A familiar face — and ‘stache — hopes to take on Bryan Steil in next year’s race for Congress.
Democrat Randy Bryce, nicknamed Iron Stache, launched his 2026 campaign Tuesday morning.
He’s a veteran and former iron worker who ran against Steil in 2018 after former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan retired as the representative for Wisconsin’s First District.
In his campaign launch video, Bryce strikes a populist tone, saying the race isn’t about left versus right but rather “the billionaires versus the rest of us.”
Steil won that 2018 race by 12 percentage points despite Bryce grabbing national attention and the endorsement of Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders with his blue-collar aesthetic.
While the First District has been a safe Republican seat for decades, the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee included Steil’s seat in its list of districts in play in 2026. The First District includes portions of Rock County, including the cities of Janesville, Beloit and Milton; portions of Walworth and Milwaukee counties; and all of Kenosha and Racine counties.
