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election 2026
The 'Iron Stache' Is Back: Wisconsin Ironworker Randy Bryce Announces 2026 House Run
"With what Trump and Musk have been doing, it's more important than ever to get union people, working people, into Congress."
May 20, 2025
As congressional Republicans and the administration of President Donald Trump set their sites on slashing vital social services, former union ironworker-turned-progressive Democratic U.S. House candidate Randy Bryce announced Tuesday that he will seek to oust the incumbent Trump ally in 2026 and help save Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.
Bryce—also known as the "Iron Stache" due to his prominent moustache—is a disabled veteran who launched his 2018 campaign with a viral video skewering then-House Speaker Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) attacks on healthcare. Bryce, who raised over $7 million with donations averaging around $25, won the Democratic primary but lost to Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) in the 2018 general election.He aims to face Steil in the next cycle.
"Every great story begins with a spark. Ours began in 2018, when one man stood up to Washington," Bryce said in an ad released Tuesday announcing his new campaign for Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District seat. "Now, as old enemies come out of the shadows, we need him one more time."
"Trump promised to bring manufacturing back," Bryce continued. "Eight years later, we're still waiting. We can't afford to wait any longer—not for jobs, or healthcare, or a damn living wage."
"This isn't about left versus right," he added. "This about the billionaires versus the rest of us, and we've got the numbers!"
As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinelreported Tuesday:
At the time, Bryce ran on supporting "Medicare for All" legislation, raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, and boosting unions. He remains a member of the Ironworkers Local 853 and in the years since his first campaign, he said, has served as a union representative, worked with Social Security Works, an advocacy group seeking to expand Social Security, and more recently has helped people with disabilities find work.
Like his ally Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Bryce believes that Democrats lack a coherent vision for defeating Trumpism and the oligarchy that's enriching itself at the expense of working-class Americans.
The solution? "With what Trump and Musk have been doing, it's more important than ever to get union people, working people, into Congress," Bryce toldCapital Times associate editor and Nation national affairs correspondent John Nichols on Tuesday, referring to de facto Department of Government Efficiency chief and world's richest person, Elon Musk.
Working-class Dem Randy Bryce Takes On Trump Ally Bryan Steil For Key Wisconsin House Seat. — Bryce is the union Ironworker whose 2018 challenge to Speaker Paul Ryan went viral and, ultimately, saw Ryan decide to quit. Bryce says he’s running in 2026 to save Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.
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— John Nichols (@nicholsuprising.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 8:20 AM
"What Trump's doing, and what Bryan Steil is helping him do, is really scaring people," Bryce told Nichols. "I'm talking to veterans, to people who rely on Medicaid, to families that can't keep up with rising prices, to workers. They're all angry."
"You've got an administration that is strangling the Social Security system, laying off people, cutting services," he added. "The Republicans in Washington are pulling what's left of the rug out from under us. I just think this is a going to be an election where people in the 1st District say, Enough!"
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Tlaib Backs Primary Challenger McKinney Over Democratic Incumbent Thanedar
"I know when it comes to real representation, Michigan's 13th District deserves better," said Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib in support of state Rep. Donavan McKinney.
May 12, 2025
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib drew praise from progressives Monday after endorsing a state lawmaker's Democratic primary challenge against an incumbent from a neighboring Michigan district.
Tlaib (D-Mich.) endorsed 32-year-old state Rep. Donavan McKinney (D-11), who last month announced he is seeking to oust pharmaceutical magnate-turned Congressman Shri Thanedar, who has represented Michigan's 13th Congressional District since 2023.
"Centering community not only means standing up to corporate donors and lobbyists but also means fighting to address community needs through robust community services and responsive representation," said Tlaib in a statement. "This type of leadership is missing for residents in the 13th and I know Donavan will bring it... I know when it comes to real representation, Michigan's 13th District deserves better."
Big news! Rep. Rashida Tlaib is endorsing @donavanmckinney.bsky.social’s campaign for Congress—the first Congressional endorsement of this race. Rashida knows that voters in her neighboring district need a leader who will fight back against billionaire corruption—not a Congressman in name only.
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— Justice Democrats (@justicedemocrats.com) May 12, 2025 at 7:08 AM
McKinney, who is also endorsed by the progressive group Justice Democrats and more than a dozen current and former Michigan state lawmakers and other officials, said Monday on social media that he is "honored to have" Tlaib's support and "can't wait to serve by her side" in Congress.
According to Justice Democrats, McKinney's "priorities are protecting our economic security, ensuring families have access to clean air and water, ensuring every child can receive a quality public education, bringing justice to the criminal legal system, pushing for a robust, quality public transit system, and expanding the rights of unions and workers."
"He has worked to lower costs and increase affordability for the people of his district, taken on corporate monopolies, and fought to get big money out of politics on the state-level and he's running for Congress to bring that fight to Washington," the group added.
Thanedar responded to Tlaib's endorsement in an interview with the Detroit Free Press in which he said that "my focus is, and will continue to be, fighting [President Donald] Trump, bringing federal dollars back to the district, and serving my constituents."
"I'm confident voters in the 13th will choose me again in 2026," he added.
One issue of contention between Tlaib and Thanedar is Israel's U.S.-backed assault on Gaza, which is the subject of an International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide case and the impetus for International Criminal Court arrest warrants targeting fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Tlaib—the only Palestinian American member of Congress—is a staunch advocate of a Gaza cease-fire and cutting off U.S. military aid to Israel.
Thanedar previously co-sponsored a resolution in Michigan's House of Representatives advocating an end to U.S. aid for Israel, which he described an an "apartheid state"—a position aligned with the ICJ and numerous international and Israeli human rights groups.
However, Thanedar subsequently quit the Democratic Socialists of America over what he said was DSA's failure to condemn the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Blue Wave—a super political action committee linked to American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, spent $2.3 million on ads attacking Thanedar's 2024 primary opponent, Detroit City Councilmember Mary Waters, who drew praise from the area's sizable Palestinian and Arab American community for her opposition to Israel's Gaza onslaught.
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Florida Sued Over DeSantis' 'Ultimate Cowardly Act' Against Direct Democracy
"We believe in democracy, and we believe that when politicians fail to act, the people have the right to step in," said the campaign manager of Florida Decides Healthcare, a plaintiff in the suit.
May 06, 2025
Florida Decides Healthcare, a political committee and nonprofit that is fighting for expanded Medicaid eligibility in the Sunshine State, on Sunday sued the Florida secretary of state and other state officials, challenging a law Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed last week that makes it tougher for citizens to get constitutional amendments on the ballot.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court, Florida Decides Healthcare (FDH) is working to qualify a ballot measure to appear on the 2026 general election ballot that, if voted through, would expand Medicaid coverage in Florida.
Provisions in H.B. 1205 include decreased time for organizers to submit signed petitions and increased monetary penalties for violations. The law also makes it a third-degree felony for anyone other than a registered petition circulator to collect or physically possess more than 25 signed petition forms beyond ones own and immediate family members.
"Because of H.B. 1205's punitive and onerous restrictions, set to go into effect in the middle of FDH's ongoing petition drive, the organization faces the real and imminent threat of being unable to continue its operations," according to the suit. "H.B. 1205 creates intolerable uncertainty, exposes FDH to ruinous civil and criminal penalties, and could ultimately force FDH to shut down its campaign entirely."
According to a statement from FDH, the lawsuit contends that the bill is a "direct assault" on the citizen-led constitutional amendment process in Florida, "a vital democratic tool that gives everyday Floridians the power to propose ballot initiatives."
H.B. 1205 creates "vague" and "punitive" restrictions around the process that will have a chilling impact on political speech and dissuade civic engagement, according to the group.
The Elias Law Group, a prominent Democratic law firm, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, a racial justice and legal advocacy group, are lending legal support to FDH.
This targeting of the citizens amendment process comes less than one year after two ballot initiatives in Florida narrowly failed. Amendment 4 sought to ensure the right to an abortion up until fetal viability. The measure narrowly failed, falling short of the 60% majority needed to pass, meaning Florida will remain under a six-week abortion ban. Amendment 3 sought to legalize marijuana and also failed. Groups backing the initiatives raised tens of millions of dollars.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, the DeSantis administration used public money to run ads targeting the initiatives, and defended the ad campaigns as educational.
"Floridians have a constitutional right to change policy themselves. State legislators have now effectively silenced their constituents, all in order to maintain their chokehold on policymaking," said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, in a statement on Tuesday. The Fairness Project was among the groups that backed Amendment 4 last fall.
"It's the ultimate cowardly act—for politicians to enact minority rule when they know their policies don't align with the will of the majority," Hall added. "Sadly, this is nothing new for DeSantis, who used extraordinarily undemocratic means to block the will of the people during the 2024 election."
Mitch Emerson, campaign manager for Florida Decides Healthcare, similarly called the law "cowardly." Emerson is also a plaintiff in the suit.
"It's not reform—it's repression. We are filing this lawsuit because we refuse to let them silence the people of Florida," said Emerson in a statement on Monday. "We believe in democracy, and we believe that when politicians fail to act, the people have the right to step in. Floridians are ready to vote for Medicaid expansion—and we intend to make sure they get that chance."
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