President Trump’s influence is being felt in how candidates run their campaigns. The stolid, boring man who always wears a suit and never utters the wrong thing has been replaced by the wildcard. Fledgling politicians are throwing out the rulebook.
A Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate released a “groundbreaking” campaign video Tuesday. Democrat Kelda Roys calmly breastfeeds her daughter while talking about her efforts to make bottles and sippy cups safer for babies.
“That’s what wrong with politics today. Are we taking our orders from people or are we taking them from chemical corporations that don’t care at all about what people need?” a smiling Roys tells the camera.
“We were still able, by working across the aisle, pass a bill to ban BPA.”
Roys’ politics aren’t particularly striking, she sticks to the party line on most issues. However, her decision to showcase herself breastfeeding her child is a brazen one. A lot of people in the country feel that breastfeeding is an intimate activity unfit for the public gaze.
Roys, obviously, disagrees.
“Like most working parents around the state, I juggle a lot of things and responsibilities, and I wear a lot of hats. When we were shooting the video, my family was obviously there, and when the baby needs to eat I just feed her,” she said.
A Marquette University Law School poll showed that Wisconsin residents don’t know anything about Roys. 92 percent of potential voter said they didn’t know enough about her to have much an opinion about her candidacy.
That may have changed. Roys’ unusual campaign video has gone viral.
“Some people say I shouldn’t be running for governor because I’m a mom of young kids. In 2018 women are not going to be told to sit down and shut up anymore. My kids are my biggest motivator — I want to make the world better for them, which means fighting for public schools, affordable childcare and healthcare, gun reform, and addressing climate change,” Roys said.
So proud to share my first campaign video with you! I'm running for governor because WI can do better than caving to corporate interests that harm our health & environment. I know because we've beaten them before. #BPA #WIgov #WIpolitics pic.twitter.com/jHvwU9O06c
— Kelda Roys (AidAccess.org) (@keldahelenroys) March 6, 2018
(Source: USA Today)