Brown County Democrats respond to Republican presidential and vice-presidential nominations

GREEN BAY - Brown County Democrats voiced concerns over the official Republican party presidential and vice-presidential nominations, and the Project 2025 agenda during a news conference Wednesday at the Democratic Party headquarters here.

The news conference was held in response to the Republican National Convention being held this week in Milwaukee, where former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance , R-Ohio, were formally selected as the presidential and vice-presidential nominees for the Republican Party.

Trump announced his running mate at the convention just days after an assassination attempt during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania.

Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Brian Schimming told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that since Vance is a Midwesterner, he may appeal to voters in the Rust Belt states that will be crucial for Trump in the upcoming election.

But Amaad Rivera-Wagner, candidate for the 90th Assembly District and a Democratic National Convention delegate, said on Wednesday he doesn't believe Vance's polices will appeal to Brown County voters. Rivera-Wagner is also the chief of staff of Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich.

Workers' rights and reproductive choice are two areas where Democrats in Green Bay would disagree the most with Vance's policies, Rivera-Wagner said.

"We have an incredible worker-oriented economy ... statewide, we are trying to reenact union and labor rights because we know that when we have strong unions and strong working class, we have a strong economy," Rivera-Wagner said.

"Donald Trump's Project 2025 agenda is anti-worker and will only hurt working class families across Wisconsin," said Jim Ridderbush, the labor liaison of JBS Green Bay and vice president of the local United Food and Commercial Workers Union 1473. "Trump and his MAGA allies would undermine workers and roll back protections for overtime pay, protections that unions like mine have fought so hard for."

Right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation produced the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, which is a 180-day plan that would reconstruct the executive branch. It includes policy recommendations for a foreign policy agenda, domestic agenda, personnel and expands presidential powers.

Adrianna Pokela, a local reproductive rights advocate and mother, also expressed her concerns over the Vance nominee and Project 2025.

As a survivor of an abusive relationship, which led her to make the difficult decision to get an abortion in Ohio, Pokela said her biggest concern with Vance is his rhetoric, which would discourage women from making the choice to leave dangerous relationships or safely get reproductive care.

"JD Vance even said that he thinks women should stay in violent marriages for the sake of the children," said Pokela, of Green Bay. "Now Trump and his Project 2025 allies are trying to hide his unpopular, extreme anti-abortion agenda. But no matter what Donald Trump does or says, his position on abortion is clear."

Vance has opposed abortion, including in chases of rape and incest. Trump, who has taken credit for the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision that says there is no constitutional right to an abortion, has now warned about a federal ban on abortion and that states should decide. "We have to get elected – you have to be able to win, " he said in a conference of religious conservatives last month.

Another concern that Pokela addressed was the lack of medical privacy in Project 2025's plan, arguing that it would "create a surveillance state to track women and their doctors, and punish women who get an abortion."

Alyssa N. Salcedo is a reporter for the Green Bay Press-Gazett e. She can be reached at asalcedo@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Brown County Democrats respond to Republican presidential and vice-presidential nominations