ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
We've been reporting all week from here in Wisconsin. And a House race in what's been a safe Republican district caught our attention because of what it says about national trends this election year. WUWM's Chuck Quirmbach is reporting on this contest. Hi, Chuck.
CHUCK QUIRMBACH, BYLINE: Hi.
SHAPIRO: Where's the district?
QUIRMBACH: Well, it's up in northeast Wisconsin. It's the 8th Congressional District. It's very large geographically, stretching from the farm fields and small towns south of Green Bay up to the northern forests of far northeast Wisconsin - in the middle there, Green Bay and Appleton, metro areas, heart of Green Bay Packers Country.
SHAPIRO: All right. Well, take us up there. Let's listen to your reporting about what makes this race so interesting.
QUIRMBACH: Dr. Kristin Lyerly is trying to become one of the first Democratic obstetrician gynecologists elected to the U.S. Congress. While abortion rights is a major consideration for many voters in the U.S. this year, Lyerly thinks it's also a topic that her neighbors in a Republican-leaning district want to discuss.
KRISTIN LYERLY: And that is one of the keys to winning this district - is talking about it in a language that people can understand and making a space for people to engage about this subject.
QUIRMBACH: Yet it's not clear that running on a campaign focused on reproductive rights will be enough to break the Republican hold on the district. Her Republican rival, businessperson Tony Wied, thinks he can keep this a GOP seat, believing voters here are prioritizing the cost of living.
TONY WIED: Inflation is really what is the new tax right now.
QUIRMBACH: This year GOP incumbent Mike Gallagher, who occasionally publicly disagreed with former President Donald Trump, left Congress, leaving a House seat open in a district that the GOP has held since 2011. But Wied has the Republican presidential candidate's endorsement. Like Trump, he says regulation of abortion should be left to the states to decide. At a debate last week between Lyerly and Wied, a tense exchange emerged when a media panelist asked the Republican twice to describe what abortion policy should be in Wisconsin. The GOP candidate twice maintained that's an issue for the state, not the federal government.
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WIED: So that's not on my plate. I am going to continue to work hard on the things that I can control in the United States House of Representatives.
QUIRMBACH: Lyerly then responded, referencing Trump.
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LYERLY: Again, a cop-out. We all know the person who pulls Tony Wied's strings is proud of taking Roe v. Wade down.
QUIRMBACH: This is not Lyerly's first time making statewide headlines about abortion rights. In 2022, Lyerly joined a lawsuit Democrats filed challenging an 1849 law. The law wound up halting abortions in Wisconsin for about 15 months. During that time, Lyerly moved her practice across the state line to Minnesota. A Wisconsin circuit judge last year ruled that the 1849 law did not apply to abortion, allowing them to resume. But an appeal is still in the state courts. Lyerly says she hasn't moved her work back to Wisconsin because anti-abortion groups filed complaints against her medical license.
LYERLY: So I recognize that I'm a target. My professional career is threatened, and it's not safe for me to practice here right now.
QUIRMBACH: Even as this area is seen as a reliable GOP congressional district, it's part of a swing state President Biden won four years ago, and Democrats think they can win again this year. So the morning after the debate, the Harris-Walz campaign made a stop in Green Bay, promoting what they call their reproductive freedom bus tour. At the event, Lyerly supporter Kelly Steffes said OB-GYNs should be free to practice wherever they want.
KELLY STEFFES: There are a lot of issues that should remain within the states, but I think overall, health care should be provided to everybody, and that includes women.
QUIRMBACH: Wied's campaign did not respond to requests for an interview, but a Wied supporter, Dan Pichler, says he knows the Republican candidate well enough to believe they're in sync on abortion. Pickler, like Wied and Trump, would rather highlight other topics.
DAN PICHLER: I am pro-life. But I don't think that it should be as big of an issue as what it is, from the standpoint of I think the economy, immigration and border control are more important issues.
QUIRMBACH: Wied and his supporters may be right. While there's no publicly released polling on the contest, the Cook Political Report does not classify the race as competitive. For NPR News, I'm Chuck Quirmbach in Green Bay, Wis. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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