‘In the trenches’: Wisconsin’s struggling small businesses could turn a Trump ally’s district blue

Affordability and small businesses’ economic woes feature heavily in the House race for Wisconsin’s third district After 18 years in business, Erin Klaus is closing her storefront, a handmade artisan market in downtown Eau Claire, Wisconsin, at the end of the year. She opened Tangled Up in Hue amid a recession, during a time when downtown was “kind of a ghost town”, weathering construction and the pandemic. But the current economic crisis proved too much. She’s seen a downward trend in sales for two years, and was dipping into her own pocket from her other job, as the executive director of business non-profit Downtown Eau Claire Inc, to pay staff. Continue reading...

Rachel Leingang · Tue, Nov 3, 2026, 3:00 AM
US news | The Guardian

‘In the trenches’: Wisconsin’s struggling small businesses could turn a Trump ally’s district blue

Affordability and small businesses’ economic woes feature heavily in the House race for Wisconsin’s third district

After 18 years in business, Erin Klaus is closing her storefront, a handmade artisan market in downtown Eau Claire, Wisconsin, at the end of the year.

She opened Tangled Up in Hue amid a recession, during a time when downtown was “kind of a ghost town”, weathering construction and the pandemic. But the current economic crisis proved too much. She’s seen a downward trend in sales for two years, and was dipping into her own pocket from her other job, as the executive director of business non-profit Downtown Eau Claire Inc, to pay staff.

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