Jeremy Ratliff
Editor

Current District 12 Republican Senator and former District 35 state Assemblyman Tom Tiffany claimed the win in the 7th Congressional District Special Election held on Tuesday, May 12. Tiffany garnered 57.2% of voter preference (109,594) while Zunker tallied 81,955 votes (42.8%).

While both candidates targeted health care reform and assisting the state’s farmers in their respective campaigns, Tiffany cited his political experience, and an emphasis on assisting Wisconsinites through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We must ensure access to affordable, accessible healthcare, including mental healthcare,” Zunker stated, as part of a campaign statement. “The cost of deductibles is excessive. We must ensure people with pre-existing conditions are covered without penalty. We must take on Big Pharma and drastically lower the cost of prescription drugs.
“We must address the farm crisis here in Wisconsin and ensure our farmers have access to competitive markets, eliminate predatory business practices that hurt our farmers, ensure funding for mental health resources, and ensure broadband access, not just for farmers but throughout this district. We must also support our small businesses because when we support our small businesses, we support our farmers,” she adds.
“We must also protect our environment. We must ensure clean air, clean water and that our beautiful lands stay protected from corporate greed for generations to come.”
“Many of you know me well,” Tiffany stated in a press release from his campaign.
“In 2010, when our state was facing multi-billion-dollar deficits and record unemployment, you sent me down to Madison to fix the mess. You elected me because we both knew our state government needed some Northwoods commonsense. So I went to Madison on our behalf, and I followed through. I worked with my colleagues to cut taxes by $13 billion, reduce red tape and regulations, fix the $3.6 billion deficit, and help get more Wisconsinites back to work than ever before.
“Now, our nation faces one of the biggest challenges in recent memory with the current COVID-19 pandemic. I am focused on helping provide Wisconsin families the bridge necessary to get us through these tough times safely and back to prosperity. That’s why I voted for the recent emergency COVID-19 legislation that is helping protect Wisconsinites during this public health emergency. But there’s still more to be done, including implementing a more precise, regional plan to reopen our economy, rather than the current shotgun approach.
“Next, we must focus on restoring our economy by providing local communities the flexibility and support to help our agriculture and manufacturing sectors recover. Americans today face a federal government that is far too big and politicians who want more control of their lives. Right now in Congress, we have radical politicians advocating for policies like Medicare-for-all that will dismantle healthcare as we know it, or the Green New Deal that will destroy Wisconsin’s agriculture and manufacturing industries. Socialist policies like these, which are supported by my opponent, threaten our Wisconsin way of life and make it impossible for our families to prosper.”
Locally, Tiffany showed similar results in Lincoln County, pulling in 58.8% of voters (5,005) vs Zunker’s 3,510 votes (41.2%).
Tiffany was sworn into his new office in Washington on Tuesday and will now serve a 2-year term in-office in the U.S House of Representatives. Last Tuesday’s special election was held to fill the vacancy left by former congressman Sean Duffy, who resigned last year.