Johnson Gets Hit Again on Refusal to Push for Jobs to Be Created in Oshkosh

Digital ads join billboards and other demands for the senator to persuade Oshkosh Defense to locate 1,000 jobs in Wisconsin instead of South Carolina.

The 2022 election for one of Wisconsin’s US Senate seats is nearly nine months away, but TV and digital ad traffic has been heating up—especially after two-term Sen. Ron Johnson said he would not lobby a hometown company to bring an estimated 1,000 new jobs to Wisconsin instead of South Carolina.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW) is the latest to run an ad criticizing the Republican for his refusal to pursue the jobs being created by Oshkosh Defense and telling a reporter, “It’s not like we don’t have enough jobs here in Wisconsin.”

The subsidiary of specialty vehicle maker Oshkosh Corp. was awarded a $6.3 billion contract nearly a year ago to manufacture 165,000 “next-generation” delivery vehicles for the US Postal Service. The company later said it would locate the project in South Carolina. Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin has been pushing the company to use the union workforce in Oshkosh.

“I wouldn’t insert myself to demand that anything be manufactured here,” Johnson said of the federal funds that could have been put to work in Wisconsin.

The DPW ad joins previous commercials, billboards, and forums from independent groups bringing Johnson’s record to voters well ahead of his attempt to win a third term—criticizing his votes against COVID relief checks, support for outsourcing, demanding a tax break that benefited some ultra-wealthy donors, and spreading misinformation about the 2020 election and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re making sure every single Wisconsinite hears from Ron Johnson himself that he will not fight to create good paying jobs in Wisconsin. Not even in his own hometown of Oshkosh,” said DPW Chair Ben Wikler. “Johnson has made it clear he is in Washington only to serve and enrich himself.”