Republican Incumbent Tony Wied Faces Challenger in 8th Congressional District

Candidates for the 8th Congressional District, Democrat Rick Crosson, left, and Republican Incumbent Rep. Tony Wied. Photos courtesy of the candidates’ campaigns

Republican Tony Wied of De Pere is running for reelection to represent northeast Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District against Democrat Rick Crosson of Green Bay.

The district includes Brown, Outagamie, Door, Waupaca, Oconto Kewaunee, Shawano, Menominee, Marinette and Calumet counties, as well as a sliver of Winnebago County.

Wied was elected in 2024, after entering the race as a political unknown with an endorsement from President Donald Trump. A former small business owner, Wied ran a local chain of Dino Stop gas stations and convenience stores. He sold the business in 2022.

In his first term, Wied said his office “opened and closed over 3,000” constituent services cases and he voted for tax cuts that were included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“I’m coming into this as someone from the private sector. (I want to) continue to utilize those talents to hopefully make some changes in Washington, D.C. and be a good leader in the community,” he said.

Though he took nearly 60 percent of the vote last time around, he is seeking reelection in a challenging national political environment for Republicans.

But a Democrat hasn’t won the district since 2008, the same year Barack Obama was first elected president. And Cook Political Report ranks the 8th District as “solid Republican” in its forecast of 2026 House races.

Crosson, Wied’s opponent, is hoping to beat the odds.

He served for 20 years in the U.S. Army, where he spent most of his career flying helicopters. After the military, he worked for a trucking company in Green Bay before spending nine years running a logistics firm in central Wisconsin.

More recently, Crosson served on the Green Bay School Board from 2024 to 2025. He said he’s running for Congress because he’s unhappy with the “state of our country.”

“I can bring some leadership and some stability and some restoration to bear — things that our country needs,” he said.

Candidates differ on Trump’s agenda and immigration enforcement

Crosson said one of the main reasons he’s running is because he feels current members of Congress, including his opponent, aren’t doing one of their most important jobs.

“That is to be a check and balance on the powers of the presidency and a check and balance on the Supreme Court,” he said. “What I see happening is Congress is acquiescing to the whims — and, in a lot of cases, the erratic whims — of the current occupant of the White House.”

While Crosson wants to provide a check on the Trump administration, Wied has closely aligned himself with Trump’s agenda and campaigned with the president’s son two years ago.

Republican U.S. Rep. Tony Wied, left, shakes hands with a member of law enforcement on Oct. 5, 2026. Joe Schulz/WPR

This election cycle, Wied has said he wants to continue working to advance the “America First agenda.”

“We’re focused on ‘America First,’ and we’re seeing great investment now in this country, but it takes time,” he said. “There’s more work to do, and I’m going to continue to fight for people.”

He touted an endorsement from several sheriffs at a press conference in early October, where he reiterated his support for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and promoted a bill he introduced that would strip federal funding from state and local governments that the Trump administration deems to be “anarchist jurisdictions.”

“It’s really important that we support federal law enforcement, that we have a border,” Wied told reporters after the press conference. “You can’t have a country without a border, and in order to have that, you have to have law enforcement professionals at the federal level.”

Crosson said he’s familiar with the situation at the southern border from his time in the military doing “counter narcotics work” in Mexico. But he said he feels ICE has “ballooned into this paramilitary organization” that has gone “well above its intended original charter.”

“There needs to be a reimagining and a reassessment of what it is that that organization is supposed to be doing compared to what it is doing,” Crosson said. “Nobody is for lawlessness or disorder.”

Democrat Rick Crosson, right, speaks with a voter during his campaign for Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District. Photo courtesy of the Crosson campaign

Wied responds to criticism over taxpayer-funded ads, stock trades

Wied has presented himself as a fiscal conservative, calling for cutting government waste and fraud, previously pushing for an investigation into the defunct anti-poverty nonprofit Newcap’s mishandling of taxpayer dollars.

But he has faced criticism this election cycle for using congressional funds to buy television ads promoting his work in Congress. He’s using a process called “franking” that allows members of Congress to use taxpayer money to inform constituents of their work.

Wied isn’t the only federal lawmaker spending that money on TV ads. Axios reports lawmakers from both political parties have “blanketed the airwaves with taxpayer funded ads this election cycle.”

Wied said he bought the ads because the local, state and national media are “anti-Republican” and “completely biased.”

“It is very, very negative, so it’s something that everyone is able to use, and I think it’s a good way to be able to communicate with our constituents,” he said.

But Crosson said he believes Wied’s franking ads served primarily as campaign ads rather than communications informing constituents.

“That is not the intent of those funds to use taxpayer money to de facto promote yourself as a political candidate,” he said.

Wied has also faced scrutiny over his stock trades.

A recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report found he bought and sold stocks in industries overseen by congressional committees on which he serves, though the newspaper reported there is no evidence he violated congressional rules.

Aidan Strongreen, a spokesperson for Wied’s congressional office, said in a statement that Wied had “zero involvement in his stock trading.”

“All of his investments are managed solely through an independent financial advisor, and he has no role in any of their decisions,” the statement read.

Wied also blasted the Journal Sentinel in a statement, calling the report, “yet another bogus story.” He also accused the newspaper of pushing an “unfounded and untrue narrative.”

In a statement, Crosson said the Journal Sentinel’s reporting raises questions about whether Wied’s work in Congress serves his constituents or his portfolio.

“Something is wrong when a congressman’s financial picture is improving dramatically while the people he represents are falling further behind,” Crosson stated.

Voters in the 8th Congressional District will have the opportunity to hear Crosson and Wied debate the issues on Thursday, Oct. 22. The debate will be hosted and moderated by local CBS affiliate WFRV-TV.

The station will livestream the event from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. and air it on television at 7 p.m. that evening. They will rebroadcast the debate at 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 25.

Republican incumbent Tony Wied faces Democrat Rick Crosson in northeast Wisconsin Congressional race was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.