MADISON, Wis. — A Democrat who represented southeastern Wisconsin in Congress in the 1990s before becoming Assembly leader and secretary of state revenue announced Thursday he is running for Congress again.
Peter Barca announced his bid against Republican U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, who is seeking a fourth term. Wisconsin’s 1st congressional district, previously represented by former House Speaker Paul Ryan, leans Republican but was made more competitive under new boundary lines adopted in 2022.
The seat is a national target for Democrats in their bid to regain majority control of the House of Representatives. It is one of only two congressional districts in Wisconsin considered competitive. The other is the 3rd Congressional District in western Wisconsin, held by Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden.
Republicans hold six of Wisconsin’s eight congressional seats.
Barca, 68, previously held the top Congressional District seat from 1993 to 1995. He had previously considered running for the seat again after Ryan resigned in 2018.
Barca is the first known Democrat to enter the race. National Democrats are expected to support Barca’s campaign. The primaries are on August 13.
Barca said in a statement announcing his campaign that his long record showed he was a fighter for working families and contrasted himself with an “inaction, dysfunctional Congress.”
“We need someone to stand up and fight for our families again,” he said.
The Steil campaign said in a statement that Barca has “put his political career before Wisconsin families” over the past four decades. The campaign also accused Barca of opposing a 2016 bill that would ban sanctuary cities and voting in 1993 for a budget bill in Congress that increased gas taxes.
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella branded Barca a “sacrificial lamb” who has “put his out-of-reach policies above Wisconsin citizens.”
Steil was elected in 2018 by 12 percentage points, and won reelection by 19 points in 2020 and 9 points in 2022.
Barca was elected to the State Assembly from 1985 to 1993, when he resigned after winning a special election for Congress. After losing in 1995, former President Bill Clinton appointed him Midwest regional administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
He was re-elected to the General Assembly in 2008 and served as Democratic Minority Leader from 2011 to 2017.
Barca led the Democrats in the 2011 battle for collective bargaining rights. While his Democratic colleagues in the Senate fled to Illinois in an attempt to block passage of a bill that effectively ended collective bargaining for public employees, Barca helped orchestrate a filibuster in the Assembly that lasted more than 60 hours .
Barca resigned as minority leader in part because of grumbling from fellow Democrats over his support for a $3 billion stimulus package for Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturing company that planned to locate a massive factory in his district.
Barca left the General Assembly in 2019 when Governor Tony Evers tapped him as secretary of the Ministry of Finance. He resigned last month.