What you need to know about the 2 Wisconsin Democrats vying for Paul Ryan's seat

Paul Ryan's district is up for grabs in November, but Tuesday's primary offers a preview of the Democratic Party's spiritual civil war.

ALAN PYKE AUG 14, 2018, 9:24 AM

JANESVILLE, WISCONSIN — “It’s funny living in the same town as Paul Ryan, because every time he burps or farts the media is all over us,” says Paula, a server at the Eagle Inn Family Restaurant.

Paula doesn’t have internet at home, and half-boasts that her cell phone is 16 years old. But when I tell her who I’m here to see, she nods knowingly.

Randy Bryce is just as familiar a name to her as it is to you, if not necessarily for the same reasons. His viral video campaign announcement in 2017 — a union steward ironworker challenging the Speaker of the House to trade jobs with him — transformed him from a locally-prominent labor campaigner into a prospective national star for a Democratic party reeling from its failure to stop or fully understand Donald Trump’s rise to power. The burly, mustachioed everyman looks like one answer to months of handwringing about the loss of Rust Belt white working men and women.

Paula’s known about Bryce for way longer than the wave of internet chatter and big-time political attention the ad brought his way. They both worked to fight Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) 2011 war on public-sector unions, and to get him recalled the next year. “As long as it’s not a Republican,” she mutters to me when I tell her why I’m in the small-town diner.

https://thinkprogress.org/cathy-myers-randy-bryce-wisconsin-democratic-primary-race-6cb13f3728c9/