Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will be in Wisconsin next week to campaign against a rightwing member of Congress, and the two are already exchanging insults on social media.

Next Tuesday, Buttigieg will be hosting a town hall event in La Crosse, Wisconsin, which is in the state’s third congressional district, currently represented by Rep. Darren Van Orden (R-WI).

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Van Orden got a score of three out of 100 on HRC’s Congressional Scorecard, showing his solid opposition to LGBTQ+ rights. He has also made national headlines in the past for checking out all the Pride books at his library so that children couldn’t access them and cursing out some teenage pages at the Capitol for “defiling the space.”

Earlier this week, Buttigieg responded to the president mocking his name and blaming him for the problems that occurred this year at airports across the country by just saying that he would respond to the president later (which he did, in a video).

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“See you in LaCrosse, Pothole Pete,” Van Orden responded to Buttigieg’s message to the president, mispelling the town’s name. Conservatives often call Buttigieg “Pothole Pete” because, when he was the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Buttigieg focused on repairing potholes. The nickname was supposed to highlight Buttigieg’s inexperience in politics since many on the right claim that the continued existence of potholes in South Bend shows that Buttigieg was a failure as a mayor.

“I’d be honored for you to join – especially since it would be your first time actually facing your constituents in a town hall,” Buttigieg responded, ignoring the nickname. “Look forward to hearing you explain your votes to kick Wisconsinites off health care, raise premiums, increase electric bills, and add to the deficit.”

The announcement for the town hall event says that it will be about “the cost of housing, child care, health care, and the need for leadership that actually listens.”

Van Orden won his election in 2024 with just 51.3% of the vote, while his Democratic challenger, Rebecca Cooke, got 48.6% of the vote. Cooke announced that she is running again in 2026 and, by sending Buttigieg to build support for Democrats in the district, it appears that the party believes the district can be flipped from red to blue.

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