Nation’s largest industrial union backs ER nurse and lifelong union member fighting to keep manufacturing jobs in Southeast Wisconsin

RACINE, WI – The United Steelworkers (USW) District 7, representing members across Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana, has endorsed ER nurse Mitchell Berman for Wisconsin’s First Congressional District. In his endorsement letter, District 7 Director Michael R. Millsap noted that the union endorses only candidates who share its commitments to labor unions, fair trade, workers’ rights, job safety, affordable health care, and retirement security, and thanked Berman for his dedication to improving the lives of working families.

Steelworkers across District 7 make paper, build Harley-Davidson motorcycles, supply homes with natural gas and electricity, and keep manufacturing communities running. The USW joins a growing coalition of labor unions backing Berman, including the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, United Auto Workers (UAW), American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Union (MASH), and the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 420. 

Berman will fight to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act and stop employers from retaliating against workers for organizing, 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 endorsement comes as WI-01 has emerged as one of the tightest House races in the country. All three public polls of the general election show the race within a single point. With less than two 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 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.

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