- Democratic US Senate candidate, Tom Nelson,
thank you for joining us.
- Good to be on.
- You're currently the Outage county executive.
Prior to that, you were a state legislator.
Why do you want to be a US Senator?
- People are just fed up with Ron Johnson.
And one of the reasons why I got in here is I think
that this state, that he doesn't represent most of us
if not all of us, it seems so.
And I'm the only one from a red part of the state
who's won election, re-election, six times,
three as a legislator and three as a county executive.
So I can beat Ron Johnson.
And the other thing too, though
I think just as important, if not more so,
is your core and why you got into
public service in the first place.
And my story is a lot like most Wisconsinites.
I grew up in a blue collar neighborhood
in my case on Carol Lynn Drive in Little Chute.
And on that block all the dads worked at paper mills,
except for my dad.
I like to say he wore the white collar.
He was a Lutheran pastor.
And so at a very young age, I learned the two lessons
that it's important to serve your neighbor.
And then also in time, that there are a lot of people
who work hard, play by the rules, pay their taxes,
but they can't get ahead because there's too much money
and too much power concentrated in just a few hands.
So that's been my grounding
in the state legislature and as county executive.
- Let me ask you this.
If elected, what would your legislative priorities be?
- Number one, I would focus on economic security
specifically raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour
passing the pro act, getting rid of the bad trade deals
that have shipped Wisconsin jobs oversea
and get corporate power under control.
And that means making sure they're paying their fair taxes
and to tax the rich and to bust up the monopolies
that have had a stranglehold on markets
that have been increasing prices for consumers
and just making life really difficult for working families.
And the second area is healthcare.
I always say that what good is a good job or economy
if you don't have your health.
And so I believe in Medicare for all.
I believe that everyone needs to be covered.
I have, my wife and before, my mom both had cancer.
And the one thing they had in common
is they had access to good health insurance
and 30 million Americans cannot say that and that's wrong.
And then third, climate change.
I believe that we need aggressive action.
I support a green new deal.
And though that, those goals are quite bold and aggressive,
we have no choice.
But this is the country that put
a man on the moon in eight years
and completed the Manhattan Project in four years.
So I believe that we can accomplish the goals
of the green new deal in 10 years.
- On the economy, inflation has reached a 40 year high.
How should federal lawmakers address inflation?
- Well, I think the first thing,
we have to go to the root of the problem.
In this case, it's corporate America.
I mean, we know that 60% of inflation
is driven by corporate profit.
So at one hand, consumers are dealing with
all time high prices in the last 20 or 40 years.
But on the other hand, corporations like oil companies
are making record profits.
And not just now during inflation
but also during the pandemic.
It was a banner year for billionaires,
for which they collected over
a trillion dollars in new wealth.
So we need to make sure that the rich
are paying their fair share, which they're not.
They need to pay more in taxes because they've done so well.
And then we need to make sure
that we're enforcing antitrust and anti-monopoly laws
to bust up the corporations on the front end
who are consolidating a lot of power.
And then finally we need a windfall profits tax
particularly for oil companies and to return those proceeds
back to motorists and families
to give them the relief that they need.
- Shifting now to gun violence.
There have been hundreds of mass shootings this year alone.
Another uptick of other gun deaths.
President Joe Biden recently signed
into law gun control measures.
How should the US Senate address gun violence?
- Well, we need to look at everything.
And I think that there's been a lot of missed opportunities.
And look, when Ron Johnson took office
that year there were eight school shootings.
Last year, there were over 200.
There are a lot of things that we can do
that he has opposed and I would push,
including red flag laws, universal background checks,
waiting periods and renewing the assault weapons bans.
So those are four, I think
simple steps that Congress can take.
They should have taken, but they have not.
And it's been at the expense of
the lives of our children and that's wrong.
- The Supreme Court has recently overturned Roe versus Wade.
What should US Senators do on the matter of abortion?
- I think we need to codify Roe.
And quite frankly, it's something
that we should have done 50 years ago
and it might be too late.
But I think in this case, this is all the more reason
why we need to have a working democratic majority
in the US Senate and to hold on to the US House.
And the only way that Democrats will get a working majority
is if they keep the seats they have right now
and win Wisconsin's.
So this of course is Wisconsin's US Senate seat
but given what's in play right now
in a lot of respects, this is America's Senate seat.
- On elections,
there have been a number of claims of voter fraud.
How would you reassure Wisconsin voters
to have confidence in the election system?
- Well, I think first thing we have to do
is to call out the Republicans.
That this has been a complete fabrication.
That this has been proven again and again
that there isn't the widespread fraud they say there is.
I think what this is going at now is this really is
undermining the foundations of our democracy
because people do have a lot of questions.
And the reason why they have questions
is not because anything happened in particular,
but because you've had one party
that has been ginning up these conspiracies
for the last year and a half,
and tip of the spear has been Donald Trump and Ron Johnson.
- You know, Ron Johnson has beat Russ Golding twice.
Why are you the candidate who can beat him
in the general election in November?
- I'm the only candidate from a red part of the state.
who's won election, a re-election, six times,
three as a legislator and three as a county executive.
But I think what makes the difference in this case
is I come from the Fox Valley.
All parts of the state are very important though.
But in particular it's saying, it seems
like a lot of statewide races come down to
who does well in the Fox Valley.
And no one can match my record of winning there six times.
- Tom Nelson, thank you again for joining us.
- Yes.