If you watch television in Wisconsin this week, there's a good chance you're going to see an outrageous negative ad from Paul Ryan's super PAC personally attacking the struggles my family and I have been through.
This ad makes it clear more than ever before that Paul Ryan and Bryan Steil just don't understand what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck.
If you're a millionaire who has been in Congress for two decades or a corporate attorney who makes big money helping companies ship jobs overseas, I guess I understand why you might not get it.
They don't know what it's like to have to swallow your pride -- to have to look your child in the eyes -- and have to explain that you lost your job and times are going to be tight for a while.
It's scary being in these situations. You're a nervous wreck, you're ashamed you can't protect and take care of your family, and you don't know how you're going to claw your way back. Like so many people, I can say that in tough times I've had to borrow money from friends and family.
That's the thing about working families -- we know how to come together and lift each other up.
Career politicians and political insiders like Paul Ryan and Bryan Steil just don't get what we go through to put food on the table, make rent, and pay the bills.
Maybe that's why they are always so excited to cut funding for unemployment insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. These programs don't mean anything to them.
They mean everything to a working family like mine.
Look, the Republican attack machine is in full gear. That's ok -- I've survived much worse. I'm grateful to have come out on the other side of some incredibly hard times, but I know many, many more have not been so lucky. Part of the reason is that the system is rigged against them, and it's time for that game to stop.
While I'm not perfect, I will work every day and do everything in my power to ensure our government starts looking out for working people again.
If you believe it's time to send a working person like me to Congress, please chip in $5 or more to help this campaign respond to Paul Ryan and Bryan Steil's misleading, negative TV ad attacking my family.
You lift me up,
Randy Bryce
@IronStache