Contact: Lauren Hitt, 443-370-3205, lauren@randybryceforcongress.
RACINE, WI – In a report filed today with the Federal Election Commission, opioid manufacturer Allergan disclosed that it donated $2,500 to Team Ryan, Paul Ryan’s joint fundraising committee, last month. Team Ryan also accepted $5,000. the federal maximum contribution, from the PAC in 2017. Allergan is currently being investigated by 41 state Attorneys General for marketing and distributing their products illegally. The overprescription of opioids and misleading statements by pharmaceutical manufacturers like Allergan have been identified as a leading cause of the opioid crisis. Data released last week found that emergency room visits for suspected opioid overdoses increased by 109 percent in Wisconsin from July 2016 to September 2017. Democratic congressional candidate Randy Bryce, who is running to replace Speaker Ryan as the Congressman for Wisconsin’s First, issued a statement calling on Ryan to return the donations from Allergan.
“The opioid crisis has torn apart families and cost local governments, and their taxpayers, billions of dollars. It is unacceptable that Speaker Ryan would take a contribution from the manufacturers partly responsible for that. If Paul Ryan does not return these contributions, there can be no doubt that 20 years in Washington have changed him. He is no longer looking out for the Wisconsin families and communities who are trying to fight back against this crisis, he is looking out for the donors and lobbyists he’s seen every day for the last two decades.”
Bryce is accepting no contributions from corporate PACs in his campaign for Congress. Paul Ryan has been the third largest recipient of donations from the pharmaceutical industry, collecting nearly $300,000 in the 2017-2018 election cycle to date.
About Randy Bryce
Randy Bryce is a U.S. Army veteran, cancer survivor, and union ironworker. He was raised in southeastern Wisconsin, and went to public schools. Randy’s father was a police officer, and his mother worked in a doctor’s office. After graduation, Randy enlisted in the U.S. Army, and was posted to Honduras, where he earned the Army Achievement Medal. After returning stateside, Randy was diagnosed with cancer, which he survived, but only after struggling through the bankruptcy that came with the medical bills. Once in remission, Randy found his way to an apprenticeship as an iron worker, a trade he’s now been practicing and fighting to protect from anti-labor laws for nearly 20 years. Randy currently resides in Caledonia, WI with his son, Ben, who attends public schools like his dad. Randy joined the race for Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District in Summer 2017.
