Falls. I'm Steven Potter for "Here& Now".
>> With Democratic Governor Tony Evers announcement that
he will not run for a third term, the November 2026
election for governor is wide open, and already
candidates are lining up on the Republican side.
Whitefish Bay businessman Bill Berrian and Washington
County Executive Josh Shewman have entered the
race. Democratic Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez is
also formally declared. Now, there are a whole lot more
names potentially throwing their hat in the ring. For
more on this, we turn to our political panelists,
Republican Bill McCoshen and Democrat Scot Ross. Nice to
see you both again. >> Great to be with you. So
good to be here. >> Bill, what kind of
opportunity is this for Republicans?
the second time in my 60 years on this earth where
we've had an open gubernatorial seat. 2010 was
the last time Scott Walker beat Milwaukee Mayor Tom
Barrett. So the fact that it's an open seat is an
opportunity for Republicans to actually win here, both
of the national prognosticators, whether
it's the Cook Political Report or Larry Sabato's
Crystal ball, moved this race from lean Democrat as
soon as Tony Evers made his announcement to toss up. So
it's an opportunity for the Republicans to potentially
take back the governorship in 2026 here in the state of
Wisconsin. toss up kind of status, how
would policymaking change if, in fact, a Republican
were to win? >> Well, I mean, obviously,
if the Republican Party, which is wholly controlled
by Donald Trump, were to win the gubernatorial election
and Democrats not pick up either of the chambers, it
would be the most radical, extreme. Partisan handout to
special interests and corporate and the wealthy
that we've ever seen in the history of Wisconsin. But I
think that you have to look beyond, you know, the sort
of toss up numbers when it comes to the Cooke. Yeah. On
on you know, if you look at it on face Wisconsin, you
know, goes back and forth. But if you look at the real
numbers and where the Republican Party is right
now, you know, if you're not Donald Trump, the party has
Wisconsin voters have elections. Election after
election after election. And we I think we've only had
two of any consequence that have gone Republican in the
last like 15 years. Ron Johnson, of course, who got
in there because, you know, the D triple DS abandoned
Mandela Barnes and he was racist third party ads. And,
and, and the Supreme Court race where they just, you
know, they were Democrats quite didn't quite, hadn't
quite figured out how to lock up those races yet. Now
it's a completely different universe. And the Republican
Party, with Donald Trump in full control of the
government, isn't getting more open for isn't getting
more accommodating for swing voters?
>> Bill, as to the Washington influence,
seventh Congressional District Republican Tom
Tiffany has been talking about running for a long
time. What's he waiting for? >> He says he's going to
make a decision sometime around Labor Day. I hope he
does it sooner than that. There are several
congresspeople in in the House now that are running
for governor and different states. Byron Donalds being
at the top of the list in Florida. I think the
president's a little concerned about that,
House, the GOP majority in the House, is so slim to
begin with. So I don't know if Tom Tiffany is going to
get in if he's got a lot of strong suits, for sure, but
is fundraising. He's got $125,000 cash on hand, which
today and Scott would agree. That's a good assembly race.
That's not a gubernatorial race. So fundraising is his
biggest shortcoming. We'll see if he gets in. At the
end of the day, where Scott and I actually do agree,
Donald Trump's going to pick the winner of this primary,
whoever he endorses in this primary will win the race
for sure. On our side. >> Who else are Republicans
looking at, Bill? I mean, there's there is a long list
of people out there. >> Well, other names that
are being bandied about are State Senator Mary
Felzkowski, who comes from roughly the same geography
as Tom Tiffany. She represents the 12th Senate
district up north. If she won't get in, if Tiffany
does get in. But if Tiffany doesn't get in, I would
expect to see her join the race. You might remember she
voted against the state budget. She's the first
Senate president to ever vote against a state budget.
Eric Hovde name still gets talked about, and I think
there's a player to be named later again, because it's an
open seat. It's a real opportunity. So I think
there's probably somebody on our side that people aren't
talking about yet who could get in this race. Remember,
we got 375 days between now and the August 11th, 2026
primary. >> I'm sorry. I just want to
say, like, I think the reason, you know, part of
the part of the challenge is the Republicans have, in
contrast to the Democrats, is that they're two
Republicans have no experience. I mean, you
know, you know, God bless Washington County, but it's
not even one of the top ten largest counties in
Wisconsin. Whereas on the very long list of people
with credentials who have delivered for the people of
Wisconsin, starting with the gotten $750 million back
from opioid settlements, something that the previous
Republican administration and previous Republican
attorney general refused to allow us to get. You've got
the county executive in the state's largest county.
David Crowley, you've got state Senator Kelda Roys,
who's, you know, who's on the Joint Finance Committee
and who's run a couple times before. You know, there's a
long list of people with real credentials about doing
the things that mention was Ben Wikler,
former party chairman. than Ben Wikler. He is the
best fundraiser on their side or our side. So if he
decides to get in, he'll be formidable.
Scott? >> Oh, absolutely. Yes. I
mean, Ben's a great guy who's traveled around the
state doing the rubber chicken circuit, you know,
for years. I mean, it's a reason why a lot of us
thought in 2022 that Rebecca Kleefisch was going to be
the nominee for the Republicans, but the
they don't want to have a woman at the top of the
ticket. So they went with an out of state businessman who
lost. status of the governor's
race. How much confidence, though, does the most recent
ten point victory of Justice, Susan Crawford,
give Dems? >> Well, there are two
different races, but it also shows that Democrats are
able to have been able to mobilize their voters in a
way that Republicans simply have not been able to do for
a very, very long time. Again, they've lost. They've
won a couple statewide elections. But the margins,
percentage wise and number wise, are so much more
narrow than the blowouts that the Democrats have been
able to do, because, again, they're talking about the
They want to make sure that people are protected. They
want to make sure that abortion rights are
some cases, you know, they want to make sure that when
you go into court that you have your day in court and
it's not balanced towards different to what the agenda
of the of the Republicans are most embodied by the
fact that, you know, we've got this big bad bill which
is now going to bankrupt, you know, the country, you
know, kicked 270,000 Wisconsinites off of their
health care, you know, snatch snap benefits, you
know, literally take the, the, the food out of out of
babies and children. That's the agenda of the
Republicans. And Democrats and contrast with what we're
trying to do. >> I wanted to just jump to
the next Supreme Court election. And have you
described the stakes of that?
>> Well, we have Rebecca Bradley, who hasn't decided
whether she's going to seek reelection or not on her
most recent finance report. She hadn't raised any money.
My advice to her is, if you're not going to run, get
out and give people time to raise money. I think one of
the dynamics that there's a relationship between the two
races, I don't think the Supreme Court race is going
to be as hotly contested as the last two were. I don't
think it will be a $100 million race because it
isn't for the majority. I race, now that it's an open
seat, will be the political Super. Bowl in Wisconsin in
2026. appeals court Judge Chris
Taylor is running for Supreme Court. How
formidable is she? >> I think she's an
incredibly formidable candidate and has built her
career on protecting the rights of people in
Wisconsin. You know, whether it is for living with
dignity or abortion rights or whatever, you know, just
that's the that's the that is the profile profile that
she has, the record that she has. And especially as a
judge. And you know, that contrast, again, with
Rebecca Bradley, who was one of the most divisive, one of
the most noxious elected officials that we've had in
the history of the state of Wisconsin. And I think, you
know, for her, what's you know, the problem is, if
she's waiting for a federal incentive to taking out the
incumbent from a judicial race when, by and large,
over decades? And Bill agree with this, the incumbent
wins almost used to be unheard of, that almost 100%
judicial candidate wouldn't win. Yeah.
>> All right. We need to leave it there. But really
nice to see you both again. We'll have you on more now
that we're heating up into this next election cycle.