09/09/2026
DWFA proudly endorses Mitchell Berman for Congress in !
WI-01 is one of the most competitive House races in the country. Republicans have held the seat for more than three decades, and Bryan Steil — who succeeded Paul Ryan in 2019 — has built a durable incumbent advantage through strong fundraising, repeated electoral success, and consistent overperformance of the district's underlying partisan baseline. In 2024, Inside Elections calculated that Steil ran 3.5 points better than the district's presidential baseline.
But the district itself is plainly competitive. In March, a Republican-aligned pollster found a generic Democrat beating a generic Republican 44–42 even as Steil led Berman 50–41. The latest survey now shows the race essentially tied: Steil 49, Berman 48.
That movement is candidate-specific. Mitchell Berman has substantially closed what was previously a personal-incumbent lead.
Berman's biography is unusually well suited to this district. He grew up in a one-stoplight town in rural Wisconsin. His father built a small roofing business; his mother worked in a foundry. He became the first person in his family to graduate from college — working three jobs and taking on student loans to do it.
He has spent more than 23 years in healthcare. For over a decade, he cared for veterans, active-duty servicemembers, and their families at the VA, and he continues to work as a board-certified emergency nurse. He is also a longtime union member, including with Teamsters Local 344 (his first union job in college), the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, and National Nurses United.
His campaign is anchored in the issues that biographical credibility makes unusually persuasive: lowering healthcare and prescription-drug costs; protecting Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security; keeping manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin and strengthening unions and apprenticeships; protecting rural hospitals, maternity care, and family farms; supporting veterans and strengthening VA healthcare; defending reproductive freedom; investing in public education and vocational training; banning congressional stock trading and reducing the influence of corporate money in politics; and protecting Wisconsin's clean water and natural resources.
His coalition reflects that positioning. Endorsements include the United Auto Workers, AFT Local 212, Defend the Vote, Nurses for America, Future Forum, and End Citizens United. Elected officials supporting him include Rep. Gwen Moore, Rep. Pat Ryan, State Sen. Mark Spreitzer, and State Reps. Ben DeSmidt, Clinton Anderson, Tip McGuire, Ann Roe, and Chris Sinicki, along with former WI-01 nominees Randy Bryce, Marge Krupp, and Lydia Spottswood. Geographic distribution is strong across Racine, Kenosha, Janesville, and Beloit. The DCCC has added Berman to Red to Blue.
Steil entered the general election with more than $5.5 million in cash on hand. Berman is still building his campaign, though DCCC targeting and outside spending can compensate for some — though not all — of the incumbent's direct cash advantage. Berman's own fundraising shows meaningful small-dollar breadth; one current election-market data feed reports nearly half of his contributions coming from donors giving $200 or less.
The candidate has financial capacity. The campaign has financial disadvantage. Those are different things.
The path to victory is straightforward and disciplined. Berman needs to run strongly in Racine and Kenosha (the population anchors and Democratic vote engines), compete effectively in Janesville and Rock County, limit losses among working-class and small-town voters, make healthcare unusually salient, and turn Steil into a Washington politician rather than allowing Steil to turn Berman into a generic Democrat.
He has a credible mechanism for all five.
The biggest risk is straightforward: Steil's financial resources allow him to define Berman before Berman can fully define himself. That is particularly dangerous because Berman's electoral strength depends heavily on voters understanding his biography. If voters see "ER nurse, union worker, rural Wisconsin roots, VA caregiver," he is extremely difficult to caricature. If Republican spending successfully reduces him to a generic national Democrat, his advantage disappears.
That makes outside investment unusually consequential here. The DCCC Red to Blue designation addresses the principal weakness directly: it provides the organizational and communications resources needed to ensure that voters meet Berman before they meet Steil's definition of him.
WI-01 is one of the most competitive House races in the country — and the kind of candidate it deserves: a working nurse, union member, and veteran caregiver from rural Wisconsin who can make Steil's incumbency a liability instead of an asset.
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👉 **Volunteer:** https://www.bermanforcongress.com/volunteer