Brewery Owner Enters Wisconsin Governor’s Race Amid Secret Service Probe Tied to Trump Comments

(Photo: Minocqua Brewing)

Minocqua Brewing Company owner Kirk Bangstad has announced his intention to enter the Wisconsin governor’s race. The move comes less than two weeks after the brewer turned liberal activist made national headlines for promising a free beer promotion on the day of President Donald Trump’s death.

During a livestream on Saturday, Bangstad voiced his dissatisfaction with establishment Democrats, saying that the party needs a stronger voice to “stand up to Trump.” Bangstad said he was inspired to run for office in the wake of a probe from the U.S. Secret Service and the FBI, who questioned the brewer last week about comments he had made on Facebook. A video of the incident showed two agents asking Bangstad if he knew anyone “who wants to or has made threats to kill, kidnap or inflict bodily harm on the President.”

“I don’t like elections. I love speaking, you know, I love doing this, but I hate the process,” Bangstad said on Saturday. “But it changed me when … I felt like the Democratic Party abandoned me, and I felt that I was actually scared for my safety, and scared from my own federal government.”

If Bangstad can collect 2,000 signatures, he will join at least nine other candidates running in the Wisconsin Democratic primary. Bangstad previously ran for Congress in 2016 but was unsuccessful.

The recent flurry of media attention surrounding Bangstad stems from comments he made at the end of last month. Less than an hour after a shooting was reported at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25th, Minocqua Brewing Co. posted on Facebook:

“Well, we almost got #freebeerday. Either a brother or sister in the Resistance needs to work on their marksmanship or he faked another assassination to get a positive news cycle. We’ll never know. Regardless, we stand at the ready to pour free beer the day it happens.”

The post has thus far garnered over 11,000 likes and nearly 8,000 comments, and is still published in its original form on Facebook. In a newsletter on May 1, Bangstad described the post as “satirical” and claimed that federal agents targeted him for “wondering publicly whether Trump’s assassination attempt was staged.”

The Minocqua Brewing Company existed in various forms throughout the early 2000s before being purchased by Bangstad in 2016. According to the brand, its political turning point happened in 2020, when Bangstad hung a “Joe Biden for President” sign on his wall in protest of the Trump administration’s slow-moving COVID recovery plan for restaurants and on-premise businesses.

Later that year, Minocqua launched a limited-edition Biden Beer (subtitled “Inoffensive & Not Bitter Kolsch Style-Ale) that reportedly saved the brewer from near bankruptcy. Minocqua followed up the release with dozens of politically themed brews, including a ‘la Kamala Vice Presidential Stout, an anti-gerrymandering Fair Maps 2.0 IPA and a Love Wins Fruited Sour. Recent releases currently available for purchase on its website range from a Gulf of Mexico Mexican-style lager to an 8647 NA Beer, a reference to a post made by former FBI Director James Comey.

Bangstad also runs the Minocqua Brewing Company SuperPAC, which, according to its website, aims to remove Republican officials from office who “perpetuated the election lies” leading up to the January 6th insurrection.