7th Congressional District: Tricia Zunker, Lawrence Dale become first Democrats to enter race
Laura Schulte
Correction: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Scott Klug's name.
WAUSAU - The first Democratic candidates entered the race for Sean Duffy's former congressional seat Monday morning.
Lawrence Dale, a businessman and Vietnam War veteran, and Wausau School Board President Tricia Zunker both issued press releases announcing their respective bids to finish Duffy's term for the 7th Congressional District.
Zunker also is an associate justice for the Ho-Chunk Nation Supreme Court. She was elected to the school board in 2018 and as an associate justice in 2013 and again in 2017. She is the first Native American woman to run for Congress in Wisconsin since Ada Deer lost to Republican Scott Klug in 1992, according to a report from Wisconsin Public Radio.
At a Monday afternoon visit to a ginseng farm in Edgar, Zunker said she was honored to be the first Native American woman running in the district.
"As the first Native American to hold this seat, it would be extremely monumental, my privilege and my honor as a Ho-Chunk woman," she said. "But I would be running to represent all of the people of the 7th (Congressional District), not just native peoples, though I think that is important because representation matters."
Zunker was the first in her family to graduate from college, according to a press release, and is now a practicing attorney and law professor. She teaches remotely for the California School of Law, where she also serves as the dean of faculty; the University of Maryland; and Colorado State University.
She also has been a champion for a resolution to ban Native American mascots from schools across Wisconsin. The resolution, which aims to get state legislative support for the ban, was first passed by the Wausau School Board in mid-August and has since been adopted by numerous school boards, including in Madison and Milwaukee.
Dale said in a prepared statement that he plans to focus on well-paying jobs in the 7th District by possibly bringing a meat processing plant to the district, securing universal healthcare, protecting natural resources and fighting climate change. He has a master's degree in industrial labor relations from the University of Oregon.
"I'm running because this is a critical time in our nation's history," Dale said in the release. "The policies of the Trump Administration are endangering our democracy and the principles upon which our country was founded. We must defeat the Trump Administration and its corruption at the polls in this special election and again in November and restore the strength of our democratic institutions."
Dale currently lives in Ironwood, Michigan, but said at a Monday morning press conference in Madison that he planned to move to the 7th District before the election.
"We're going to meet the requirements for residency, if that's what you're concerned about," he told reporters in the state Capitol.
Dale challenged Duffy in 2014 as a Green Party candidate, earning less than 1.3% of the vote, compared with Duffy's 59.3%. Dale also ran for Wisconsin Assembly District 34 in 2016, failing to make it past the Democratic primary.
Zunker and Dale are the fourth and fifth candidates to declare intent to run for the 7th District seat, which Duffy vacated in September to help his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, care for their ninth child — a girl who was born Sept. 30 with a heart defect and Down syndrome.
Retired Army Capt. Jason Church, Republican state Sen. Tom Tiffany of Hazelhurst and hobby farmer Michael Opela Sr. have already declared their intent to run for the Republican nomination, which means a primary will be required.
Gov. Tony Evers originally set the special election for Jan. 27, with the primary taking place on Dec. 30, but had to push it back because of a conflict with federal election law.
Evers said he plans to issue an executive order soon that would rescind his earlier election schedule and establish a new one with a primary in February and the final election in April or May.
Republican state lawmakers from the 7th Congressional District criticized Evers in a letter Friday for not establishing firm dates for the election.
"Please stop playing politics with this election and call it as soon as possible," wrote Rep. Jeff Mursau of Crivitz and 16 other Republican lawmakers.
Evers' office did not respond Friday to questions about whether new election dates have been set.
Molly Beck and Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
Contact Laura Schulte at 715-496-4088 or leschulte@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @schultelaura.
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