An ER Nurse Takes On a Republican Incumbent in Wisconsin's Shifting 1st District
Mitchell Berman, an emergency room nurse with more than 20 years in healthcare, won the Democratic primary for Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District on August 11, 2026, taking about 44% of the vote (30,932 votes in unofficial totals) against three opponents (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). He now advances to the November general election to face Republican incumbent Bryan Steil, a corporate attorney and former aide to former House Speaker Paul Ryan, who held the seat himself from 2015 until 2019.
Berman entered the race in August 2025, pointing to healthcare costs and cuts to Medicaid — the government insurance program for low-income Americans — as core reasons for running (Wisconsin Examiner). His campaign platform, published at bermanforcongress.com, focuses on lowering costs for working families, protecting healthcare access, and safeguarding vital social programs. He defeated Peter Burgelis, Lorenzo Santos (a Racine resident), and a candidate from Whitewater in the primary. Miguel Aranda was also among those Berman defeated, according to Ballotpedia records (Ballotpedia).
The race is unfolding in a district that polling shows leaning Republican in the House race (The Guardian). Berman's campaign, however, has pointed to Swing Left's decision to shift Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District to a "must-flip" designation — meaning the progressive group considers it a top priority to win — as evidence of its competitiveness (Berman campaign Facebook). New Politics, an organization that backs candidates with service backgrounds, endorsed Berman on August 17, 2026 (WisPolitics).
Berman's FEC filing — the official financial disclosure candidates file with the Federal Election Commission — lists his candidacy type as "Challenger" under candidate ID H6WI01283 and reports total receipts of $712,983.95 (FEC). His campaign announced on July 15, 2026 that it had raised over $650,000 to date, including $225,000 in the second quarter of 2026 (WisPolitics).
Berman's candidacy is rooted in two converging economic storylines in Wisconsin. The first is the decline of manufacturing. Wisconsin lost approximately 100,000 manufacturing jobs between 2001 and 2025, falling from 560,000 to 460,000, according to data cited by The Guardian. Healthcare employment in the state surpassed manufacturing jobs for the first time, a threshold that reflects the broader sectoral shift underway. Wisconsin lost an additional 9,500 manufacturing jobs from January 2025 to January 2026 (WPR.
A July 2026 report by the Midwest Economic Policy Institute and the University of Illinois Project for Middle Class Renewal found that tariffs — taxes imposed on imported goods — had led to the loss of 3,910 jobs in Wisconsin and cost households in the state an additional $1,095 per year (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). That finding connects trade policy directly to the economic pressure Berman is campaigning on.
The second storyline is labor. Berman cites his union membership as informing his understanding of how workers fight for fair pay and benefits. That framing carries particular resonance in Wisconsin, where former Republican governor Scott Walker's Act 10 stripped collective bargaining rights — the legal ability of unions to negotiate terms like wages and benefits — from most public sector workers in the state. The legacy of Act 10 has shaped Wisconsin's labor politics for over a decade, and Berman's campaign is drawing on that history to frame healthcare and labor as intertwined issues rather than separate policy domains.
The broader context here is that the 1st District race sits at the intersection of several dynamics that national Democrats are watching closely. The district's Republican lean is real, but the economic conditions Berman is running on — manufacturing job losses, tariff costs to households, and healthcare sector growth — are the kind of material pressures that can compress partisan gaps in swing areas. Steil's incumbency, his ties to Ryan, and his background as a corporate attorney give Berman a clear contrast to draw: a frontline healthcare worker versus a political operative-turned-lawmaker in a district experiencing the direct consequences of trade and industrial policy.
Whether that contrast can overcome the district's structural Republican advantage is the central question of the race. Berman's fundraising, while modest by national standards for competitive seats, shows a viable campaign apparatus. The Swing Left "must-flip" designation and the New Politics endorsement suggest outside groups see a plausible path. But polling showing the district leaning Republican means Berman will likely need turnout dynamics and the national environment to break in his direction to close the gap.
