Here & Now

>> Ron Johnson, thanks very much for doing this. >> Happy to be here. >> We want to ask you first, why you think voters should return you to the Senate? >> If you take a look at my background. How I grew up. Worked hard all my life. You know a lot of people say they're for the working man and woman. I'm a working man. And from a very young age, mowing lawns, caddying, paper routes. My family would get together in the basement. We'd smooth out soap balls for little bath boutiques. I got my first tax-paying job at Walgreens grill

as a dishwasher for minimum wage

a buck forty-five an hour. Paid my way through college. And then when I had an opportunity, helped start, grow and build a business involved in manufacturing for 30 some years. We export products around the world. And we've always maintained that manufacturing base right here in Wisconsin creating Wisconsin jobs. And then when I became panicked for this nation, let's face it, you take a look at the polls. Americans by a huge majority don't believe this nation's on the right path. I certainly didn't believe it was on the right path in 2010 when I stepped up to the plate, won election. Became a citizen legislator serving as a U.S. Senator. I've not only traveled tirelessly around the state. I've not only listened to the concerns of Wisconsinites. And I can pretty well sum it up by the way in one word, security. You know not only national and health care security, or national and homeland security but it's job security, income security and retirement security and health care security. But I've not only listened, I've acted. And I've actually gotten real results. Very rare in my first term, I'm chairman of a full standing committee of the Senate. Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. And using a business person's approach. Trying to find areas of agreement. You know when you sit down at negotiating table of business you don't start arguing right off the bat. You lay out all the areas of agreement. Well that's the approach I've used as U.S. Senator. And it's gotten real results. Frederica I've, under my chairmanship, I've passed 83 pieces of legislation through our committee. 28 now have been signed into law in some way, shape or form. And I'm working on a host of issues. Foreign policy-wise. We were just on the floor of the Senate this Thursday asking for unanimous consent on federal right-to-try law so that the 32 state right-to-try laws can actually be effective and save Americans' lives. So the host of issues, the dozens of real results, the real accomplishments that I've gotten as a citizen legislator using that outsider's approach to actually get real results. Compare that to Senator Feingold, who-- let's face it-- is a career politician. 34 years in politics. Has very little to show for it. I mean he has accomplished very little. He had one high profile failure, campaign finance reform. So much of that's been ruled unconstitutional. So I think it's just that contrast. Do Wisconsinites want a career politician that really didn't deliver in 34 years? Or somebody like me, a citizen legislator with a manufacturing, private sector background, in a very short period of time has figured out a way to get real results even in divided government.