Politics

Former Ag. Secretary-Designee Brad Pfaff describes his decision to run for State Senate

Published

4 years ago

October 19, 2020

It is a familiar face-off for the 32^nd Senate District Seat.

Former incumbent Dan Kapanke is running against his 2004 competitor Brad Pfaff. More recently, Pfaff served as the Secretary-Designee for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection until the State Senate refused to confirm him in that position last November.

SENATE DEBATE
Wisconsin’s 32nd District
TUESDAY — 3:30 p.m.
Democrat Brad Pfaff vs. Republican Dan Kapanke
Read the WIZM survey of the two candidates here.
Watch the debate by clicking here.

Pfaff said he did not intend to enter the election because he never thought the seat would be available, but State Senator Jennifer Shilling (D-Onalaska) resigned before the end of her term and now works with Dairyland Power Cooperative.

“My phone began to ring over and over with people asking me to step forward and to consider running for this seat,” Pfaff said. “It took an awful lot for my family and me to decide that we were going to do that, but we kept hearing from individuals saying, ‘please step forward. We need to have leadership when it comes to making sure that the concerns of this district are being heard in the state legislature. We really want someone who is willing to stand up to the special interests.’”

Pfaff said the key issue he hears from voters is uncertainty surrounding the Coronavirus as residents are eager to return to life as normal.

“We all want that, but in order to do that, we need to be able to come together and contain the spread of this virus,” Pfaff said. “It is not good for our family farmers. It is not good for our small business owners. Let’s come together and recognize the enemy here is not one another. The enemy is this virus. Let’s continue to work with our scientists to make sure we can get a vaccine.”

Kaitlyn Riley

Kaitlyn Riley’s passion for communications started on her family’s dairy farm in Gays Mills, Wis. Wanting to share agriculture’s story, she studied strategic communications and broadcast journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In college, she held officer positions with the Association of Women in Agriculture and Badger Dairy Club while volunteering as a news reporter for the college radio station. She also founded the university’s first agricultural radio talk show, AgChat. In her professional career, Kaitlyn has worked in radio, print and television news doing everything from covering local events to interviewing presidential candidates, and putting back on her barn boots to chat with farmers in the field. Today, Kaitlyn can be seen covering local stories that matter to you in the La Crosse area.