Trempealeau native, Republican Stacey Klein, announces run against Onalaska state Sen. Brad Pfaff

Republican Stacey Klein is jumping into the Wisconsin state Senate race against Democrat Brad Pfaff of Onalaska for District 32.

Klein, who barnstormed the district Wednesday including a stop at Riverside Park in La Crosse, is a member of the Trempealeau County Board.

She had been running for US Senate, but with Republican Eric Hovde entrenched in that race, getting the endorsement last week from Donald Trump, Klein is pivoting to District 32.

Kicking off her state Senate campaign from the milk house on, presumably her farm Wednesday morning, Klein brought up a few things she’d like to address as a state senator.

“We’re going to focus on some really big issues in the areas,” Klein said. “More often than not I’m hearing from people that roads are an issue, and this is something that I have lobbied for down in Madison as part of the county ambassador program.”

Klein noted that a shared revenue deal passed by the Legislature last year did help get some funding for municipalities.

“We did have a big win last year when shared revenue came through, but there’s still a lot of work to be done,” she said. “So not only the roads, but then broadband. We saw that throughout COVID, when everyone had to be at home and get online. We still have a lot of families that don’t have adequate internet access.”

Klein also took one, somewhat indirect, shot at Pfaff.

“Right now we have a state senator that voted against a bill that would support women’s sports,” Klein said. “It’s unfathomable to me that we are even talking about this.

“Title IX has only been around about 50 years and I can’t imagine what it would be like to be a high school girl to go compete in sports and have a male in the locker room competing against you, stealing away scholarships, any of that.”

Klein is referring to a bill that Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoed last week that would ban high school transgender athletes from competing on girls teams.

In the Senate, the transgender ban bill passed 20-11, with bipartisan opposition — one Republican joined all Democrats to vote against it.

“I will fight for our constitutional rights, I’ll fight for our families, I’ll fight for our religious rights,” Klein added.

Klein said she’s excited to get on WIZM’s La Crosse Talk with Mike Hayes, and La Crosse Talk PM in the near future to discuss her campaign.