Brian David Rude (born August 25, 1955) is a retired American businessman, lobbyist, and Republican politician from Vernon County, Wisconsin.
He defeated county supervisor Douglas Farmer in the Republican primary and went on to face La Crosse state representative John Medinger in the general election.
[6] After the primary, Rude cast himself as an independent republican, and attempted to make the election a referendum on the performance of Governor Tony Earl.
[6] That fall, he won a full four-year term, defeating the other incumbent state representative in the district, Virgil Roberts, and increasing his vote share to 54%.
[11] Rude was considered a moderate Republican in the Senate and often played an important dealmaker role in the closely-divided state capital.
[13] Immediately after leaving the Senate, Rude went to work as vice president of external relations for Dairyland Power Cooperative—an energy cooperative serving much of the Driftless Area of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota.
While working for Dairyland Power, he was also appointed to serve on the Wisconsin Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection Board by Governor Jim Doyle.