Ironworker Randy Bryce, more popularly known as “Ironstache,” is projected to win the Democratic primary for the seat being vacated by House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).
Bryce, the mustachioed 53-year-old endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), defeated local school board member and teacher Cathy Myers, 55, on Tuesday, The Associated Press projected, in a primary that turned bitter and personal. He won 59 percent of the vote in Wisconsin’s 1st District, compared to Myers’s 41 percent.
Bryce captured national attention when his emotional campaign announcement video went viral. In it, Bryce’s mother talks about the difficulty of affording life-saving drugs. At the end of the video, the ironworker calls on Paul Ryan to “trade places” with him.
The union organizer, won the endorsement of Sanders late last year and was elevated by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to its “Red to Blue” program, which gives financial and organizational support to designated candidates.
Bryce’s video star power also translated into donations, and he outraised Myers by $5 million.
He backs a progressive agenda that includes single-payer health care, or “Medicare for All,” and a $15 minimum wage, a platform that is also supported by Myers.
Bryce was also one of the first Democratic candidates to call for abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a movement that gained steam at the height of the family separations crisis that consumed the Trump administration.
The Democratic primary was heated and, at times, personal.
Bryce weathered a number of negative headlines that included past arrests in the 1990s for driving under the influence of alcohol and marijuana possession, which he has apologized for. He also endured stories about his failure to pay child support, which he started paying after launching his bid.
Myers sought to frame Bryce as unfit to serve in Congress, and has used his past transgressions against him in campaign ads. But Bryce pushed back on Myers in his own ad that criticized her for “attacking” Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), though the basis of the accusation against the school board member is unclear.
