Zachary Wassendorf paused midway through a thought about the local Middleton economy.
“I’d like to say something more about homelessness,” he said.
Wasendorf, 19, is a Republican candidate for State Assembly in the 79th district. He’ll be challenging Democratic incumbent Diane Hesselbein for the right to represent the Middleton-Cross Plains-Waunakee-Verona area.
Wasendorf had spent nearly an hour with Madison365 discussing his goals in representing the area, but worried he may have short changed an important topic around Dane County: the homeless.
“We need to look out for the people who are homeless because that’s the government’s fiduciary responsibility,” Wasendorf said. “If we really look in depth just under 20 percent of people in Madison live in poverty and the majority of those are women unmarried with children. What we need is to look out for our constituents well-being and that all stems from economics.”
Wasendorf says he plans to tackle poverty head on. He supports concepts like the new Day Resource Center for the homeless that will be opening in downtown Madison is October 2017, but says we need to look further than that. Wasendorf says building more centers like the Resource Center is a good idea but thinks the homeless population around Dane County are facing bigger hurdles than just poverty.
Wasendorf believes homelessness gets lost like any other topic voters care about in the endless, increasingly polarized gridlock of politics. One of his biggest priorities in entering politics is to be part of a new wave of politicians who don’t bury their heads in the ground and refuse to be moved.
Indeed it has taken years for something like the Day Resource Center to come into existence because of the back and forth political fighting among local officials. The Day Resource Center will serve as place where the homeless will have access to showers, meals, laundry, addiction counselling and financial training.
Wasendorf says the fight to open a center like that to help people is just one example of what’s wrong in politics right now.
“I’ve seen throughout my entire life of living in Wisconsin, the state politics and the gridlocks are because of people taking such hard positions on issues. We have Democrats taking one side of an issue and not budging and we have Republicans taking one side and not budging. What we don’t see is negotiation and compromise like we used to see and that’s what we need to return to.”
The hustle and bustle of a Middleton health club go unnoticed by him as he reflects on his journey into politics. Various members of the health club, many of whom have known Wasendorf since he was a young child, come up to him and say hello. Most have not seen him since he was in his early teens and with a very different temperament that the ease with which he moves through a room now.
Many were impressed by how measured and thoughtful his words are in contrast to the fiery words he would say in high school debates.
Wasendorf understands their surprise. High school was, well, high school. Following graduation he enrolled in California Baptist University in Riverside, CA, to study political science. Yet he grew increasingly frustrated with both the lack of diversity in the exclusive University as well as a concept that nagged at him with increasing regularity: He didn’t want to just learn about making policy or change. He wanted to spearhead that policy and change.
“I’ve sat on the sidelines of politics for my entire life,” Wasendorf said. “I thought to myself in this past year that I can’t be having this many political discussions or having all of these visions that I’m having and wanting to create all this change without actually doing something about it. I kind of considered that a little bit hypocritical and I realized this year that I need to do something about it and that’s exactly why I’m running.”
Wasendorf says if he gets elected his vow is to not become the type of politician who constantly debates making a change but never actually does anything.
“Some of the big issues I’ve noticed living here and not changing are things such as State income tax being way too high, state corporate income tax being too high, the poverty rate that we have in Middleton and the surrounding areas. Property taxes being higher than the national average is just insane,” he said.
Wasendorf wants to help spur a new generation of Republicans. A generation that combines the small government roots of the old school GOP with the racial and social change values that define today.
When asked about President Donald Trump, Wasendorf didn’t take the bait. He said he doesn’t want his name associated with President Trump’s or to be pigeonholed into a stereotype of what a Republican is.
“Everything on television and in government is about all these hot button social issues,” Wasendorf said. “But just arguing about those issues isn’t going to alleviate poverty or help the economy.”
LGBT rights, abortion, Trump’s miscues, race and guns are all fun topics, Wasendorf said. But they aren’t lowering taxes or making school more affordable or making it easier to run a business and create jobs.
“It doesn’t mean I don’t care, I’m just not focusing on those issues,” he says. “Our economy is what’s holding back our community. My vision for the community is to have a progressive economic atmosphere that can transform it.”
By entering the race with the heart of an underdog and a boatload of confidence, that vision isn’t something Wasendorf is just dreaming about or talking about. He is leaving the sidelines to enter the fray and hopes in the end he can carry the torch for a new generation.
