Mitchell Berman, a Democrat running for Congress in former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan's district, says he has killed roughly two dozen deer during his lifetime.
That could be a relevant qualification in Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District, which borders Illinois and encompasses some of Milwaukee's outer southern suburbs, as well as mid-sized cities such as Beloit, Janesville, Kenosha and Racine, and the small towns in between.
Deer hunting is woven into the fabric of Wisconsin – the tradition is so popular that children in parts of the Badger State skip school annually on the opening day of gun hunting season.
Berman, 40, is an emergency room nurse running to unseat Ryan's successor, Rep. Bryan Steil, and hopes to be a congressman-elect
by Nov. 21, when the nine-day gun hunt rolls around.
The bearded Berman covers his bald head with ballcaps and looks like the stereotype of a Midwestern straight White man. He talks about healthcare and lowering costs as much as he chats about fishing, hunting, the Green Bay Packers and his roots in Peshtigo, a quaint manufacturing city of under 3,500 people best known for an 1871 forest fire, the deadliest on record, in which over 1,200 people died.
With President Donald Trump's approval ratings depressed by the economy and Iran war, Democrats have expanded the electoral map to less friendly terrain like Steil's district, which has been held by Republicans since 1995. Berman, a late addition in September to House Democrats' "Red to Blue" target list, could provide cushion for a potentially slim majority in early 2027.
"To be quite honest, the frustration with people here in the district is what told me, you know, quite a few months ago, that this was going to be a competitive race," Berman told USA TODAY.
Steil, 46, has won every race since 2018 by around 10 percentage points and previously overperformed Trump, who won the district by 2% in 2020 and 4.5 percentage points in 2024. The district voted for President Barack Obama in 2008, but Republican candidates have carried the seat in every presidential election since.
The district lines became less strongly Republican with new congressional maps that went into effect in March 2022, losing the state's largest Republican leaning county, Waukesha.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the race "lean Republican" while Fox News moved the contest from "lean R" to "toss up" on Oct. 27. Steil's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Former Paul Ryan staffer vs. an ER nurse
Steil was raised in Janesville, where Ryan also grew up, and later attended Georgetown University in Washington. He interned on Capitol Hill, joined Ryan's team as a staff assistant in 2003 and then became a legislative aide.
After leaving Ryan's office in 2004, Steil attended law school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked as an attorney in the manufacturing industry, a key sector in Southeastern Wisconsin, before his congressional bid.
Ryan announced his retirement from Congress in April 2018 and endorsed Steil to be his successor in June before the August primary.
Steil was elected to the House of Representatives that November over Bernie Sanders acolyte Randy Bryce, a progressive tradesman nicknamed the "IronStache" for his handlebar mustache and career as an ironworker, which garnered outsized national attention during the race.
When Steil returned to Washington, he closely aligned himself with the White House.
Ryan said Trump lost the election to Biden in 2020 despite his role as a national conservative figure. The former House speaker later announced that he would not vote for Trump in 2024.
Still, Steil has remained more lowkey and less vocally partisan than other Republican members of the Wisconsin delegation including Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who has drawn scrutiny for posting deepfakes misrepresenting his opponent, and Rep. Tom Tiffany, the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus member. Sen. Ron Johnson is among the Senate's most outspoken conservatives.
Steil now serves as chair of the influential House Administration Committee, which oversees both federal elections and day-to-day operations in the lower chamber. Meanwhile, Berman has no elective experience.
He won an Aug. 11 primary over second-place finisher Peter Burgelis, a Milwaukee alderman who doesn't live in the district and later dropped out, and two lesser-known challengers.
Raised 50 miles north of Green Bay, Wisconsin, Berman's dad, John, owned a small roofing company. His mom, Donna, worked at a foundry, a factory where medal castings are made. His uncle and grandfather owned dairy farms.
"I know what it's like to get dirt under my nails," Berman said. A first-generation college student, Berman went to nursing school and married his wife, Jillian, who also works for the Ascension hospital system.
"I graduated college with a mountain of student loan debt that I had to eat bologna sandwiches for five years to pay off," Berman told USA TODAY.
The couple have raised their two daughters in the rural Racine County home they built together. He spent a decade working at a Veterans Affairs hospital.
'Bryan and I both chase bucks'
After the primary, Berman zeroed in on Steil's buttoned-up biography, offering a more rugged presentation. In one ad, Berman appears in scrubs and says, "In the ER, I don't ask you how you vote, I ask where it hurts."
From the outset, Berman's campaign cast him as the kind of Wisconsin man you can find at any local Kwik Trip gas station, a popular convenience store chain based in the state and known for its daily deals, glazed doughnuts and fuel.
In one of his commercials, Berman shot at a clay pigeon labeled "Data Center" − perhaps a jab at Trump's enthusiastic support for the facilities' rapid expansion, which is unpopular among many voters, especially in rural areas. Blocking their proliferation is a cause embraced by many Democrats running in Republican-leaning states.
He has also avoided national Democrats, opting for his own political brand.
Berman is filmed fishing in an ad, flaunting his handgun in a holster. "I'm not lookin' to get rich, I just want to hunt, take my daughters to Packers games and make life easier for families like mine," Berman says. "Congress has plenty of politicians, we need more people that live like us."
He then jokes, "I approve this message, now turn off the camera, you're scaring the fish."
He has plenty of conventional Democratic stances: He supports abortion rights and wants to end the war in Iran.
But he also tacks to the middle on other issues of importance to rural voters: He told NBC News that he supports "commonsense policy that will help reduce gun violence without infringing on the Second Amendment."
The Berman campaign has taken shots at Steil's support from outside groups, a popular tactic among candidates hoping to unseat incumbents. Fairshake, a cryptocurrency industry-aligned group, has spent over $1 million in October in support of Steil's re-election.
"Bryan Steil and I both chase bucks," Berman says in an October spot. "Difference is mine has antlers."
University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Barry Burden said that Steil's tenure in congressional leadership during an anti-incumbent election year could present a problem for the House member.
"It makes it easy for Berman to say he is part of that establishment thing that you Wisconsin voters understand is not working well," Burden told USA TODAY.
The opponents have clashed over the war in Iran, the cost of living and healthcare, but − in recognition of the district's middle-of-the-road politics − both have pledged to work with the opposing party.
Steil has seized on Berman's criticism of ICE to argue that the Democrat wants to defund law enforcement, an accusation Berman denies.
The congressman has tried to address cost-of-living concerns with ads touting his votes to lower taxes and saying he will "protect" Social Security.
In a statement, Zach Bannon, a spokesperson for the National Republican Campaign Committee, called Berman "a far-left activist who triggered an elementary school lockdown." Bannon was referring to an incident in which Berman's children's school temporarily barred outside visitors, while continuing normal lessons, after he arrived to file an open-records request.
In response, Berman's campaign said the NRCC's comments were "a false attack - school administrators confirmed it was due to a threatening phone call they received from out of state."
Democrats flipped Trump districts in 2018. Can they do it again?
It remains to be seen how blue this wave could be and whether its ripples will reach Steil's district. Republicans don't seem to be concerned, at least not publicly.
Rachel Reisner, a Wisconsin communications strategist, oversaw communications of battleground states during Trump's 2024 campaign, and the party's convention that year in Milwaukee.
The Republican National Committee alum said that Democratic consultants in Washington, D.C., have propped up candidates like Berman, but Wisconsinites won't buy their authenticity – partly because Steil, too, is the type of guy they could have a beer with, she said.
"They think, you know, dressing them up for Halloween will suddenly fool Wisconsinites," Reisner said. "But it just won't, especially when you're running against such a strong incumbent like Bryan Steil."
A former congressman who represented the district for 20 years is also optimistic his one-time staffer will keep the seat red. Through a spokesperson, Ryan called Steil "principled, effective, and a tireless advocate" for the district.
"No one works harder for the people of Southern Wisconsin than Bryan. Bryan is a leader in Congress, and he always puts his constituents first," Ryan's statement read. "I am confident voters will re-elect Bryan next week.”
The last time Trump was in the White House, Democrats unseated Republican congressional incumbents in the 2018 midterm elections in areas that Trump had won two years earlier.
In an Oklahoma City district, Kendra Horn, a Democratic newcomer, beat then-Rep. Steve Russell. In a rural Iowa district, Abby Finkenauer beat then-Rep. Rod Blum. Sharice Davids ousted incumbent Rep. Kevin Yoder on the Kansas side of Kansas City. The party picked up 41 House seats in the process.
Wisconsin Democrats like Berman hope to do the same this time.
Democratic state Rep. Ann Roe who lost to Steil in 2022, represents Janesville, the hometown of Ryan and Steil, but said her Republican constituents have signaled a willingness to change teams this cycle.
"They really thought that they were voting for someone or some party that was going to make it better and ... they are overwhelmed with the fact that it is not better and, in fact, worse," Roe said.
But as a first-time congressional challenger, Berman still faces an uphill battle to reel in a win. Steil maintains a massive cash advantage, with $2 million on hand, according to Federal Elections Commission records, compared with Berman's $351,000 on hand, as of mid-October.
The avid hunter will need perfect aim on Nov. 3.
Contributing: Ricardo Torres, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Meet the Democrat in the hunt for Paul Ryan's former seat in Congress
