U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan predicted on Wednesday the Foxconn deal will hurt state Republicans and Gov. Scott Walker at the polls later this year.

The Town of Vermont Dem, who spoke with reporters at a news conference at his Madison office, said Wisconsinites weren’t positively viewing the state’s contract with the Taiwanese tech company.

He also noted the guv didn’t mention Foxconn when he made his re-election announcement two months ago.

“The fact that Scott Walker didn’t mention [Foxconn] in his announcement is like a giant billboard behind him saying ‘oops,’ and I think we just have to make sure people understand that they’re going to pay for 25 years for his oops,” Pocan said.

Pocan, meanwhile, said while he hasn’t yet endorsed a primary candidate in the Dem guv race, he would respond “aggressively” if the party begins to split over the Dems currently in the running.

“My goal on this, because I think it’s so important that we take the governor’s race back, is to make sure that as primaries can get tough and sometimes bare knuckle that we realize the person we’re trying to defeat is Scott Walker and not each other,” he said.

Pocan also predicted Dems would take back the U.S. House in the fall, with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, among the most vulnerable. He said blue collar workers in Ryan’s district are more likely to relate to Dem candidate and ironworker Randy Bryce.

State GOP spokesman Alec Zimmerman countered Pocan “should be more concerned with improving the lives of Wisconsin families and less concerned with scoring points in his liberal Madison echo chamber.”

Meanwhile, Pocan is returning to Congress next week, two months after undergoing triple bypass surgery.

While Pocan, 53, said while he is continuing to have pain in his sternum, he’s feeling good following the preemptive surgery in early November.

And, he said, he’s looking forward to the new year, although he expressed disappointment in missing key legislative debates this fall, including the passage of the GOP tax overhaul bill, which President Trump signed into law last month.

“Congress really did nothing all year, other than at the end of the year they took care of their donors and they passed tax cuts for the wealthiest,” he said.

Pocan hasn’t voted in the House since Oct. 26.

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