A Kewaunee woman will run as a Democrat against Joel Kitchens for the Wisconsin Assembly
KEWAUNEE - A Kewaunee woman announced she will run as a Democrat to challenge five-term incumbent Rep. Joel Kitchens for his 1st District Assembly seat this November.
Renee Paplham launched her campaign April 4 with visits to small businesses in Kewaunee and Door counties. A news release announcing her candidacy said she has begun visiting people across the district, which covers all of Door and Kewaunee counties and a small portion of northeastern Brown County, to listen to their issues and concerns.
Paplham, who described herself in the announcement as "a middle-class working mom (who) understands the issues people in my community are facing," said she would focus on economic security for working families, women’s rights and strengthening public education.
“The people of this district want a representative who rises above partisan politics and takes on issues that improve the lives of working families,” Paplham said in the announcement. “They want someone to represent them who will work in the spirit of compromise to find solutions for our families and community.”
In an interview with the Advocate, she said working across the figurative aisle in the Legislature to find those solutions will be one of the main points of her campaign.
"My main focus is really just down to decorum," she said. "I'm not saying anything negative against Mr. Kitchens. But we need leaders that focus on compromise to get things done the right way. I think that will be my No. 1 message."
Paplham was born and raised in Kewaunee. She earned a degree in human development from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and currently works as a caregiver to individuals with special needs and as a mediator for the Mediation Center of Greater Green Bay.
She hasn't previously run for office but was the organizer of a March for Women's Rights rally July 31, 2022, in downtown Kewaunee in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade case, essentially ending a national right to abortion and making abortions illegal in Wisconsin.
Paplham told the Advocate that effort led to volunteer work with the Democratic Party of Kewaunee County, where she now is part of its leadership team. She said she and other Democratic leaders in Northeast Wisconsin began searching last fall for candidates to run against Kitchens this November, but when none committed to it, she stepped forward.
"We had some people say they were interested, but those kinda fizzled out," Paplham said. "People were coming up to me and asking me to run. You know, you miss all the shots you don't take."
Paplham said she received a lot of encouragement from Kristin Lyerly, a De Pere-based doctor who is the only Democrat declared to run for the 8th Congressional District seat previously held by the retiring Mike Gallagher. Paplham said Lyerly has been prominent in encouraging Democrats to run for Republican-held Assembly seats across the state.
Paplham is the first candidate, Democrat or Republican, to announce a challenge to Kitchens, R-Sturgeon Bay, who announced last month he will seek a sixth term in the Assembly in the November election.
Kitchens, a retired large animal veterinarian and former Sturgeon Bay School Board president, survived a four-way Republican primary with 44% of the vote to run for the seat in 2014, then won the seat with 56.7% of the vote that November. Although he's had a Democratic challenger in all four of his reelection bids since then, he's won them all convincingly, garnering between 60.1% and 68.4% of the vote in each.
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or [email protected].
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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Kewaunee woman Paplham challenges Kitchens for Wisconsin Assembly seat
