3rd Congressional District Candidate Forum (3 of 4)

Welcome to this exclusive live broadcast of the third, third congressional district forum featuring the Democratic primary candidates.

This special programming is presented by Civic Media on these local stations, WLCX, the Eagle, 1490 AM in La Crosse.

The tap, 93.5 FM Chippewa Falls, WRC News from the center, 107.7 FM, 1450 AM Richland Center.

The third of four forums is being held at the UW-Platfill Olsvik Hall.

Your moderator tonight is James Schneider, CLA Board President, University of Wisconsin-Madison,

Division of Extension, Grant County Community Development Educator.

Now, let's go live to UW-Platfill and moderator, James Schneider.

Hi, my name is James Schneider. I'm with UW Extension and I'm a lifetime Democrat.

Who is only voted a straight-party ticket once in his life.

So I am open to different thoughts, different ideas, and I hope you are as well.

Tonight, we are honored to have three candidates for the third congressional district running in the Democratic primary.

All three bring very unique perspectives to their race for this office.

And we're hoping that you will walk away tonight feeling much more comfortable with each of the three candidates

and find one that you really feel strongly about, and then you get out and do the tough stuff.

Showing up tonight is easy, but it's showing up to vote and making sure that other people are along there with you is what is important.

I would remind you all that this is a forum, not a debate, and we will conduct ourselves accordingly.

I do have some guidelines just so you all understand how we're doing this.

What we're going to start with, after the brief introductions, is going to each of the candidates will have a two-minute opening, whoops, not if I knocked that over,

two-minute opening statement at the beginning of the forum, and each of the candidates at the end of the forum will be doing the same as we'll have a two-minute closing.

We have already selected the order that the candidates will go in.

When we deal with the questions that we have prepared in advance for them, we will be alternating the opportunities that they have to respond.

These forums are being broadcast and live streamed by civic media. We very much appreciate this.

Also, at 7 o'clock and 7.30, exactly, we will be taking a station break so they can identify themselves as they legally are required to do so.

Candidates will have, when we get to the questions, candidates will have 90 seconds per question, and candidates will have a 30-second rebuttal, but only, if directly, named by another candidate.

I do reserve the right to ask some additional questions if it's appropriate for the topic.

We have a stopwatch and a timekeeper here to keep people on time, and these questions have been vetted, and also we have some that are from the local Democratic Party, as well, if time permits.

The three candidates that we have before us here tonight are first is Rebecca Cook, and Rebecca builds herself, and I'm not making this up.

I'm stealing this directly from their websites so you can check to make sure I did all of this correctly.

But she would call herself a small business owner and a non-profit leader. She has a long tradition of Wisconsin farmers in her family and a value of service and hard work.

Rebecca worked her way through college and with the help of Pell Grants. Rebecca is running for Congress to better serve communities across Wisconsin, put people first, and provide more opportunities for success, and will be a relentless fighter for our way of life.

That's what a website has said. I'm betting she's going to say the same. But the most important question is, does she have a pet?

And as there's been going through the website, they found that she did not have anything listed, so I asked that question.

The good news is, and you can't be here without a pet. The good news is that she has a cat named Charlie, and is graduated from St. Thomas University.

Our second candidate is Katrina Shankland. Katrina is a lifelong Wisconsinite and raised by public school teachers.

Katrina is a graduate of UW-Steven Point, both her and her husband. Jed, they live in the Steven Point area, and they have two dogs.

And Lira?

Am I saying that right? Lira?

Is that correct?

And it's the long list of, she's currently in the Wisconsin State Assembly.

So you may have heard of her before and has a long list of accomplishments as a state sentiment.

She's going, her goal is to bring common sense to the Capitol and deliver results for Wisconsin.

I especially like the common sense to the Capitol. We all hope to see more of that from all candidates.

Our third candidate is Eric Wilson. Eric Lucinal Claire.

This is, and I also wait for three nights a week while I'm running for Congress seven days a week.

And you don't see a lot of people like me and DC. You see a lot of career politicians and elitists who are out of touch and radicals who want to hijack our government.

Like Derek Van Orden, who is more focused on climbing the political ladder than he is for serving his constituents.

He's a bully. He yells at Senate pages. He reduces librarians to tears.

He lacks the temperament to serve in Congress and does not exemplify our Wisconsin values.

We need someone who's going to reinstill our faith in democracy.

And that's why I'm running. We need a, we deserve a representative in Congress who is a doer.

Someone who's going to roll up their sleeves to get things done and not start a fist fight.

In addition to his decorum, his policies don't match our values.

He advocates for big egg that puts small farms like mine out of business.

And he's at one point called for a nationwide abortion ban.

In Congress, I'm going to deliver on kitchen table issues like increasing access to affordable quality health care, taking ominopolis that are price-gudging consumers at the gas pump in the grocery store, and defending reproductive freedoms.

Politicians should not be meddling in our personal health care decisions.

And I'm looking forward to working with you to deliver for people from all across the region to restore a sensible leadership to the third CD.

Please give her a hand.

And welcome to Southwest Wisconsin.

Our next candidate to introduce himself and with her two minute opening statement is Katrina Shanklin.

Thank you so much for the opportunity. Hi everybody. I'm Katrina Shanklin.

And I am running for Congress to oust radical Derek Van Orden stand up to right wing extremism.

Protect our democracy and restore common sense to Congress.

In the state legislature, I passed 225 bills that I co-authored and co-sponsored into law.

And I did that by working with anyone and everyone who is serious about solving problems, delivering solutions for the things that keep the people of Wisconsin up at night.

Expanding access to rural health care, to cracking down on prescription drug crisis prices, to delivering for farmers on issues like conservation and water quality.

I know what it takes to get things done in Congress because I've already done it in our state capital.

In Congress, I'm going to help pass laws to protect women's freedoms to make their own decisions on abortion and stop the national Republican abortion ban.

I'll also work to pass laws that protect our democracy and stop attacks on our elections from right wing extremism.

And I'll work to grow our middle class in unions because big corporations don't need another show for them in DC.

I'll be on your side, the side of working families and seniors.

There's a reason why my campaign has so much momentum.

I've been endorsed by 15 labor unions including the statewide AFL CIO because they know I'm the candidate who can beat radical Derek Van Orden in November.

Do you know why they know that? Because I've done it before, winning consistently in a purple assembly district,

including outperforming the top of the ticket. And in 2022, I was the Democratic candidate in my district who got the most votes.

That's what it's going to take to flip a district that Donald Trump won.

To flip a district from red to blue, we need a battle tested and proven candidate who's delivered for us with bills signed into law, solving problems, but who's also won tough elections.

So that's exactly why I'm running. If you send me to Congress, I'll have the experience to get things done and the Wisconsin values that you can trust.

I'm Katrina Shanklin and I'm asking for your vote. Thank you.

Thank you Katrina and welcome to Southwestern Wisconsin and Grant County. We very much appreciate you're being here.

Our third candidate and giving his opening statement is Mr. Eric Wilson.

Good evening everyone. My name is Eric Wilson. I am fighting to be the progressive champion. We need to turn out the voters to beat Derek Van Orden.

I graduated from UW Madison with an economics degree and have a professional experience background in IT, healthcare, and housing.

I am uniquely qualified to take on the challenges not only of today, but of the future.

I want to take my opening statement time to talk about a topic that isn't on the list tonight.

That topic is healthcare. We Democrats have been fighting for universal healthcare for over 50 years.

And I'm the only one in this race advocating for Medicare for all. When are we going to accomplish that?

I stand with Tammy Baldwin. I stand with Bernie Sanders and I am unequivocally fighting for Medicare for all.

Every person should have access to healthcare. I want you to ask yourselves who doesn't deserve healthcare.

If you don't think we should do Medicare for all, what healthcare system are we going to have that covers everyone?

Our for-profit healthcare system has put the world's wealthiest nation into a sick care program rather than real actual healthcare.

And by the way, real actual healthcare covers mental health, covers vision, and covers dental, and gets rid of Medicare Advantage plans which actually are just a detriment to people.

Let's have a system that focuses on health, not the bottom line. Let's have a system that focuses on people over profits.

I'm excited to share my progressive vision with you tonight and thank you for having me.

Thank you, Eric.

Again, we appreciate you joining us here tonight and your efforts to run for this office.

The questions that we'll be asking all of our candidates have seen in advance.

So they've had an opportunity to prepare. Each candidate will have 90 seconds to respond to the question.

And again, individuals, other candidates, if named directly, will have a 30-second opportunity to respond to that as well.

So the first question that we have for this evening, and these questions, by the way, will be somewhat general in nature.

So please bear with us on that.

But how do you plan to address environmental disparities and ensure that all communities have access to clean air, water, and green spaces?

And I'll start with Katrina if I may.

Thank you so much for this great question.

In my time in the legislature, I've served 12 years on either the natural resources or environment committees.

I have championed clean air, water, and access to bountiful public lands and a healthy climate.

In fact, I currently serve as the only state legislator on the Governor's Green Ribbon Commission directing a new state environmental fund to marshal resources specifically to protect our air and water and public lands.

And that's something that I'll do in Congress as well. I know that our Knowles Nelson stewardship program is one of the best programs available to protect our green spaces.

And I want to champion access to public lands and funding for it on the federal level too.

So as I've been a statewide leader on clean drinking water, I championed 10 bipartisan bills that I pass through the state assembly, the majority of which we pass through both houses in the legislature to clean up our drinking water from both PFAS and nitrate as well as bacteria.

I also worked with Governor Evers in the DNR to develop and launch a $10 million well compensation grant program in Wisconsin.

And with the household income of 100K or below with a contaminated well, could get access to clean drinking water from their taps without having to pay.

And I think that that's important because we need experience to deliver results in Congress.

In Congress, I'm going to champion the Mississippi River Restoration Initiative, a farm bill that includes more conservation initiatives and funding.

And I'm going to expand the progress that Democrats made on the Inflation Reduction Act to make those incentives for middle class families even more accessible to working class folks as well.

All right. In the interest of time, I will not be repeating the question if that's all right for candidates here since I've seen these in advance. Eric, your chance, 90 seconds, your response to that first question.

Yes, I am for the Green New Deal and ending fracking. If we don't have a livable world, the rest of it doesn't really matter.

We need to be way more aggressive on climate action and integration. Look, Wisconsin is a climate refugee state and we are not ready.

We will see an influx of people.

What that means is we need to continue to build out our infrastructure, protect our water, and make sure that Wisconsinites are actually able to afford living in Wisconsin.

It's expanding our solar and wind programs for our farms and small businesses, which allows them to have lower operating costs and use those resources for expanding and other things.

It means expanding and protecting our electric grids to deal with the impacts of increased temperatures and the usage of electric vehicles.

We have the most beautiful congressional district in the state and the nation. When you're driving through, it's truly a beauty.

We need to protect that. Not only for our generations now, but for future generations so they can enjoy it too.

It means protecting our water and not allowing other areas to be piping water out of Wisconsin or through Wisconsin.

Green jobs are good paying jobs. I will make sure that the jobs that we continue to build are good paying union jobs as well.

What it comes down to is we need to be more aggressive in protecting our climate action.

I will ask you to protect our words. I'm going to try very hard to keep us on time here. So when he says time, it means time.

Our next candidate to address that question is Rebecca.

Yes. Well, I think Western Wisconsin is also one of the most beautiful districts in the country and it's also a bit of a cup of secrets.

We have to do all that we can to preserve it. When I think about the environment, I like to think about it in the way I think about politics and locally.

In particular, in the third congressional district, we have a lot of water quality issues with PFAS and intimidating well waters both in La Crosse and Eau Claire and a lot of small municipalities all throughout the third.

And we're going to need federal dollars to really address that issue, calling for more research, calling for more testing and remediation.

You know, I'm very much in agrariance of weeding ourselves off of fossil fuels, but we need to be working with local rural electric cooperatives and balancing keeping our grid reliable will also working to meet administration goals.

And I'm interested in things like hydro energy, fusion energy, small modular nuclear that have real potential in a district like ours and I support really in all of the above approach.

Derrick van Orden is a part of the far right radical faction of Congress that really doesn't believe in science and puts the dollars of big polluters above conservation.

Thank you. Our next question and again to all three candidates and I'll be starting with you, Eric, how would these questions are not controversial at all?

We're not getting in and I understand our candidates when they try to go over 90 seconds, they definitely have passionate ideas, strong ideas and each of these and I certainly understand that.

The second question is, how would you protect a woman's right to make any and all medical decisions for herself without government interference? How would you protect a woman's access to birth control?

Derrick, I am in support of unrestricted abortion access. I don't think that government should be making decisions for women and I will do everything that I can to not only codify Roe v Wade back into law, but make sure we're going the next step and that you have access to contraception that you have access to be able to make the decisions for yourself.

It's pretty simple.

All right. Our next candidate to address that topic, Rebecca.

So I was running for U.S. Congress last cycle when Roe v Wade was overturned and we didn't stand by ILE. We got to work and I helped to organize a rally in a Claire and we've got to keep our voices turned up on this issue.

I don't think that it's my position as a government official to be in a doctor's office making decisions for you and your family and when I'm talking with people throughout the third congressional district, protecting reproductive freedoms is really at the top of their list.

And when I get into Congress, codifying Roe v Wade back into federal law is a top priority in mind. It should be for every Democrat that's running in this country and I know you're hearing from a lot of folks on this issue, but it is so critical.

And I think we've really got to be on offense here because the far right is not stopping just with abortion access. They're coming for birth control. They're coming for IVF and so many other important things.

And so we are really working this. I was out knocking doors today here in Plattville and talking with voters about this very issue and people are motivated to get out to vote and get people that are going to defend these types of freedoms in Congress.

I very much would echo and I'm going to several times during tonight every time you're talking about getting some people out to vote, being having an opinion on something is one thing, but it's going to require people voting to make those differences actually happen.

Our third candidate to address this is Katrina.

Radical Derrick van Orden wants to take away women's freedoms to make their own medical decisions on abortion. In Congress, I will fight tirelessly to protect women's reproductive freedoms and expand them.

And I have the experience to make sure that codifying Roe v Wade into law will be a priority when we flip the house.

I've also been a co-author of the Abortion Rights Preservation Act in Wisconsin, which would repeal Wisconsin's 1849 criminal abortion ban.

And I also have a hundred percent voting record on the side of reproductive freedom and birth control over 12 years.

So while Derrick van Orden supports a personhood amendment, he told pro-life Wisconsin and his endorsement interview that he supported it, which puts IVF at risk.

He ordered legislation to require insurance companies to actually cover fertility treatments, and I was the lead author on legislation for the last decade to expand access to birth control so that anyone can get it at the pharmacy for 12 months of contraception.

So that record, that experience is what's going to help me fight for all of you to expand our reproductive freedoms and to stand up to the radicals in Congress who want to enact a national abortion ban, some of whom even support a personhood amendment,

like Derrick van Orden, who told pro-life Wisconsin when he got their endorsement without qualification, which means he didn't just support personhood and threatens IVF, he also supported no exceptions to abortion.

We need a leader with experience in Congress to expand our reproductive freedoms, and that's me.

Thank you. I will remind everyone that we have to take a station break exactly at seven o'clock.

So if we're in the middle of a question, and I may take a break so that we have the opportunity, but you will all get your full 90 seconds.

This third question is certainly hits home in Wisconsin's Dairyland.

The milk support price, based on classes of milk, does not provide a fair support price for dairy farmers in Wisconsin.

What would be your proposal to change this and to create a system that does work for our dairy farmers? And I'm going to start with Rebecca on this.

Great. Well, I can speak to this because I'm the only person in this race to grew up on a dairy farm.

Career politicians in DC are trying to make decisions about our lives without understanding the real challenges that family farmers face.

Living on a hobby farm is not enough. The farm bill, I believe, should be written by farmers.

Farmers know that because of the unique qualities of milk, dairy farmers are prone to lack bargaining power in the marketplace.

And we really deserve a farm bill that delivers for small and mid-size farm, that not includes another handout to A conglomerates, and we have to do better.

Thank you. Katrina, your response, please.

We've lost 10,000 dairy farms in the last 20 years in Wisconsin, and I can tell you personally as somebody who represents Portage County, I have seen multiple friends who are dairy farmers shut their doors in the last few months and years.

And it's because of the price of milk and how difficult it is to make a profit.

So I support a farmer-led farmer-centered plan to ensure fair pay for our dairy farmers.

We need to have farmer-led councils across the district who are helping us enact policy change through the farm bill.

So whether it's talking about the federal milk marketing order, from make allowances to differentials to working on ensuring that we're expanding the dairy margin coverage program, which it looks like this current farm bill has through 2029, but we want to make sure it gets enacted.

I also think we can provide transparency in milk price reporting, fully fund the school milk program and the special milk programs and mitigate low prices through the CCC.

So as a member of the Agriculture Committee in Wisconsin, I've reached across the aisle to pass bills to help farmers, and I've worked with everyone to do so, including the farmers in my district.

That's my pledge to you as your future member of Congress, unlike Derek Van Warden, who introduced an amendment in the House Aid Committee recently to fund the dairy business initiatives, innovation initiatives at 36 million, he withdrew it instead of fighting for the votes for it.

That's kind of a coward move for somebody who's our member of Congress, but I can tell you when it comes to helping dairy farmers with export marketing, with innovation, with diversification, and with the price of milk, I'm going to fight for you every day of the week.

Thank you. One second to go there. That was really good. I appreciate the management of time. Eric.

There's an old adage in the dairy industry that only five people in the world know how milk is priced in the US for our dead.

Milk pricing regulation in the US is one of the most complicated commodity pricing regimes across all agriculture. We need to simplify it.

That's just the reality. Farmers need to be getting paid what they deserve, and not the processors.

And so in current state, you can't give direct payment to farmers. We need to look at that. These regulations and pricing structures have not been updated in decades.

We are far beyond that. And to save our rural farms, that's what we need to look at changing, so that they are actually getting the money that they deserve.

How we do that is we start integrating new technologies as well. If we were to look at blockchain, for example, farmers could get paid daily for the milk that they are producing.

Now let's talk about game changing. That frees up tons of resources for them to make decisions on a daily basis on what is best for them.

It allows them to buy the things that they need. And so it's changing the pricing structure and implementing the new technologies that we have.

That's how we fix the milk pricing.

Thank you, Eric. And now for just a question of the audience, how many people here were raised on a farm, dairy or otherwise?

Okay, strong agricultural contingent. Myself included. I was raised on a dairy farm outside of Rock Springs. When my father died in 1970, we were milking 66 cows, which was a big farm back then.

My health things have changed. And of course, when it came to pricing of milk, it was all based on how far you were from O'Clair.

And some of us remember those days not necessarily fondly. I believe we are just about at the time to take our station break.

I have two more minutes. Oh, that's a little scary. That is very scary. I'm trying to think in terms of what would be an appropriate quick question.

Quick question for each of you, 15, 20 seconds. What do you see as the biggest obstacle or threat to farms right now? And that's not fair to ask you a question like that. I'll go the same order here quickly.

Sure. I think one of our biggest threats right now are foreign nationals that are buying up land throughout the country.

I think it's a food security issue and it's a national security issue. We need to be protecting our farmland and not allowing people from other countries to come and have been by our land.

Katrina? The threat of corporate consolidation and the lack of antitrust enforcement laws from previous administrations is what created the crisis in the first place.

It's why so many dairy farmers are out of business. We have to enforce antitrust laws and power the FTC to crack down on price gouging.

If you talk to a single farmer, you hear from them first about the input costs and we need to empower the federal government to do everything possible to enforce antitrust laws.

It's big corporations as well as climate. If we don't start taking drastic actions, crops will continue to fail, animals will continue to die.

We will see destruction of our agriculture if we aren't more aggressive in protecting and making sure that small farms are getting the resources that they need and the support they need from insurance is not big corporations.

And again, one of our challenges in dealing with farms is what is a farm? What's a small farm? What's a large farm? And that certainly has changed in our lifetime.

So right now we're going to take a couple minutes for station brick.

You're listening to a live broadcast of the Third Congressional District Democratic Primary Canada Forum from UW Plateville.

This special programming is presented by Civic Media on these local stations, WLCX, the Eagle 1490 AM in La Crosse, the TAP, 93.5 FM, Chippewa Falls, WRCE News from the Center, 107.7 FM, 1450 AM, Richland Center.

We'll return in just a moment. Stay with us for more live coverage from UW Plateville.

As the best candidate to beat Van Orden, what will be the two main issues that you will challenge Van Orden with?

And let's see, I believe is Katrina?

I think so.

DVO, Derek Van Orden, is funded by big corporate dollars. He's propped up by corporate PAC money, and he has millions coming from out of state.

I'm the only candidate in this race that has refused to accept any corporate PAC money.

And instead, my campaign is fueled by people, labor, not corporations. I signed the no corporate PAC pledge from unsitizens united, and that's what makes me different.

In addition to the fact that I have experience getting things done, and I serve as the best contrast to Derek Van Orden, who hasn't gotten a single bill that he personally authored signed into law yet.

So a lawmaker with 225 bills into law versus a lawmaker who screams at kids, the capital pages, and even the president, I would take that to the bank to win an election.

So going back to the corporate PAC pledge, I think that this is important because we need to be different from Derek Van Orden to win.

We can't align with his values on anything, or we don't have the contrast.

So I want to challenge both my friends here tonight to take the corporate PAC pledge. I did bring it here. It's very simple.

It says, I commit to refusing contributions from FEC registered corporate PACs in this campaign and future campaigns, and I may hand that over to them.

And I also would like to ask Rebecca, since she has been a professional political fundraising consultant who raised probably a million dollars in corporate PAC money for her clients, if she would consider signing the pledge today to not accept corporate PAC money.

What I will do at this point, since two of the candidates have been, if not named, at least referred to, I would like to give them an immediate chance to respond to that question before I have Eric respond to the general question if that's all right with you.

Rebecca, your response?

Yeah, I'm very happy to sign this. I have also put a questionnaire in with End Citizens United, the same organization.

I've been endorsed by Defend the Vote, which is a pro-democracy organization that works to get big money out of politics, and I think it makes it really difficult for a working class candidate like myself to be able to run for Congress when you have people with special interest dollars like Derek Van Orden that make it difficult.

You have 30 seconds on these responses.

Eric, your response first to Katrina, 30 seconds.

When I launched my campaign, I actually put out a statement that I would not be accepting corporate PAC money, so I have started my campaign back in October making that statement that I will not take corporate PAC money.

So, I guess I'll just leave it at that.

Okay. Since I did take this out of order, I will ask, this is Eric's opportunity, and I'll repeat the question because of the time.

You are all good candidates, but what separates you is the best candidate to beat Van Orden.

What will be the two main issues that you will challenge Van Orden on? Eric?

Look, Derek's a bully, he's a coward, and despite writing a book about manhood, knows nothing about it.

He breaks about sexually assaulting women in the military, he's homophobic, he's transphobic, and has an unhealthy obsession with the LGBTQ community that he continues to yell at.

He yells at people, he loses his temper, quite frankly, he's unhinged.

He yells at Senate pages, has yelled at teens working in the library, for the books that are on there.

How I am different is I care about everyone, and I am fighting for everyone.

I have grown up as a gay individual in rural Wisconsin, which is isolating.

What I know what it's like to deal with bullies, and quite frankly, that's what Derek is.

And so I am not afraid to call him out on his bowl.

I've got other words, but I'm not afraid to call him out.

I am not afraid to take him on, head on.

We are going to have to protect young people to win in November.

We are going to have to talk about their issues.

I am the one in this race talking about the issues that the young people want to hear.

That's how we beat Derek in November.

Thank you, Eric, and thank you for not using the other words that might have come to mind.

Again, a reminder, of course, that this is a forum and not a debate.

And civil civic discussion is absolutely one of our goals.

And I'll start with the next question.

Oh, I haven't been asked yet.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm new here.

Rebecca, you're 90 seconds.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I think Derek Van Orden has a long rap sheet.

And when I'm talking to folks about who Davio is, when I'm out talking with people in our communities,

I'm going to start with his participation at the stop to steal a rally, which is the foundation of, I think, a long record of not being right for our Western Wisconsin values.

In addition to that, he's carried a loaded weapon through TSA.

He's heckled the president during the state of the Union address.

He's torn down a Pride book display in Prairie Dushin.

And so he very much lacks the decorum to represent us.

On the other hand, you know, I think I'm the best person to defeat Derek Van Orden in particular because I have the resources to win in order to be able to communicate a message that's going to combat Derek Van Orden and his big dark special interest dollars.

Our average contribution in our campaign is about $54.

That's from people like you here in this room.

Not backed by corporate special interest dollars or backed from by everyday people.

And I have the infrastructure to win.

I ran a 19 county congressional campaign in one grant county proudly last cycle.

And we show up and we organize.

And we have that kind of organizing infrastructure still in place.

And we have a message that resonates.

We are going to turn swing independent moderate voters off the sidelines.

We're for sure going to turn out our democratic base, but it comes down to this very small part of the electorate that we have to influence.

Live experiences and working class background are going to motivate those types of people that voted for Obama and then voted for jump to vote for me.

Thank you.

Our next question and we'll start with Katrina is going to be what can be done to protect public education and teacher shortage.

Retain good teachers and fund public schools without continuing to seek referendum money.

And I think I was wrong in the order here.

I believe I'm supposed to start with Eric and this one.

Sorry about that.

Yes.

What can be done?

We can raise taxes on wealthy individuals.

Everyone should be paying their fair share.

I am in favor of Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax and making sure that we are funding education from pre-K to post-secondary.

We should be paying through college.

In addition, we should also be getting rid of student loans.

I'm the only one here that is in support of full student loan forgiveness because what it does is it allows our younger people to start building their lives.

It also allows people that have been paying on their loans for 20 to 30 years to move on with their lives.

We should be investing in education.

It is the great equalizer.

We should not be burdening people to try to make a better life for themselves.

We also need to be making sure that kids have meals and we also need to be sure that they are protected within our schools.

Kids shouldn't have to worry about active shooter drills.

Who can learn in that type of environment?

We need to make sure that they are protected, have the resources that they need, and that we are investing in teachers.

I come from a teaching family and I understand that our education system has not caught up post-pandemic.

The pandemic threw things into chaos and they don't have the resources that they need.

So we need to raise more taxes so that they have the dollars to educate our society.

Thank you.

Next candidate to respond to this is Rebecca.

Can you repeat the question once more?

Yes ma'am.

The question is, what can be done to protect public education, teacher shortage, retain good teachers, and fund public schools without continuing to seek referendum money?

Great.

So I am a proud product of public schools.

I am a Sherman star. I am a Dalong Knight. I am a North High Husky.

And we need to do all that we can to fully fund and staff our public schools.

I've talked at length with my sister who works for the teachers union in Minnesota, about teacher retention and attraction.

Teachers are overworked and underpaid.

Full stop.

I'd like to see work study pay teachers when they're student teaching.

I don't know if folks know this. They don't get paid while they're student teaching.

And have tuition waivers. So teachers aren't also paying for their tuition.

They're not actually at the university. They're in their classroom student teaching.

And when it comes to funding our schools, having a funding formula that goes up at least by the rate of inflation is important to me.

And I'm in favor of potentially expanding Esther funds and more federal funding for full service community schools, which are proven way to improve the achievement gap.

This is in contrast to far right Republicans who have high jack school funding and supportive culture wars.

And I think really put young people's education at risk.

Thank you. And our next candidate with 90 second response, Katrina.

I have been campaigning on reducing our over reliance on property taxes to fund our public schools because for too long we have been going from referendum to referendum to keep the lights on.

And I always vote yes because I love my neighborhood public school and we should.

But the state has a historic surplus. We had a $7 billion surplus at the beginning of the session.

It's at 3 billion right now. They're not sharing the wealth with local communities.

So we as taxpayers are raising the taxes to do.

So here's what we need to do. Number one, we need to fund idea of the federal law that supports kids with disabilities and special needs.

We have a billion dollar special education deficit in Wisconsin that schools are going to referendum for to pay for.

Number two, we need to stop the voucher expansion.

How many dollars were spent this year on private vouchers? 574 million dollars on private school vouchers.

We're subsidizing that as taxpayers. That's not okay.

Separate and unequal systems, not all right.

So the federal government can step in with a grant program to reward states who phase it out over time.

And you know what else we can do? We can stop over relying on property taxes and referendum by actually ensuring that we're meeting schools needs with federal and state dollars.

And I will champion that because as an AFT teachers union endorsed candidate and the daughter of two public school teachers, this is who I am as a person and a lawmaker.

I've introduced legislation to raise teacher pay. I'll do the same in Congress.

I've introduced legislation to remit tuition for student teachers. I'll do the same in Congress.

When it comes to public education, I know that's the cornerstone of our democracy and I'm going to fight for it every day.

Thank you, Katrina.

Our next, we mentioned, we're talking about the farms and various livestock facilities.

And I mentioned that our dairy farm had, we had, we're milking 66 cows and probably had about 120 head at that particular time.

But that goes back to 1969 and 70.

Our next question deals with very much a part of that issue.

KFOs continue to get larger and more numerous in our area.

State regulations seem to be ineffective in terms of citing and protection against accidental leakage of waste.

What federal actions would you propose to protect our water resources in Wisconsin?

Rebecca, you have 90 seconds.

Growing up on a dairy farm, I know a little bit about manure management.

I did want to make a joke here, but I was totally canned.

But I think what it comes down to is our farms have really gotten too large.

And you talk about having come from a 63 cow dairy.

What I think that we need to do is restructure the farm bill so that small and mid-sized farms can make it.

Frankly, you have to go big or go home and that's something that my family faced.

We had to farm up the road, another farm up the road, and then add our home farm.

Because we couldn't afford going big.

And that's not the way in which my dad wanted to run our farm, wanted to run our dairy.

And we had to end up selling our cows because of that price of milk and that competition with those larger dairies.

And so we need to make it easier for small and mid-sized farms to be able to operate and to be able to function.

So that people don't feel the need to have to go larger.

I think that it's important to have an ecosystem that's diverse, that we have small and mid-sized farms and larger farms.

And I think that that's what it comes back to is people feel like they have to accelerate and get big.

And that's where CAFO has come in.

One of the big challenges, of course, is size of farms.

We were on 164 acres back then.

And not all of that was suitable for nutrient management as we call it in today's world.

We had other terms as well.

Katrina, your response.

I think this question is especially important here and anywhere in Wisconsin where there's carst bad rock.

Because you know that that manure, especially if there's leaching, goes directly into your water, which often is your drinking water, was private well owners.

So first and foremost, we need to fund CAFO enforcement at the DNR.

It's the state DNR that is charged with enforcing all of our federal laws, including the Clean Water Act.

And there was an audit several years ago on the state level that showed that our CAFO permitting had a significant backlog because there weren't enough boots on the ground.

Well, guests who defunded are essentially underfunded CAFO enforcement in Madison since 2011.

You guys are Republican lawmakers who maybe felt like they didn't want to have those large farms regulated.

But at the end of the day, when there's a manure breach, when there's leaching, it affects our drinking water and it affects our public health.

So here's what we need to do. The state and federal government need to work together to enforce clean water laws.

That means funding, the permitting backlog, funding the CAFO, boots on the ground, staff, enforcers.

And ensuring we have enough county conservationists in every county to help farmers do the right thing because they want to.

In Congress, I will work to make sure the Farm Bill rewards farmers for investing in conservation just like I have on the state level.

But I also want to work with our state government to have an all of government approach to truly ensure that we're enforcing the Clean Water Act because that's where these violations came in.

Just this week, there was a violation of a CAFO in the third that did not have a permit for the last few years. So we can fund it and fix it.

And one of the other points again that bring out is the size of farms. It certainly has changed over the years and our attitude on what is a big farm or a small farm.

Those numbers have dramatically shifted. The other thing that I would point out in what you were talking about is the farmers that I know are very much like the farmers you were talking about.

They want to do the right thing, but it has to be economically feasible and it has to be a level playing field. Eric, your response 90 seconds.

Yeah, CAFO is impacting our drinking water. We need to make sure that everyone has access to clean drinking water and this issue is too big for local and state to handle alone.

We at a federal level need to help and make sure that they have the resources so everyone is able to drink, not just other beverages as well.

Well owners that have contaminated water, we need to be providing them with the adequate resources to test and then remediate any contaminants in there.

We also have a food security problem with CAFOs. If we get bird flu or a disease goes through, it wipes out a massive amount of livestock.

That's in part where we're running into, I mean chicken breasts were like $20 a pound is what it felt like.

That type of thing will continue to happen if we see farms get bigger and bigger and bigger. One incident wipes out more livestock at a time.

And so we need to be making sure that those corporations are held accountable.

And it's also the people that own the livestock. There are a lot of farms that don't own the livestock but just own the land.

And so they don't actually have control of what is on their land. We need to fix that.

Thank you, Eric. We're going to take a little bit of a turn and topic here right now.

This is going to address a topic that a lot of us are aware of but at the same time we sometimes put this on the back burner and don't give it the importance it is due.

This question is how will you support local artists and cultural institutions in our district?

What creative approaches do you propose to integrate art and environmental awareness?

And Katrina, I believe you are studying your 90 second response on this first.

Thank you. I love this question. So first and foremost I think it's important to recognize that when you're a member of Congress or you're an elected official you have the power of the pulpits.

You can bring people together to talk about any issue you want and when it comes to organizing round tables or hosting office hours on an issue I would love to elevate the incredible makers and creators in the third congressional district.

You can also host their art in the capital just like I do in the state capital.

But I want to touch on something legislatively that I could help with as well. Wisconsin actually ranks dead last in arts funding across the country.

We're in number 50 and we spent 18 cents per capita on art while Minnesota spends $10 and Illinois spends five.

So that just gives you the scale here. So I support funding to things, the national endowment of the arts which 40% of which goes into our states and would help folks from Verocua with the

working road arts tour for example to here to Sparta to Steven's point and investing in the creative economy doesn't just attract tourism.

It also supports our local businesses and entrepreneurs are main street families and I think it's good for our local economy and jobs.

As a state lawmaker for the last decade I have co-sponsored legislation to invest in the creative economy especially in rural areas.

And I would introduce a similar bill working with colleagues from both parties who also represent overwhelmingly rural districts.

To show that by investing in the arts we're actually getting a massive return on investment of taxpayer money and jobs supporting local businesses and in quality of life because entertainment value and recreation is important too.

Thank you. Eric your response to that question 90 seconds.

Yeah we absolutely need to be investing in the arts. It's literally what being a human is all about.

As someone that was in the UW Marching Band and in the UW Opera I know the importance of creativity and expression.

It's what builds our community. Arts can rebuild our nation and our community if we are willing to invest in it.

Like what said we in Wisconsin are the lowest per capita in spending on arts. That's unacceptable. We can do better than that.

The there's a direct correlation between artistic expression and the happiest countries in the world.

And so that's fundamentally what we need to be investing in. It's helpful in recovery. It's helpful in our healthcare system in our senior care system.

Once in Congress I will fight for more money for the NEA. It went up 15% under Biden but we need to do better. We need to continue to invest in it and make sure that we are allowed to express ourselves as humans.

Bring up this topic. I recently attended the 50-ish anniversary of UW-Baraboo, the South County campus.

In 1968 I was a charter student at that to your campus and that along with several other campuses are going to no longer exist.

We had about 30 people that attended that and every single person all across the United States where they're living today had nothing but high praise for the arts that they encountered at a two-year campus.

We had our campus singers director there and band instructor coach and his wife of course happy face and gave people a lot of opportunities.

But when they talked about every single person talked about that as an important thing 50 years later. Keep that in mind please.

Our next question. I still have to go.

I still have to answer the question. Oh, I'm sorry. How do I do this? Sorry.

Yeah, I've literally devoted much of my career to supporting artists. I'm actually a potter myself. I ran a retail store for seven years called Red's Mercantile and a Clare that's supported.

We sold Made in America goods supporting regional and local economies. So selling things like jewelry, pottery, home goods, you name it.

Which really support our regional local economies. It's not cheap foreign made goods or the dollar general at the end of the road.

I have also started a nonprofit organization called the Red Letter Grant. We support women entrepreneurs throughout 18 counties. So we've made some of those direct investments in businesses that help to recreate our community of place and make our small communities really livable places when you go through small town Wisconsin.

I mentioned the dollar general which we saw a lot of those driving down here to Plabville today. You look at those and it's not what makes our community special.

It's a small businesses that line our main streets and I think it's really important to be supporting those types of businesses because it helps to support our overall economy.

When you think about attraction for larger employers and manufacturers to communities in our district, they want to headquarter in places that they can attract workers to come.

They want to headquarter in places that have quality health care that have quality education and that have things for people to do.

So I think that there's a lot that we can do in driving more dollars into the arts and into small businesses in general.

Thank you for keeping things being on top of things here. I apologize for that. One of the challenges is keeping up on all of the things going on here.

Do you notice that all three of our candidates, they're not shy. They definitely are willing to express themselves and all three of them, no matter who you choose, you're going to choose someone who's going to represent you vocally and very emphatically in Washington.

Our next question, and I believe I'm starting with Eric. How do you plan to ensure that all rural residents have reliable and affordable access to high-speed internet?

Obviously not a problem here in the Driftless. Eric?

Look, we can't do anything if we don't have internet these days. It needs to be treated like electricity, like a utility. It's how we learn, it's how we do business, it's how we shop, it's how we research, it's how we view our medical records.

Lacking high-speed broadband disproportionately affects our rural areas. Democrats are delivering on this, but it takes a whole ticket to get it done.

We need to be working with our local and state government to make sure that it's expanded, make sure that everyone has access to it and building with what the new technologies are for the future.

The other component of this is cell service. Can we talk about that? It's terrible. It doesn't have to be.

And so it's another thing, just like broadband internet, that everyone should have access to cell service regardless of where you are.

I'd say about 50% of the time when I'm driving through the district, I am in SOS mode. It is 2024. And so we need to be more aggressive with it.

We need to make sure that we are putting up the towers and that it's not just for profit companies that are doing so.

I will make sure that Wisconsin has the technology to be competitive for the future.

Next to respond to this is Rebecca, 90 seconds.

I really think that the pandemic shed a light on a lot of our connectivity issues when we had kids that were doing their homework and culverts parking lots and small businesses missing out on large online marketplaces and people having to miss a lot of their telehealth appointments.

And we need to treat broadband like rural electrification and just get it done.

When I served on the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation Board, I was a part of a broadband connectors pilot, which was unique in that it was providing technical assistance for a lot of smaller communities that when we get those federal dollars and they get an opportunity to write those grants,

a lot of times they don't have the nuance or know how to be able to actually get those grant applications in.

And so providing technical assistance to be able to assist people in getting access even to those grant dollars.

One of the things that I'm a great proponent of also is utilizing cooperatives.

A lot of our local cooperatives that will go the last mile, they'll go to the end of the road and make sure that last house gets put on a fiber.

Whereas I feel like a lot of these corporations have certainly cut corners and some of them have gone bankrupt while they received a lot of these federal dollars that have been meant to actually solve this issue.

I think there's a lot of siloed work that gets done between access even to those grant dollars.

One of the things that I'm a great proponent of also is utilizing cooperatives.

A lot of our local cooperatives that will go the last mile, they'll go to the end of the road and make sure that last house gets put on a fiber.

Whereas I feel like a lot of these corporations have certainly cut corners and some of them have gone bankrupt while they received a lot of these federal dollars that have been meant to actually solve this issue.

I think there's a lot of siloed work that gets done between federal office holders and state elected so building stronger partnerships.

You're listening to a live broadcast of the third congressional district Democratic primary candidate forum from UW Platteville.

This special programming is presented by Civic Media on these local stations, WLCX, the EGO 1490 AM in La Crosse.

The tap, 93.5 FM Chippewa Falls, WRCE News from the center, 107.7 FM 1450 AM Richland Center.

We'll return in just a moment. Stay with us for more live coverage from UW Platteville.

You're listening to a live broadcast of the third congressional district Democratic primary candidate forum.

Katrina, what I will do is reread the questions so that we have clarity on what you're responding to.

And I'll give you a full minute of time because I know you had a part of your response.

The question again was how do you plan to ensure that all rural residents have reliable and affordable access to high-speed internet?

I want to highlight an inaction from our Republican-led House of Representatives over 400,000 people across the country were relying on the Affordable Connectivity Program,

which reduced the cost for low to medium income families and seniors to be able to afford internet.

This is not a luxury. It is a utility and a need for many folks from education, agriculture, to health care and communications.

And it's a travesty that Derek Van Orden and House Republicans allowed the Affordable Connectivity Program to expire.

I wrote a letter to all of our members of Congress asking them to continue it.

It's something I will continue to champion because we don't just need access to reliable broadband.

It has to be affordable and it has to be high speed.

So in addition to that, the legislation that I introduced on the state level, the better broadband package with Senator Jeff Smith,

I would love to mirror that in Congress because when the federal government is putting out the bead grants, we actually have to make sure that it's getting to people on the ground in Wisconsin in the most rural areas.

One of the big challenges that you know is our legislators that go to Washington represent a lot of diverse areas.

And you can talk to people about the driftless and the particular challenges that we have here in Southwestern and the Third Congressional District.

My brother lives in Appleton and he and I were driving around Grant County. I was showing him the sights and he was astounded at how many times he did not have connectivity.

We all know this but until you experience it, it's an extra challenge for our legislators because the other people may not know what we're talking about.

It may sound very general to them and it's very specific to us.

Our next question and the proliferation of large solar farms, windmills and high voltage distribution lines has really divided the community, even across partisan lines.

What is your approach to striking the balance between green energy and preservation of the driftless areas, natural beauty and agricultural heritage?

And Rebecca, I believe you lead on this one, 90 seconds.

Great. Well, I've actually talked to a Grant County board member about this very topic.

I spent some time calling through locally some of the board members in different counties throughout the Third CD and talked with Joe Mom who is a farmer, who mentioned this to me.

And I think it's really important to be bringing farmers in the entire community along with this process and putting people first over profits.

And we really need to have local buy-in.

I'm really in favor of Agar Voltex, which combines solar and agriculture on the same land and kind of meets in the middle with a lot of the issues that both sides have been raising.

And it has really big bipartisan support.

Senator Chuck Grassley and Senator Tammy Baldwin have introduced bills related to this.

But I think it's really important to be bringing people along in this process.

There's benefits for farmers that might have unused egg land in which they're able to diversify their revenue streams and able to put solar in their field, which is great.

But also thinking about how do we do that without jeopardizing what does our land look like?

And I think a big piece of this too is where does the energy go? Is the energy staying within our communities?

I think there's some resentment of people utilizing our land and then all the energy is going to the big city.

So working with our rural electric cooperatives who are starting to move away from reliance on fossil fuels so that a lot of those renewable energy resources stay in the grid that's right around these areas in which they're pulling the energy from.

Katrina, your response 90 seconds.

I worked at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association for several years and took all the renewable energy classes.

So I've been working on clean energy issues in the capital for 12 years and I know that it's great for our economy, health and climate.

I also know we have to balance the deployment of solar and wind farms with the fact that they're fifth and sixth generation family farmers who want to celebrate and keep their heritage alive.

And that can get complicated when an out of state solar developer comes in and tells the farmer they're the last person they need to sign a contract for the project.

I've personally experienced this as a legislator who's tried to broker and negotiate among my constituents to help them with planning and zoning and give them a voice.

I think it's important to note that here in Wisconsin there's a lot that actually preempts local communities from having decision making authority when we're talking about above 100 megawatt projects.

And so as a member of Congress what I want to do first and foremost is support the protecting future farmland act that brings NRCS USDA and farmers together to plan their communities.

I'm sure that we're looking at the least productive farmland for example or the hydrogeologically sensitive farmland as well as looking at grazing sheep with solar.

And in addition I think we have to ensure there was a question specifically about the transmission line and I have to believe that's related to Cardinal Hickory Creek transmission line.

People deserve to have a voice and if there's one thing I know about that it's that as a member of Congress I would have the opportunity to bring people together on these topics and to mediate and help find common ground.

As well as common sense solutions. That's what sorely needed in DC and it's what I can commit to to help everyone tackle this issue together.

Thank you. Egg your response 90 seconds.

We need to be looking holistically at how we are integrating solar wind and farms together.

It actually makes our farmers more profitable in some regards when we are doing more sustainable practices.

And so I want to make sure that we are giving them the resources up front to make the changes right like we have a current farming structure and things are how they are.

And we're going to have to change that as we move forward. I want to make sure that we have more open fields for grazing and the ability to expand.

We are expanding our electric grid. I drive an electric vehicle. We are going to have to have more electricity within our grid.

That comes to a challenge when we aren't using our fields correctly.

And so it's going to be some up front but if we are working together we can make it better for everyone.

It's just we have to be having those conversations. They're not easy conversations. I know we hear that windmills are ugly and some days they are.

But it's looking at all options to make sure that we are electric stable.

I'm sure that someone at some point in the Netherlands thought that windmills were ugly as well.

We have changed our viewpoint on that. I live near the spring green area.

And I regularly take guests past Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's home.

And I ask people as we drive by what's different about this area than any other area you might have been in.

And nobody ever gets it. What's the fact is around Taliesin and all the land at Frank Lloyd Wright owned, there are no power lines.

He made sure everything was buried back in the 40s. And if you've ever heard story about Frank, he was a rather intimidating individual.

And I deal a great deal with tourism and I certainly have an understanding about the aesthetics of this area.

This really truly does go across party lines. And I'm going to ask a related question here of the three of you if I may.

Across party lines, all of you have experienced working with other people who have dealt with this particular issue.

Who is the first person on the other side of the political fence that you might go to to establish a collaboration to deal with this issue?

And you don't have to respond to this. But if you have someone I'd be interested in hearing it, 30 seconds each.

Rebecca?

As far as a member of Congress that I would work with on this issue?

You can answer this question any way you want.

I would work on this issue locally. I mean, to me, I am beholden as an elected official to the constituents that elect me.

And so I want to be working with farmers. I want to be working with the communities in which this actually impacts.

I don't feel like I need to go find another member of Congress to introduce a bill like this.

Like a bill that would support more renewable energy but also maintaining our landscapes.

And so I think it's working with a local community to see what they really want, what our constituents really want.

And if it does warrant a commercial action.

I have to ask you to conclude. I realize this will say a surprise question.

I'm going to go out of order here. Eric, do you have a response to that? How would you deal with that?

Yeah, I would say it's kind of in the same line. We need to be working with everyone.

If we are going to be mandating a transition to electric cars, like that's going to be a struggle for us here in Wisconsin.

So we need people that are going to be in Congress advocating for the reality of things and how we are integrating.

It's making sure that our local electeds and our state electeds are at the table and how we are planning for the future.

Thank you, Katrina. 30 seconds.

I believe in an all of government approach. And so in our third congressional district, we have both Democratic and Republican state lawmakers,

who also represent their constituents as we have county supervisors and mayors and county executives and town board chairs and town supervisors.

And so I would want to convene all of those folks from both parties and independence as well.

I think without discrimination we need to bring everyone together to have these conversations.

In terms of who I would ask in Congress, there's already a bill that I would support the Protecting Future Farmland Act.

Senator Baldwin's the champion on this in the Senate, so is Chuck Grassley.

So that's who I would reach out to in Congress. Put my name on the bill. Let's get it done. But first, let's start locally. Let's convene everybody.

Thank you. Katrina, stay on deck here because the next one you're going to be the lead response.

The question is, the events of the past four years have left some voters disillusioned and skeptical of the integrity of our election system.

What would you do or support that would ensure our elections are fair, accessible, transparent and viewed as legitimate by everyone? Katrina?

This is a great question. I'm going to talk about some bills in just a second. But first, I want to talk about how important it is to have the public trust.

And when we want stakeholders who come to the table to chat with their government leaders and provide input in the halls of Congress, we need them to trust that the election was fair.

And I think part of what I've done on the state level is worked with my town and village clerks who I represent in my district.

And we've sat down and offered to anyone who wants to be an election observer. To see, we have the one of the most devolved forms of elections there is.

And any election clerk will tell you it is incredibly safe and effective. Bringing people in and showing them the election integrity works.

And our devolved system, the Elections Commission, our county clerk, our town clerk, village clerk, city clerk, they all work together. It works.

So, secondly, democracy for all amendment to overturn citizens united. The best way to get people to believe in government democracy in our elections is to get big money out of politics and stop electing special interest corporate politicians.

The Freedom Devote Act, HR1, makes it easier for people to vote, ends the dominance of big money in politics and ensures officials are working in the public interest.

That too is integrity. And then the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, making sure that we're actually enforcing the Voting Rights Act and making it as easy as possible to vote safely and securely as important.

So, I think as an elected official education and bringing people together to show them how the system works is crucial to strengthening our democracy.

Eric, your response to that question 90 seconds.

We need to end citizens united. It's been the single biggest detriment to our democracy ever.

We need to stop big money from corrupting our elections, ban members of Congress from trading stocks, and partisan gerrymandering, guarantee automatic and same day voter registration, restore and strengthen Voting Rights Act, and make sure early voting and voting at home is accessible for everyone, especially those who have mobile challenges.

Felons who have completed their time need their voting rights restored as well.

We can join together as voters and ensure that we are building a future that works for everyone, no exceptions.

Thank you. Rebecca, this time I'll remember that at your next 90 seconds, your response please.

So, for generations, my family has fought to protect our country and uphold democracy, and our democracy is very fragile and should not be taken for granted.

Protecting the rights and freedoms promised in our Constitution is more urgently needed now than ever.

And we need to make it easier, not harder, for eligible voters to participate in our democratic process by exercising their right to vote.

And I will always be a staunch defender of voting rights. In Congress, I will finally enact the Freedom to Vote Act, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, making voting more accessible, ending partisan gerrymandering, which we all know too well in Wisconsin, bolstering ethics rules for members of Congress, and eliminating dark money and politics.

This is in contrast to somebody like Derek Van Orden, who literally attended the stop the steel rally in D.C. to overthrow an election. It's an election denier.

We need somebody who is going to uphold the pillars of our democracy and not work to dismantle it.

Thank you, Rebecca. That concludes the prepared questions that we have. We also had some additional questions that the Plattville or the Democratic Party here in Grant County.

Pardon? We did all.

We did all.

Oh, yeah. Well, you did them all. I'm sorry. I gotta give you more credit. Here's one though that in particular caught my eye, and I'm sure while you may not have heard the question, I'm sure you...

World communities are experiencing serious brain drain with young people leaving their communities for opportunities elsewhere.

What ideas do you have that could provide an incentive for young people to remain in the area and entice other young families to move here, and again doing this from your potential federal perspective?

And the first response to this is Eric. 90 seconds.

We need to make sure that the infrastructure is here. If we have crumbling health care, if we have crumbling schools, if we have way too expensive of housing, if we don't have child care, younger people aren't going to want to live here. That's just the reality of it.

They can't live here. They can't afford to live here. And so those are some of the issues that we're going to have to fix first.

We're going to have to expand health care and make sure that everyone has access to health care, especially in the rural communities. Medicare for all is a solution for that.

And make sure that there is publicly funded hospitals.

Education, like we talked about, it's investing in education, making sure our federal dollars are coming to rural areas to protect our schools regardless of size.

Child care, we need to be making sure that there is access to child care.

It's also making sure that we have jobs for the future. If we don't have broadband, if we don't have technology jobs and integration here in our communities,

it's going to be much more difficult to keep kids here.

I went to school down in Madison and went up to the city so I could work in technology.

It's not that I didn't want to go home to be with family and be in the area, but the technology jobs were not there.

And that's a passion of mine.

And so that's a perfect situation of we are going to have to make sure that there is access to new jobs and new corporations and new ways of working here in our district.

Same question, Rebecca?

Frankly, I feel like this question is a culmination of almost everything that we've been talking about here tonight.

When we're talking about public education, when we're talking about farming, when we're talking about high-speed broadband, in order to want to have people to come back to our small towns to communities that we all love,

our communities have to be really livable places that people want to build families and work their lives down in.

We have to have these core pieces like high-quality health care and having it accessible and affordable, making sure that we're protecting and funding our public education system, expanding broadband, expanding on what Eric said, making sure we have child care.

That and providing more opportunities, I think I have been proud to start a nonprofit that supports mainstream businesses all across Western Wisconsin.

We've helped 50 small businesses open from rural mental health clinics, independent bookstores, from farm to table restaurants, and I've been proud of those types of investments.

Thinking about ways that we can continue to bolster the necessities that we need, and also continue to build a quality of life so that we can attract some of the bigger employers that make us want to stay in those communities that we all have grown up with and want to build our lives there.

I think the three of us are examples of that being working and living in the communities in which we are born raised.

Thank you. Katrina.

I want to highlight an issue incredibly important to Western and Southwest Wisconsin, and that's our two-year and four-year colleges and universities for over a decade.

They have been deeply underfunded, and I have fought for not only funding our public colleges and universities but making them more affordable.

What I am worried about, there's a lot of data that shows the best way to prevent brain drain is to fund your UW system and technical college system and make it affordable because students who go to and graduate from a technical college or university in Wisconsin are most likely to stay when they complete it.

But if UW Richland Center closes its doors just like for other two-year campuses have, where do they go?

We were hearing from folks who are leaving the state because of these campus closures, and I have to believe that unfortunately it appears that among some policymakers it's a foregone conclusion that they will continue to shut down campuses instead of fund them.

So in addition to investing in higher education and having the federal government partner with the state to do so and make it more affordable for all of our students in Wisconsin, we also can tackle affordable housing.

It's one of the greatest barriers for folks in Wisconsin, and I'm hearing that everywhere I go, I want to help establish a grants for grads program just like other states have done to provide down payment assistance for those who just want to their local technical college or university in Wisconsin and commit to stay for a certain number of years.

So we can do more using tools that other states have already used, as well as working together local state and federal to make it easier for people to stay here in Wisconsin.

Thank you for your response. We will now go to the closing statements of each of our three candidates, each will have two minutes, and we'll follow the same order that they did in their introductions.

And for your closing statement, Rebecca, would you please go first, two minutes.

So if there's one thing that I think all of us here can agree on tonight is that Derek Van Orden has got to go.

We have talked at length about how he is wrong on Wisconsin policies and just plain embarrassing on everything else.

And I am our best chance to defeat Derek Van Orden.

What sets me apart from folks here tonight are my lived experiences that are relatable to everyday voters here in the third CD.

So many of us have lost our farms, so many of us struggle to pay health care bills, and so many of us have shattered our small businesses, and while so many of us are also living paycheck to paycheck.

And when I'm out talking to people around the third congressional district, I hear the same stories.

We know we can turn out democratic voters around this district in the general, but it takes someone with a background like me to connect with swing independent and moderate voters to find common ground.

The CD opened up last cycle, felt like to me a real opportunity to step up and to serve our community.

And now that feels even more urgent.

We won 11 out of 19 counties last cycle and lost by just 8% of the vote despite being hugely outspent.

We won in population centers like O'Clair County and Portage County, but we also won in a lot of rural communities because our message resonated with working families across Western Wisconsin.

The seat won't be anointed, but it will be earned.

Our campaign allowed us to build the 19 county infrastructure it's going to take to deliver this district in November.

It allowed me to build a profile and raise the resources that we are going to need to combat the flood of dark money, the far right is going to dump into this district.

And it showed that we have a message that resonates, a working class message, not a career politician.

I know we can flip the seat back to blue, and I'm asking for your support.

I'm going to need your help knocking every door in this district even if it's on a dirt road,

writing postcards and having tough conversations, but ones that I know can break through.

Together, I know that we commend the division in our country and in this district, but it takes a home-run leader like myself to get us there.

I hope to earn your vote in August and again in November. Thank you.

Thank you. Katrina, your closing remarks, two minutes.

Tonight you heard from three candidates, and one of us will make it to November and compete against Derek Van Orden, one of the most extreme members of Congress.

Here's a difference. I'm the only Democrat here who is held public office and who has experienced passing bills into law.

I think that's important. I'm the only Democrat here who's ever won a tough election and a tough district.

I think that's important. In fact, I'm the only Democrat here who has experienced drafting a bill, getting it signed into law, and defeating a Republican at the ballot box.

I think that's really important. In fact, when Republicans targeted me with hundreds of thousands of dollars in attack ads,

I won by double digits, and I won by building a coalition of Democrats, Independents, and even some Republicans who believe in democracy and abortion rights, and who want a leader who is laser focused on solving problems and delivering for them.

We get one real shot at taking out a vulnerable freshman who will be supported by powerful special interests.

Two years ago, the D-Triple C failed rural Wisconsin and didn't invest like they should have, and that's going to be different this time.

We'll have the resources and winning coalition to beat Derek Van Orden and we need a battle-tested proven candidate to take him on.

Derek Van Orden hasn't done anything to improve people's lives. I've passed 225 bills into law.

I believe I'm the best candidate to defeat Derek Van Orden because I have a strong record of getting things done, a stark contrast to my opponent who fights his constituents instead of fighting for them.

These are serious times that required skilled and experienced leaders representing us in the halls of Congress.

That's why I've been endorsed by Congressman Mark Pokan, 15 Labor Unions, State Senator Jeff Smith, Representative Jody Emerson, Representative Steve Doyle, Representative Jill Billings, and more.

We have a growing coalition from three national groups to state and local leaders all over the third. They've seen me win for Wisconsin, and they know I can deliver in Wisconsin in November.

I have the experience to get things done and the values that you can trust. I hope I can earn your vote in August. Thank you.

Thank you. Perfectly two minutes. Really good time management. Eric, you're closing remarks, two minutes.

Progressive change is the only thing that is going to win this race. Justice Janet won this district with 55% of the vote, running on abortion and fair maps.

Tammy won with 56% of the vote, and everyone's favorite progressive Bernie won with 62% of the vote. Progressives win in the third.

To flip Congress, exactly. To flip Congress, to hold the Senate, and to re-elect President Joe Biden, it's going to take us all.

This district is unique and it has six universities. Dems will need young people. There are over 50,000 students that will be here in November voting.

That means speaking their issues. I'm the only Democrat in this race that is called for a ceasefire.

I am the only Democrat that is advocating for responsible gun ownership.

I am the only one that is in support of full student loan forgiveness. And I am the only one that is in support of Medicare for all.

I am running to lead the next generation of Americans to a brighter future.

This is not the year to be a moderate. We need to energize our base. We need more progressive champions.

We need more proxamires and fine goals. The third CD is ready for progressive change.

I'm asking for you to join me. Not tomorrow, not next year, but today.

I'm Eric Wilson, and I'm running to be your progressive champion. Let's go kick Derek's ass and happy pride.

Not the word. I would have used, but at the same time we all understood it. Thank you so very much.

Your job has not gotten any easier for all the members of our audience.

Frankly, it's very rare that we see three really qualified and prepared candidates who are ready willing and able to do the very extensive work required to not only run for office, but to win for office, win at office, and then do the job afterwards.

I thank all three of you for the efforts that you have made. I have one short announcement here.

The Grand County monthly, the Democrats monthly meeting is tomorrow night Thursday at Wisconsin Bank and Trust, 10 Keystone Parkway in Plattville.

Driver on the back to the ground floor entrance, and it's at 6.30 p.m.

If I didn't tell you that Joyce was going to fire me.

I want to thank the third congressional district and most importantly all of you for being here tonight, but this is just the start.

You've got to go out there, you've got to talk to your friends and neighbors, and when it comes to the primary, you need to get out and vote and make sure that they do as well.

Because they've got something not just a vote against. They truly have something to vote for here.

Thank you all for being here, and we said that you're done by 8th when it is.

Join us on July 16th for another exclusive live broadcast of the third congressional district forum featuring the Democratic primary candidates.

Human listening to this live broadcast on Civic Media.