Fred Clark, the Democrat running for Congress in Wisconsin's 7th District, claims to be a champion of women's rights. In fact, Clark's campaign website lists "Supporting Women's Rights and Women's Health" as one of his "Northern Wisconsin Priorities." Clark narrowly won the Democrat nomination with 37.6 percent of the vote. He will face Republican Michael Alfonso, who won his primary with 48.9 percent of the vote, in November.

But in reality, Clark has a troubling history of behavior that is anything but pro-women's rights.

In June 2011, Clark made campaign calls during the recall election against State Sen. Luther Olsen. One of those calls was to Clark's constituent, Sue Stapelman. According to Jezebel, when Clark told Stapelman he was running against Olsen, she replied, "Yeah, and isn’t that a crime." After hanging up the call, Stapelman's answering machine continued recording and caught Clark telling an aide, "Okay, I feel like calling her back and smackin' her around."

Stapelman was shocked by Clark's comments. "I was just pretty much flabbergasted when I heard what he said. It kind of speaks to his respect for his constituents. He obviously doesn’t have very much respect for the voters," she said at the time. 

Clark later apologized, saying his remarks were "completely inappropriate."

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But his troubling behavior with women doesn't stop there. The same year Clark was threatening his constituents, he was ordered by a Wisconsin court to pay $6,500 in back child support. That order came as a result of underpayments between January 2009 and February 2011, a time period that coincided with Clark's first term in the Wisconsin Assembly. Wisconsin Family Action ran ads alleging that Clark called the payments "not a huge priority" while he was in office; Clark disputed that claim but did not dispute the court order.

Back in April, Clark's problematic history was already making the rounds on X.

And this year, Clark donated to Graham Platner, the disgraced U.S. Senate candidate from Maine. Platner was forced out of the race following allegations of domestic abuse and sexual assault. Unlike his fellow Democrats, Clark did not call on Platner to drop out of the Senate race.

Fred Clark is just the latest in a long line of Democrats who claim to "support women" while their actions tell a different story. In Wisconsin's northwoods, voters should know that while Fred Clark's campaign website says one thing, his behaviors don't live up to his own standards.