MADISON, Wis. — Today, the Wisconsin Examiner detailed the bizarre race to the far-right in the Senate District 18 GOP primary between Republicans Blong Yang and Anthony Phillips. In a recent debate in the Fox Valley, Yang and Phillips traded barbs and staked out extreme positions in an effort to appeal to the MAGA base.
Blong Yang, a self-described “radical” Republican, said he wanted to go to Madison to continue the gridlock and obstruction we’ve come to expect from legislative Republicans:
- “Yang took a more combative tone at the debate, saying he would attack Democrats on certain issues and he would look to ‘fight’ and ‘not to get along in Madison.’ He described himself as part of the ‘radical direction’ the Republican party has been taking.”
Not to be outdone, Anthony Phillips echoed Republicans’ most extreme anti-abortion talking points and committed to fighting to restrict Wisconsinites’ reproductive freedom if elected:
- “Phillips said he believes life begins at conception and abortion is a ‘tragedy.’”
Phillips advocated for a referendum on abortion access in Wisconsin—an empty gesture given that Wisconsin Republicans rejected Governor Evers’ attempt to put a statewide binding referendum on reproductive freedom to a vote:
- “He said he likes the position that Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson has taken on the issue. ‘[Johnson] goes around and says, you know, let’s let the voters have a say, let’s let voters decide, and I think that would be reasonable to have some form of referendum that the voters have a say,’ Phillips said. ‘I’m pro-life. I want it to be extremely rare.’”
Yang parroted false MAGA talking points about reproductive freedom rooted in outrage rather than reality:
- “Yang said he would make people ‘defend their position — defend why you want to kill a child, defend why you want abortion at any time from birth to life.’”
To round out the night, Yang attacked LGBTQ+ Wisconsinites and lobbed personal attacks at Democratic candidate Kris Alfheim, who herself is a member of the LGBTQ+ community:
- “He painted a rigid view of family, which he described as ‘a mother, a father and children, in a perfect world,’ and said that view of family could ‘solve a lot of the problems that we have in society today.’ ‘Family is important,’ Yang said. ‘[Alfheim’s] idea of family is very different than ours. Mine is a mother and a father, and the traditional family in the sense that we all, most of us in this room, understand what our family is. Hers is not. It’s a blended family.’”
“The only thing that Blong Yang and Anthony Phillips accomplished in their desperation to appeal to the MAGA base is to make it clear that they’re both wrong for the Fox Valley,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Deputy Communications Director Haley McCoy. “While Blong Yang and Anthony Phillips insult Wisconsinites and race to the MAGA right, Kris Alfheim is focused on finding common ground and getting to work for the Fox Valley, and that’s exactly why Wisconsinites in the 18th Senate District will send her to Madison this November.”
