Democrat Clark makes case for the Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District seat

Fred Clark, a Democrat from the Bayfield area, visited with The Lakeland Times recently to introduce himself, share some of his political positions and say why he feels he’s the right person to take over Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany’s seat in Congress representing the 7th District.

Originally from southern Michigan, Clark, 66, moved to Wisconsin in 1989 and attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study forestry. 

He worked as a forester and land manager after graduating college. For many years, Clark operated a contracting and consulting firm out of Baraboo.

“Worked all over the state,” he said. “Worked throughout northern Wisconsin doing everything from timber sales to tree planting to consulting and loved it. And for some reason, in 2008, I took a turn and ran for the state Legislature.”

Clark served for three terms in the state Assembly representing Sauk, Columbia and Marquette counties. 

He chaired the Assembly committee on forestry, parks and outdoor recreation, the Assembly committee on tourism and served on the Natural Resources Board. 

“A lot of stuff that’s in the life-blood of northern Wisconsin,” Clark said. “(I) really enjoyed that work (and) learned a lot about public service. That was also a very mixed area politically. I had a lot of people I represented who were staunch Republicans and I really took it as a responsibility to represent everybody.” 

He said it didn’t matter to him how people voted, but if they came to them with their issues, he would work to try and solve them. 

“It was my job to help you with state government,” Clark said. “I really, truly wish that more people in public service took that approach.”

He said he stepped away from state government in 2014 and pursued conservation policy work by running a couple different non-profit organizations. 

“One was a national forestry organization that did work throughout the country and then I ran the group Wisconsin’s Green Fire,” Clark said. 

He moved to Bayfield in 2022 with plans to retire. 

Clark said he was ready for a “change of pace” and has since enjoyed doing things such as boating on Lake Superior, hunting and fishing. 

“Life was pretty good and then I made a decision to run for Congress last year,” he said. “And, honestly, it wasn’t my dream to go to Washington, but I’m concerned enough about the future of this country and where we’re headed right now from a political standpoint.”

Clark said the most important thing for him is wanting to see Congress “do its job.”

He said he wants to see Congress do what the Constitution says it’s supposed to do. 

Clark said he feels Congress, over the years, has gradually given up too much power to the presidency and that’s what motivated him to join the race for the 7th District’s congressional seat. 

Feelings on immigration

“It’s a huge issue,” he said of immigration. 

Clark said the United States, first and foremost, needs a secure border. 

“We cannot have an open border that allows anybody to come in here that wants to and I think it’s clear now that the Biden administration, especially what they were trying to do with asylum (policies), was allowing way too many people into the country. It was kind of an open door. I’m not going to say it was a totally open door, but I think that wasn’t sustainable and we didn’t have enough control over who’s entering the country.”

The U.S., Clark said, needs to identify and deport immigrants who are criminals, especially violent ones. 

“We need immigration enforcement, no question,” he said. “I think what we’re seeing right now, and the way I view it, is that this administration (the Trump administration) is going way beyond that and the actions of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the border patrol in places like Minneapolis, but certainly not limited to that, they’re not performing the surgical operation of identifying people with criminal backgrounds and deporting them. They’re running sweeps and they’re sweeping up a whole lot of people that are here legally, including U.S. citizens and they’re, honestly, creating chaos in neighborhoods that are generally peaceful.”

Clark said children and families are afraid to go about their lives normally because “their skin is brown.”

“And I don’t think that’s making us safer and it’s not addressing the root cause that I believe is behind our immigration problem  — and that is we got a bunch of immigration laws that are out of date,” he said.

Clark said immigrants are coming to the U.S. because they can find work and better wages, even if they are getting paid “under the table.”

“Why are they doing that? They’re doing that to help better themselves and support their family in a lot of cases, but (also) because people are hiring,” he said. “So here’s the solution that I would love to point to that I think Congress needs to do. We need a visa system that allows immigrant workers enough visas to meet the demand that is there so a person can come into this country legally, have their background checked, take a job legally and pay the withholding and pay into social security and Medicare and to have a level playing field (for employers).”

A lot of the jobs immigrants work, he said, generally, are jobs most people don’t want to work, Clark said. 

“Ask a dairy farmer,” he said. “They can’t find people that are willing to … milk cows or work in a dairy barn all day. … So we have a labor shortage in this country that immigrants are filling. I truly believe … if we had a system that allowed people to just work and earn a living to come here legally, we could solve a lot of this problem.”

Clark said he doesn’t support sanctuary cities or banning ICE. 

“We need immigration enforcement, but what I want ICE to do is be more professional, to actually make sure they’re hiring people that are qualified and trained, and to stop doing stupid sh— in the streets,” he said. “I think they’re creating a real problem and a lot of backlash.”

Taxes?

Clark said he feels the working class is paying “way too much” in taxes.

While property taxes are a state issue, he said, he believes the state Legislature needs to take more responsibility in funding public schools.

Clark said the state used to be responsible for two-thirds of public school funding and while he doesn’t know exactly what that is now, he does know “it’s way down.”

“All the burden that the state isn’t paying is coming off of property taxes,” he said. “That’s a state issue, but it’s a really important one.”

Taxes from a federal standpoint, Clark said he thinks the richest of the rich should have to pay “their fair share.”

He used big tech companies such as X and Meta as an example. Companies like that, Clark said, pay significantly less in taxes percentage-wise than the normal citizen, not to mention “gigantic corporate tax breaks, that in some cases (were) negotiated.”

“But nobody can look at that (and) think that that’s fair when these are some of the wealthiest corporations in the world,” he said. 

President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law in July of last year, Clark said, cut taxes a little bit for the working class and “a lot more” for the wealthiest Americans.

He said it also added more than $3 trillion to U.S. debt. 

“And it did that by adding giant cuts in Medicaid  … and cutting out the tax credits under the Affordable Care Act,” Clark said. “You take those two things, that is a cost to working people that is way, way bigger than the tax savings they got out of the Big Beautiful Bill.”

He said he’s spoken with a lot of business owners in the 7th District and Trump’s policies relating to tariffs “are screwing a lot of people.”

Clark said American exporters may have lost out on certain markets and those who import goods may be paying more due to tariffs.

“There’s a lot of disruption being caused by that and I think that’s beginning to be felt in the economy,” he said. 

Health care

Clark agreed he felt the country’s health care system is bad and something needs to be done to fix it.

The Affordable Care Act hasn’t been perfect, he said, but it allowed people who are self-employed, farmers and more to find access to health care.

Affordable health care, Clark said he thinks, is “a couple hundred a month” as a monthly premium. 

“But when you start talking a thousand a month or $1,400 a month, which I heard is what some of those premiums went up to now, that’s not affordable for most people,” he said. “What are we doing? We’re subsidizing health care, that’s what we’re doing and the result of those (tax credits) going away is a whole lot of people are going to be uninsured and, of course … that means they won’t get the care they need, they’re going to get sicker or they’re more than likely going to become a charity case. One way or another, we’re paying for it.”

The rural health care network is “thin” as well, Clark said.

He said he’s seen rural health care lose medical workers and clinics “everywhere.”

“We have got to look at some different models,” Clark said. “I don’t think Obama Care is perfect, but until we get a better solution to get some sort of coverage for people, I don’t want to throw it out either.”

Gun ownership

Clark’s a hunter who’s owned guns for a long time. 

He believes in the Second Amendment, he said, and doesn’t think anyone should be worried about guns being taken away from “law abiding people.”

“I would challenge anybody to take a look at what happens in a school shooting and just think about how an entire community can get traumatized when time after time after time some crack pot is able to take a semi-automatic weapon and kill people in public,” Clark said. “We can’t be the only country in the world where this happens regularly. There’s got to be a bunch of stuff (Democrats and Republicans) can agree on.”

He said he thinks having universal background checks so everyone who buys a gun has a background check is something most people agree on.

Clark said certain red flag laws that provide “the right tools to law enforcement and schools and social services to identify people at risk to make sure they don’t acquire firearms” is something that needs to be a requirement as well.

“There’s a whole lot of solutions out there that I think we can agree on that don’t fundamentally restrict a right of a law-abiding normal person to have and enjoy a gun,” he said. “So that’s where I stand. I don’t know anybody that seriously thinks we’re just going to ban guns in this country. If they do, good luck to them, but that’s not part of a conversation I want to have.”

Wolf delisting

Clark said wolves need to be delisted as an endangered species in Wisconsin. 

“If you look at the Endangered Species Act, all the criteria for wolves to be listed here in the Great Lake states are met,” he said. “So I would love to see them be delisted and the fact that they’re listed right now … means that ranchers can’t use lethal control for animals that are problems and we can’t manage them at the state level.”

While serving in the state Legislature, Clark said he voted in favor of a bill that introduced the requirement of a state wolf hunt when the animals are delisted. 

He said he doesn’t understand why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn’t repurpose a new listing that includes the lake states’ population.

“Because if you look in the U.P., Wisconsin and Minnesota, that’s as stable of a population of wolves as you’re ever going to see,” Clark said. “I think we can manage wolves and I think we need to. Look, it’s a big divisive issue — a lot of people want to hug a wolf, a lot of people want to see them all gone. I’m kind of in the middle of that. I think we can sustain a population of wolves.”

‘Practical’

Clark described himself as a “practical” Democrat. 

“I have lived and worked in parts of rural Wisconsin most of the last 36 years,” he said. “I’m a Democrat that shows up and treats everybody with respect and do my best to work with everybody. And it’s one thing to say you’re a moderate, but that doesn’t really mean anything, so I don’t even like that word.”

Clark said if you were to ask anyone he worked with during his time in the state Legislature, they might have not agreed with him on everything, but they knew he was someone they could trust and a person they could work with.

“I can’t put it into a three word slogan,” he said. “But I do my best to work with everyone.” 

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