Tiffany comes to Washington in upheaval
Term begins with unrest, pandemic and recession
After filling the longest-lasting congressional vacancy in Wisconsin history, Republican Tom Tiffany has come to Washington in the midst of a pandemic, an economic crisis and a wave of national unrest.
There is nothing “normal” about the moment.
“What is normal? I am not sure what normal is,” said Tiffany, who served in the state Senate before coming to Congress.
Tiffany won a special election May 12 to represent the Seventh Congressional District, which covers most of the northern half of Wisconsin.
He was sworn in May 19, replacing Sean Duffy, who resigned in September.
Tiffany is one of just two U.S. House members to take office in the middle of the coronavirus crisis, which has dramatically altered the course of business in the House.
His wife and three daughters joined him at his swearing-in last month by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which was conducted according to social distancing protocols that regulate the number of people in the House chamber. He and his family met with the president and vice president afterward.
“It is an honor that a dam tender from Minocqua can represent our state,” he said on Twitter after taking the oath.
Since then, there have only been six floor votes, all of them taking place on
Tiffany said the eight months without representation resulted in pent-up demand for constituent services — on matters like Social Security and veterans’ benefits — that “we are working diligently on as we speak.”
Wednesday and Thursday of last week.
The House is now permitting proxy voting, meaning members who don’t feel it’s safe to travel to Washington can give written permission for a colleague to deliver their votes. But Republicans have challenged that in court. Like most of his GOP colleagues, Tiffany says he will not vote by proxy.
“In 200 plus years, this country has seen difficult circumstances, but elected officials always showed up,” he said.
With no House votes this week, Tiffany was back in his district. A student of agricultural economics in college, he said his legislative focus will include agriculture and natural resources, though he hasn’t received any committee assignments yet.
“I am not so focused on committee assignments in the six months leading up the (November) election,” Tiffany said. “Whatever they choose to put me on, I am more focused on (what they will be) if I am re-elected in November.”
He is expected to face Democrat Tricia Zunker in what would be a November rematch of the May 12 special election.
For now, Wisconsin has the most junior member of the House of Representatives (Tiffany along with Mike Garcia of California) and the second most senior member (42-year lawmaker Jim Sensenbrenner).
With roughly eight months passing from Duffy’s resignation last September to Tiffany’s swearing-in last month, it was easily the longest congressional vacancy in the state’s history. The district’s voters went without representation through the Trump impeachment fight and the onset of the pandemic.
Tiffany said that resulted in pent-up demand for constituent services — on matters like Social Security and veterans’ benefits — that “we are working diligently on as we speak.”
Asked about taking office during the political upheaval of this spring, Tiffany pointed to his first term in the Wisconsin Legislature, which coincided with the 2011 political storm and turmoil over Act 10, Gov. Scott Walker’s push to curtail public employee unions.
“That was just a very tumultuous time,” he said, so “I am a little bit used to it.”