Tara Johnson, US House candidate in Wisconsin’s 3rd, talks healthcare, bringing local issues to DC

Tara Johnson, candidate for US House of Representatives here in Wisconsin’s 3rd District, joined La Crosse Talk PM on Wednesday to discuss, of course, why she’s running. We also may have come up with a campaign slogan, plus we talked choice and some local issues to take to DC.

La Crosse Talk PM airs weekdays at 5:06 p.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk PM wherever you get your podcasts.

A big part of the conversation was about healthcare and, in there, we may have the pitch every candidate should be using on the issue: “You Don’t Have To Think About It Healthcare.”

Johnson, the first-ever female chair of the La Crosse County Board, told a personal story about how her family was struck with medical emergencies, and how someone in a different health insurance position may not have had the same outcome.

We also talked about choice, where she told another story how that’s affected her and her family, as overturning Roe v Wade sent Wisconsin back to the 1800s, where a 174-year-old abortion ban law went back into effect until just recently.

Before we got into all that, though, we did spend some time on the state of the House right now and how local issues here could and should be tackled in D.C.

Along with being the first-ever board chair — doing that nine years — Johnson served on the La Crosse County Board for 20 years. Before that, she was the executive director at the United Way in La Crosse. 

Johnson’s campaign page is here, plus all her social medias linked at the bottom of that page.

Johnson is one of three Democrats, so far, running in Wisconsin’s 3rd CD, along with Rebecca Cooke and Aaron Nytes. The seat is currently held by first-term Republican Derrick Van Orden.