Stuck to Gallagher: Does Your Party Care About Small Business?

APPLETON – Congressional candidate Amanda Stuck was deeply critical of comments made by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and urged incumbent Mike Gallagher to break with Republican policy on farming.

Earlier in the week, Federal Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue told a gathering at the World Dairy Expo in Madison it would be “very difficult” for family dairy farms to stay in business unless they expand exponentially, adding, “In America, the big get bigger and the small go out.”

Stuck, whose campaign has focused on the problems of working families, thinks more can be done.

“The American dream isn’t guaranteed, but that doesn’t mean the American government can’t lend a hand,” Stuck said. “Dairy farming is fundamental to our state and small family farms are being squeezed by the GOP’s trade war.  If Mr. Gallagher would spend more time here, he’d understand the struggle of dairy farmers.”

Republican trade policies have spurred retaliatory tariffs on dairy products from Mexico and China. Perdue’s suggestion—that market conditions inevitably create monopolistic economies of scale—didn’t sit well with Stuck.

“Republicans seem to think that the only businesses that matter are the ones that write the big checks,” she said. “From Green Bay to Greenville, Northeast Wisconsin is a patchwork of small, family-owned farms. They’re operated by people who work sunrise to sunset, who are willing to compete and who aren’t asking for guarantees. But they can’t fight alone and what they’re asking for is support.”

Stuck wasn’t alone in her criticism. Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers tweeted, “Make no mistake about it, Trump’s administration is no friend to America’s Dairyland.”

Amanda has been a strong advocate for northeast Wisconsin in the Assembly, working to protect jobs in Wisconsin’s paper industry and leading the charge against sweetheart deals for Foxconn. She co- founded the State Assembly’s bipartisan Future caucus. Amanda and her husband, David, a union sheetmetal journeyman, are raising four children together in Appleton.

Stuck for Congress

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.