The race for Wisconsin's 8th Congressional District pairs Republican incumbent Mike Gallagher against Democratic challenger Beau Liegeois.
"My family is what inspired me to actually take a step forward and run for office," Liegeois said.
The final push for him came after the 2017 House vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
"The law itself needs to stay in place, but there clearly is significant room for improvement in that law, and that's what I'll be working on, improving and strengthening the Affordable Care Act."
Liegeois wants to keep coverage for pre-existing conditions, increase subsidies to the middle class, and have open hearings about how to lower costs. His opponent, Gallagher, also calls healthcare a critical issue.
"The system was broken prior to Obamacare, but I would argue Obamacare has made it worse," Gallagher said.
He voted to repeal it and has since been working on legislation with a Colorado Democrat requiring transparency in health care pricing.
"It is my fundamental belief that until we as consumers and patients understand exactly what we're paying for when we interact with the healthcare system, we're never going to bring costs down," Gallagher said.
Gallagher and Liegeois both have military experience - Gallagher in the Marines, Liegeois in the Wisconsin Army National Guard.
"I do think that we have a well-funded military, but the problem is that we didn't pay for our recent increase in military spending," Liegeois said.
"We have to continue to rebuild our military, and I really worry that we're going to fumble that if we don't continue down the road we've begun to go down with the last two years of investing in our military," Gallagher said.
Gallagher said that he wants government to cut wasteful spending and work to balance the budget. He's proud of his first term, while saying there's still a lot more to do.
Here's the full interview with Liegeois :
Here's the full interview with Gallagher:
