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Margaret Engebretson
Margaret Engebretson (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District. She lost in the general election on November 6, 2018.
Engebretson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2018. Click here to read the survey answers.
Elections
2018
General election
General election for U.S. House Wisconsin District 7
Incumbent Sean Duffy defeated Margaret Engebretson and Ken Driessen in the general election for U.S. House Wisconsin District 7 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Sean Duffy (R) | 60.1 | 194,061 |
 | Margaret Engebretson (D)  | 38.5 | 124,307 | |
 | Ken Driessen (Direct Participatory Democracy Party) | 1.4 | 4,416 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.0 | 3 | ||
| Total votes: 322,787 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Wisconsin District 7
Margaret Engebretson defeated Brian Ewert in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Wisconsin District 7 on August 14, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Margaret Engebretson | 57.3 | 27,194 |
 | Brian Ewert | 42.7 | 20,285 | |
| Total votes: 47,479 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Dennis Frank Paulaha (D)
- Bob Look (D)
- Kyle Frenette (D)
- David Beeksma (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Wisconsin District 7
Incumbent Sean Duffy advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Wisconsin District 7 on August 14, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sean Duffy | 100.0 | 60,708 |
| Total votes: 60,708 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2018
Ballotpedia survey responses
- See also: Ballotpedia's candidate surveys
Margaret Engebretson participated in Ballotpedia's candidate survey on September 16, 2018. The survey questions appear in bold, and Margaret Engebretson's responses follow below.[1]
What would be your top three priorities, if elected?
| “ | My top three priorities will be: 1. Creating a Medicare for All public health insurance program that covers everyone and that guarantees everyone their coverage. 2. Fighting for the investments in highway, rail, and broadband that our communities need to survive and thrive. 3. Fulfilling my constitutional duty to provide accountability for the other branches of government.[2][3] |
” |
What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about? Why?
| “ | I am particularly passionate about the following policy areas: - Defending our democracy – The need to defend our democracy from both domestic and foreign threats is the central motivation for my candidacy, and it is the reason that I have adopted “vetfordemocracy” as my moniker. Partisan gerrymandering, restrictions on voting rights, and the corrupting influence of big money are all undermining our representative government. At the same time, the integrity of our election system is threatened by the actions of a foreign power. I am passionate about the need to defend our democratic institutions from these threats. |
” |
Ballotpedia also asked the candidate a series of optional questions. Margaret Engebretson answered the following:
What qualities do you possess that would make you a successful officeholder?
| “ | I’m a veteran of the U.S. military who served three years in the Navy followed by 21 years in the Guard and Reserve. I worked as a union railroad locomotive electrician and train dispatcher before attending the University of Wisconsin-Superior and the University of Wisconsin Law School. In my Balsam Lake law practice, I focused much of my time advocating for the best interest of children and disabled adults. Having served my country in the military, I felt a sense of duty and obligation to step forward as a candidate for Congress to offer what skills and abilities I have to defend our democracy and to make sure that people have an advocate in Washington who will fight for them every single day. My whole life I’ve stuck up for people – it is who I am and what I have always been drawn to do. That is what I will do as a member of Congress.[3] | ” |
| “ | The bottom line is this – our elected officials take an oath to “support and defend the Constitution” and to "faithfully discharge the duties” of their office. This means that they will place the health of our democracy and the needs of their constituents ahead of their own political interests and those of their party and their donors. This is the core responsibility of an elected official. When our political system functions well, elected officials are rewarded politically for fulfilling this oath. The frequency with which the health of our democracy and the needs of the public are currently pushed aside, is a sign that our political system is in need of reform and revitalization.[3] | ” |
| “ | If I could be any fictional character, I would want to be Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Star Trek: Voyager television series. Captain Janeway is compassionate, smart, and bold. In short, she is the ideal leader.[3] | ” |
| “ | Given the importance of infrastructure investments to the prosperity of Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District (and my own work experience in the railroad industry), I am interested in serving on the House Transportation Committee. I am also interested in serving on the House Judiciary Committee where I could apply my background as an attorney to the task of combating the over politicization of our government institutions.[3] | ” |
| “ | One phone conversation I had with the owner of a small family farm in the district had a particularly significant impact on me. The conversation began with her mentioning that she had just returned from stocking up on bottled water because her family had recently learned that run off from the big corporate farms that surround her property had rendered the family’s water supply undrinkable. The corporate farm operators would love to gobble up her family’s small 300-acre operation, but the family is fighting to survive. They switched from producing dairy to producing beef and, most recently, had supplemented their livestock operation by producing green beans. I have great admiration for this woman’s struggle, but was struck by just out of kilter our public policy has become. We should not be allowing private corporations to be poisoning our drinking water and we should be supporting small entrepreneurs like her and her family rather than favoring the large corporate entities that are threatening her livelihood.[3] | ” |
See also
- United States House of Representatives
- Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District election, 2018
- Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Note: The candidate's answers have been reproduced here verbatim without edits or corrections by Ballotpedia.
- ↑ Ballotpedia's candidate survey, "Margaret Engebretson's responses," September 16, 2018
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
