SPOTLIGHT RACE: Ben Gruber for WI-AD51
Ben Gruber is a lifelong Wisconsinite who grew up like so many families across the state—on a rural patch of land, with parents who worked hard and stretched every dollar. The oldest of three, he spent his childhood helping neighbors bale hay, picking strawberries before sunrise, and selling sweetcorn outside his dad’s auto-parts store and worked night shifts at the local cheese factory to buy his first truck. He knows exactly what working families face because he’s lived it.
Ben built his life in public service. He’s been a volunteer EMT, a firefighter, a paramedic, a police officer and today serves as a conservation warden stopping polluters, catching poachers, and rescuing injured hikers from the bluffs of Devils Lake. He understands the pressures communities feel because he’s the one answering the call.
As a husband and father, Ben has seen how rising costs and state neglect hit families. When the local elementary school in Arena closed, his daughter faced a 97-minute bus ride to kindergarten and the community lost one of its anchors. Volunteer EMS staffing collapsed and the village police department closed. Everyday essentials—childcare, groceries, housing, health care—kept getting more expensive. Ben knows this isn’t happening by accident.
Ben is running for Assembly 51 because career politicians, backed by billionaire donors, keep putting the wealthy first while working families fall further behind. They defund our communities, slash public safety, threaten health care, then act surprised when our communities struggle. Ben believes in a Wisconsin where we can build a good life for our families, where workers have real power and we put our communities first.
Ben will fight to lower everyday costs, rebuild rural communities, protect our natural resources, and strengthen the right of workers to organize. He has always stood with the people who keep Wisconsin running, and he will continue to show up for us everyday—not the insiders and donors who expect politicians to look the other way.
From the hayfields of Arena to Yellowstone Lake to the Pecatonica River, Ben Gruber has spent his life serving Wisconsin. Now he’s running for the Assembly to make sure families like the one he grew up in finally have someone fighting for us.
https://www.ben-gruber.com/