Minocqua Brewing Company owner Kirk Bangstad was in town getting volunteers to get people out to vote at the Gibson Social Club in Oshkosh on Oct. 1. 

Modern day elections are won by slim margins in an article from NPR and according to another from CNN, the 2020 election was won by President Joe Biden in Wisconsin by less than 1%. Biden was supposed to be the candidate for the Democratic party for 2024, but after his poor debate performance, Biden dropped out of the presidential race and tapped in Kamala Harris, the current Democratic candidate with great fanfare from progressives and moderates alike.

“Biden did not have a really good debate performance,” Kirk Bangstad said. “I thought it was possible that Donald Trump would win in Wisconsin, and I couldn’t, couldn’t believe that we might go back to that time because it was complete chaos.” 

With the money raised from his Minocqua Brewing Company, Bangstad organized a series of events where he traveled to 12 rural cities with an entourage of musicians, activists and people formerly involved in politics to get at least 40 volunteers per event to go out knocking on doors and cold calling left-leaning independents to vote. 

“I am pretty confident that we can do that and beat Trump,” Bangstad said. “I am more excited to flip the assembly so that Democrats have a majority, and we can finally get Wisconsin back and invest in public education … we were like third in the nation for public education now we’re like 25th.”

Also represented at the Gibson Social club was Planned Parenthood. Throughout this election, reproductive rights have been center stage. 

Maddi Miller, a Planned Parenthood representative, said, “I feel like I only got involved a few months ago, what really motivated me was this election.”  

According to The Hill, Vice presidential candidate JD Vance confirmed that a second Trump term would see their administration again seek to defund Planned Parenthood. 

Miller said that Planned Parenthood offers a spectrum of options for both reproductive health and reproductive rights ranging from STD monitoring, cancer screening, contraception, to men’s sexual health.

“Defending reproductive rights is the number one, specifically, we’re supporting candidates who support a full spectrum of reproductive rights,” Miller said. “The focus of this election is letting people know all of the services we offer besides the one.”

Bangstad said the main goal during this election cycle for the Minocqua Brewing Company is to spread the word to get people out to vote. So far, they have been successful.

“Biden only won by 20,000 votes; that’s about 10% of the votes we need,” Bangstad said. “If this is successful [the event], the way it’s turning out to be, we’re going to pull 10% of the votes turning Wisconsin blue.” 

More information about Minocqua Brewing Company’s efforts and current controversies can be found on the company website along with Bangstad’s blog.