WAUSAU, Wis. — Michael Alfonso, the 26-year-old son-in-law of U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, has an answer for people who say he doesn’t have the experience necessary to join Congress as its youngest member.
He points to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
“They were 26 when they were first elected to public office,” said Mr. Alfonso, a Republican.
Mr. Alfonso is trying to ride support from his father-in-law to win his old House seat in rural northern Wisconsin. Mr. Duffy has repeatedly jetted back to the district to campaign and raise money for Mr. Alfonso, and he’s tapped $1 million from his old congressional account to support Alfonso’s candidacy.
He also scored the endorsement of President Trump, who called him a “MAGA warrior.” But to Mr. Alfonso’s detractors, including prominent Republicans in the 7th Congressional District, he’s too young and inexperienced.
“It’s insulting to people in the 7th that someone who lacks qualifications and any life experiences and any kind of demonstrable leadership skills or experience is even being touted as a candidate,” said Meg Ellefson, a 20-year resident of the district who voted for Trump three times and now opposes him. “It’s super aggravating to me.”
The Aug. 11 primary will test whether Mr. Trump’s endorsement, Duffy’s star power in his old congressional district and Mr. Alfonso’s fundraising advantage will be enough to put the political newcomer over the top.
Leans into Duffy’s ‘Real World’ past
Mr. Alfonso is taking a page from his father-in-law’s playbook by participating in a reality show. He appeared alongside Mr. Duffy, a 1997 alum of MTV’s “Real World,” in the “Great American Road Trip” video series that Mr. Duffy launched with his wife and 11 children on YouTube in June.
Mr. Duffy was elected to Congress in 2010, flipping a seat that had been under Democratic control for 41 years. He served for just under nine years before leaving politics. He returned last year when Mr. Trump tapped him to serve as transportation secretary.
Mr. Alfonso has leaned into his youth and lack of political experience.
“I’m a young man with the energy of a young man, but I have the values of someone who’s in their 60s,” Mr. Alfonso said, citing the fact that he married Mr. Duffy’s daughter Evita Duffy at age 22 and became a father in May.
He said that conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination inspired him to run to continue what he calls a “spiritual battle for the soul of our nation.” Kirk’s Turning Point Action has endorsed Alfonso.
Faces a former Iranian hostage and a dog musher
One of Mr. Alfonso’s rivals in the Republican primary, Kevin Hermening, has deep ties to the district.
Mr. Hermening is a former Marine who was one of 66 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days starting in 1979. Framed photos of the then-20-year-old Hermening meeting with former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter hang on his office wall. He previously ran for Congress in 1986, when he was the same age as Mr. Alfonso is now — 26. He lost by 25 points to Democratic incumbent Rep. David Obey.
“The voters told me that I wasn’t ready or prepared yet,” Mr. Hermening, 66, said in an interview at his Wausau office. “I was ill-prepared to have actually done the job, and I’m not saying that because Mr. Alfonso’s in the race. It’s a fact.”
Another candidate in the primary, Ashley Furniture executive Jessi Ebben, has the backing of powerful Republican megadonors. Others running are Niina Baum, a dog musher, and Don Raihala, an accountant and real estate broker.
Longtime Republicans are publicly opposing Alfonso despite Trump backing
While Mr. Alfonso has endorsements from House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, and four of Wisconsin’s six Republican congressmen, local GOP officials have questioned the young candidate’s credentials.
Leaders in at least three counties have publicly spoken out against Mr. Alfonso as being too inexperienced for the job and questioned Mr. Duffy’s influence.
Iron County Republican Party Chair Tanner Hiller accused Duffy of trying to use his connections to get his son-in-law elected.
“I think what they’re doing is wrong morally,” Mr. Hiller told Wisconsin Public Radio in May. “There’s a lot of people that have better credentials, that know this district, that will represent this district better than Michael Alfonso.”
Will Trump endorsement overcomes GOP pushback?
Mr. Alfonso is leaning into the Trump endorsement, while saying it will be hard work and not the president’s backing that gets him elected. His red, white and blue campaign signs say, “Endorsed by President Donald Trump.”
Jack Hoogendyk, chair of the Republican Party in Marathon County, which is home to the district’s largest city of Wausau, said Mr. Trump’s endorsement is “solid gold” in a district where Trump won by 22 points two years ago.
But Ms. Ellefson, the longtime district resident, who hosted a conservative talk radio show in Wausau for five years, isn’t so sure that Trump’s blessing carries the same weight now that it used to.
“I personally would like to believe that voters in the 7th are intelligent enough and critical thinkers and won’t be swayed by a Trump endorsement,” she said. “I’m going to give the voters credit for not being that foolish.”
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