On June 18, Wisconsin ironworker Randy Bryce announced his campaign to unseat Speaker Paul Ryan with a campaign ad that instantly went viral. In it, he talks about his own battle with cancer and his mother’s needs as a patient with multiple sclerosis. He attacks Ryan’s opposition to the Affordable Care Act. And he presents himself as an outsider, populist candidate who can re-energize the Democratic Party. “I decided to run for office because not everyone is seated at the table,” he says in a voiceover. “It’s time to make a bigger table.”

At Payday Report, Mike Elk reports that Bryce has already lined up endorsements from the Milwaukee Building Trades, state Senator Chris Larson, state Representative JoCasta Zamarripa, and former House candidate Rob Zerban.

Though this isn’t Bryce’s first run for office—he ran for state assembly and state senate and lost both times—he may be just the candidate his beleaguered party needs. Not only is he running as a blue-collar progressive and well-known union member in a state with a storied history of labor politics and agrarian populism, Bryce could also be something of a unity candidate for Democrats. “Although he was a Sanders surrogate during the primary, he campaigned for Hillary Clinton in the general election and would have been an elector for her had she won,” Elk writes.

Bryce has one Democratic primary challenger so far: David Yankovich, who announced his candidacy on May 30. In this interview, Bryce explains to the New Republic his reasons for running and how he plans to win a district the Democratic Party hasn’t held since 1995. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Tell me why you decided to challenge Paul Ryan.



I’m a lifelong resident of Southeastern Wisconsin. I graduated from public schools, went into the Army after that. When I came back, I was diagnosed with cancer and I didn’t have insurance, and now it’s considered a preexisting condition. I worked sometimes two full-time jobs to make ends meet. Finally, I joined the union, the Ironworkers Union, which had an apprenticeship. I got my journeyman’s card and I’ve been doing that for 20 years now. As I drive through the district I can look and see, “I worked on that, I built that.” So literally I spent the last 20 years of my life building the district. Looking over at Paul Ryan, I’m wondering what he’s been doing.