New Candidate-- Meet Kyle Frenette (WI-07)

Let me put a new candidate on your radar. I've been hearing about him from friends in the music business. That's because this Wisconsin kid from Chippewa Fall, a small town north of Eau Claire in WI-07, Dave Obey's old seat-- a massive district covering all of northwest Wisconsin. It stretches from Bayfield and Ironwood in the north down into River Falls and the Minneapolis suburbs in the southwest across to Chippewa Falls on Lake Wissota and east through Marshfield and Wausau to Rhinelander and Eagle River. Obama won the district in 2008, lost narrowly to Romney when the state legislature gerrymandered it in 2010 and Trump beat Hillary with a hefty 57.8% to 37.3%. The competitive 2015 PVI (R+2) is a far more challenging R+8 now. But Frenette thinks that's a mountain he can scale.

He's best known as the manager of Eau Claire's Grammy-winning Justin Vernon and his band Bon Iver. The music business is fascinated by his run for Congress and Pitchfork did a piece at the end of February, right after he announced, about why he's running. "He's running, wrote Amanda Wicks, "on a progressive platform with a focus toward raising the minimum wage, establishing universal healthcare, and making broadband internet a 'public utility instead of a private luxury.'"

Frenette has his work cut out for him. He’s seeking to unseat Republican Rep. Sean Duffy (formerly a Real World and Road Rules cast member), who has held the position since 2011, in a district that supported Donald Trump during the 2016 national election. And that’s if he gets through what’s supposed to be a crowded Democratic primary in August.

Pitchfork spoke to Frenette over the phone from northwest Wisconsin late last week about why he decided to run, the parallels between the music industry and politics, and what Justin Vernon thinks of his campaign. Frenette says he’ll bring Wisconsin to Washington, and he helped punctuate that point by scraping the newly fallen snow off his windshield as he discussed his motivation.

Pitchfork: Since Donald Trump’s election, more people have been getting involved in politics, but not everyone is running for Congress. What made you want to go that extra mile?

Kyle Frenette: Backwards policies that suppress the resources and opportunities available not just to people here in the 7th District of Wisconsin and across the state, but everywhere in the country. I grew up in a time when those resources and opportunities were available to me, like the internet providing a window to the outside world beyond my small town of 14,000 people in Chippewa Falls. We’re finding that the majority in control right now are in favor of suppressing all of that [in reference to Net Neutrality being rolled back], making it harder and harder for your everyday American to achieve what we grew up learning. Personally, so many of my friends still call northwestern Wisconsin home, so I saw an opportunity-- given the work Justin and I have done over the past ten years-- to amplify the voice of normal people, not the lobbyists, not the special interest groups.

We elected a celebrity president. My opponent Sean Duffy, he’s a former “Real World” cast member. So if celebrity is what it’s going to take to get people’s attention these days in the age of reality television then I’m going to use the success that Justin and I have had to amplify a better voice.

Throughout the 22, A Million tour, you guys have partnered with numerous progressively-minded organizations with an eye toward gender equity. In your opinion, why is progressive the best way forward?

In taking a look at everything that’s going on, and looking at both sides of the argument, the progressive direction is the one that appeals most to me, and the one that makes sense for most people. Greed is a really powerful drug, a really powerful emotion. I’ve had successes beyond my wildest dreams, but I work in an industry that’s somewhat elitist and I’ve seen the power of what money can do. That’s not to say both sides haven’t been conflicted, but progressive values speak to the heart of the masses, and who we are as human beings and taking care of one another. That’s where I lean philosophically and personally, and the direction I would feel most comfortable having children and giving to future generations.

How do you think you can influence the conservative mindset?

I’ve had a hard time with that, even in talking with family. We’re seeing more and more how divisive politics are and how divided as a country we are. For me, it goes back to the values that I was taught growing up here. We need to come together and we need to listen to each other. That’s it. If we don’t agree, that’s fine, but this divisiveness that’s fueling so much of our politics these days, it might very well be the end of us. Good leadership is about taking in all sides: evaluating a situation based on political factors, socioeconomic factors, human factors, and then making the right decision and going forward. For me, that decision should benefit as many people as possible.

Duffy last won the district by 61 percent and Trump carried it in 2016. Have you seen a general attitude shift in the past year away from GOP values?

Completely. We’re seeing this all across the country-- the pendulum has swung all the way to the right and now it’s centering. Here in the 7th, we had a special state Senate election in January; the candidate in District 10, Patty Schachtner, received national attention because she won, and she was outspent 5-to-1 by those backing the Republican candidate. It was a complete underdog race, and it was a surprise to me and a lot of folks. If that and Virginia [where Democrat Danica Roem unseated Republican Robert G. Marshall in Virginia’s House of Delegates race] and Alabama [where Democrat Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore for what was previously a Republican Senate seat] are any indication of where we’re heading, then I have hope. I’m just trying to be a part of that change and amplify people’s voices.

You’ve mentioned the music industry in light of what you’d face in Washington. What parallels do you see between the two?

The same types of things happen in the music industry [as they do in politics], but I’m going from a lake full of piranhas to an ocean full of sharks. Justin and I have been so fortunate in building something and having the support of so many to do things that we wanted: Maintaining our integrity, staying true to who we are, staying in this place and reinvesting back into our communities, and pushing the envelope a bit. All of those elements factor into the leadership that I’ve brought to Bon Iver and to my management company. If I can do an ounce of that in Washington and bring some of my Wisconsin values, then I’ll feel good.

Bon Iver’s song “Wisconsin” soundtracks your new campaign ad. Will he always have a place in your campaign, or will you distinguish yourself from that past eventually?

I haven’t thought about that all that much. It’s so much of who I am. Both him and I are just small-town Wisconsin, and we jumped into this for the last decade and never really lost sight of who we are. I’m using the opportunity I have to do good, and we definitely disagree on things, but we’ll see.

What was his response when you said you were running?

Oh, I haven’t been able to walk into a room without him telling everyone, which was to a point, like, “Dude, calm down.” He’s really happy.

Justin recently played two previously unreleased tracks—both titled around cities in Wisconsin-- at the For Emma, Forever Ago anniversary show, and then of course there’s “Wisconsin.” That state spirit he’s attempted to capture in his music, how do you see it influencing your move forward?

Well, Justin writes from the heart, he always has. Everything we’ve done has come through not leaving the center of who we are and where we come from, and you can hear that in the music. That’s what I think attracts so many people to the music. It’s true. So much of what he’s singing about, even when you can’t understand him, feels like a shared human experience. It’s absolutely beautiful, the song “Hayward, WI.”

And it’s in your district.

It is. Hawyard is in the heart of the 7th District.

Any plans to share that song officially?

Like he said at the show, he wrote that during the For Emma sessions at the cabin. I remember when he showed it to me 10 years ago, he had showed me “Blood Bank” and that song. We were like, “These are different. They’re more story based, they’re less ethereal, they’re more literal. ‘Blood Bank’ seems like the one to go with.” We just sat on “Hayward” for a long time. He’s played it live once or twice, but I don’t know. It’s hard to say.



It can affect us on that human and emotional level. I think that video we made for this campaign strikes that balance really well, and that in and of itself creates human connection. Hopefully it will yield more opportunities to come together and to just listen to each other.