the general but we've got to work to influence swing moderate and independent

voters and find common ground to be able to flip the seat back to blue when the seat opened up last

cycle it felt like me to me a real opportunity to step up and to serve my community and now it feels

even more urgent when i ran last cycle i won 11 and a 19 counties and lost by just 8% of the

of the vote despite being significantly outspent we won in population centers like o'clair and

portage county but we also won in a lot of rural counties because we had a message that really

resonated the seat is one that's not going to be anointed but that is going to be earned that

campaign allowed us to build a 19 county infrastructure across this district and it also allowed

me to build a profile that has helped us to gardener the resources to combat the dark money

that's going to be flowing in this district from far right republicans and we won because of the

working class message that we had it helped to pull people off the sidelines to engage with my

campaign and i know we can flip the seat back to blue i just know it in my heart and i'm asking for

you tonight for your support i'm going to need your help knocking on every door in this district

even if it's down a dirt road writing postcards for some of you having tough conversations but those

that i know that can really break through because we have to do this we have to do this for our

democracy and to bring some common sense leadership into this district and i know that

sending a homegrown leader like myself to congress is the way to do that so i'm looking forward to

continuing to work with you all looking forward to earning your vote august 13th and also having

your vote when it comes to november so thank you thank you and last but not least Eric Wilson

we've heard a lot of things tonight and we even agree on a few things but there are some

differences there are some differences on the topics that we are willing to tackle and the only one

here that's willing to talk about gun violence and responsible gun ownership and the only one that

has called for a ceasefire and the only one that's fighting for Medicare for all in standing with

Tammy standing with Elizabeth Warren standing with Mark Polkan i am going to be the progressive

voice that is fighting for everyone and making sure that we all have a seat at the table

but i can't do that alone if you align with my values if we are fighting the same fight i'm asking

for your support i need help with volunteering i need help with knocking some doors and i need

help with donations and so together i am confident that we can go kick Derek Van Ordin's ass

thank you thank you for participating tonight candidates i think we heard some really good answers

and we're fired up to kick DVO to the curb in november

i do want to thank William Garcia and the third congressional district democrats as well as

the porch county democrats and gary holly for organizing this event i also want to thank the

university of us contest events points and civic media for helping us put this event together

and hosting us one thing i do want to remind you of before i oh sorry could all three of the candidates

please state your website for the audience so they can check you out later that's a good point

thank you sure um so cook for wisconsin dot com all spelled out and my last name has a silent

e so c o o k e katrina for wisconsin dot com k a t r i n a Wilson for wisconsin dot com across all

socials as well thank you um so one thing i do want to remind everybody here of is we do have a

nomination paper signing event tomorrow from four thirty to six thirty at the portals county

democratic headquarters down by belts on main street there will be candidates for state assembly

state senate um tami will have papers there as well as congressional candidates um and other

offices and i'm president Biden of course as well so if you want to come and sign some papers um

thank you for that and then doing to read this too okay yes and then we also um we were hosted

by civic media um tonight so they're the ones kind of broadcasting this event um so there's

anything else want me to mention okay we're good so um they have they have pamphlets here if you kind

of want to see what else they what else they engage in they generally kind of engage in democratic

events like this and trying to inform voters so um thank you for coming tonight and feel free to

mingle with the candidates if they um stay afterwards and ask more questions so thank you

join us on May 1st for another exclusive live broadcast of the third congressional district

forum featuring the democratic primary candidates from the uw lacrosse student union theater

you've been listening to this live broadcast on civic media

you