Rae Vogeler
Wisconsin Green Party’s Rae Vogeler has built a credible, exciting challenge to Democratic incumbent Senator Herb Kohl. Recruited in early 2005 to run for the seat widely considered safely Democratic, Rae has taken her powerful anti-war message and progressive platform to the voters of Wisconsin, and has found the message resonating with many dissatisfied and discontented people from all backgrounds. Senator Kohl made an easy target for the longtime social justice activist, as the second richest senator who refuses to fundraise, electing to write himself multi-million-dollar campaign contributions from his own back pocket. Kohl voted consistently with the other side of the aisle and his record of fighting for working people pales in comparison to Wisconsin’s other Senator, Russ Feingold.
When elected, Rae’s first
priority will be to bring our troops home and direct those resources to
challenges facing working families in Wisconsin: health care,
education, and decent jobs. Providing hardworking families
with
universal affordable health care will create jobs by relieving small
businesses from expensive health care costs. By investing in clean,
renewable energy technology, we can bring back the good-paying manufacturing
jobs our state has lost and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. It
is also vital that we invest in the future of our children and our nation by
fully funding quality, public education for preschool through college.
Born and raised in Milwaukee, Rae lived all her life in Wisconsin. She has over thirty years of experience as a community activist and organizer, working tirelessly to help others improve their own lives. She is a working mother of two from the small village of Oregon, Wisconsin. She has started a business, labored as a truck driver and factory worker, and served others at senior, literacy, and women’s centers. Rae has walked picket lines and marched with striking auto workers, tenant rights activists, and community action groups. She worked her way through school and earned degrees in Social Work and Electrical Engineering. Rae Vogeler wants to represent the needs of working people in the state of Wisconsin in the U.S. Senate.
Rae Vogeler is proud to have been endorsed by one of the largest union locals in Wisconsin - the Teaching Assistants' Association - AFT Local 3220. The TAA has nearly 3000 members in the Madison area. The Lake Mills Leader, Cambridge News, and Deerfield Independent newspapers have endorsed Rae, writing that Rae "is a thoughtful progressive in the same mold as three of the individuals who have occupied this particular seat in the United States Senate. We're specifically talking about Robert ‘Fighting Bob’ La Follette Sr., his son Robert M. La Follette Jr., and William Proxmire. Unlike Kohl, who is nobody's senator but his own, they were giants in the U.S. Senate who always put the public's interest first.” Also, Senator Kohl’s Democratic Party primary opponent, Ben Masel, endorsed her on WORT radio in Madison; Masel earned over 14 percent (51,000+) votes in the primary. The Libertarian write-in candidate for U.S. Senate, David Redick, has also announced his support of Rae’s stances on key issues.