Clark for C.D. 7
This letter to the editor, by Laurie Harmon, appeared in the Hudson Star Observer on September 17, 2026.
The open seat in Congressional District 7 gives us an exciting opportunity to place a representative who will finally vote for Wisconsin’s needs and represent our people: Fred Clark. Clark will be our advocate in Congress, someone who knows and loves Wisconsin and its people, someone who’s deeply rooted in the 750,000 Wisconsinites who live in the district, in cities like Hudson, Amery, Wausau and Ashland.
Clark spent six years in the Wisconsin Assembly addressing the needs and concerns of our people. He cares about what we care about: affordable health care, public education, tax equity, campaign finance reform and Wisconsin’s natural resources. He’s committed to protecting the unique value and beauty of Wisconsin’s most precious attributes: beautiful farmland, forests and waterways. He’ll fight for us.
Clark is experienced. He’s been a forester, a land manager and a small business owner, as well as having served on many environmental foundations that protect, preserve and enhance our great state. Having lived in Wisconsin for over 35 years, he knows us. He is proud of — and cares for — our natural resources and beauty.
Clark’s less-than-experienced opponent Michael Alfonso, on the other hand, is quite literally a Trump plant, placed strategically in our district through relatives of his father-in-law, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. Although he grew up in Wausau and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he has most recently resided in Florida, not Wisconsin. He’s not only out of touch with Wisconsin’s needs, he is ill-equipped for a position in Congress. His only somewhat-related job experience was working on a radical, highly partisan and politically-charged podcast in Florida for the controversial Dan Bongino. Before that, he briefly worked in the construction and concrete industries.
More pointedly, Alphonso is a political pawn, positioned to fulfill U.S. Rep and gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany’s mission of being a MAGA “yes” man. He’s an inexperienced, nepotism-by-marriage, podcast extremist who will only be a puppet in Congress for MAGA’s narrow-minded agenda. He’s not for Wisconsin; he doesn’t know us and he certainly doesn’t know CD7’s values of hard work, perseverance and love of the land.
On Nov. 3, vote for Fred Clark. Send Michael Alphonso back to Florida.