The Dem group Opportunity Wisconsin has launched a new ad knocking GOP U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden for supporting President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
A spokesperson said the group is spending $501,000 on the buy, which includes broadcast and cable TV in the Eau Claire and La Crosse markets as well as a digital component. It’s the group’s third buy in western Wisconsin’s 3rd CD.
The spots feature TJ Semanchin, the owner of Wonderstate Coffee. The Viroqua man says in the 30-second TV ad his company roasts half a million pounds of coffee a year and employs 85 people. He says “tariffs are crushing us” and points to a stack of coffee bean bags as he says, “You’re looking at $100,000 in tariffs right here.”
Semanchin says the company had no choice but to raise prices, and Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, voted for tariffs and called them “a success.”
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“That doesn’t feel like success to me,” he says to close the TV ad. “All I see are higher prices. We need to tell Derrick Van Orden to stop raising our costs.”
The 15-second digital ads that are part of the buy include one in which Semanchin says Van Orden voted “to raise our costs but gave billionaires a tax break.” In the other, Semanchin says while Van Orden calls the tariffs a success, “all I see are higher prices.”