Hi Folks,
It’s Kirk Bangstad with the Minocqua Brewing Company/Super PAC restarting our weekly newsletter after a long-needed vacation.
I did what I told you I was going to do and BARELY thought about politics for the month of August, and wow was that refreshing.
Don’t get me wrong, the fight for what’s right never goes away, but I needed to tap out a little bit to rejuvenate and get prepared for what will surely be a wild 2022 election season.
I went to France and Switzerland to fulfill a promise I made to my late wife to spread her ashes in some of her most favorite places. These quiet moments of reflection necessary to help process grief had been delayed for over a year due to Covid travel restrictions.
It was wonderful.
And it was so very easy to get my phone scanned by a restaurant worker to download my info into a contact tracing database. It took less than a second and I, along with everyone else in the restaurant, knew that the person sitting at the next table had been vaccinated. God I wish our country and Wisconsin had the political fortitude to do the same thing.
In August, we hit our goal of raising $40,000 to fund an organizer from Wisconsin Progress to be stationed in Northern Wisconsin to help progressives run for county board seats and build a bench for future statewide elections.
Thanks so much. I believe this work is really important, and the folks following this page are making it happen. As a reminder, here’s a rundown of what we’ve been able to collectively do together to make progressive change Up North since January 2021.
- $40K—funded an organizer to help progressives win county board elections.
- $50K—made about 50K calls in Wausau, Rhinelander, and Hudson to educate voters about gerrymandering and how their Republican legislators were planning to rig the districts so they couldn’t lose.
- 10’s of thousands of dollars spent on billboards reminding voters that Tom Tiffany and Ron Johnson were traitors to our country by helping incite the attempted coup against our government last January 6.
- Thousands of dollars spent on radio ads reminding voters in Wausau, Rhinelander, and Hudson that their Republican legislators were equally responsible for every terrible thing Robin Vos did statewide, making the Wisconsin legislature the least effective in the country because they won’t stand up to him.
- Several thousand dollars creating and promoting the Up North Podcast to voters in the 7th Congressional District, which is an attempt to get progressive political news to folks who live in media deserts overrun with alt-right local papers and underfunded local TV stations.
So thanks everyone. I am proud of the work we’re doing with this Super PAC, and really hope it helps change the voting landscape in 2022 so we can rid ourselves of the crazy that is the Trump Cult.
Summer is over, and it's time to get back to work. I promise to keep doing the best I can to be good steward of the money you’re donating, and to spend it as wisely as I can to affect progressive change in Northern Wisconsin.
Happy Labor Day everyone, and cheers to Making Wisconsin Great Again, One Beer at a Time.
Kirk Bangstad, Owner of the Minocqua Brewing Company and Super PAC
P.S. To Donate to the Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC, please click here.