Five GOP candidates showing interest in running against Kind for Congress

The ballot for Congress in Wisconsin’s 3rd District could be crowded next summer on the Republican side. 

Incumbent Democrat Ron Kind is expected to run for a 13th term in 2020, and the chairman of the 3rd District Republican Party, Bill Feehan, says potential GOP challengers to Kind are lining up.

Feehan says four men and a woman from throughout the district are planning to run in the August primary, with two of them already registered as candidates.

Three of the Republicans are veterans, and Feehan says “they have a sense of patriotism and obligation to serve our state and our nation.”

Feehan says Kind is a “formidable” candidate building a large “war chest,” but the La Crosse Democrat also represents a district which voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and is the home to several Republican state legislators.

La Crosse also overwhelmingly voted for Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary 62.8% to 36.9%. Wisconsin also voted for Sanders over Clinton 56.6% to 43.5%.

Kind ran unopposed in 2016, and was re-elected in 2018, earning nearly 60 % of the vote against GOP challenger Steve Toft.

TV ads have criticized Kind for supporting impeachment efforts.

“Ron Kind has shown that he favors the impeachment process, and it appears that he’s gonna vote to impeach President Trump,” Feehan said.

Kind was finishing his first term in Congress in December of 1998, when the House voted to impeach Democratic President Bill Clinton.

Kind was criticized by Republicans for attending what was described as a “pep rally” at the White House just after the impeachment vote.