Tammy Baldwin won her first election in 1986. That race for a seat on the Dane County Board was the first of 15 contests — 30 if you count primaries — from which Baldwin has emerged victorious over the past 35 years.
By any measure, Baldwin ranks high on the list of the most successful political figures in the history of Wisconsin.
Yet Baldwin is an atypical politician. Unlike her colleague, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, Baldwin does not chase headlines or court controversy. She takes progressive stands on issues ranging from health care reform to raising wages, frequently standing at the side of Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, yet she evidences little of the national ambition that leads wags to suggest that, “Every time a senator looks in the mirror, they see a president.”
So what’s Baldwin’s secret?
She’s incredibly engaged with Wisconsin. Even when she is in Washington, Baldwin brings the discussion back to the state and the people she represents.
That engagement was on display a couple weeks ago when Vice President Kamala Harris invited women senators to the vice presidential residence. Politico reported: “Sen. Tammy Baldwin was ready to party. The low-key Wisconsin Democrat didn’t arrive empty-handed at the Naval Observatory on Tuesday evening for Vice President Kamala Harris’s dinner party with women senators. She brought beer. And not just any beer — Kamala-themed, nearly 10-percent alcohol content beer.”
The beer was, of course, from Wisconsin.
The delightfully partisan Minocqua Brewing Company has for several months been brewing up “,la. A Strong, Vice Presidential Stout” that encourages the proper pronunciation of Harris’s first name. As the brewer explains, “The more conservative the TV personality was throughout her campaign, the more he (it was usually a male) mispronounced her name. It's like they did it on purpose. Well, she's now the vice president and we don't think anyone's gonna forget her name ever again.”
But just in case anyone is still having a problem, they can check the front of the can — which spells things out: “/ˈkɑːmələ/.” Or the T-shirts that brewer Kirk Bangstad has been selling, along with merchandise celebrating the northern Wisconsin brewery’s other products, including Biden Beer (inoffensive and not bitter Kolsch), Inauguration Day Beer (a peaceful transition of flavor), Fair Maps (a balanced and un-rigged IPA) and Bernie Brew (a lovingly irascible and democratic socialist milk stout).
Supporting small businesses in the home state is a smart move for any senator, and Bangstad was thrilled when Baldwin took his beer to the VP’s party.
In this case, it’s also smart politics. As the brewer explains, “while we’re ecstatic that our beer is making its way into the most powerful halls of government, we’re not forgetting our mission, which is to rid Northern Wisconsin of the awful politicians we have representing us, including (Republican U.S. Rep.) Tom Tiffany, Ron Johnson, and all our cowardly state representatives that do the bidding of Speaker Robin Vos instead of protect their constituents.”
To that end, Bangstad, a former Democratic legislative candidate, notes, “5% of all of our profits are donated to the Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC, and God willing, one beer at a time, that money will help make Wisconsin great again.”
John Nichols is associate editor of The Capital Times. jnichols@madison.com and @NicholsUprising.
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June 27, 2021 at 08:00PM
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