By Kirsten Adshead | Wisconsin Reporter

BELOIT — The issues at the heart of the effort to recall Gov. Scott Walker are in sync with the issues at the heart of the race to replace retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin told Wisconsin Reporter on Wednesday afternoon.

“People want a champion for the middle class. People want a fighter for workers, and that’s what I am, and that’s why I think my campaign is resonating,” said Baldwin, a Democrat who represents the 2nd Congressional District.

She spoke with Wisconsin Reporter after addressing the International Export Seminar she helped organize here.

GOP leaders contend Baldwin's backing of tax increases and more red tape for business has done anything but champion middle-class causes.

And the veteran congresswoman, billed by former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold as a "true progressive champion," will have a tough time selling her liberal record to moderate Wisconsin voters, Republican pundits assert.

Walker is facing a potential recall election, in large part, because of the legislation approved this spring that reformed collective bargaining for most unionized public employees. The governor's opponents say he needs to lose his job for the policies he's pushed. His supporters insist those policies are healing Wisconsin's wounded budget and anemic economy.

Baldwin is the sole Democrat thus far running for the Senate seat being vacated by Kohl.

Other potential Democratic candidates, including Feingold, have said they won’t run. Feingold gave Baldwin his endorsement early Wednesday, throwing his support behind a candidate he said “will keep the fight for progress, the middle class and equality alive in the U.S. Senate.”

The Republican Party of Wisconsin quickly responded.

“Russ Feingold lost his Senate seat last year, because voters were tired of being second place to his liberal tax-and-spend agenda. His endorsement is nothing more than a passing of the torch from one failed politician to another,” Stephan Thompson, the party's executive director, said in a statement.

The only openly gay woman in the U.S. House of Representatives, Baldwin is considered to be among Congress’ more liberal members.

She represents the Madison area.

According to Washington Beltway news magazine National Journal 's calculations, in 2010, Baldwin voted more liberal on social policy issues than 93 percent of her fellow representatives.

Asked how she intends to gain the support of more moderate Wisconsinites, Baldwin said she is growing her base of support just by listening to people’s problems.

“I listen to Wisconsinites who are just struggling in this economy, whether it’s seeing pay cuts or losing their job or working two jobs and making less than they did when they worked one or needing to dip into their retirement savings, and they feel like the debates that are occurring in the state Capitol and in Washington, D.C., are disconnected from their struggles and their reality,” she said.

The GOP field for the Senate seat is much more crowded.

Former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann and state Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald officially are in, former Gov. Tommy Thompson has all but announced his candidacy, and others are considering jumping into the race.

Sen. Frank Lasee, R-De Pere, and Madison investor Eric Hovde, too, are mulling a run for the seat.