can matter. >> In other closely watched
races. Michael Alfonso won the Republican primary in
the seventh Congressional District in northern
Wisconsin. He's the Trump endorsed son in law of
Transportation Secretary Shawn Duffy. The seventh
has a strong Republican lean, and if elected, the
26 year old Alfonso will become the youngest member
of Congress. He faces former state legislator
Fred Clark, who won the Democratic primary in the
third Congressional District in western
Wisconsin. Rebecca Cooke won the Democratic primary
with more than 60% of the vote, setting up a rematch
with Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden. Plenty
to talk about with our political panelists,
Republican Bill McCoshen and Democrat Scot Ross.
Thanks to both of you for being here.
>> First, we have to talk about Crowley's win on
Tuesday. Scott, how improbable was it to see a
candidate drop out and then come back in less than a
month and win the nomination?
haven't seen before. But, you know, David Crowley has
a long record of of delivering for the people
of Wisconsin as the county executive of the largest
county. He's cut property taxes. He's invested in
small businesses, he's invested in community
health, and he's invested in the things that really
drive the economy and move things forward. So he's a
formidable candidate against a very flawed
candidate in Tom Tiffany, who has a ten year record
in the state legislature of making it harder for
Wisconsinites. And he decided to go after to to
Congress on the next thing. And he spent five years
making it harder for everybody else.
>> So, Bill, Tom, Tiffany, Republicans seemed very
eager to face Francesca Hong. Will it be a shift
for them to pivot to Crowley?
there's any question about that. But to your original
question, I think it's unprecedented what happened
on Tuesday night. I mean, we've never seen a
candidate get out of the race and then get back into
the race, get the sitting governor's endorsement. The
sitting governor travels around the state with him
and literally brings him across the finish line.
It's for your poker players and poker enthusiasts that
are watching this show. This is like a royal flush.
For that to happen, every star had to line up
perfectly. And I give Governor Evers credit. I
mean, he leaned in to David Crowley and and did
everything he could. He put his legacy on the line. And
it worked. That, coupled with $4 million of ads at
the end, that trade unions were very much involved in,
they get credit for that as well. And there was some
finally, some contrast in the race. David Crowley ran
some contrast, and it was on the biggest flaw that
Francesca Hong made the entire campaign, which was
the issue of Thanksgiving. She said she had old tweets
that said cancels Thanksgiving. She went on
both Fox News and CNN and and had some unfortunate
comments that lasted a whole week nationally. It
was a bad it was the worst unforced error I've ever
seen in statewide politics that played into this as
well. But it was it was an unbelievable comeback for
David Crowley. >> Would you ever thought
Thanksgiving was going to be the deciding issue?
>> Well, I always joke that like, you know, Donald
Trump hates Thanksgiving has to spend more time with
Donald RFK, Jr. And, and Eric, I don't know if he
spends any time with the second one from the second
marriage or the, you know, anchor baby from the third.
But that's, you know, I mean, again, this race now
goes goes on to Donald Trump. This is about Donald
Trump and Tom, Tiffany, Tom, Tiffany and Donald Trump
lie about everything. He has a long record of
failing Wisconsin, whether it's cutting $300 billion
from rural health care, whether it's a nationwide
abortion ban, which he supports. When he was in
the state legislature, he cut public education by the
largest in history. This case now will be about
Donald Trump, who's who's you know, rating is in the
toilet. And the fact that Tom Tiffany votes with him
not 80% of the time, not 90% of the time, 100% of
the time. My God, if, you know, we usually see
candidates out there on busses, if Donald Trump
says so, Tom, Tiffany is going to be riding around
in a, you know, in one of those catering carts.
>> Well, Donald, Tom Tiffany was asked, would
you like to see Donald Trump in Wisconsin? And he
hedged. He said, oh, he's very busy.
very clear about this. No one in history has gotten
more votes in the state of Wisconsin than Donald Trump.
If Donald Trump can turn out that 1.7 million voters
for Tom, Tiffany, Tom Tiffany will easily be the
next governor of the state of Wisconsin. So, yes,
there is a role for Donald Trump in this election. And
whether that's town hall meetings like he did for
Michael Alfonso, or it's mail or it's phone banks or
whatever it may be, and maybe it's public
appearances. We'll see. But there's absolutely a role
for Donald Trump. >> The rap on Tom Tiffany a
year ago, when he was first being floated as a
candidate for governor, was can you raise any money?
Well, he's had billionaires that have transferred money
through the party to him. He's funded a lot of ads.
He's already on the air right now. Will he have
enough or do you think maybe the billionaire
they don't view this as as winnable a race with it?
Crowley versus Hong. >> Oh, I think he's going
to raise more money than any candidate in history.
And that includes the self-funders that we've had
in the last couple of cycles on the Republican
side. I don't think money's going to be an issue for
Tom Tiffany. I think they're going to do even
more on the low dollar side that's out there. It's
called low hanging fruit in politics. They can easily
go get that. But Tom Tiffany will not have a
resource issue. >> Well, Democrats have
enough money. Ben Wikler is not there at the Democratic
Party to bring in all that money.
>> Yeah, I think he'll be. I think he'll be helping
out, you know? Yeah. The Democratic strategy is to
raise a lot of money, right? I mean, they've done a very
good job using things like the loopholes created by
Robin Vos. the grift.
instance of being hoisted on your own petard. And
they have $5 million left to spend, of course,
because the Republicans, what they wanted to
accomplish was that Fran Hong not be the next
governor of the great state of Wisconsin and with their
$5 billion of spending, have achieved their goal.
So I'm sure they're popping champagne bottles over that
one. It's you know, this is going to be a wide open
race. Clearly, as you pointed out, Tom Tiffany
has raised $10 million in of his money in 2026 from
three billionaires. You know, the two lines and and
Diane Hendricks. And on the day he got his last
transfer, he promised on the radio he was not going
to raise taxes on billionaires. So that was
that was a nice timing for that.
>> This is a loophole that Democrats have used
successfully under Ben Wikler for ten straight
years. Republicans are finally figured it out.
Yeah, we're leveling the playing field.
>> The irony of this is it was less than a year ago
that Tom Tiffany was calling this the
Democrats abused, even though he was part of the
process of creating it. But now he's taking advantage.
>> Of it. Well, why wouldn't you? It's a legal
mechanism for raising money in the state of Wisconsin,
and Republicans have failed to use it in the past.
Tiffany is not going to make that mistake.
>> He can spend all the money he wants, but he
can't erase his record. He did scrub his website after
right before he got in saying, like, you know, all
the really radically again, yesterday he was
photographed with his lit in his back pocket, which
says Maga extremist Tom Tiffany. So, you know,
we'll have to see how he explains that one away.
>> Gubernatorial races are all about the future. What
are you going to do for me? What's in it for me as a
voter if I vote for you? Scot Ross or Brill McCoshen,
or in this case, Tom Tiffany or David Crowley,
Tom Tiffany is already out with positive ads talking
about his agenda for the future of the state of
Wisconsin. And I think it's very, very positive. You're
also going to see sharp contrast between him and
David Crowley, which you did not see until the very
end of the Democratic primary. And I think that
was a mistake for all the other candidates who ran
against Francesca Hong. David Crowley figured it
out at the right time, and it worked.
>> Switching to congressional races, we've
got a rematch in the third with incumbent Republican
Derrick Van Orden against a Rebecca Cooke Scott, does
this race follow the national environment or the
top of the ticket, or does it stand out on its own,
particularly for Democrats third?
>> Well, I would say that because Tom Tiffany, you
know, supports the $2 billion slush fund for
terrorist insurrectionists, that he is the biggest
January 6th terrorist insurrectionist in
have a January 6th terrorist insurrectionist
as the candidate and current congressperson from
the third Congressional District, Derrick Van Orton.
He is unhinged. You know, people criticize me
sometimes about my my speaking online, but this
guy is totally unhinged. And Rebecca Cooke brings a
real experience of what people in the state, what
people in the Third Congressional District have
to deal with affordability, gas prices, you know,
working two jobs. And I think that translates much
better for what this what the public's going to want
in this election, especially given the record
that Trump has in the state, whether it's with Tom
Tiffany or Derrick Van Orden of really hurting
people in Wisconsin. >> Even in midterms, which
are historically bad for the party in power. And in
this case, it's Republicans. 87% of incumbent
congresspeople get reelected. So the advantage
is going to be to Derrick Van Orden. Rebecca Cooke
has already lost that seat twice. I think she's going
to lose the rematch. It's going to be a hat trick of
losses for her, but it will be a competitive race right
down to the end. And that's one where we may see Donald
Trump in La Crosse or Eau Claire.
need to adjust his behavior? Already on Twitter this
week he was saying Democrats stole the primary
election or is he just be who he is?
>> I think he is who he is. I wouldn't have said that.
I don't think that's accurate. I don't think we
should care how your primary played out. At the
end of the day, Francesca Hong didn't care. She had
the ability to ask for a recount. She chose not to
spoke volumes about her character, I think. So we
should focus on the future. That's what voters want us
to talk about, is what's what are you going to do to
help us balance our checkbook every month here?
>> So in the seventh congressional, Michael
Alfonso used his father in law's money and the Trump
endorsement to cruise to the nomination. Ordinarily,
the seventh isn't in play. Could it be with someone of
his particular reputation and this being an open seat.
>> If ever the source was there to be sampled by by
the by the Democratic voters, it might be there
because this is a guy who has absolutely no
experience. He's a carpetbagger. You know, he
was he got there by, you know, essentially financed
by Shawn Duffy's corruption. So, yes, I think that if if
Fred Clark can get the resources to be able to
articulate that, then I say it's entirely possible
whether or not he'll be able to get it, it's going
to be tough because because, again, Republican failure
Democrats are all over the place in terms of being
able to spend in races they might not otherwise have
been able to get. And very clearly, Democrats will
have the control of the Congress come after this
election. >> This is Tom Tiffany's
home place, and there's a lot of legacy.
>> Before that. Yeah. >> There's legacy. Listen,
Michael Alfonso and his family moved to land O
lakes when he was three years old. I know this
because I coached him in hockey when he was ten
years old for a team out of Managua. He then they moved
to Wausau when he was in middle school, which is
where he met Shawn Duffy's daughter. He's a
wisconsinite through and of having someone Jung on
our side, finally running for a major office, and I
think he's going to do well. He surprised me by how much
he won a highly competitive primary by.
>> That was an impressive win considering the amount
of money that was spent in that district. All right,
that is all the time we have. Bill McCoshen Scot
Ross. Thanks again. >> Thanks. Nice to be here.
>> Issues continue to crop up in Milwaukee's late