Hey, yeah,
how are you?
How are ya?
Good to see ya.
How are you?
How are your folks?
How goes it here?
How are y'all?
Good to see you guys.
Alright!
Hello, Tom.
Your name Mike
Good well hey, thank you.
Thank you very much Mike.
Hey now. I'm gonna warn you all I
might tonight So if you come up and
talk to me remember you're gonna be
recorded so just an FYI
to all of you Hey, what a great
night, and how about a
big? Thank you to Pops for hosting
this yeah, just
awesome
Are we going to stop big government
socialism right here in Wisconsin?
Yeah!
Yes, yes.
Are we gonna turn Wisconsin red
in November, huh?
Yes we are.
Yes we ar.
It's crazy what's out there, isn't
it? This is truly going to be crazy
versus common sense in this
election, isn't?
Are we fly over country?
No, we're not fly over a country.
Are we the backbone of America?
Yes, we are the
backbone, you betcha, we're
the backbone of America right
here.
You know, our foundries, they
defended America, our farms
fed America, and our force
built America, didn't they?
America's success is intertwined
with Wisconsin's success, isn't it?
Yes it is.
And you know,
I think about the life that my wife
Chris and I have been able to lead
up in the beautiful Northwoods
of Wisconsin after growing up on
the farm in western Wisconsin.
Hey, by the way, how do you like my
mom?
Yeah, we've had a lot
of fun doing those commercials with
my brothers and sisters, my mom, and
all the rest.
But yeah, I settled in the
Northwoods. That's where I met my
wife, Chris.
We built a life in
the Northwoods.
We've been able to achieve the
American dream here in Wisconsin.
We owned our own business for 20
years when we served
tens of thousands of people on
wilderness cruises out in one of
the most beautiful places you'll
find in Wisconsin, up on
Willow Flowage.
We are just so blessed.
We're blessed with three daughters
who are now all out
of the house but they were able to
go to the local public schools, got
a great education.
And we were just so blessed
to have raised them up in
Wisconsin's Northwoods.
We achieved the American dream
right here in Wisconsin and the
commitment that I make to all of you
is that your children and your
grandchildren are going to be able
to achieve their dreams in Wisconsin
also when I become your next
governor.
But that dream's slipping away here
in Wisconsin, isn't it?
Yes, it is slipping away.
You look at what our
current governor has done.
He's vetoed bills like...
Preventing child sex grooming,
he's voted or
vetoed bills that
would allow China to be able to buy
farmland that would prevent China
from buying farmland here in
Wisconsin.
He has stopped audits of all
of our state agencies as we've seen
the mass of fraud across
the United States including in our
neighbors over in Minnesota and when
I sent a letter to him he refused
to enforce those
anti-fraud measures that are
stealing your money.
As taxpayers but more than
that is stealing the future for
people who are disabled and stuff
like that that may not get those
services now as a result
of the fraud that goes on but
buckle up buckle up
if we get one of the candidates
that they put up because if you
think it's bad now just
wait think about mandela
barnes one of leading candidates he
said the founding of america
was awful Terrible!
And the leading candidate that's out
there right now, she has said,
she's going to, she supports
abolishing the Senate, abolishing
prisons, abolish the
police, abolished our
borders.
That is who is leading the
Democrat primary right now.
And I can tell you, I
refuse.
When I become your next governor,
I refuse to allow Minnesota's
madness and Illinois's insanity
to become Wisconsin's way of life.
It ends.
It ends when I become you governor.
But it is the difference between
crazy and common sense.
That's crazy.
I'm going to bring common sense,
first thing we're going to do, very
first day, we're going to end the
400-year property tax increase,
we are going to get control of your
property taxes.
Yes.
We're going to audit every
corner of the state government.
We're gonna root out the fraud and
waste that steals from you and
steals from people who need those
services.
Audits for all of the State agencies
are coming.
We are going to make energy
affordable in Wisconsin.
We've had skyrocketing energy
prices, over two billion dollars of
increases in the last eight years.
And it's because we've went to
intermittent sources of power
destroying our farmland.
We are gonna stop the destruction
of our beautiful farmland in
Wisconsin turning it in to those
intermittent sources a power like
wind and solar.
It's done when I become your
governor. We're going to
protect our farmland.
We're not going to close any
baseload sources of power and we're
going to embrace nuclear energy
once again here in Wisconsin using
the latest new technologies that are
out there.
Moms, you are going to be
called moms in the state budget,
not inseminated persons.
Yes.
Yes!
And we are going to make
home ownership affordable.
We are going make home-ownership
affordable by
reducing your property taxes,
making sure your energy rates
do not go up.
And we're going to do a red
tape reset so that
we can save you money on your
permits and your building
costs by reining in the
Department of Natural Resources and
the other agencies that drive up our
costs by having excessive
permitting.
We're going to do all of that.
You betcha is right.
So we're going to take some
questions here, but if you want to
get results, if you
want to results that are
informed by Wisconsin's
good old common sense from places
like Muskego and my hometown
of Elmwood, way over on the west
side of the state, And if you
want those results with
common sense.
And have the leadership, the
leadership you deserve that can
unlock the potential of the state
of Wisconsin, then follow us.
Follow us as we make Wisconsin
one of the great states in America
once again.
Are you ready?
This is great.
All righty. Hey, whenever we do
these Tavern Talks, I always like to
take questions.
So I'm happy to take a few questions
from all of you if you have
anything you'd like to ask and be
happy to answer your questions.
Yes, sir.
There might have only 15 of the
hundreds of thousands of illegal
phones been prosecuted.
Repeat that.
Only 15 of the hundreds of thousands
of illegal votes have been
prosecuted.
His question is,
only 15 of the hundreds of thousands
of illegal votes that have been cast
have been prosecuted.
Is that correct?
Yes.
Yes. As you said on January 6th.
We are going to make sure that we
have election integrity here in the
state of Wisconsin you saw what
happened out in new jersey right in
last week the story that broke
sixty six hundred illegal aliens
registered to vote in the State of
New Jersey four hundred of them
have already cast ballots and
that's why i voted for election
integrity when i was in the
legislature including with some of
my colleagues that were uh...
Here tonight that i used to serve
with That's why we pass photo
ID.
To make sure that we have election
integrity and I also believe
the Save America Act should
pass that provides for both
photo ID and that you
make sure you are a citizen of the
United States to be able to vote
here.
You bet.
Thank you.
I would like you to break down
what socialism is
and Sharia law, because
people don't know.
I don't if you have an opportunity
to do that on stage.
Let me just talk briefly about what
you talk. So, the question
by this woman here was in
regards to explain what
socialism is.
Let me paint a picture for you of
what socialism is.
The last major country in
the world that adopted socialism was
about 30 years ago.
It was Venezuela.
And within 10 years,
people were so destitute that the
average Venezuelan had lost
17 pounds.
In other words, they were almost
starving to death.
But you know what was even worse
than that?
They were eating the zoo animals.
Does that tell you everything you
need to know about socialism when
the people have to eat the zoo
animals in their country?
Let's not do that in Wisconsin.
And I'm wondering if you can
get a law passed in Wisconsin that
can keep us from getting Sharia law
in Wisconsin.
So the question is, in regards
to Shria law, we've seen some
communities try to adopt it around
the country. I don't know if it's
happened here in Wisconsin.
Not that I've seen yet, but.
So,
yeah.
Sharia law is antithetical
to the founding
of this country,
and so we
should not adopt that.
We have one law in the state of
Wisconsin, and that
is the laws of
the state of Wisconsin that
follow from our constitution
in the State of Wisconsin.
And we should always do that,
regardless of what anybody
tries to impart on us, whether it's
communism, socialism, whatever.
We need to make sure that we stay
free people, free
people with opportunity
equals prosperity and that's
what I'll be fighting for every day.
All right, so I
had a question next to me about the
campaign.
Obviously this year is going to be a
tough year for Republicans because,
obviously, usually the party in
power loses seats in Congress and
all that.
And also, you know, I've
been concerned about my life.
I'm very upset with Trump when it
comes to the Iran war and stuff.
How would you campaign
on your campaign to win people like
independents? You're going to need
them to win this governor's
race. I mean, I probably agree with
you on 80 or 90 percent of stuff,
and you've got my vote, you've got
my brother's vote, my dad's vote my
mom's vote.
My sister, she's a Democrat,
so probably not. But anyway, um...
Yeah, but you're going to need to
win independence. I know a lot of
people are very upset about the Iran
deal. I don't like it either.
I think it's useless and stupid.
But at the same time, you know,
you're gonna need to wind those
people to win.
And you really need to when, because
for me, I'm terrified of the
Democrats taking over.
The Second Amendment is a huge issue
for me.
And if Francesca Hong gets a
Democrat state Senate, the state
assembly, with her being governor,
she'll ban everything.
Sure. And I'm scared of that.
Yeah, let me.
Yeah, let me answer your question
there. So, this question is, how are
we going to win over voters?
How are we gonna get to 50 plus one,
right? How are gonna get a majority
of voters to
be on our side?
And it is to deliver a very clear
message to people.
So, there's three critical
components to a campaign in my mind.
Money, messaging, manpower.
First of all, the manpower...
It's right over there, all those
guys and gals over there
that have been knocking doors and
all the rest. You know we, yes,
yes. Give them a hand.
And by the way, if you want to sign
up to help them, they'd be happy to
take your name down, am I right?
Yes. We have done over 200,000
doors. We're closing in on a quarter
million doors that we've done
already in this campaign.
We expect to be up to a million
doors by the end of this campaign
going out meeting people and
specifically the people that you
mentioned, someone that's undecided,
someone's independent.
They may be someone that is,
they may identify as Democrat,
but they're not a crazy Democrat.
We're going and we're knocking on
their doors and delivering the
message that we can have a
prosperous Wisconsin if
we just do the right things here and
reverse force from the things that
are failing us.
So we're delivering that message
every day with
with the manpower that we have.
Second of all is the messaging.
We're very clear in our messaging.
We lose as Republicans when
we play the Democrat light game
because they're
gonna vote for the real thing,
right?
So I hope you follow our social
media. We paint the
clear contrast every day and we
point out when our opponents
say something that's untrue.
Because I pointed out how Francesca
Hong said she would abolish
the Senate.
She said it, she wrote it,
and they came out today, her
spokesperson came out today and said
no, she never said that, she doesn't
believe in it all right.
What did we do?
We brought the goods, we showed,
she said that she wanted to
abolish the Senate.
We do that every single day to
make sure that the truth is getting
to the people of Wisconsin
and the truth is going to win
in November.
And finally, the Democrats have had
a big advantage on money in
many of the campaigns in the last
decade, right?
I mean, there's many campaigns where
Republicans have been outspent.
I mean give the Democrats credit.
They went to Silicon Valley
and they went to Hollywood and they
got millions and millions of
dollars. Well, I can tell you we're
going to compete and the main reason
we're gonna compete is because of
people like you.
We have over 10,000 people
from all corners of Wisconsin that
have contributed to this campaign.
Uh, amounts large and small.
I look at those donor lists every
week.
There's people giving 25 and 50
dollars, hundreds of them,
from across the state of Wisconsin.
They know what's at stake.
They're giving everything that they
can, and that's one of the ways in
which we're going to win. And also,
we have a 72 county strategy.
We're not ignoring Milwaukee County.
We are not ignoring Dane County.
There's times that we have not
competed in Dane County.
Where was I today?
I was in Dain County winning
votes.
Alrighty, who's next?
Yes, sir.
What's your position on the data
centers?
What's my positions on data
centers? It's very similar in
regards to wind and solar.
We will not convert any of our
farmland.
We should not be converting it when
it's subsidized like it has been.
Our farmland is so precious
in Wisconsin, we should
make sure that it's for agriculture.
But no data centers,
no data centers unless they...
First of all, we should end the
subsidies that Governor Evers signed
into law a couple years ago.
The people that own the data
centers, they do not need subsidies.
Subsidies come from you,
the average taxpayer in Wisconsin.
They should not be getting money
from you in order to be able to
build a data center.
We're going to make sure that
there's no non-disclosure
agreements.
You have to be transparent in
regards to the negotiations
that go on about this.
And there must be local control.
Local input is required,
you should have a say on
whether a data center is being built
or not.
And, of course, no subsidies
to
convert productive farmland
here in Wisconsin.
Yes, sir.
No, no, no.
Way back.
We've got to get through the first
round.
Senator, too, again, you said, yeah,
I got to give him credit for
raising money to
Democrats.
You said you have to give me credit
for that.
I give you credit for anything.
Because more than half of
that money is ours.
And that's how Trump got
elected.
Fair enough, fair enough.
Okay, we'll take, right here?
Yeah, yeah, go ahead.
Positive or negative have global
tariffs brought to Wisconsin
farmers.
The question is in regards to what
positive impacts have come,
what's that?
One of the good things in regards
to tariffs for farmers is
we finally had a president that was
willing to take on countries that
have foisted unfair trade
on America.
Did you know that Canada has up to
300% tariffs on
dairy products?
Up to 300%, one
of our leading trade partners, and
they try to keep Wisconsin dairy
out of their country.
Let's give you a couple success
stories. I was just over in Dane
County, as I mentioned earlier.
Now, this is not agricultural,
but they talked about how they
do powder coating over there.
They said one of the primary people
that they work for has brought more
of their manufacturing back from
Europe here to America.
Harley-Davidson just announced two
weeks ago, they're going to bring
more of their manufacturing back to
America, including to the plant
where I live, near
where I live up in Tomahawk,
Wisconsin.
So it's time.
That somebody stood up for
American workers here
in America and
that's exactly what has happened
rather than having this
so-called free trade that
has cost us so many jobs.
Look at the Janesville factory, the
GM factory.
I think about the
cabinet maker up in
Sheboygan.
That had to close as a result
of that so-called free trade.
I think about the paper mill up in
Niagara in northern Wisconsin.
Free trade was not fair trade and
it's about time the people
of America had someone that would
stand up for them.
And by the way...
We also, and I was one of them,
that stood up for the working people
of America when we put in
place no taxes on tips,
no taxes over time, and no
taxes on your social security at
the federal level.
And I'm going to do the same thing
when I become governor.
We're going to put no taxes and over
time for working class people here
in Wisconsin.
All right, folks, I'm gonna close it
up here.
Thank you.
Thank you so much that all of you
had come out.
Find a way to help us.
Wisconsin's at stake here in 2026.
We're going to decide, are we
going to go the route of Minnesota
and Illinois? Are we going be like
California and New York where people
are bailing out of those states left
and right? Are we gonna be one of
the great states in America?
I believe we can be one of
the Great States in America once
again. Follow us.
We're gonna take you there.
Thank you so much.
We can get a couple questions for
you when you find it.
Oh, OK. Can we do that now, or did
you shake it? It's up to you.
Yeah.
I have a concern about
foreign nationals purchasing large
swaths of land in Wisconsin.
Is there some type of legislation
that's begun that you would
support?
We're going to stop it.
Okay.
Yeah, we're going to make sure,
especially some of the sensitive
places, make sure that
especially China or Chinese
interests are not buying
up our land, especially our
farmland.
And Arab countries too.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, good to know. Thank you so
much.
Thank you for all you're doing.
I have a question for you.
What would you think about
eliminating the unions from our
public schools?