ONLINE: Tom Nelson

press release: A Room of One's Own welcomes U.S. Senate candidate Tom Nelson, author of One Day Stronger, for a virtual conversation with journalist John Nichols!

In August, 2017, the death knell sounded for yet another troubled American manufacturer: Appleton Coated, a historic mill in Wisconsin’s historic paper valley that had been the community’s economic mainstay for 128 years. The mill was sold to an industrial scrapper; hundreds of jobs were threatened, and a way of life hung in the balance.

But then the unlikely happened. The mill’s union local and one county official leveraged an obscure legal strategy to stop the selloff. They did so in the face of widespread indifference from cynical politicians, including the state’s Republican governor and legislature, who were hell-bent on landing a plant to be built by Foxconn, a controversial foreign electronics manufacturer—even at the cost of over $3 billion in state subsidies. Against all odds, the people won. Now the county official who joined in their fight, Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, tells the story behind this remarkable turnaround. One Day Stronger is an inspiring saga of how a determined group of millworkers and other community-minded people triumphed over apathy, corporate avarice, and powerful political forces. 

Tom Nelson has been County Executive of Outagamie County, Wisconsin since 2011. He served three terms in the state assembly, including one as majority leaders, one of the youngest in state history. He developed his passion for public service from his parents, who founded a Lutheran mission church in Combined Locks, in the shadow of Appleton Coated. Nelson holds degrees from Carleton College (BA) and the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (MPA). He lives in Appleton, Wisconsin, with his wife Maria, and their two children, Mary and George, and Lucy, a Yorkshire Terrier. He is running for U.S. Senate in 2022. 

John Nichols is the Washington correspondent for The Nation magazine, a contributing writer for the Progressive and In These Times, and the associate editor of Madison, Wisconsin's Capital Times. He's the author of several books, including The Death and Life of American Journalism, The Genius of Impeachment, The "S" Word, and The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party.