So after two less-than-ideal results, what made you decide to dive back in against Paul Ryan?

So you know Paul Ryan did very well in his last election, and there wasn’t a lot of money raised for the Democrats, so people were starting to approach me, saying they needed a good candidate. And I was flattered they were asking me, but I wanted to think about it... So I did think about it. And you know I’ve lived in the district my entire life and, being a veteran, seeing how veterans are being affected by decisions in Washington… And then they pulled this health-care garbage. And with all the good-paying auto jobs leaving Janesville, leaving Kenosha, and the factory jobs going to Canada from Waukesha, I was like, this is really crappy. I’ve spent my time as an iron worker literally building this area, while Paul Ryan is out there taking stuff away from us. People here are working harder and getting less as a result. But he’s not even around. It’s been over 600 days since he’s held a local town hall. It’s just horrible. He’s not doing his job. We need somebody who cares.

Obviously, right now everyone is talking about health care. What’s your platform on it?

Well, I like the protections that Obamacare put in place, but I want to work towards universal health care. And look, you hear people say that and then do one thing at a time. But first I want to make sure people are covered and have something going on. To be honest with you, there are things about Obamacare that need to be fixed. From the building trade standpoint, we’ve been self-insured, but we were penalized with the “Cadillac tax” for having it. And I don’t think people who have been doing the right thing should be penalized. So there are things that I see that could be corrected with it. But that emergency-room plan that we had wasn’t the answer. If you have somebody who doesn’t have health care and can’t see somebody when they notice something’s wrong, and have it addressed when it’s a minor issue, they’re going to wait until it’s a big thing and they’ll end up going to the emergency room. Well, if they can’t afford to go see a doctor for preventive care, how in the heck can we expect them to pay the extra fees at the emergency room? So we need protections. We need to not penalize people for having pre-existing conditions. The system is extremely flawed now, and there’s no reason why every single person should not have some form of health care.

“People here are working harder and getting less as a result. But [Paul Ryan’s] not even around. It’s been over 600 days since he’s held a local town hall. It’s just horrible. He’s not doing his job.”

Opioid addiction is obviously a huge problem nationwide, and I’d imagine in an industry like yours that requires so much physical labor, you see a lot of it. How do you see the intersection of that problem and the health-care crisis we're already going through?

Look, I can’t remember where I read this, or even the exact numbers, but if you look at the amount of opioids that are prescribed worldwide, a huge percentage of them is right here in the United States. And I think that’s also a reflection of not being able to see a doctor for checkups. That shows me that when something’s wrong or someone gets hurt, they can’t afford to get treatment, so it’s like, “Here’s something to ease the pain.” And I think it’s something that’s ingrained in our culture. We don’t get checked up regularly. I know I don’t, and I know a lot of people I work with don’t. They’re like, “Well, I’d have to take off work, which means we lose money, and then the doctor is going to cost us more money that we really can’t afford.” So it’s an entire culture of wellness we need to work on.

As a veteran, what changes would you like to see in the way we treat our soldiers returning home?

Well, they’re trying to privatize the VA, which is not the way to go. There are some things that need to be looked at and addressed, but it just blows my mind the amount of money they spend to send us to war… The amount of money they spend to blow other countries up… The amount of money the government spends to rebuild other countries, and then how little they spend on us once we come back and return to civilian life. It’s like they don’t care about us unless we’re dodging bullets for them. That’s when we stop being soldiers for them. If they can afford to send us to war, then they can afford to take care of us when we come home.