RACINE, WI – SEIU Wisconsin, which represents 7,000 health care and service workers across the state, has endorsed ER nurse Mitchell Berman in his campaign to represent Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District. The endorsement adds to a strong and growing coalition of working people backing Berman in his race against incumbent Republican Bryan Steil, whose anti-worker record earned him a dismal 0% voting score from the AFL-CIO in 2025.
“I’ve spent my entire career working with SEIU members: the nurses, aides, and support staff who keep our hospitals and nursing homes running,” said Mitchell Berman. “They’re the ones who show up for every shift because Wisconsin patients and their families are counting on them. I’m proud to have SEIU Wisconsin’s support, and in Congress I’ll fight to protect the right to organize, make health care affordable, and stand with the working people Bryan Steil has left behind.”
The SEIU endorsement adds to a broad labor coalition behind Berman, including the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers (USW), IBEW Wisconsin State Conference, Communications Workers of America District 4 (CWA), United Auto Workers (UAW), Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC), American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Union (MASH), and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers Local 18 (SMART).
Berman is the clear pro-union candidate in this race. He’s been a union member at every organized facility he’s ever worked at, from his days as a Teamster in college to his job as a union nurse today. In Congress, he’ll fight to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act to stop employers from retaliating against workers for organizing for fair conditions and wages, keep manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin by steering federal contracts and tax incentives toward companies that invest and hire locally, and stop subsidizing corporations that ship jobs overseas. He’ll also expand apprenticeships and the skilled trades so a good career doesn’t require a four-year degree or a mountain of student loan debt. Learn more here.
The SEIU Wisconsin endorsement comes as WI-01 has emerged as one of the tightest House races in the country. Fox News now rates the district as a “toss up.” All three public polls of the general election show the race within a single point. With three weeks until Election Day, the polling makes clear this race is a toss-up, and working families in Southeast Wisconsin are lining up behind Mitchell Berman.
About Mitchell Berman
Born and raised in a one-stoplight town in rural Wisconsin, Mitchell Berman learned the values of community, integrity, and hard work from his parents. He was the first in his family to graduate from college, working three jobs and taking out student loans to earn his degree. Determined to build a life through grit and perseverance, not privilege, he started working at age 12 and became a union member while in college. Berman is an emergency room nurse who has served veterans at the VA for more than a decade. A devoted husband and father, he’s running for Congress to put people over politics, and to fight for Wisconsin families.
The First Congressional District is one of the most competitive in the country, and has been named a “Red to Blue” district by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The district encompasses Janesville, Kenosha, Racine, Beloit, Elkhorn, Whitewater, and the Milwaukee suburbs of Cudahy, St. Francis, and South Milwaukee. In 2024, Donald Trump carried the swing district narrowly with just 51 percent of the vote. In both the 2023 and 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court elections, Justices Janet Protasiewicz and Susan Crawford won the district handily by 6- and 6.5-point margins, respectively, and Justice Chris Taylor carried the district by ~20 points in April 2026.
Learn more at BermanForCongress.com.
