Meet Asher
My name is Asher Craig Smale II, a dad in Wisconsin who grew up between Alabama and California. Talking to people across the political spectrum my whole life taught me something simple: most Americans want the same basic fixes. The real problem is not the “other side.” It is the party system itself. George Washington warned us about this, and here we are.
For years I tried engaging the normal way. I emailed Gwen Moore about Ranked Choice Voting and corruption in the Supreme Court. Nothing happened. And in WI-04, nobody has even run against her since 2018. That is not representation. That is autopilot. So I am running out of necessity.
If we want different outcomes, we need someone who actually does the work, not more vague talk about “fighting for” things. Biden had the House and Senate and did not fix the root issues. I am willing to bet the same will happen under Trump. College will stay unaffordable, healthcare will stay broken, schools will not improve, wages will not catch up, and monopolies will not be touched.
I only accept donations from individuals through ActBlue. No PACs or corporate money. If any of this resonates with you, please email your representative about FLESH (Funding Limited Exclusively to Sentient Humans) and log their response. Representatives outside my district ignore me, so I need help pushing this. I cannot promise miracles, but I can promise that I will try, that I will show my work, and that I will treat this job like it actually matters.
Representation: Age
I respect my elders and believe in honoring the generation before us, but respect goes both ways. Adults in their 20's are told to “pull ourselves up by the bootstraps” while being priced out of homes, families, and stability. My three-bedroom house cost $148,000 at a 3.1% rate. Today, the median U.S. home costs over $420,000 while the median household income is around $84k. In 1984, homes were about 3.5 times the average income. Now they’re 5.3. That’s not progress; that’s extraction.
In Congress, too many have lost touch with reality. My wife had flawless births with no epidurals, and each still cost $7,000. The same people wondering why birth rates are falling keep protecting Big Pharma and corporate landlords. My friends aren’t childless by choice; they’re being priced out of parenthood.
And it’s not just housing. Every essential—healthcare, childcare, food, education—has been gouged while wages stagnate. The working class hasn’t been represented in decades. We need fighters, not caretakers of decline. Joe Biden didn’t “beat Big Pharma,” and anyone pretending he did should be voted out. Age isn’t the problem; detachment is. If you’ve overseen this collapse, step aside and let the next generation rebuild what you sold off.
Age of Members of Congress
Representation: Wealth
You might notice the x-axis on this graph looks a little strange — it is. Nearly half of Congress has a net worth over $2 million. If roughly three-quarters of that wealth sits in the market, they’re passively earning the median U.S. household’s entire income every year — about $105,000 in unrealized gains on $1.5 million.
Do these people really understand the “working” class? Homeownership is turning into a pipe dream while private equity firms buy up homes, funded, ironically, by the same stock portfolios Congress benefits from. It appears to be a conflict of interest that’s been allowed to run wild.
Meanwhile, the average American works harder just to stay afloat — wages flat, costs up, and ownership slipping away. A Congress this wealthy can’t possibly legislate with empathy for the families deciding between rent, childcare, or medical bills. Representation shouldn’t mean being ruled by investors; it should mean fighting for those who can’t afford to buy influence.
Net Worth of Members of Congress
Representation: Religion
I grew up in an evangelical home as a pastor’s son. We spoke in tongues, pushed to ban gay marriage, and operated with Harry Potter and Pokémon being straight from the devil. That was the world I knew. As I got older, I met people of different faiths, listened, and started thinking critically about what I believed. Over time, I became non-religious, and I’ve stayed that way.
That viewpoint is almost completely absent from Congress. The Treaty of Tripoli, signed by John Adams, clearly states that the United States “is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” Yet our politics tell a different story. Christianity dominates the halls of power, while non-religious Americans — one of the largest and fastest-growing groups in the country — have almost no voice.
We already have members of Congress who don’t believe in evolution and think the Earth is only a few thousand years old. I believe the universe is billions of years old, there was no global flood, and evolution is real. When I’m in office, I’ll make decisions based on facts, not faith.