The Clark County Democrats held their annual dinner at Meadowview Country Club on Saturday, October 25, 2025 with about 60 people in attendance. Speakers were there to talk about a variety of topics, including one candidate.
Kirk Rodman spoke about a campaign the leadership of the Clark County Democratic Party was proposing, to run newspaper ads to get new members, but also to spread their message. He passed around a sample ad. The cost of running ads in all the county newspapers plus the shoppers would be about $1,200 each time. They were asking for those present to donate toward the ads. Bryce Luchterhand said they would like to run an ad at least every three weeks, stating “United we stand, divided we fall.”
Chris Armstrong was the only candidate present. He is running for the 7th Congressional District seat currently held by Tom Tiffany. He is from New Richmond and has a degree in astrophysics and owns an IT business. He has been running his own company for 20 years. His children are age 32 and 29. He also recently became a grandfather for the first time. He readily admits that he has never held political office. He has always done the bare minimum in regard to elections, put out campaign signs and vote. But he got angry about what Donald Trump is doing and DOGE. Armstrong said he is still angry, that things are not going to get any better. He felt he had to do something, so he started protesting by himself in New Richmond. For the spring election, he joined the St. Croix Democratic Party and started knocking on doors and speaking at meetings. Someone suggested he run for office. Armstrong said he loves what he does, but decided to run for his grandson. When he is older and asks his grandpa what he did to make a difference, he wants to be able to respond “I did everything in my power.” He has been working on fundraising for his campaign and getting his name out there. He has the benefit of no social media history that might come back to haunt him.
Armstrong has five pillars to his campaign. Prosperity, everyone should be able to afford to live a life of happiness and fulfillment. Opportunity, everyone should have a fair and honest chance to succeed. Security, we need to ensure safety and health of family, friends and community. Dignity, we need to respect individual rights, law and order, and the Constitution. Stability, we need to stop the chaos and establish regular order. He asked what the point was in establishing new laws if the Trump administration is going to ignore them. He said there will be zero cooperation until Congress acts together to “get the criminal in chief out of office.” He said we have to resist, that what is happening today is eerily similiar to what is written in the Declaration of Independence. The Democrats need to retake the House. It will be tough to get the Senate to remove Trump.
More information can be found on his website, ArmstrongForWisconsin.com. He is looking to raise funds but people can support him in other ways, such as house parties to talk about his candidacy.
The next speaker was Nancy Stencil. She said she was in Washington D.C. two weeks ago. The city was told to cut their budget by $1 billion. The National Guard being deployed in the city is costing $1 million a day and they have been there for 90 days. She said they can’t fund SNAP benefits or healthcare, but can put the Guard in cities. She said nobody in Washington D.C. is listening to us. One in eight people depend on SNAP. Stencil asked what that says about our nation. Congress only worked 17 days in the last few months.
While in Washington D.C., they visited Derek VanOrden’s office. She said his staff was very rude. All Republican offices had pictures of Charlie Kirk on their walls. The staff in Ron Johnson’s office was at least polite. They said they constantly talk to their stakeholders about issues, including healthcare. Stencil wondered who they were talking to as it isn’t the people being affected by their actions. Tom Tiffany wouldn’t meet with them and she said he isn’t listening to us at all, “that he only stands up for his moneyed interests and the orange guy in the White House.” And now he wants to be governor. She said there are two fine candidates running to replace him in the House. She went on to talk about the “big bad bill” and Trump’s Executive Orders, asking what that means for our community. She said there are people doing good things for us. She went on to talk about Gail’s Law, which passed for the third time in the state senate, but Robin Vos doesn’t want to pass it in the Assembly. She asked everyone to contact their Assembly representatives about this bill as it is about saving women’s lives. The bill will allow for coverage of medically recommended ultrasounds and MRIs to be performed on women with dense breasts to detect breast cancer earlier.
The final speaker of the evening was Bryce Luchterhand. He spoke about things that have happened in the last week in regard to actions the Trump administration has taken. He said there is reason to be upset. Luchterhand said the Clark County Democratic Party is alive and well and doing things. He said they helped elect Susan Crawford to the Supreme Court. They are running ads and putting up billboards, but that takes money. They need locations to put up signs for candidates. They have monthly meetings; the next will be at the Curtiss Travel Stop on November 15. They participated in parades. They want people to know they are not alone. They also host a summer picnic, have a booth at the Clark County Fair and host this dinner.
Luchterhand also wanted to talk about libraries and how the Clark County Board has refused to fund libraries at 100%. He said the cities with libraries help fund them. He said the Clark County budget as proposed will cut taxes $92 on a $100,000 home. Even if libraries were funded at 100%, the board would still be able to cut taxes. He asked that everyone show up at the courthouse at 6:30 p.m. on November 11 to show they care about libraries. Most of the counties around us pay at 100% according to Luchterhand. Taylor County actually pays 110%. He said the county board doesn’t understand library funding. The state only requires them to pay 70%, but that formula doesn’t include use of computers, library sponsored programs, tax forms, and other services provided by libraries.
The evening ended with a raffle drawing.