Consultant: Ron Kind Does Not Have 'Cajones' to Run for Higher Office

A Democrat consultant said Tuesday that Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI), who represented Wisconsin’s third district for two decades, lacks the “cajones” to run for higher office.

“Kind has some of the best hair in politics. He has a good golf swing. And he’s the biggest tease in Wisconsin politics,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote of the Wisconsin Democrat. “For more than two decades now, Kind has talked about running for higher office and then not followed through.”

Kind has represented Wisconsin’s third district since 1997. Despite multiple statements over his decades-long career in the House that he would run for higher office, he has yet to do so.

Kind said in 2000 he would take a “real hard look at” running for governor within two years. He did not run for governor, the highest position in the Badger State. Kind discussed the idea of running for governor four times and running for Senate three times.

Now, Kind is reportedly mulling the idea for running for U.S. Senate next year. He said is “taking a look” at the idea. The Wisconsin Democrat may run to replace the potentially retiring Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI).

However, despite his test balloon about running for the Senate, some Democrats take his flirtations with running for higher office as a running gag.

One anonymous influential Democrat remarked, “Nine hundred times the bridesmaid and never the bride.”

“It’s just not going to happen,” a Democratic consultant said.

“There’s a certain risk adverseness there. He doesn’t have the cajones,” another Democrat consultant emphasized.

Asked by the Journal Sentinel if he would run for higher office, Kind’s office used a “recycled” statement.

“It’s all hands on deck right now in Congress to address the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis it has caused, and that’s what I’m focused on doing,” Kind said. “I haven’t made any decisions about 2022.”

Mike Berg, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), said in a statement Tuesday, “Ron Kind is a career politician who loves to get a headline from pretending he’s going to run for higher office. One way or another, he won’t be a House member in 2023.”