Wisconsin state senator says Wausau Mayor Katie Rosenberg is ‘very emotional,’ should be an actress

During a radio appearance on “The Meg Ellefson Show” last Friday, Wisconsin state Sen. Cory Tomczyk (R-Wausau) said Wausau Mayor Katie Rosenberg should be an actress because she is “always so emotional.”

After Ellefson asked a question regarding the latest campaign spending numbers for the Wausau mayoral election, Tomczyk took the opportunity to call Rosenberg an “emotional” aspiring actress.

“I have no information on that,” Tomczyk said. “But it would make sense because, you know, she’s always so emotional, and so. She’s an aspiring actress, maybe she wants to go to California.”

Since January 2023, Tomczyk has represented Wisconsin’s 29^th Senate District, which includes the town of Wausau. Prior to being elected to the state Senate, Tomczyk sat on the Wausau county board, where he allegedly called a 13-year-old boy an anti-gay slur during a board meeting in 2021. The boy was speaking in favor of a resolution to promote diversity and inclusion during the meeting.

After The Wausau Pilot & Review reported on the incident in its digital newspaper, Tomczyk sued the publication and claimed the outlet had defamed him. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in April 2023 after three people who attended the meeting gave sworn statements saying they heard Tomczyk use the homophobic slur. Tomczyk has appealed the ruling, which says he failed to prove that the publication defamed him.

Rosenberg is the incumbent nonpartisan candidate for Wausau’s mayoral election that will be held Tuesday. Despite the nonpartisan status of the race, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin has donated at least $191,000 to Rosenberg’s campaign. Meanwhile, Republican political committees have reportedly donated $41,000 to Rosenberg’s opponent, Doug Diny. The race has gotten heated, with one of Rosenberg’s family members receiving an antisemitic text message attacking the mayor and her family, despite them not being Jewish.