Congressional candidate visits with the Times

Paul Wassgren, a Republican candidate for Tom Tiffany’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, stopped by The Lakeland Times recently to introduce himself and elaborate on his political positions more.

Wassgren, 49, was born in Ashland and spent his summers there while growing up. He went to high school near Portland, Oregon.

He attended Pepperdine University in Los Angeles, Calif., graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in two years and having a 4.0 grade point average. Wassgren studied business and law at Oxford University in England. 

Though he still has clients as an attorney, Wassgren said he retired in 2020 from DLA Piper, one of the largest law firms in the world, as a partner. He did so, he said, to do his “own thing” and spend more time in Wisconsin.

He described himself as an entrepreneur with regard to his career in business. 

“Early on in my career I advised my clients and I realized, you know what, I can do some of this stuff,” Wassgren said. “So I would see what industries were profitable and what weren’t. So I’ve been involved in at least eight or nine different businesses.”

Those businesses, he explained, were in a variety of different industries, such as development, trucking, technology and more.

“I found that I’ve learned more from the school of hardknocks,” Wassgren said. “More from the bad deals, the bad businesses, than I have from the good ones. You know everybody asks me about my education. They’re all very excited to talk about Oxford … but the truth is the real education started after I finished law school and business school and got into the real world. That’s where you really learn how things work.”

The right candidate?

Wassgren said Republicans in Wisconsin “understand we don’t want to become Minnesota, we don’t want to become Illinois.”

He said he thinks even moderates feel that way.

Because of that, Wassgren said he believes Republicans will turn out to vote in November. 

“But if we want to revert back to Biden economics, if we want to revert back to over-regulation and job losses and factory closures, well vote for a Democrat or just don’t show up,” he said. “But if you’re interested in revitalizing the economy of the north land, the Republican ticket is the only path forward. And that’s really why I’m rolling up my sleeves.”

He said he was “happily retired” from practicing law. 

“But when I realized Tom was going to step into the governor’s race, that leaves some very big shoes to fill in the 7th Congressional District,” Wassgren said. 

He said he has “very deep roots” in Wisconsin.

Wassgren calls the state home and is “passionate about the younger generation.”

He said he thinks he can make a difference in Washington D.C. because he wants “to restore and revitalize” the state’s economy, making things more affordable. 

Wassgren said he knows many people in Congress. He said he worked closely with the Trump administration during his professional career.

Wassgren pointed out “issues” with rising property taxes he’d like to make better and elaborated on how he would want to make health insurance costs more affordable, but doing so by undoing the “damage” he said was done by the Affordable Care Act.

“Why am I the right guy for the job?” he said. “Well I’m going to hit the ground running. As I said, I have a lot of friends in the House of Representatives. They’re very excited about my candidacy. They’re going to help me with my campaign, I’m going to help them, because everyone’s up for re-election every cycle. So working together, we are going to get stuff done.”

According to WisPolitics, Wassgren reported he finished 2025 with nearly $1.5 million in cash on hand that will be supporting his campaign, the most, as of Jan. 14, of any other Republican candidate running for the 7th Congressional District. 

He told the Times he had about $1.6 million of his own money invested three months in to his campaign and “taking this very, very seriously.”

“This is mission critical for me,” he said. “And I’ve had the benefit of traveling and working all over the world, and there is no place like home. And I want Wisconsin to continue to be the great place it was in the 80s when I was a kid here.”

Gun ownership

Wassgren said he collects Civil War era artillery.

“So I hope that answers the question,” he said. “I grew up shooting, fishing, boating, all that good stuff, but in particular, my now deceased grandpa who owned the Mountain Valley Cheese Factory in Bayfield County, we’d go out, we’d go shooting. I just loved it as a kid.”

He said he wasn’t aware of any other candidate who has a “cannon collection.”

“I am a fierce advocate of our Second Amendment rights to say the least,” Wassgren said. 

He said he hopes the National Rifle Association (NRA) will endorse him to be the next representative of the 7th Congressional District.

However, Wassgren said he wasn’t sure if the NRA will have the race for the 7th District “on their radar.”

“But I think I would be a good choice for them, to say the least,” he said.

Taxes

Wassgren indicated the national deficit is an issue he places a lot of importance on.

He said he stands with Wisconsin U.S. Senator Ron Johnson on the issue.

“We do have to tackle it and here’s how we’re going to tackle it,” Wassgren said. “People, especially our seniors in northern Wisconsin, we have a lot of seniors … we cannot cut into our entitlements. That’s a contractual relationship, we’ve all paid into it … for many decades in our case … so there is no need to cut into entitlements. That’s the biggest line item, but there’s no need to cut into that.”

He said the economy needs to be built by bringing in investment capital. 

Wassgren voiced support for President Donald Trump’s tariff policy.

“Now that will not, anytime soon, replace income tax,” he said. “But the real secret sauce is we got three things we can and should cut out of the federal budget immediately: fraud, waste and abuse. We’re seeing just the tip of the iceberg in Minnesota.”

Wassgren said the U.S. hasn’t had a balanced budget since the 1990s and both parties are to blame. 

“So we have to cut out the fraud,waste and abuse,” he said. “We have to grow the economy. That’s how we always get out of this debt crisis. We grow the economy.”

Bottom line, Wassgren said the U.S. has a lot of talented people and a lot of resources, but “we just have to have intelligent people setting policy in D.C. and, of course, Madison.”

Workforce

In a district with the average age in the 50s, Wassgren said he thinks the 7th District still “has the families.”

However, he said, young people are moving out of the district for college and beyond. 

Wassgren said “lawful immigration” has been the “jet fuel” for the economy in the U.S.

“We never would have grown into the great nation that we are without lawful immigration,” he said. “So the pushback that we see in the media about immigration is just about the illegal stuff that Biden permitted during the Biden-Harris Administration. But we absolutely, desperately need a workforce here in Wisconsin.”

Wassgren said he has ideas related to immigration policy, but isn’t ready to speak in detail about that at this point in his campaign.

“But the truth is, it’s on Congress, not the President, to change the law if we don’t like it,” he said. “A lot of folks here who are hardworkers, there is a way to have them remain hard workers and legitimize their status under U.S. law. In addition, we obviously need to bring in a steady stream of new workers.”

An unfamiliar Democratic party

Wassgren said he has some friends in Congress who are Democrats and believes he can work with the other side of the aisle to get things done. 

“I’m not afraid to work with them,” he said. “I think it’s important that we work together.”

However, Wassgren said, the Democratic party today, isn’t the same party he remembered growing up.

“Here in Wisconsin, at least northern Wisconsin, we’re not going to tolerate a Zohran Mamdani, I mean that just doesn’t fly in northern Wisconsin,” he said about the newly elected New York city mayor who has a reputation of being far-left on the political spectrum. “I mean, back in the day, the political history of (Milwaukee), there may have been a socialist mayor in the city of Milwaukee, but even those folks are not as crazy as the loons we’ve seen on the left side of the Democratic party right now.”

Last word

Wassgren said “nobody can outwork a Wassgren in Wisconsin.”

He said his goal is to make “Wisconsin competitive again and then great again.”

“We got to restore what once was for younger generations now,” Wassgren said. 

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].