A Vote for Dems is a Vote for Your Wallet

For a party that campaigned on egg prices, Republicans have not delivered the affordability they promised–quite the opposite in fact, despite their total control of the Federal Government. "Big Tech" may be booming on the stock market, but the "average" American company is actually struggling with higher costs and stagnant growth. New tariffs have especially strained small businesses (this one really hurts, because 13,000 such businesses employ over half of the private sector in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District). 

We, the consumers and workers, have borne the brunt of this fiscal failure. Layoffs are at the highest since the Pandemic. Jobs are hard to find. Costs of food, energy, medicine and other necessities have skyrocketed. 

Is relief on the way? Not when President Trump is proposing a $1.5 trillion defense budget, and offering tens of thousands to EACH Greenland citizen to secede from Denmark! 

Unfortunately, it’s clear that the GOP DOES NOT have a plan. Ridiculous solutions like 50-year mortgages or temporary 10% credit card interest caps are desperate attempts to feign a response to the crisis while simultaneously causing it. The “Big Beautiful Bill" triggered one of the largest wealth transfers in our history; every service and benefit we depend on–from Social Security, to healthcare, to SNAP to energy assistance–was chopped to bits so that the wealthy can avoid taxes. The top 15 richest Americans became 33% richer in 2025 alone.

So how is our representative, Derrick Van Orden helping? Not at all. Just like other House Republicans who voted overwhelmingly for the spending bill (and otherwise, worked only136 days in 2025), Van Orden is complicit in the legislation that has pushed us near the brink of bankruptcy. Here’s a look at some ways the Republican has failed his constituency, by supporting legislation that increases cost-of-living for hard working Wisconsin families:

Voting to let ACA subsidies expire - After years of deriding the ACA subsidies we depend on to lower healthcare costs–and voting FOR THOSE CUTS in the spending bill–Van Orden recently broke with his party to extend the credits three more years. Why such hypocrisy? The answer is two-fold. First, he faces a narrow November election in this district. Second, the bill appears doomed in the Senate. It’s too little too late anyway; for an estimated 33,000 3rd CD voters who depend on the subsidies, our costs have already gone up, exorbitantly. A share of us must now choose between medicine and food, while others are simply going without insurance for the first time in decades.

Gutting Medicaid and other healthcare - The $1 trillion in cuts to healthcare included Medicaid. We’re talking about pushing an estimated 30,000 rural Wisconsinites off Medicaid, jeopardizing access to care, raising costs, and threatening rural hospitals. Mayo Clinic - Oakridge (Osseo) is recognized among the TOP 10 “critical access” hospitals in the entire country, yet it is operating at risk of closing due to federal funding cuts.

Exploding energy prices: Along with cuts to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and EV tax credits, the spending bill also erased Wisconsin’s new clean energy investments, to the tune of almost 2,000 jobs and $5.4 billion in statewide projects. Demand for energy is at an all time high, driving up utility bills, and these initiatives would have provided relief across the board, from consumers to businesses.

Food assistance cuts: Over 30,000 in WI’s 3rd District rely on Foodshare/SNAP (one in ten children live under the poverty line), and about half are at risk of losing those benefits over the next decade. These cuts don’t just dehumanize the individual. They burden the whole community, by reducing economic spending and increasing dependency on our local programs and charities. Food pantries are running dry!

GOP tariffs & DHS crackdown: Imported groceries, building materials, pharmaceuticals and other necessities have been slapped with unnecessary tariffs, sometimes in retaliatory ways. The GOP’s blind support of this policy is wrong: it has stifled investment, put home building and ownership nearly out of reach, and priced out the middle class. Meanwhile, arresting immigrant farm, construction, medical and factory workers en masse has not helped with the prices or availability of goods.

Simply put, we are speeding towards a cliff. We can’t rely on the GOP as leaders; we need strength, empathy and integrity. We deserve representatives who refuse to enrich billionaires, especially when it means cruelly abandoning those most in need.

Here’s how Democrats are Stepping Up to Help:

Democrats are stepping up to combat this disgraceful era of deregulation and destruction of the social fabric. In December 2025, Democrats introduced the American Affordability Act, which addresses five major tenets of the crisis: housing, energy/transportation, families & childcare, education & worker pay, and healthcare. Democrats in congress have also forced votes to block or nullify some tariffs from major partners, while pushing the Trade Review Act, to reassert trade control to Congress. And at a time when Americans stand to go into debt to survive, a coalition of 21 Democratic-led states filed suit to prevent the administration from withholding funds from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency that protects us from predatory lenders and fraud.

More devastation awaits if we continue along the GOP path. Derrick Van Orden must be replaced. We need a representative who understands our challenges, and will fight for real affordability in WI’s 3rd.

Vote Out Van Orden! Help us take back Wisconsin’s Third Congressional District.