Send Fred Clark to Congress

This letter to the editor, by Laurie Harmon, appeared in the Hudson Star Observer on October 8, 2026.

The open seat in Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District gives us an exciting opportunity to elect 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 CD7 (cities like Hudson, Amery, Wausau and Ashland, Wis.).

Clark spent three terms in the state Assembly addressing the needs and concerns of our people. He cares about what we care about: affordable healthcare, 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 and he is proud of and cares for our natural resources and beauty.

Clark’s less-experienced opponent, Michael Alfonso, on the other hand, is quite literally a Trump “plant,” strategically running in our district after marrying the daughter of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Though he grew up in Wausau and spent four years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he had up until 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 social media broadcast in Florida for the controversial commentator Dan Bongino’s Podcast. Before that, he briefly worked in the construction and concrete industries.

More pointedly, Alfonso is a political pawn, positioned to fulfill 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.

This Nov. 3, vote for Fred Clark. Send Michael Alfonso back to Florida.