Rev. Michael Goodwin sees decision to run for state assembly seat as a chance to put his faith into works

When Michael Goodwin looked at his absentee ballot after returning from vacation in late July, he noticed that his state assembly rep was running unopposed, something that both surprised and frustrated him.

Then the tornado that decimated Menasha and parts of southern Appleton struck. In the aftermath, Goodwin watched as various politicians, including his own state representative, lauded the cleanup efforts and the unity that ensued.

While Goodwin was undeniably moved by the community response as neighbor helped neighbor and people around the Fox Cities stepped up in a big way, he couldn’t help thinking about the disconnect he saw between what some of those politicians were saying and what they had actually been doing in Madison.

“I'm just thinking how many of these fire departments and agencies have just been gutted and their resources cut?” he says. “And here you have these folks show up there, and be so proud of them, and yet undermine them when they're back in Madison, and so that really burned me. 

“How we came together after this storm is how we should always be. So these agencies, these nonprofits, should be able to count on their elected officials to do their job as much as we count on firefighters and police and We Energies and whoever else to do their job.”

In the meantime, Goodwin’s wife and three kids responded to his frustration over both the uncontested assembly seat and the hypocrisy he was witnessing in the tornado’s aftermath by sending out signals that perhaps he could fill that ballot vacancy. This is a man, after all, who raised his kids not to be passive, but to take action when they saw injustice. 

“(They) are really good at standing up to bullies, and when they come home from school, and they've got a situation that's unfolding or a teacher who isn't listening – whatever it may be –  they will eventually get to the point of asking, okay, this is wrong. What can (we) do about it? “And so in this situation, they’re looking at me and saying, well, no one's running against Ron Tusler. Okay, somebody should. What are you gonna do about it?”

A 96-hour whirlwind

There are two things that set apart Michael Goodwin’s challenge to unseat District 3 incumbent State Rep Ron Tusler. The first is that Goodwin got on the ballot via a write-in campaign that began four days before the Aug. 11 primary. The arcane formula put together by the Wisconsin Elections Commission left even them uncertain how many votes he would need to qualify for the general election in November. But Goodwin got out a spreadsheet, crunched the numbers and determined he would need to garner at least 546 write-in votes. The whirlwind effort that overcame the long odds of achieving that from scratch over the course of 96 hours in itself makes Goodwin’s candidacy unique. 

What, additionally, makes this race so intriguing is that Goodwin – Reverend Dr. Michael Goodwin – is a minister. As pastor of Memorial Presbyterian Church in Appleton for the past 14 years, he joins a growing number of progressive clergy to directly enter politics after mainline Protestantism had all but ceded that ground to Evangelical Christians, the Christian Right and Christian Nationalists over the past several decades.

He says his congregation has endorsed his decision. “I said to them, you know, every week I'm asking you to go out in the world and live your faith, and I am approaching this as a way to live out my faith,” he says. 

While Goodwin will focus on issues, he says there is no way to separate his faith from who he is and how he lives his life. In that sense, then, faith will tacitly be interwoven into his message to voters. 

“I definitely think they're linked and should be linked,” Goodwin insists. “That's obviously not to say I need the state of Wisconsin to be Presbyterian. But I feel like, as a person of faith, whether I'm wearing a stole or not, these are my values. I've always thought that faith is not a private thing. Yes, it’s deeply personal and very unique to each one of us how we express it.

“But it's not meant to be left at home.”

Schools, social safety net are top issues

How did he pull it off? With help from social media and tech-savvy kids and the Democratic Party of Outagamie County, and by pounding the pavement and going out and urging voters to write him in. His daughter designed campaign literature in the back seat of the car on their return from a college visit.

Then it was a matter of texting friends and getting them to text their friends. Finally, with a list in hand of Democratic voters provided to him by the county party, Goodwin began knocking doors. 

Though he canvassed in Harrison and Sherwood, he said he somehow received 20 votes in New Holstein, and it’s probably a good thing he did. Goodwin felt fairly certain he’d cleared the hurdle … but only by about 18 votes.

“Thank you, New Holstein,” Goodwin says with a laugh.

Rep. Tusler says he welcomes Goodwin into the race, arguing that it’s important that seats be contested. 

“A contested race allows voters a chance to take part in the process of choosing policy and leadership,” Tusler responded by e-mail. “Also, I’m thankful that Mr. Goodwin wants to serve our people.  That is an admirable quality that we should appreciate.  I wish more people would step up.”

Though Goodwin has always been politically and civically engaged, the only office he ever held was as an election judge in high school. He double majored in political science and religion, prompting his mom to warn that no one would want to talk to him at Thanksgiving. 

His opponent is seeking his sixth term as District 3 Representative and has voted consistently with the Republican majority over that time to oppose expansion of Badger Care (which would increase federal spending into the state Medicaid program), direct subsidies for the struggling childcare industry and increased aid for public education, preferring instead what he lauds as market-based solutions, even for entities that are the subject of public policy debate. 

Goodwin sees things decidedly differently and wants to focus on cost and inflation issues; greater support for SNAP food subsidies for low-income families (recently cut by the federal government); supports for people about to lose their Medicaid after cuts of nearly $1 trillion in President Trump’s so-called ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ enacted last year; and enhanced state revenues for public education.

“These are really live issues that matter to people,” he says. “(Wife) Kim is a teacher, and I’m a product of public education, and we just keep starving our schools,” he says. “It sort of burns me when our representatives and even the Governor, at times, are so proud of this budget surplus (the state currently holds about $3 billion in reserve), but then we're passing referendum after referendum while we atrophy the schools that we have.”

Reclaiming the message

Starting with Palm Sunday Path earlier this year, when Protestant Churches in various states around the country held a rally to express their deep concern over rising political extremism, white Christian nationalism and authoritarianism, mainline Christianity began to re-enter the political arena in a public way. 

“I definitely think that was a moment for a lot of folks to step out of their comfort zones,” Goodwin says of the Appleton rally at Houdini Plaza in March. “Palm Sunday is something that normally just happens within the church walls. We talk about it being a protest moment that happens in the last week of Jesus' life. But we’ve never taken it into the streets to connect the protest of Palm Sunday to a protest of larger issues going on in the country.”

Goodwin says his congregation fully embraced it, viewing the event as a way to promote the message of Jesus as one of, above all else, social justice. 

“To me it was planting a flag that said, we’re going to keep showing up for each other,” he says. “I think the mainline church, in particular, took a big step back. It was maybe trying to be above the fray in a way or just trying to walk a line in a way that I think a lot of more evangelical or non-denominational churches didn't. So I guess I would see (Palm Sunday Path) as reclaiming that space, and also just acknowledging that how we live our faith is going to show up beyond the church walls. And it should.”

Tusler says he wishes more Christians would enter the political arena and that churches should not shy away from politics. 

“The political arena is where many Christians have accomplished the most,” he says. “Remember Sir Thomas More and Saint Stephen.”

'...true and divisive colors'

At the same time, Tusler took exception to Goodwin’s teachings, saying the Bible is literal and should be treated as such. 

“The Bible contains no mistakes,” he wrote. “Man’s sins are the mistake. Romans 1:16-32 does not leave room for man to adjust the Bible to society’s standards. (Goodwin) deviates from the Bible when its Truth is contrary to Society’s mandates.”

Goodwin said Tusler’s assessment of his faith was less about Goodwin’s character and more “about (Tusler’s) true and divisive colors. 

“It’s one thing to cite scripture, quite another to live the gospel,” Goodwin went on. “My faith shapes my values, and those biblical values of love, grace, and integrity are at the heart of my leadership.”

Tusler proclaims his Catholic faith on his social media and on the legislative floor, going so far in a social media post as to declare the United States a Christian country and adding, “to lose God’s favor will be to see our country fall from grace.” On the grounds of religious liberty, he has voted to allow “Christ-centered” conversion therapy practice on gay people, something voted unconstitutional by the State Supreme Court and deemed harmful and unethical by almost all major medical and psychological organizations.

On his personal page, Tusler takes a lot of hits from detractors for his flirtations with conspiracies ranging from allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 Presidential election to anti-vaccination sentiment to Ivermectin efficacy during Covid. Also on that page, he intimated that Donald Trump’s election in 2024 was divinely inspired when he posted, “Doesn’t God answer our prayers better than we ask for them?”

Christianity that seems contrary to the gospel

Goodwin perceives a disconnect between the Christian values as proclaimed in Jesus Christ’s teachings and the policies that Christian-identified Republicans espouse.  He admits to feeling frustrated, even embarrassed for Christianity itself at times.

“You get this kind of Christianity that seems so contrary to the gospel, so opposed to who Jesus was and what he said and how he lived,” Goodwin says with a sigh. “I am very sure there are plenty of people who have left the church just because they can't handle how toxic some Christians are. So for me, yes, I am frustrated when people use Jesus and what he had to say to hurt other people.

“But I feel like that makes me want to claim my faith all the more. Jesus says you’re going to know people by their fruits. So you can give all sorts of lip service, but if you’ve got rotten fruit …”

Goodwin knows it’s a long shot to win in a district that still leans heavily Republican, even after redistricting, and which Tusler won by nearly 30 points in 2024. He hopes, if nothing else, to continue to build infrastructure for the future, as he credits Tusler’s most recent opponents – Emily Voigt in 2020 and Jason Schmidt in 2024 – for doing. He says some voters told him they hadn’t ever had a visit from a candidate during a campaign. If nothing else, he says, Tussler will have to run a campaign, which might divert campaign funds away from other campaigns, and force Tusler to “give some attention to this area.”

“So I really do want to make a concerted effort to earn people's votes here, and in a way that not only wins this election, but makes a path for the future,” he insists. 

‘Let’s build something better …’ 

When the nation comes back from its current divide – and Goodwin believes it will – he wants it to not just return to where it was but to go further and make things better for people. He says there’s been rot in our institutions for too long.

“After Trump's first term, there was this desire to get back to normal, you know, whether that was normal after COVID or just politics as normal,” he says. “But I'm not really interested in just going back to business as usual. I'm more inclined to say, okay, you flushed it all down the toilet, or you got rid of this or undermined that. Now the slate's clean. 

“So let's build something better and different, and more consistent with values that lift up people so that everyone can find their place. I'm sort of taking the approach that, for all the things that I see being undermined or dismantled, we don't have to just get back to the way things were. In fact, I think we're probably in a better place right now to make some changes that people have always wanted to make, but have been held back by the status quo.”