Veteran artist manager Kyle Frenette, who has spent most of his professional life guiding the careers of his clients such as Justin Vernon and his band Bon Iver, is running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
According to Billboard, Frenette is running as a Democrat in Wisconsin’s 7th District, where he hopes to unseat Republican incumbent Sean Duffy, who has held office since 2010 when he was elected as part of the Tea Party backlash.
Kyle Frenette (J Scott Kunke)
“It’s always been about helping your neighbor here,” Frenette told Billboard. “It’s always been about coming together as a community and talking to each other and getting things done and doing that good, Midwestern work that my grandfather and my father taught me. And that’s not the case as much anymore.”
Frenette also noted that if he was elected, he hopes to be an uniter by appealing to common values, as well as providing a counterbalance to some of the excesses of the current political climate.
“We’ve had crazy presidents before, but this is nuts,” he told Billboard. “Not only is 2018 at a time to hold politicians like Donald Trump and my opponent, Sean Duffy, accountable for the egregiousness of what they’re doing, but to also use it as an opportunity to swing the pendulum back and elect people who are going to care about more than just the few and wealthy donors and give back and uphold the bold and progressive vision that I think my generation is moving towards,” he added.