MADISON, WI – Last week, the Osceola Sun profiled 25th State Senate District candidate Charly Ray. Charly has deep roots in Northern Wisconsin’s community, having lived there for over 30 years. He has worked to maintain their forests, served his community on the county board, and owns a bookstore in Bayfield County. He’s running to continue his service in the Wisconsin State Senate, focusing on affordability, local control, and expanding access to healthcare. 

Read more on Charly Ray’s campaign to flip the 25th State Senate District: 

Osceola Sun: Forester, county board member, aims to flip Senate District 25 for Democrats

  • “Charly Ray spent decades pursuing a dream he had as a boy fishing the shores of Lake Michigan: a life rooted in the Wisconsin Northwoods. Now, the Bayfield County forester, bookstore co-owner, and six-year county board member is applying that same approach as he runs for the Wisconsin State Senate seat in the newly redrawn 25th District…”
  • “Democrats have identified the open seat as one of four they believe they can flip in the state under the new legislative maps drawn after the 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court election.” 
  • “He worked in construction and maintenance, performed environmental work at Northland College, served with the Wisconsin DNR, and ran the Living Forest Cooperative for about 12 years, growing it from nothing to 200 members managing 20,000 acres across the district before moving into private consulting forestry.”
  • “‘My wife and I have a bookstore, a rental property, county board and a forestry business to support our dogs and kids,’ Ray said. ‘It shouldn’t have to be that way.’”
  • “That economic frustration lies at the core of his campaign. Ray highlights three main priorities: limiting state preemption of local government authority, reforming Wisconsin’s school funding formula, and expanding access to health care.”
  • “‘Again and again I see the way our hands are tied, whether it’s school funding or local zoning,’ Ray said. ‘We run up against Republican laws that set a ceiling on what we can do instead of a baseline we can build from.’”
  • “Ray acknowledged that the district leans Republican in much of its geography, but he is already encountering former Trump voters willing to consider a change.”
  • “‘I’m already meeting Republicans that are like, ‘I’ll vote for you’ after just a short conversation,’ he said. ‘And people who are saying, ‘I voted for Trump and here I am at a Democratic Party event because this is not what I wanted.’”
  • “‘I feel like that wilderness experience sets me up well for a political campaign,’ he said. ‘You plan it out, you figure out your team and your supplies, and then you jump off and you’re going for it, and you make do with what you’ve got.’”