In other closely-watched races,
Michael Alfonso won the Republican
primary in the 7th Congressional
District in northern Wisconsin.
He's the Trump-endorsed son-in-law
of Transportation Secretary Sean
Duffy.
The 7th has a strong Republican
lean, and if elected, the
26-year-old Alfonzo 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 Derek Van Orden.
Plenty to talk about with our
political panelists, Republican Bill
McCoshen and Democrat Scott Ross.
Thanks to both of you for being
here. Thanks for having us.
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?
Oh, it's something we haven't seen
before, but, you know, David Crowley
has a long record 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 has invested in community health
and he's investing 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 as a 10-year record
in the state legislature of making.
It harder for Wisconsinites,
and he decided to go after
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?
Yeah, I don't think there's any
question about that.
But to the 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 them and literally
brings them across the finish line.
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 into David Crowley
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 finally some contrast
in the race. David Crowley ran some
contrast, and it was on the biggest
flaw that Francesca Hung made the
entire campaign, which was the issue
of Thanksgiving.
She said, she had old
tweets that said, cancel
Thanksgiving. She went on both Fox
News and CNN 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 an unbelievable
comeback for David Crowley.
Thanksgiving was going to be the
deciding issue?
Well, I always joke that Donald
Trump hates Thanksgiving, too,
because it means he has to spend
more time with Donald 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
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 state
legislature he cut
public education by the largest in
history. This case now will be about
Donald Trump, whose rating
is in the toilet, and the fact that
Tom Tiffany votes with him, not 80%
of the time, not 90% of time,
100% of the time.
My God, if we usually
see candidates out there on busses,
if Donald Trump says so, Tom
Tiffany's gonna be riding around in
a, you know, in one of those
catering carts.
Well, Tom Tiffany was asked,
would you like to see Donald Trump
in Wisconsin? And he hedged, he
said, oh, he's very busy.
Well, let me just be 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 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 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.
So I want to talk about polling.
I know you have a long-standing beef
with the media and how the media
covers polling.
What should we take away from this,
and what's your advice to the public
when it comes to the avalanche of
polls we're gonna see in the next
couple months?
Well, again, when you
make the race just about the horse
race, you're not talking about the
important issues that face the
people of Wisconsin, whether it's
education, whether it's
affordability, whether the fact that
gas prices are at record high,
nearly four dollars a gallon in the
state of Wisconsin.
All those sorts of things take away
from what is the real issue here,
which is what the candidates stand
for, what they've done in
the past and what they're going to
do in the future for us.
And so that's where I think we have
to, you know, we can't just anoint
people based on you know, what is
in a sample? Because we've seen
polling here. I mean, you know in
April, we saw polling that said
Maria Lazar had a chance and
two weeks later, she lost by, you
now, 20 points.
40 or?
20 points, you no, so I, again, I
think that the important thing is,
is that people are transparent in
the process and make sure that you
know they get the information they
need and maybe polling isn't the way
to determine. It should be
determined by who you think is going
to be best for you and make your
life better.
How much should it discourage
Republicans because they were dead
set, they were going to face
Francesca Hong.
Well, I think they were certain,
including me, that she was going to
win that primary because on Friday
before the Tuesday election,
a poll came out that had her up 22
points.
Even Marquette's poll the
week prior had her 20 points.
All four of the last polls were 20
or more.
Mark Kutt actually got her number
right. They had her at 38.
She finished at 39.3.
That's well within the margin of
error.
What they also got right was
the undecided number.
It was probably around 34%
two weeks out.
What nobody could have predicted, I
don't think Scott could have, I
certainly couldn't have, was that
David Crowley would get almost 100%
of the undefined.
That's unheard of.
Fran Hong got one of the
34%.
David Crowley got 32%.
One percent went others in
their field. That's absolutely
unprecedented in Wisconsin politics,
and it shows that the coalescing of
Democrats behind a single candidate
focused on electability.
Yeah, that was the thing.
I mean, when you focused on that
issue of electability, something was
very easy. You said the Thanksgiving
thing. I think that was absolutely
devastating to the harm campaign.
And it showed, like, rather than
large, complicated policy
pronouncements, if the issue is
electability it's pretty easy to
understand that that might be a
vulnerability because a lot of
people like Thanksgiving.
Yeah.
So, the rap on Tom Tiffany a year
ago when he was first being floated
as a candidate for governor was, can
he 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 Fawcett gets
turned off if they don't view this
as as winnable a race with it.
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 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 Wickler's not there at the
Democratic Party to bring in all
that money. He's helped.
Yeah, I think he'll be helping out.
The Democratic strategy is
to raise a lot of money, right?
They've done a very good job using
things like the loopholes created by
Robin Voss. We've never been in on
the grift.
Mayhaps another 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
million of spending have achieved
their goal.
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 of
his money in 2026
from three billionaires, you now,
the two U lines and Diane
Hendrix. 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 nice timing for that.
Um, this is a loophole that
Democrats have used successfully.
Under Ben Wickler for 10
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 billionaire
loophole that Democrats abused, even
though he was part of the process of
creating it, but now he's taking
advantage.
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's 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 right
before he got in saying all the
really radically extreme policies,
but that again yesterday he was
photographed with his lit in his
back pocket, which says MAGA
extremist Tom Tiffany.
So 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 Scott Ross
or Bill McCaushan or in this case
Tom Tiffany or David Crowley?
Tom Tiffany's 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 that was a mistake for
all the other candidates who ran
against Francesca Hong.
David Crowely 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 Derek Van
Orden against Rebecca Cook.
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
and independents in the 3rd?
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
insurrections in Wisconsin.
But we actually have.
A January 6 terrorist
insurrectionist is the candidate and
current congressperson from the
third congressional district, Derek
Van Orten. He is unhinged.
People criticize me sometimes about
my speaking online,
but this guy is totally unhinge.
And Rebecca Cook brings a real
experience of what people in
the third Congressional district
have to deal with, affordability,
gas prices, working two jobs.
And I think that translates much
better for what the public
is going to want in selection,
especially given the record that
Trump has.
In the state, whether it's with Tom
Tiffany or Derek Van Orton of really
hurting people.
Even in midterms, which are
historically bad for the party in
power, and in this case it's
Republicans, 87%
of incumbent Congress people get
re-elected.
So the advantage is going to be to
Derek Van Orden.
Rebecca Cook has already lost that
seat twice.
I think she's going to lose the
rematch. It's going 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.
Does Derek Van Orden need to adjust
his behavior?
Already on Twitter this week, he was
saying Democrats stole the primary
election.
Or is he just...
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.
It 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 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 sauce was
there to be sampled by the
by the Democratic voters it might be
there because this is a guy who has
absolutely no experience he's a
carpet bagger you know he was he
got there by you know essentially
financed by Sean Duffy's
corruption so yes I think that 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
gonna be tough because the because
again Republican failure all
over the country.
The 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 like Tom Tiffany's home
place and there's a lot of legacy
there.
Before that, 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 10 years old for
a team out of Managua.
He then, they moved to
Wausau when he in middle school,
which is where he met Sean Duffy's
daughter.
He's a Wisconsinite through and
through. I like the notion of having
someone young on our side finally
running for a major office and
I think he's gonna 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 McCosh and Scott Ross,
thanks again.
Thanks for being here.
He's entertaining.