Politics

GOP Candidate Seeking To Become First Rep Born In 2000s Vies To Notch Another MAHA Win In Heartland

Screenshot/Rumble/Daily Caller News Foundation

Republican Wisconsin House candidate Michael Alfonso discussed the importance of supporting the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement as a new father in an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Alfonso, 26, is endorsed by President Donald Trump as he vies in a five-candidate Aug. 11 GOP primary for a sprawling northwestern Wisconsin district the president won by more than 22 percentage points in the 2024 election. If elected, he would likely be the youngest member of Congress and the first member born in the 2000s.

“As a young guy, I just had a daughter. The rising costs of health care is one of those scary things that scares not just my generation, but even the older generation. Prescription drugs, you name it,” he told the DCNF. “But if we’re going to have a serious discussion about the rise of health care costs, we can talk about how us as a nation, we have an obese crisis.”

Alfonso added that he “believes” in the MAHA movement led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

“This idea of getting food from the farmers to the … local sellers to the local consumers. I stand behind that 100%.,” he stressed. “We have a chronic disease crisis. If we want to lower the cost of health care, one of the easy things we can do is just be healthier.”

The young candidate is running to represent Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District to replace incumbent Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is instead running for governor. Alfonso’s father-in-law, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, represented the district from 2011 to 2019. Alfonso previously worked as the producer of The Dan Bongino Show, a popular conservative podcast, and as an accountant at a Catholic Church.

In addition to his support from Trump, Alfonso also received an endorsement from MAHA Action — a group aligned with the broader MAHA movement. The organization supported seven candidates at the time of the DCNF’s interview with Alfonso, a number that had grown to ten by Friday. All candidates it backs are Republicans.

A few MAHA-Action backed candidates including Republican Louisiana Senate nominee Julia Letlow and Republican Iowa gubernatorial nominee Zach Lahn already won contested primaries this cycle. Lahn’s win over a Trump-backed opponent was considered a major upset and came after he spent much of his primary campaign focusing on his support for the MAHA movement.

Alfonso told the DCNF of a solution he thinks can both make the American food supply healthier and benefit farmers in his district.

“There’s a lot of discussion about food dyes in our foods, particularly Red 40,” he said. “One of the alternatives to red dye 40 is actually using cranberries as a natural dye.”

He alluded to the fact that Wisconsin produces about 60% of the nation’s cranberry supply.

“So, we’re very excited about that. I was just with a couple cranberry growers, and they’re already getting some plans ready for if those decisions come down,” Alfonso told the DCNF.

However, the fact that Alfonso is only one year older than the minimum age to run for Congress has caused some to call him unprepared for the job, with one three-time Trump voter telling The Associated Press in early July, “it’s insulting to people in the 7th that someone who lacks qualifications and any life experiences and any kind of demonstrable leadership skills or experience is even being touted as a candidate”

The 26 year old told the DCNF that he has been working since he was 14.

“Whether it’s Ace Hardware or putting myself through through college, doing construction or producing one of the largest conservative podcasts in the entire country, I’ve been on the frontlines of the working class and this battle against radical leftism my whole life,” he said. “And I do ask the question, what has experience ever gotten us in politics?”

Alfonso’s two main primary opponents are former Iran hostage and county GOP leader Kevin Hermening, and Jessi Ebben — who works in public relations and is backed by the Club For Growth and Republican Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna. Business owner and self-identified moderate Republican Niina Baum and contractor Don Raihala are also vying to win the GOP primary race.

While polling on the race has been sparse, a TIPP Insights survey sponsored by the League of American Workers released in early May showed Alfonso as the frontrunner with 35% support, with Hermening at 21%, and Ebben and Baum tied at 5%. Thirty-four percent of respondents were undecided.

Ebben accused Alfonso of nepotism during an April debate.

Alfonso responded to these attacks in April, telling journalist Emily Jashinsky “It’s rich. When people start losing in a race they’ll throw anything at you.”

“If Republicans are going to be serious and actually win races, we need to raise money,” he added, attributing a recent landslide loss for a conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate to poor fundraising.

During his interview with the DCNF, Alfonso also observed how unionized workers — a longtime reliable Democratic voting bloc — have trended right in recent years, especially under Trump’s leadership of the GOP.

“When I talk about, the Teamsters, the unions, the guys that are actually building America, they look at the Democrats and they say, ‘My grandfather was a Democrat. My father was a Democrat. I must be a Democrat,'” he said. “But then they see the Democrats with these green New Deal, Green new scam policies where they’re not building anything.”

“They’re telling them, ‘Hey, go take a hike,'” Alfonso emphasized. “We don’t need your job anymore.”