- Mitchell Berman: Hi, I'm Mitchell Berman, emergency room nurse and Democratic nominee and "Red to Blue" candidate running for Congress here in Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District.

As a kid who grew up in a small, rural Wisconsin community, I never saw running for Congress on my bingo card.

I went to public schools.

My parents were working-class folks.

My dad built a small roofing business from the ground up, and my mom worked long hours in the foundry.

They taught me the values of hard work, perseverance, and selflessness, and always stick up for the little guy.

I was a first-generation college student, and I worked three jobs just to make ends meet.

In college is where I got my first union job.

I worked for UPS, unloading trucks at 4 o'clock in the morning so I could get to class by 8:00.

And that job taught me the value of being part of a collective and having a unified voice.

It also gave me insurance when I otherwise wouldn't have had it.

And so, I carried that with me into my nursing career.

After graduating, I became an emergency room nurse and spent the last 11 years at the VA, taking care of the men and women who served our country.

And it was in that capacity when this administration took over last year, and Elon Musk and DOGE came in, and they started making indiscriminate cuts to the VA, implementing hiring freezes, and making it more difficult for us to do our jobs.

That's when I realized that it was gonna take somebody from the ground floor to stand up and fight for change if we really wanted to see it.

And so, like so many of you, I got tired of our politicians in Washington forgetting about the promises that they made to us back home.

And we are constantly being asked to tighten our belts and do more with less.

Well, enough is enough.

We need somebody who's actually gonna fight for us.

We need someone who's gonna make sure that if you work 40 hours a week, that you earn a living wage.

When you get sick, you can afford to go to the doctor, and that you can trust is not sitting in Washington enriching themselves while folks at home are struggling.

And that's what I intend to do.

I intend to make sure that we pass the PRO Act and make sure that workers have a seat at the table that they helped build, that we raise the minimum wage to a living wage, that we fully fund Medicaid, and make sure that safety net is there if you need it.

Also, restore the ACA subsidies so that people can afford insurance and offer a government option to create competition and bring costs down so that if you get sick, you don't have to worry about losing your house or going bankrupt.

And also, we need to make sure we get money out of politics and end the corruption in Washington.

Right now, too many of our politicians are getting rich while we're left holding the bill, and that shouldn't be the case.

So, thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to chat with you, and I look forward to earning your support in November.

- Bryan Steil: Wisconsin families are working hard,