Abortion advocates and Democratic U.S. House members march in front of the U.S. Capitol on July 19, 2022. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — A group that focuses on electing Democratic women who support abortion rights announced Wednesday it would target 46 U.S. House seats held by Republicans in the midterm elections as it seeks to turn the chamber from red to blue.
“In 2026, we must take back the majority in the U.S. House to create a federal check on Donald Trump and beat back GOP attacks on our rights and our livelihoods,” EMILYs List President Jessica Mackler wrote in a statement. “Democratic pro-choice women will be at the heart of the fight for the majority by flipping competitive seats across the country. House Republicans beware; we are coming for your seats.”
Democrats, who have been publicly fighting each other lately about how best to oppose Trump’s agenda, barely lost the House during the 2024 elections. Republicans secured 220 seats, compared to Democrats’ 215.
EMILYs List cites several reasons it doesn’t believe the 46 Republicans should stay in office, though all of the issues highlighted have to do with abortion access and reproductive rights.
For example, it notes which of the GOP lawmakers signed a 62-page amicus curiae brief filed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2021 that urged the justices to overturn Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion.
The brief description of each Republican also cites which members have sponsored bills that would implement nationwide abortion bans and which GOP lawmakers voted against approving a bill that would have guaranteed people the right to use contraception without government interference.
The GOP House members that EMILYs List hopes to unseat represent congressional districts considered toss-ups, by the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, as well as districts that lean more favorably toward one party or the other.
EMILYs List is one of several left-leaning organizations that will focus their efforts during the next 19 months on securing Democratic wins come November 2026.
History will likely be on Democrats’ side during the midterm elections, since the political party that doesn’t control the White House typically wins control of the House. That, however, is far from a guarantee.
Polling from NBC News, released in mid-March, shows that just 7% of voters have a “very positive” view of the Democratic Party with another 27% responding they have a positive opinion.
Here are the House GOP members on the list, organized by state.
Alaska: Nick Begich
Arizona: David Schweikert and Juan Ciscomani
California: Kevin Kiley, David Valadao, Young Kim and Ken Calvert
Colorado: Jeff Hurd, Jeff Crank and Gabe Evans
Florida: Aaron Bean, Cory Mills, Anna Paulina Luna and Laurel Lee
Iowa: Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Ashley Hinson and Zach Nunn
Kentucky: Andy Barr
Michigan: Bill Huizenga, Tom Barrett and John James
Minnesota: Brad Finstad
Missouri: Ann Wagner
Montana: Ryan Zinke
Nebraska: Mike Flood and Don Bacon
New Jersey: Jeff Van Drew and Tom Kean
New York: Nick LaLota and Mike Lawler
North Carolina: Chuck Edwards
Ohio: Max Miller, Michael Turner and Mike Carey
Pennsylvania: Brian Fitzpatrick, Ryan Mackenzie, Robert Bresnahan and Scott Perry
South Carolina: Nancy Mace and Joe Wilson
Virginia: Rob Wittman, Jen Kiggans and John McGuire
An Eau Claire County farm. (Photo by Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)
Seven western Wisconsin Republican lawmakers did not appear at an event hosted by the Wisconsin Farmers Union in Chippewa Falls Friday as farmers from the area said they were concerned about the effect that President Donald Trump’s first month in office is having on their livelihoods.
Madison-area U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Black Earth), state Sen. Jeff Smith (D-Eau Claire) and state Reps. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire) and Christian Phelps (D-Eau Claire) were in attendance.
U.S. Reps. Tom Tiffany and Derrick Van Orden, state Reps. Rob Summerfield (R-Bloomer), Treig Pronschinske (R-Mondovi) and Clint Moses (R-Menomonie) and state Sens. Jesse James (R-Thorp) and Rob Stafsholt (R-New Richmond) were all invited but did not attend or send a staff member.
The Wisconsin Farmers Union office in Chippewa Falls. (Photo by Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)
“All four of us want you to know that there are people in elected office who want to fight for you,” Phelps said. “Because I think there’s a lot of fear that comes from the fact that we’re seeing a lot of noise and action from the people who aren’t and some of the people that didn’t show up to this. So I hope that you will also ask questions of them when you get a chance.”
Multiple times during the town hall, Pocan joked that Van Orden was “on vacation.”
Emerson, whose district was recently redrawn to include many of the rural areas east of Eau Claire, told the Wisconsin Examiner she had just been at an event held by the Chippewa County Economic Development Corporation where a Van Orden staff member did attend, so she didn’t understand why they couldn’t hear about how Trump’s policies are harming local farmers.
“I get that a member of Congress can’t be at every meeting all the time, all throughout their district,” Emerson said. With 19 counties in the 3rd District, “it’s a big area. But I hope that they’re hearing the stories of farmers and farm-adjacent businesses, even if they weren’t here. There’s something different to sit in this room and look out at all the farmers, and when one person’s talking, seeing the tears in everybody else’s eyes, and it wasn’t just the female farmers that were crying, the big tough guys, and I think that talks about how vulnerable they are right now, how scary it is for some of these folks.”
Carolyn Kaiser, a resident of the nearby town of Wheaton, said she’s never seen her congressional representative, Van Orden, out in the community. Despite Van Orden’s position on the House agriculture committee, Kaiser said her town needs help managing nitrates in the local water supply and financial support to rebuild crumbling rural roads that make it more difficult for farmers to transport their products.
“When people don’t come, it’s unfortunate,” Kaiser said.
Emmet Fisher, who runs a small dairy farm in Hager City, said during the town hall that he was struggling with the freeze that’s been put on federal spending, which affected grants he was set to receive through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Fisher told the Examiner his farm has participated in a USDA program to encourage better conservation practices on farms and that money has been frozen. He was also set to receive a rural energy assistance grant that would help him install solar panels on the farm — money that has also been held up.
The result, he said, is that he’s facing increased uncertainty in an already uncertain business.
U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan speaks at a Wisconsin Farmers Union event in Chippewa Falls on Feb. 21. (Photo by Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)
“We get all our income from our farm, young family, young kids, a mortgage on the farm, and so, you know, things are kind of tight, and so we try to take advantage of anything that we can,” he said. “[The] uncertainty seems really unnecessary and unfortunate, and it’s very stressful. You know, basically, we have no idea what we should be planning for. The reality is just that in farming already, you can only plan for so much when the weather and ecology and biology matter so much, and now to have all of these other unknowns, it makes planning pretty much impossible.”
A number of crop farmers at the event said the looming threat of Trump imposing tariffs on Canadian imports is alarming because a large majority of potash — a nutrient mix used to fertilize crops — used in the United States comes from Canada. Les Danielson, a cash crop and dairy farmer in Cadott, said the tariffs are set to go into effect during planting season.
“How do you offer a price to a farmer? Is it gonna be $400 a ton, or is it gonna be $500 a ton?” he asked. “I’m not even thinking about the fall. I’m just thinking about the spring and the uncertainty. This isn’t cuts to the federal budget, this is just plain chaos and uncertainty that really benefits no one. And I know it’s kind of cool to think we’re just playing this big game of chicken. Everybody’s gonna blink. But when you’re a co-op, or when you’re a farmer trying to figure out how much you can buy, it’s not fine.”
A recent report by the University of Illinois found that a 25% tariff on Canadian imports — the amount proposed by Trump to go into effect in March — would increase fertilizer costs by $100 per ton for farmers.
Throughout the event, speakers said they were concerned that Trump’s efforts to deport workers who are in the United States without authorization could destroy the local farm labor force, that cuts to programs such as SNAP (commonly known as food stamps) could cause kids to go hungry and prevent farmers from finding markets to sell their products, that cuts to Medicaid could take coverage away from a population of farmers that is aging and relies on government health insurance and that because of all the disruption, an already simmering mental health crisis in Wisconsin’s agricultural community — in rural parts of the state that have seen clinics and hospitals close or consolidate — could come to a boil.
“Rural families, we tend to really need BadgerCare. We need Medicaid. We need those programs, too,” Pam Goodman, a public health nurse and daughter of a farmer, said. “So if you’re talking about the loss of your farming income, that you’re not going to have cash flow, you’re already experiencing significant concerns and issues, and we need the state resources. We need those federal resources. I’ve got families that from young to old, are experiencing significant health issues. We’re not going to be able to go to the hospital. We’re not going to go to the clinic. We already traveled really long distances. We’re talking about the health of all of us, and that is, for me, from my perspective as a nurse, one of my biggest concerns, because it’s all very interrelated.”
Near the end of the event, Phelps said it’s important for farmers in the area to continue sharing how they’re being hurt by Trump’s actions, because that’s how they build political pressure.
“Who benefits from all the chaos and confusion and cuts? Nobody, roughly, but not literally, nobody,” he said. “Because I just want to point out that dividing people and making people confused and uncertain and vulnerable is Donald Trump’s strategy to consolidate his political power.”
“And the people that can withstand the types of cuts that we’re seeing are the people so wealthy that they can withstand them. So they’re in Donald Trump’s orbit, basically,” Phelps said, adding that there are far more people who will be adversely affected by Trump’s policies than there are people who will benefit.
“And you know that we all do have differences with our neighbors, but we also have a lot of similarities with them, and being in that massive group of people that do not benefit from this kind of chaos and confusion is a pretty big similarity,” he continued. “And so hopefully these types of spaces where we’re sharing our stories and hearing from each other will help us build the kind of community that will result in the kind of political power that really does fight back against it.”
Most inmates in Wisconsin’s federal prison, and in federal prisons nationally, are U.S. citizens.
Following Trump administration arrests of immigrants suspected or convicted of crimes, Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden of western Wisconsin claimed Jan. 27 that over 50% of inmates at the Federal Correctional Institution in Oxford, Wisconsin, are “illegal aliens.”
Oxford is a low-security prison 60 miles north of Madison that houses 1,100 male offenders.
As of Jan. 25, 59% of Oxford inmates, and 85% of federal inmates nationally, were U.S. citizens. The Federal Bureau of Prisons does not readily have data on what percentage of inmates are unauthorized immigrants.
Nationally:
U.S. citizens constituted two-thirds of recently federally sentenced individuals.
The most serious offense for 76% of noncitizens sentenced for a federal crime in recent years was immigration-related, such as unlawful U.S. entry or smuggling noncitizens (14% were drug-related).
Donald Trump’s administration has called unauthorized immigrants criminals, but being undocumented is a civil violation.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Wisconsin Supreme Court chambers. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
The members of Wisconsin’s Republican congressional delegation formally endorsed Brad Schimel in the April Wisconsin Supreme Court election Monday in a virtual news conference that highlighted Schimel’s campaign talking points.
Schimel, a Waukesha County circuit judge and former one-term state attorney general, is running for an open seat on the court against Susan Crawford, a Dane County circuit judge.
Elections for the state Supreme Court are officially nonpartisan, but they’ve become partisan in all but name over the last couple of decades, with both major parties supporting candidates. While Schimel’s announcement Monday touted the backing of congressional Republicans, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and other key Democratic leaders have endorsed Crawford.
The race to replace retiring Justice Ann Walsh Bradley will determine whether the Court’s four-member liberal majority remains or falls to a new four-member conservative majority.
At the Monday morning news conference U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Prairie du Chien) said the Wisconsin voters who helped carry Donald Trump to a second term as U.S. president in November would do the same for Schimel in April.
“They’re sick and tired of the radical left agenda,” Van Orden said. “They want to make sure that someone that is sitting on the court is interpreting the law, not writing the law.”
Among the questions from reporters on the call was one about Schimel’s past statements on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters trying to overturn Joe Biden’s election as president in 2020.
During atalk radio show broadcast on Jan. 2, Schimel charged that the prosecution of the Jan. 6 defendants in Washington, D.C. — where the Capitol is located and the attack took place — was the result of political “manipulation” by Democrats because the population of the city “is overwhelmingly liberal.”
“They would never take their prosecution in a district where you had a fair shot as a defendant,” Schimel told radio host Vicki McKenna.
During Monday’s news conference, a member of Schimel’s campaign staff relayed a reporter’s question that began with a reference to a former U.S. Capitol Police officer “who is coming to Wisconsin tomorrow to criticize your comments about the defendants in those cases.”
The question didn’t specify Schimel’s comments or their context, but asked what he thought “of the Trump pardons for Jan. 6 protesters who assaulted law enforcement officers.”
“I have no idea what comments you are talking about,” Schimel replied, adding, “I’ve said that anyone who engaged in violence and Jan. 6, assaulted a police officer, resisted arrest, those people should have been prosecuted. They should be prosecuted and held accountable, and judges should impose sentences that are just under the circumstances.”
But Schimel also criticized the use of a federal law against election obstruction to lodge felony charges against some of those who had broken into the Capitol that day. He said it took the U.S. Supreme Court to “finally recognize that prosecutors in Washington, D.C., overreached.” The Courtvacated those convictions.
In addition, he voiced support for a president’s right to pardon offenders. “It’s a power they have,” Schimel said. “I don’t object to them utilizing that power.”
The news conference signaled that Schimel’s campaign is focusing on, among other subjects, Wisconsin’s 2011 law requiring voters to show a picture ID when they go to the polls.
Republican lawmakers have proposed an amendment that would enshrine the requirement in the state constitution. That proposal goes before voters on the April ballot — alongside the Supreme Court race. Republicans argue that the state Supreme Court might otherwise overturn the law.
Schimel also raisedthe circuit court decision, now under appeal, that would overturn the 2011 law known as Act 10 sharply restricting collective bargaining for public employees.
As an attorney, Crawford represented clients who sought to overturn the state’sVoter ID law as well asAct 10.
“She advocated, she fought against and tried to overturn Wisconsin’s Voter ID law,” Sen. Ron Johnson said. “It’s such a huge difference between conservative judges, people like Brad Schimel, who will apply the law faithfully — again, not what his policy preferences are, but respect not only our state constitution, but the federal constitution in the separation of powers, the checks and balances and being a judge, not a super legislator.”
Schimel noted Crawford’s work as a lawyer opposing Act 10 in a case that the Supreme Court, with a conservative majority at the time, rejected.
“This has been settled law for over a decade, but it’s coming right back,” he said. “If my opponent wins, does anyone believe a case, a law, like Act 10 has any chance of a fair, objective examination?”
Asked what his standard would be for recusing himself from ruling on a case, Schimel said that would include “any case where my family, I or my family, my immediate family, have a personal stake, win or lose, in that case.” He said he would “perhaps … need to recuse” himself on issues with which “I was directly involved in the past” or that “I took strong positions on” — but added that “it’s hard to predict what that might be in a vacuum like this.”
On Monday, however, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin accused Schimel of prejudging the issue of abortion rights. The party highlighted a New York Timesreport on the race that included references to his opposition to abortion rights and his work as attorney general in helping to “map out a strategy to restrict abortion rights.”
The Times article quoted Schimel telling supporters during a campaign stop this past summer that he supported Wisconsin’s 1849 law that was thought to ban abortion until a December 2023 circuit court decision declared that it did not. That ruling is now under appeal and the case is likely to go before the state Supreme Court, possibly this year.
“There is not a constitutional right to abortion in our State Constitution,” The Times quoted Schimel telling supporters in Chilton. “That will be a sham if they find that.”
A member of the Capitol Police uses tear gas on rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A group supporting law enforcement officers who defended the building has published ads ahead of Monday's inauguration urging members of Congress to oppose presidential pardons of the Capitol rioters. (Photo by Alex Kent/for Tennessee Lookout)
For Aquilino Gonell the inauguration Monday of Donald Trump to a second term as U.S. president will carry bitter ironies.
Before and after winning the election in November, Trump said he would pardon those convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob that sought to overturn his 2020 reelection loss.
Aquilino Gonell, a former U.S. Capitol Police sergeant who was injured defending the Capitol during the attack on Jan. 6, 2021. (Photo courtesy of Courage for America)
Gonell was a sergeant with the U.S. Capitol Police, one of hundreds of police officers on the scene who sought to protect the building, members of Congress and their staffs during the attack that delayed the vote by hours to certify Joe Biden’s election as president.
“I was assaulted multiple times,” Gonell told the Wisconsin Examiner in an interview. “Not because we instigated anything, but because I was defending my colleagues and myself and the Capitol, along with the elected officials” — some of whom, he added, were trying to set aside the result of the 2020 election that Trump lost.
“Both my hands were bleeding on that day, and my left shoulder required surgery,” Gonell recalled.
He and his fellow police in the building were the targets of violence by the Trump-supporting rioters.
“These are the same people that claim that they support the police, that they respect the rule of law, that they believe in law and order,” Gonell said. “And with their actions, they showed otherwise.”
Last week, the Courage for America campaign took out newspaper ads urging members of Congress to publicly oppose the pardons. Courage for Americaformed in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot to spotlight the violence and call attention to members of Congress who they believe have papered over the violence with misinformation and propaganda. The group describes its mission as opposing “an extreme MAGA agenda that puts money and power over the rights and freedoms of the American people.”
In Wisconsin the group published ads in Wisconsin Rapids and Stevens Point newspapers, both in the district of U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a Republican and Trump supporter.
“We must call January 6th what it was, a domestic terrorist attack of the highest level,” said Courage for America’s spokesperson, Danny Turkel. “Americans must unite and remind our elected officials that violent criminals who assaulted the United States Capitol and threatened our democracy pose major public safety risks to our communities. Every member of Congress, including MAGA Republicans, have a duty to loudly and publicly oppose the pardoning of the January 6th rioters.”
This ad was published Thursday in newspapers in Wisconsin Rapids and Stevens Point, urging U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden to oppose the pardon of people charged or convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. (Courtesy of Courage for America)
The full-page ad tells readers to “Exercise Caution” and warns of “violent criminals” who “may soon be present in your community.” It urges people to call Van Orden “and demand he oppose the pardoning of any January 6th insurrectionists.”
Van Orden was first elected to Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District in 2022 and was reelected this fall. On Jan. 6, 2021, however, he wasat the Capitol, taking part in the rally that preceded the attack.
Gonell spoke to the Wisconsin Examiner in conjunction with the newspaper ad.
He reserves his most pointed criticism for members of Congress who were in the building on the day of the riot and who, he says, feared for their lives at the time but have since downplayed or ignored the violence that took place.
“People who organized and orchestrated the attack, and the people who we protected, they tend to tell others and the public that it was not as severe, as grave, as we say,” Gonell said.
On Jan. 6, however, “the only reason why they made it out was because we saved their asses — and yet, they have contorted themselves to tell the public and tell themselves that it was peaceful.”
He scoffed at Trump’s description of the riot as a “day full of love.”
“If that was a day full of love, they almost loved me to death,” Gonell said sardonically.
A native of the Dominican Republic, Gonell said he came to the U.S. legally and enlisted in the military, fighting in Iraq during the Gulf War then pursuing a law enforcement career with the Capitol police, where he served for 17 years.
Because of his injuries, he received a medical pension. The benefit is less than his income before he was hurt, “but is enough for me to be able to sustain myself and pay my bills,” he said.
Legislation was enacted in 2022 toexpand benefits for public safety officers or their survivors after suicide or disability as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder, but Gonell said law enforcement personnel involved in defending the Capitol on Jan. 6 have yet to receive any assistance from the program.
He believes his outspokenness about his experience cost him the support of department brass. He’s written a book, “American Shield,” and has awebsite that tells his story.
Gonell testified before the Congressional committee that investigated the Capitol attack. He believes that the stories he and others in law enforcement who defended the Capitol have told failed to resonate with the voting public because many more officers who were also injured or traumatized that day haven’t come forward.
“They saw how the few of us who spoke out were being treated and they probably said to themselves, ‘Why should I put myself out there? Look how they treat you,’” he said.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling this past summer that presidents have immunity for acts committed in their official capacity — a decision that delayed the federal felony case against Trump on charges of election interference in 2020 — “is a betrayal,” Gonell said. “Because of that decision, this person is about to return to power.”
He expects that Trump will go through with pardoning at least some of the Jan. 6 convicts. Reports that members of Congress have invited Jan. 6 riot participants as inauguration guests infuriate him. “They are returning these people to the crime scene,” Gonell said.
He’s already heard about comments by the president-elect that the rioters deserve an apology. “But he will never apologize to the officers who were defending the Capitol,” Gonell said.
This report has been updated to correct the spelling of Aquilino Gonell’s last name.
The value of food imported into the U.S. exceeds what is exported.
That’s a recent reversal of a long-term trend, as U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden stated Dec. 2.
But it doesn’t necessarily mean the U.S. is “beholden on other nations,” as the western Wisconsin Republican claimed.
The U.S. was an annual net exporter of agricultural products from at least the 1970s through 2018, but since then has mostly been a net importer, and the gap is widening.
In fiscal 2025, the value of agricultural imports is projected at $215.5 billion and exports $170 billion.
William Ridley, a University of Illinois agricultural and consumer economics professor, said the U.S. produces more food for itself than ever, but it’s a net importer because of demand for imported food, much of it from allies.
Some imports, including out-of-season produce, come from foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies, said Steve Suppan, of the nonprofit Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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