You got it.
Thank you!
Thank you so much.
Well, hello, everyone.
Thank you so much for being
here. Hopefully you guys got a few
more hours of sleep than I did,
because I will tell you, not even
Netflix could write this
thriller that we saw
between the primary itself
and also the
election results last night.
But I am here to say that
I just got done with breakfast
with all of the gubernatorial
candidates, and we
are united.
To defeat Tom Tiffany
this November.
Right.
And I wanna really, I
know how difficult it is to
put your name on the ballot.
And our gubernatorial nominees
ran incredible campaigns.
You know, we saw how Francesca Hung
created a coalition of 7,000
people.
That's incredible.
And she was here today talking
about how she is committed with us
to defeat Tom Tiffany.
We had Kelda Royce and Joel
Brennan, again, incredible
candidates who are all committed
with.
Unified to defeat
Tom Tiffany, but
I am so excited because
I am our now Lieutenant
Governor nominee for the Democrats,
and I get to serve alongside
of David Crowley, who will
be our next governor.
And let me just tell you
a little bit about David, because I
actually first got to know a
little less than a decade ago
when I was running for
state treasurer.
And David and I met in Milwaukee
and he was sharing his story
with me, which is an incredibly
inspiring story.
Somebody who has grown up in one of
the poorest zip codes in the entire
state.
He grew up in poverty,
not knowing sometimes where he was
going to live.
And he used that experience and
said, you know what?
I wanna lift other people up.
And that's why he got involved in
public service.
He ran for office and got elected
one of the youngest members of the
state legislature.
And then he wanted to go home and he
became the county executive
where he didn't just talk
the talk.
David walked the walk.
You know, he balanced budgets.
He addressed home ownership.
And believe it or not, he actually
brought Democrats and Republicans
together to get things done because
that's who David is.
David is somebody that we
need at this moment.
And I will tell you.
We are a clear distinction
from that guy,
Tom Tiffany, who is an election
denier, career politician
who only cares about the
wealthy and corporations.
That's not who Wisconsin is, and
that's not what we are going to
elect this November.
And so it is my honor to introduce
our Democratic nominee,
our next governor, David
Crowley.
Yeah, man.
Good morning, everybody.
I want to say thank you to everybody
for being here.
Had a great chance to not just hang
out with many of the gubernatorial
candidates, but many of our
statewide candidates to make
sure that we not only taken over
the state senate, but the state
assembly as well.
And while we was having breakfast, I
had the opportunity to chat with
a former Republican legislator.
Her name is Barbara.
And she understands what's at stake.
But it also represents the type of
coalition that we need to build
across this state.
To make sure that we defeat a mega
extremist in Congressman
Tom Tiffany.
You know, right now, we know that
we need to bring everybody to the
table. When you have a seat at the
table, you're on the menu.
Our workers, our farmers, our school
children, our seniors, people with
disabilities, they feel like no one
has been listening to them.
And that's what's gonna be different
with this election, making sure that
were crisscrossing across this state
to bring as many people back
into the Democratic Party to make
sure that we continue to build on
the success.
That Governor Tony Evers has built
for the past eight years.
And so I'm incredibly grateful to
all of the volunteers, the
supporters, to everyone who
helped make this campaign possible.
And I also want to say thank you to,
you know, particularly Francesca
Hong, the work that she put in,
the leadership that she brought to
the table.
And the fact is is that this
is about making sure that
everybody's voice is heard.
And so, I'm looking forward to
kicking off this Unity Tour.
Making sure that we're bringing
every single voice to the
state. And so I just want to say
thank you for this opportunity.
Thank you all for being here.
But we got a lot of work to do.
We cannot leave no stone unturned
in this state. And so we're going to
go everywhere, small towns,
mid-size suburban communities, as
well as our large urban centers,
to let folks know how we're gonna
make sure that we are fully funding
our public schools here in the state
of Wisconsin, how we are investing
in healthcare, How we are
making sure that when the tide
rise all the boats rise in
this state and so with that I
want to say thank you and we'll take
any questions folks may have.
We're going to go to Pat first over
here. Thank you, David.
I'm heading right out to Serona,
both in Washburn County.
I'm covering an event there.
Their congressman's going to hear
for the next 12 weeks all about Big
Bad Milwaukee.
So I want to know what you're
telling folks in the northwestern
half of the state, general election
voters who haven't been following
this race, about what you've done in
Milwaukee. How does that translate
to being chief executive of an
entire state?
Well, one, I think that the
Milwaukee Bucks has always been big
and bad, right? And I think it's as
important that we understand that
the work that we have done in
Milwaukee County has not only moved,
you know, our large urban
communities forward, but it's also
moved every city, every town,
every village forward.
You know, we have been able to
reduce our overdose deaths by 40
percent in the past four years.
We have the lowest unsheltered
homeless count per capita than any
community in the United States,
and we have been able to balance
every single budget ending with a
surplus. In delivering the largest
property tax cut in our county's
history. And I truly believe that
what we've been able to do is good
for the rest of the state of
Wisconsin.
And so I want all of our northern
communities to know that we're not
gonna forget about them.
We're gonna make sure that they're a
part of this process and we can lend
their voices to the solutions
because we know no one
really has been listening to them
across this state.
And unfortunately, they also have a
congressional member who have not
been listening, not caring the
concerns of
his constituents.
But only being loyal to this
Trump administration.
And so there's gonna be a stark
contrast between me and
Congressman Tom Tiffany because
we've actually done things for our
community. We're not just giving
rhetoric.
We're going to go over here to
Molly.
One of the positions
that they really liked about
Francesca Hong was her position on
data centers.
Do you support a moratorium on new
data centers like you did?
Look, we have to focus on making
sure that we have accountability
with these data centers.
They have to pay their own way, they
need to pay for their own
infrastructure, and they need to
bring their own new clean energy.
I am committed to working with
the state legislature to make sure
that we have as many guardrails as
possible, and we're going to make
sure that protect our natural
resources as well as the people of
Wisconsin.
Over here to Alex.
David, there are so many voters who
voted for Francesca Hong last night.
It was such a tight race.
So how do you convince those Hong
supporters to join up with your
campaign in the run-up to November?
Well look, this is about keeping
working families at the center of
everything that we do.
Our children at the center of
everything we do, our most
vulnerable populations at the Center
of everything, that we do and
so we may not agree on everything,
but it doesn't mean that we can't
come to the negotiating table and
figure out how we bring everybody
under this big tent.
You know, the Democrats, we are a
big tent, we can, we should
not be focusing on, you know,
kicking people from up under, saying
that they don't belong within this
tent. We need to make sure.
That we are bringing democratic
ideas to the table to focus
on moving our state forward.
I'm going to go over to Ellie.
Yeah, I want to ask what you
say to voters, the Democratic
voters, who are obsessed with the
party established.
Progressive candidate with governor.
The primary election is over
with and we've all been committed to
saying that on August 12th we needed
to come together.
Look as we move forward into
this general election, this isn't
establishment versus progressive.
This is an insider versus outsider.
This is Democrats defeating a mega
extremist and Congressman Tom
Tiffany, and that's what we should
be focusing on moving forward.
We got time for one or two more,
I'm going to go over to.
So I live in Madison, right,
I work in Milwaukee, but I live in
Madison.
And one of the things that I'm hearing
from some people in my neighborhoods
is Francesca Hong got the young
people out, they got into the polls.
How do you convince those same
people who maybe just wouldn't show
up otherwise, but were excited by
someone like Francesca Hong, excited
by her?
Well one, it's about bringing
everybody to the table.
And as Fran has consistently said,
no matter what happens on August
12th, we have to make sure that we
are coming together because
ultimately we have reach our
goal. And that's defeating Tom
Tiffany and making sure that they
don't stop the progress that we've
made in the past eight years.
But young people need to have a seat
at the table, they need to be a part
of creating the strategy and
making that they have opportunities
as well. Young people don't feel.
That they can look into their future
right now when the average home
buying age is 40 years old, when
right now they're looking at data
centers and artificial intelligence
taking the jobs in the future.
And so we have to focusing on making
sure that we're lifting up their
voices and protecting what they
believe needs to be protected.
I'm going to go to Patrick for the
last one.
A lot of success this year across
the country.
What was the difference between why
we were able to win in this race
when others...
I mean, one, I think that we were
able to create a lot of momentum,
but I think that we kind of had a
secret weapon, particularly when it
came down to our great governor
here, Governor Tony Evers.
He has a lot of trust.
He's done a lot of work.
He is one of the very few governors
that we know has continued to
deliver year after year.
But also our message, what we
brought to the table, being a
county executive, bringing an
executive leadership as well as
governing experience, but also my
ability. To coalesce people across
the political spectrum, because
that's what this race is gonna be
about. We're not gonna win this
race focusing on ideology alone.
It's about focusing on Wisconsin
values.
We cannot allow Washington
politics to creep up into our own
backyard because we're tired of what
we're seeing in Washington, DC.
And so at the end of the day, this
is about moving our state forward,
and I'm looking forward to being the
leader of this party that's gonna
help coalesced Democrats in this
state. And be a great shining
example of what we can do across
this country.
Thank you all so much.
That is unfortunately all the time
we thank you today.
We know you have a bunch of
questions. These two are about to
go. There was 17 stops five day
tour. So please come meet us out on
the trail.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much.
It's okay.
I've only been here for four days.
I'm leaving in two hours of sleep.
No, that's on me.
I owe you a coffee for that one.