PBS Wisconsin Public Affairs

I'm Margaret Engebretson, and a candidate for Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District seat. I'm a retired veteran who served three years on active duty in the U.S. Navy, followed by 21 years in the Guard and Reserve. I'm a former union railroad worker, and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Superior and the UW Law School. I'm a small-town attorney who's advocated for the best interests of children and disabled adults. I know the people of this district and I understand their needs. I've always taken seriously my responsibility to be an informed citizen and voter, but until two years ago I was never involved in party politics. The 2016 elections left me concerned for the future of our country. As the 2018 elections approached, I felt a duty and obligation to step forward as a candidate for Congress to offer what skills and abilities I have to help defend our democracy and to make sure that the people have an advocate in Washington who will fight for them every single day. For the past eight years, the people of northern and western Wisconsin have had an absentee representative. Sean Duffy has placed his loyalty to his party, his big donors and to one man the president above the people he is supposed to represent. He put the health coverage of thousands of his constituents at risk by voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act with no replacement. He voted for a tax bill that blew a hole in the federal budget in order to provide huge tax giveaways to the wealthy and to private corporations. And while Wisconsin farmers and manufacturers were devastated by the Trump trade war, Congressman Duffy proclaimed that the Trump tariffs would be good for the economy. We deserve better. My whole life I've stuck up for people. I'm hard-wired that way. It's who I am. I will bring that same attitude and that same commitment to my work as a member of Congress. I will fight for a Medicare-for-all public health insurance program that covers everyone from the day they're born until the day they die so that never again does anyone have to worry about losing their health coverage. I will fight for the investments in broadband, in highways, and in rail that our rural communities need to survive and thrive. Northern and western Wisconsin can no longer be left behind. I will fight for trade policies that lift up Wisconsin workers and businesses rather than undermining them. I spoke with a manufacturer in the district who's literally being put out of business by the Trump trade policies and who can't get any meaningful response from the district's current Congressional representative. This must change. I will fight to defend our democracy from all threats foreign and domestic. I'll work to rid our system of the corrupting influence of big money. I haven't accepted a single penny of corporate PAC money, and I never will. I've called publicly for the Congress to take vigorous action to protect our elections from foreign interference. Unfortunately, the Congress has failed to act. If you are a member of Congress and you do not take the safety and security of our democracy seriously, you have no business being in office.

The bottom line is this

our elected officials take an oath "to support and defend the Constitution" and "to faithfully discharge the duties of their office." I will fulfill that oath by being a fierce advocate for the people of the district and by acting as a check on the other branches of government. It's time to set things right. I ask for your vote on November 6th.