8th Congressional District Republican candidates (L-R) Andre Jacque, Roger Roth and Tony Wied. (Photos: Jacque campaign, Roth campaign, WLUK)
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The three Republican candidates running to represent Northeast Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District met for a debate Friday night.
State Sen. Andre Jacque, former State Sen. Roger Roth and businessman Tony Wied took part in the Wisconsin 08 Great Debate at Providence Academy in Howard.
The 8th Congressional District includes the cities of Green Bay, Appleton and Oshkosh.
The debate was hosted by The Regular Joe Show and was moderated by the show’s host, Joe Giganti.
Candidates showed broad unity on issues such as gun control, immigration/border policies, election integrity, COVID-19 and transgender health related issues.
Each candidate gave an opening statement. Weid touted, during opening statements and throughout the night, his campaign endorsement by former President Donald Trump and his decades-long business career. Jacque spoke on his passion in fighting for families, the community, and conservative values including lowering inflation, issues at the border, and abortion. Jacque is endorsed by numerous law enforcement agencies and various other conservative groups. In Roth’s opening statement, he outlined how he wants to work with Trump on the fentanyl crisis, inflation, and providing adequate training to military personnel. He is endorsed by former Governor Scott Walker.
Disagreements between Jacque and Weid erupted several times throughout the evening. Roth did not find himself the target of any verbal attacks from either other candidate.
Jacque and Weid went back and fourth on topics regarding masking during COVID-19 and Weid’s ownership of META stock.
Each candidate was asked to share weather or not they thought the 2020 Presidential Election was stolen. The candidates were asked to respond first with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ before providing further explanation. As Weid did not begin his answer with ‘yes’ or ‘no’, even after being reminded of the rule twice, his microphone was subsequently shut off. Jacque said he did believe the election was stolen, while Roth said he did not think the election was stolen, but that he sees other issues with how elections are ran that he wants to change.
In discussing COVID-19, Jacque said that while he was authoring legislation to ensure there would be no discrimination based on vaccination status, Weid was “putting masks on his dinosaurs”, referring to the figurines outside Weid’s gas stations.
Weid was then asked by Giganti about COVID-19 protocols in his businesses. Weid fired back that as a business owner he followed mask mandates for a few weeks during the pandemic, and he would not deny service to a customer without a mask. Weid also stated he would never force any employees to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
The most notable jab was when when Jacque accused Weid of calling him “too pro-life” to get elected, to Ed Perkins of Fox Valley Initiative, an Appleton-based conservative group. This would come up again shortly after the debate was over.
After the debate, tempers flared in the auditorium as Giganti invited Jacque and Weid back to the stage along with Perkins, who arrived at the debate half way through the proceedings.
This invitation caused an immediate backlash from a faction of the audience. With Perkins alone on the stage, Giganti found himself defending his invitation from an incensed audience. Weid, in a sidebar conversation with Giganti, refused to engage further, calling the Perkins quote “hearsay”, a sentiment echoed by other members of the audience including Waupaca County GOP chairman Joel Bartel.
Ultimately, Perkins–a committed Jacque supporter–did speak to the crowd.
“[Weid] told me that he (Jacque) would never win, he’s ‘too pro life’,” Perkins said. “That’s what happened.”
This did little to ease tensions in the audience and even among the campaign staffs of Jacque and Weid, who were seen in a heated discussion in the parking lot outside of Providence Academy following the debate.
The winner of the Aug. 13 primary will go on to face Democrat Kristin Lyerly in the Nov. 5 general election. The race will appear twice on those ballots; voters will first elect candidates to serve the remainder of former Rep. Mike Gallagher’s term, through Jan. 3, then elect a candidate to serve the regular two-year term.
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