Democrat Kristin Lyerly, an OB-GYN, running for soon to be vacant Gallagher congressional seat

WASHINGTON – De Pere Democrat Kristin Lyerly is all in on the congressional seat left empty by the impending retirement of Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher. 

Lyerly told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday she will run for Congress in Wisconsin’s northeastern 8th Congressional District, setting up a Democratic bid for the rural red seat after the party failed to field a challenger to Gallagher last election cycle. 

Lyerly, an OB-GYN, said her campaign will center on healthcare access. She formally announced her campaign Thursday at Hinterland Brewing Company in Green Bay.

“I think people have really felt unrepresented, like their voices have gone unheard, and that needs to change,” Lyerly said.

“There is a path here (for Democrats) for the first time in a really long time,” she said. “It feels like hope.”

Lyerly’s decision comes as Gallagher, a high-profile foreign policy hawk, plans to leave Congress on April 19 — months before the end of his term. Gallagher has not said why he is cutting his time short but has called the move a family decision. He previously announced in February this would be his last term in the House. 

The move from Lyerly means Democrats will have candidates run in each of the state’s congressional districts in 2024. That’s a change from last election cycle when Democrats did not field candidates against Gallagher and Rep. Glenn Grothman, a Glenbuelah Republican who represents the 6th Congressional District.

Two other Democrats who were considering bids, former journalist Kelly Peterson and Navy veteran Alicia Saunders, told the Journal Sentinel this week they will not run in the 8th District and will instead pursue state-level races. Saunders said she will run in Assembly District 2, currently held by Republican state Rep. Shae Sortwell. Peterson plans to run for Senate District 2, held by Republican state Sen. Robert Cowles. 

Former state Sen. Roger Roth, an Appleton Republican who ran for lieutenant governor in 2022, and state Sen. Andre Jacque, a Republican from De Pere, are competing in the 8th District’s Republican primary. Donald Trump-aligned GOP consultant Alex Bruesewitz has been teasing a potential April 8 campaign announcement.

In an interview, Lyerly acknowledged the steep uphill battle Democrats face in an 8th District that favors Republicans by about 16 points. Gallagher, in his fourth term on Capitol Hill, won each reelection handily, by no fewer than 25 points. 

But Lyerly noted the 2022 overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade case protecting abortion — something Democrats in the state have successfully campaigned on since — and said the country is “suffering” from the “lack of ability to make our own personal health care decisions.”

Lyerly has been at the center of Wisconsin Democrats’ pushback to a 19th-century state law that made it a felony for doctors to perform abortions. She was one of three Wisconsin doctors who joined Attorney General Josh Kaul in challenging the law in court. 

(A Dane County judge in December ruled the 1849 law does not prohibit abortion.)

She has appeared with top Democrats at events focused on restoring abortion access in Wisconsin, including moderating a roundtable with Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. She joined Gov. Tony Evers to announce a lawsuit against the state abortion law that went into effect last year before the Dane County judge’s recent ruling.

She makes monthly commutes to Minnesota, working in hospitals in Hibbing and Montevideo.

This week, Lyerly stressed the need for better healthcare access in rural areas and said healthcare extends beyond just doctors — involving access to healthy food, clean water, clean air and mental health services. 

“My platform will be healthcare-based because I’m a physician,” she said. “But I think it’s important to consider all of the different aspects that affect our own individual health.

This won’t be Lyerly’s first foray into Wisconsin politics. 

In 2020, she lost a challenge for an Assembly seat against Republican incumbent John Macco, who received 52% of the vote in the district to Lyerly's 48%. 

The Republican Party of Wisconsin on Wednesday dismissed Lyerly's campaign, saying her run "only makes sense for a Wisconsin Democratic Party increasingly out of touch with its own constituents."

"No one is more at odds with the values and interests of Northeast Wisconsin than Lyerly," Wisconsin GOP spokesman Matt Fisher said in a statement to the Journal Sentinel. "Voters have rejected her before. 2024 will be no different."

While she had been considering a run against Gallagher before Gallagher announced his retirement, Lyerly told the Journal Sentinel that Gallagher’s departure “opened a very clear path” for her. 

She praised Gallagher as being “very responsive to his constituents” and labeled him a “very appropriate moderate.” Those looking to replace him, she suggested, are not that.  

“The momentum has shifted,” she said, describing herself as a 6th generation Wisconsinite who grew up supporting Republicans. “People recognize that the GOP MAGA extremism is not in line with their personal values. That MAGA extremism is not solving their problems.”

Still, national Democrats are unlikely to put many resources toward the 8th District seat as they focus their attention on Wisconsin’s swing 3rd and 1st districts. 

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Lyerly said, told her they aren’t interested in investing in the race at this point.

“But what I told (them) was: Keep your eye on us,” Lyerly said. “Because we are feisty, hard-working, and this district, knowing the people who vote here who are independent thinkers — they’re not red, they’re not blue, they’re green and gold.”