Experience

Joe’s personal history has always included service to the community. From Boy Scouts in his youth to becoming a scoutmaster as an adult. Joe does not wait to be called; he seeks out service opportunities. He has helped organize neighborhood associations, chaired the Board of Directors for the Menomonie Market Food Cooperative, Chaired the first Citizen Action Northwestern Wisconsin Organizing Cooperative Board. His service continued as an elected representative to Menomonie’s City Council, four terms as a member of the Wisconsin state legislature and the Dunn County Board of Supervisors.

Joe is a former coordinator of the Midwest Progressive Elected Officials Network, MPEON. This project of the Midwest States Center brought together progressive local, and state elected officials from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and North Dakota. They, along with a statewide progressive issue-based organization within each member state, strategized on enacting and expanding progressive policy in each of the states. In the fall of 2016, he and other US military veterans from all over the country were called to Standing Rock to witness peaceful protesters trying to preserve their heritage. Through a cold North Dakota winter, they stood shoulder to shoulder with Indigenous residents protecting their homeland from desecration and destruction by corporate power. Joe has the courage and determination to put himself on the line in defense of American ideals.

It is this commitment to social justice causes, as well as his work as a teacher and a public servant that brought him to where he is at this crucial moment in our history.

The challenges presented today by the MAGA Republican agenda do not include the values of public service, honest government, our institutions, respect for one another, and devotion to American ideals that have defined Joe’s life. Joe believes proof of integrity can be found in the willingness of a person to put their own self-interest on the line in defense of higher goals. Whether helping to guide a food coop or fighting against corporate greed, Joe has and will continue to put the people of Wisconsin first. He has and will continue to fight for democracy.

Joe knows from practical experience in the public and private sector what it takes to make make life better for all. His vast experience brings him to a point in life where he is genuinely concerned with what he sees going on in our country and state. For decades greed has set the tone and direction for our society. The price we have paid is reduced services and a transfer of wealth to the upper class. Joe is a man who can and will make a change in the direction we need Wisconsin to go. He believes we can no longer ignore our infrastructure and the public institutions that have allowed us to thrive as a people. Ignoring and defunding public resources is no longer acceptable and Joe calls for all of us to engage and reinvest in our country. Standing on the sidelines is no longer a choice.

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