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The Case Against Bryan Steil

“Bryan Steil is a creature of Washington with a rolodex of special interests and insider allies who know he’ll do their bidding. Steil backed every Trump price hike now hurting Wisconsin families in order to give a handout to his wealthy donors. While Steil has been working to solely serve the one percent, Mitchell Berman dedicated his career to serving veterans and families in times of need as a VA and ER nurse. Working class Wisconsinites need a real fighter to protect health care, get costs down, and end corruption in Washington, and voters will fire Steil and trust Mitchell to get the job done,” said DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene.

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To: Interested Parties
From: Katie Smith, DCCC Regional Press Secretary
Date: August 11, 2026
Subject: The Case Against Bryan Steil

Bryan Steil has a lot of powerful friends in Washington, D.C. From his time in corporate boardrooms helping outsource jobs overseas, to his years in Washington giving tax breaks to billionaires and working overtime to make it harder to vote, Steil is your typical insider who can’t be trusted to take on the system – instead, he has supported every policy making life harder for Wisconsin families while putting corporations and special interests first.

In stark contrast, Mitchell Berman is a dad and a nurse who dedicated his career to showing up for veterans and their families during their toughest moments. Raised in a one stoplight town in rural Wisconsin, Mitchell knows what working-class Wisconsin families are going through, because his family has been through it, too. A husband and a father now raising his own family in his rural community, Mitchell has watched Steil and his friends in D.C. fail too many Wisconsin families. He’s running for Congress because it’s time someone stood up for working Wisconsinites, and he’s got the kind of story that resonates with countless voters fed up with a broken Washington. 

Voters in Wisconsin’s First District proved they are fed up and ready for change when they voted in a landslide for Supreme Court Justice Chris Taylor earlier this year. This race will be a referendum on Steil and Trump’s agenda spiking prices and making life harder. Steil can’t outrun political gravity, and the momentum is with Mitchell Berman to flip this seat. 

Bryan Steil Made Ripping Away Health Care His Mission 

Wisconsin families needed a representative to work to lower their cost of living. Instead, Bryan Steil made it his mission to rip away health care. Steil voted twice for the Big Ugly Bill which gutted health care to fund tax breaks for billionaires. Steil was the deciding vote to slash Medicaid and rip away health care from over 26,000 people in WI-01. He caused premiums to skyrocket with his vote against the Affordable Care Act tax credits, forcing Wisconsin families to pay more. And he voted against lowering prescription drug costs.

Steil is an extreme anti-abortion politician. He signed onto an Amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and called overturning Roe a “great victory,” as it allowed Wisconsin’s 174 year-old abortion ban to go into effect and outlawed almost all abortion for more than a year. Steil voted to jail doctors and nurses who provide reproductive health care, supported defunding abortion care for U.S. servicemembers, and voted for a backdoor effort to pressure states with established legal protections into gradually stripping away abortion rights. All while trying to cover up his anti-abortion views: Steil’s campaign website described him as “proudly pro-life” and detailed his support for legislation that would ban abortion, before he edited it earlier this year in a clear effort to “downplay [his] staunchly anti-abortion views.”

While Steil is out of touch and making things harder, Mitchell Berman understands what families are going through. Mitchell’s years working as a VA nurse and hearing the personal stories of patients struggling to afford health care strike a sharp contrast with Steil, who’s only ever seen the inside of a boardroom or the halls of Congress. Mitchell believes health care is a right, and he’ll fight to make sure every family can afford the quality care they need: undoing the Medicaid cuts, expanding Medicare negotiation of drug prices, and working with anyone to make health care more affordable.

Bryan Steil Sides with the Special Interests to Raise Costs on Wisconsin Families

Steil votes against Wisconsin and instead puts corporate donors and special interests first as the fixture of a broken Washington – dating back to when he worked as a corporate attorneyhelping outsource jobs overseas and accelerate the closure of manufacturing facilities in Wisconsin and across the Midwest.

As he serves on the Financial Services Committee, Steil has built a rolodex full of special interests who pad his campaign accounts, and his campaign finance report is a “who’s who” of corporate special interests and billionaires. From Big Pharma, to Big Energy, to the insurance companies, to Big Tech and Big Banks, Steil has a lot of powerful friends and allies and sides with them over Wisconsinites to raise costs on regular families.

Steil voted to give an enormous tax break to billionaires and corporate special interests who bankroll his campaign. He voted against capping the cost of insulin and allowing Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to lower the cost of prescription drugs. He took money from the big banks and the credit card companies and votes their way, voting to allow credit card companies to raise fees on Wisconsinites so they can increase their profits.

Steil is a total fraud who tries to claim that costs are coming down, but families are paying more for everything, whether it’s health caregroceriesgaselectricity, and more. He backs the tariffs raising prices on Wisconsin families. He’s voted every single time to defend them, despite the fact that families are paying more for groceriesclothesschool supplies, and more. The tariffs are hurting Wisconsin farmers – causing farm incomes to suffer, input costs to rise, soybean farmers to lose their markets, and small family farms to keep getting squeezed. Steil also backs the Iran War, voting repeatedly to enable Trump to send money and troops overseas while Wisconsinites hurt at home. Families are shouldering the cost of Steil’s war: paying more at the pump, as prices in Wisconsin continue to skyrocket.

Mitchell Berman’s priorities are firmly grounded in Wisconsin. Mitchell is a working class fighter who will take on a broken Washington. Wisconsinites need leaders like Mitchell who’ve experienced directly how politicians’ failures impact their families and are driven to work towards real solutions, not more self-enrichment. Mitchell directly gets that the corruption and self-enrichment from politicians means that regular people pay more: he’ll work to pass a real ban on congressional stock trading, go after the corruption across all branches of government that allows corporations to cash in, and take on business as usual that’s left too many families like his struggling to make ends meet.

Steil is an Extremist Too Busy Peddling Lies About Stolen Elections to Focus on Wisconsin Families 

Steil is an extremist who is too busy peddling Trump’s Big Lie to focus on doing what’s right for Wisconsin families.

As House Admin Chair, Steil is leading the charge to disenfranchise Wisconsin voters and undermine safe and secure elections by playing politics with our democracy. He has lied to voters and continued to promote false claims of widespread voter fraud, including about the 2020 election, as a part of helping Donald Trump push the Big Lie. Steil is at the tip of the spear in peddling Trump’s pathetic lies about stolen elections, and it comes at the expense of actually working for Wisconsin families.

Mitchell has the right priorities: working tirelessly to make life better for Wisconsin, not doing the bidding of Trump and pushing the Big Lie. Mitchell will be loyal only to the people of the First District, and always fight for the working class families like his own. 

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

ABC: Republican Rep. Bryan Steil booed defending Trump tariffs at Wisconsin town hall [ABC, 8/1/25]

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: GOP Rep. Bryan Steil holds an in-person town hall event and is greeted with boos over Trump bill [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7/31/25]

NOTUS: Wisconsin Lawmakers Have Boosted Their Wealth Since Coming to Washington – NOTUS [NOTUS, 5/6/26]

Steil’s median net worth more than doubled from 2018 to 2024, from $812,000 in 2018 to nearly $1.9 million in 2024, according to his financial disclosures. 

Wisconsin Public Radio: Tens of thousands of Wisconsinites could lose health coverage under Trump’s budget bill [Wisconsin Public Radio, 6/30/25]

Wisconsin Public Radio: Bryan Steil and Derrick Van Orden are Wisconsin’s top Democratic targets. They haven’t strayed from Trump. [Wisconsin Public Radio, 9/9/25]

Salon: “Proudly pro-life” Wisconsin Republican scrubs anti-abortion text from campaign site [Salon, 8/25/25]

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Congressman Steil touts water funds he voted against [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5/29/26]

Wisconsin Examiner: Former VA nurse enters Democratic primary for Wisconsin’s 1st District race for Congress in 2026 [Wisconsin Examiner, 8/12/25]

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Meet Mitchell Berman, a Democratic challenger taking on Bryan Steil for Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8/12/25]

PATH TO VICTORY

In this midterm election that will serve as a referendum on Republican rule, Democrats come in with a high floor in WI-01. The district is rated R+2 according to the Cook PVI, making it highly competitive in the current environment. Liberal justices have carried WI-01 in the last four State Supreme Court elections. And earlier this year, Chris Taylor carried WI-01 by 15 points and won four out of the five counties in the district, a strong sign of momentum heading into November.

The path to victory for Mitchell Berman runs through turning out the Democratic base and peeling off swing voters in competitive areas of the district. As a working class dad who hunts, fishes, and built his career as a VA nurse showing up for veterans, Mitchell’s background will resonate with hardworking Wisconsinites. Even as he runs for Congress, Mitchell works nights as an ER nurse to make ends meet for his wife and two young daughters. He knows firsthand what it feels like to be unable to catch a break while politicians like Steil keep giving tax breaks to billionaires and his corporate donors. His experience working within a broken health care system and often underfunded (thanks to Steil) VA means he’ll bring a voice to Congress that gets it personally, not just in theory. 

This race will be a referendum on Steil and Trump’s failed records in Washington and the system they both represent. Steil is the insider who can’t be trusted to take on the system because he has supported every policy making life harder for Wisconsin families while putting corporations and the special interests first. Mitchell Berman is the dad, ER nurse, and fighter for the people who raised him. He works only for Wisconsin while Steil works for Washington – and that’s why Mitchell will flip this seat.

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