Mitchell Berman is among the Democrats the party hopes can flip a Republican-leaning district in November’s midterms. Democrats are targeting vulnerable seats this midterm election with working-class candidates they believe will resonate with voters exhausted by the economy.
Candidate Background
Some candidates are new to politics, and many have backgrounds as union members and leaders, which the party hopes will give them an edge over Republican incumbents as people have grown weary of Washington and the higher cost of living. One of these new candidates is Mitchell Berman, an emergency room nurse who Democrats hope will flip a Wisconsin House seat by emphasizing his experience as a worker.
““Being a nurse working in the emergency room, we don’t have the luxury of standing around and not delivering for our patients. We have to make sure that we are addressing concerns in the immediate, making sure that when our patients come in, they leave the emergency department in better condition than they arrive,” Berman said. “That is not happening for folks here in our district.”
The District
Berman is running in a swing district that polling shows is leaning Republican for the House race. It’s the same district that former House speaker Paul Ryan represented from 2015 until he left office in 2019, when he was replaced by Bryan Steil, a corporate attorney and former Ryan aide. Berman is trying to convince voters that Steil has been out of touch with constituents who are seeing costs rise because of White House policies.
Campaign Strategy
The campaign is paralleling Steil with Berman, who has worked in healthcare for more than 20 years.
““Coming from a working-class background, understanding what folks are going through [and] having walked a mile in my neighbor’s shoes gives me the ability to look at legislation from the perspective of having some empathy and understanding for what people are dealing with,” Berman said.
