Republican Michael Alfonso, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s son-in-law, won the race to represent Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District Tuesday, nabbing the seat that Duffy himself once occupied. Alfonso led Democratic candidate Fred Clark, a former state representative, by a total of 12.2 percentage points with almost all of the ballots cast counted.
“Michael will be the youngest member of the new Congress & the first one born in this century,” Alfonso’s mother-in-law, Fox News personality Rachel Campos-Duffy, stated in a post published on X early November 4. “Go Gen Z! Time to lead the way!! Michael you are a true sign of hope on a tough election night.” Alfonso is married to Evita, the Duffys’ oldest daughter.
He will now replace 29-year-old Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) as the youngest member of the House of Representatives. During his own youth, Duffy, who starred in the hit MTV television series “Real World,” won the remote northern district in the 2010 Tea Party Wave, bringing 40 years of Democratic control over the seat to an end.
According to a report from the New York Post, Duffy, now 55, served in the seat until 2019, when he stepped down from the position ahead of the birth of his ninth child, who, unfortunately, suffered from a heart condition. As for Alfonso, he is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and formerly worked in the construction industry.
He then went on to become the producer for conservative pundit and former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino’s podcast before going on to launch a House campaign in October 2025. Alfonso campaigned on being the voice of Gen Z in Wisconsin, a message that seemed to resonate with younger voters. President Donald Trump gave Alfonso his seal of approval, endorsing him in January, referring to him as a “MAGA warrior.”
The path to the GOP nomination was not without its share of bumps in the road. Alfonso’s main opponent in the primary was Kevin Hermening, a veteran of the Marine Corps, who was one of 52 Americans held hostage in Iran for 444 days after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Hermening then spent several decades serving as the chairman for the Marathon County GOP and even helped get Duffy elected.
Alfonso managed to overcome his older opponent in a five-way August primary race thanks to the endorsement from President Trump and a million dollars from his father-in-law’s dormant campaign account that was routed through a super PAC. Alfonso succeeds Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI), who vacated the seat in order to make a run for governor. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned and Tiffany was beaten by Democratic candidate David Crowley.
"*" indicates required fields
The young congressman-elect also received $5,000 from Delta Air Lines’ PAC to help fund his campaign, which bothered a few folks as his father-in-law runs the Transportation Department, with some pointing out that the airline cannot leave the runway without Duffy’s approval. However, the Transportation Department said that Duffy only supported his son-in-law in a “personal capacity,” and did not utilize his position and influence to assist Alfonso.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video