Republican Rep. Bryan Steil faces Democratic challenger Mitchell Berman in Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District, which covers all of Racine and Kenosha counties, most of Walworth County and parts of southern Milwaukee and eastern Rock counties. Republicans have held the seat for more than 30 years, and forecasters at the Cook Political Report and the University of Virginia's Crystal Ball have moved the race to lean Republican, making it the most competitive congressional race in southeast Wisconsin ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
Steil, a Janesville native, worked as an attorney in manufacturing for more than a decade before he was first elected in 2018. He won reelection in 2020, 2022 and 2024 and now chairs the Committee on House Administration.
On the issues, Steil campaigns on cutting government spending and lowering taxes to fight inflation, supports President Donald Trump's immigration policies and tougher border security, and says health care decisions should stay with patients and doctors, opposing Medicare for All. He supported the Microsoft data center project announced in Racine County in 2024 and says he is pro-life, calling the overturning of Roe v. Wade a great victory for life.
Berman is a registered nurse with more than 23 years in health care who earned a nursing assistant license by age 17 and became a first-generation college graduate. His campaign says families are struggling with living costs, and his priorities include raising the federal minimum wage, lowering child care costs, taking on corporations that drive up grocery prices and cutting energy costs through efficiency investments.
Berman says the border must be safe and secure and that violent criminals in the country illegally should be deported, while also backing comprehensive immigration reform. On health care, he says he has watched patients ration medication they could not afford and backs restoring the Affordable Care Act, lowering prescription drug costs and creating a public option. He says data center companies should pay their own way, protect land, air and water, and be transparent about water use, and that health care decisions, including abortion, belong to patients and their doctors.
