WASHINGTON – Democratic congressional leaders joined state Sen. Brad Pfaff on Friday to push back on claims from Republicans that the party is abandoning their candidate in the race for Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District.   

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore in a call with reporters before a fundraiser in Milwaukee stressed the national significance of the race and expressed confidence in maintaining the seat despite polling, fundraising and advertising data indicating Republican retired Navy SEAL Derrick Van Orden has the advantage in the contest.

“I’m here to show that we believe this race is not only winnable — we believe you’re going to win this race," Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, told Pfaff.

“This is an important election," he added. "It is about our democracy. ... It’s about our respect for the law, our respect for the truth."

The joint call came just over a month before voters in Wisconsin's western district head to the polls to decide who will replace retiring Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, who has held the rural seat since 1997. Kind was one of a handful of Democrats to win in a district Republican Donald Trump carried in 2016 and 2020.

Since the Aug. 9 primary, Republican groups have dominated advertising in the district and accused Democrats of abandoning Pfaff. 

Van Orden has a massive fundraising advantage over Pfaff, according to Federal Election Commission reports from the summer, and has been consistently airing ads in the La Crosse, Wausau, Minneapolis and Madison media markets. 

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a PAC aligned with the House GOP leadership, spent more than $400,000 in television and digital advertising in support of Van Orden, and the National Republican Congressional Committee has another $1.3 million of ad time reserved from the last two weeks of October until Election Day.

House Majority PAC, Democrats’ largest outside group for congressional campaigns, had been the only major Democratic group to reserve ad time to boost Pfaff, scheduling $1.68 million.

But that support could be in jeopardy, with the group linked to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly considering cancelling the ad buys, according to Axios.

Last Thursday, Center Forward PAC reserved nearly $500,000 in ad buys for Pfaff in the La Crosse media market. The group will be airing an ad alleging Van Orden was closer to the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol than he's let on.

The ad includes a clip of Van Orden wearing an earpiece and gesturing toward the Capitol building that day. "The Capitol. That's where we're headed to right now," Van Orden says in the clip.

Van Orden has outraised Pfaff by a factor of six, according to finance reports from the end of July, before Pfaff emerged from the primary, and has been advertising longer than his opponent.

Democrats have expressed concerns in recent weeks the party is not doing enough to support Pfaff as Republicans see Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District as among the seats most likely to flip this year. 

“Are we spending enough? No," Hoyer said Friday.

“So why don’t we spend more money than they do? I am confident the people of the 3rd Congressional District are going to say this is not about money. It’s about us, the people.”

“It’s gotta be people over profits," said Moore, the Democrat representing Milwaukee. "There’s no way we can match, dollar for dollar, the monies that are coming in.”

The three Democrats continued to attack Van Orden for his presence at the Capitol ahead of the insurrection on Jan. 6. The former SEAL has maintained he attended the Trump rally that preceded the insurrection but left when the riot began.

“I’m confident the people of Wisconsin are not going to send to Congress somebody who neither respects the law nor the order and was involved in an effort which resulted in the deaths of a number of police officers and civilians," Hoyer said in Milwaukee.

A day earlier, Republican U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil joined Van Orden in La Crosse for a roundtable discussion with local law enforcement officials about illicit drugs like fentanyl.

"This is a real, major issue," Van Orden told WXOW. "Dealing with the folks who are distributing, selling these narcotics, that's up to the police officers. They need support from the judges and the prosecutors." 

In a statement to the Journal Sentinel, Van Orden accused Pfaff of "running to be Nancy Pelosi’s next rubber stamp" and said Pfaff's event with Hoyer "proves it."

"His campaign is floundering and he will continue to run on slander because he has no platform," Van Orden said. 

Van Orden referenced 40-year high inflation, rising crime and an increase in fentanyl overdoses. 

"These are the things that people in the 3rd care about, I know because I speak to hundreds of our folks every week.”

Contact Lawrence Andrea at landrea@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @lawrencegandrea.