Representative, um, encouraged me to
run for council.
She was the mayor and she said, Hey,
I think you would be a great person
to serve with me. I think we get a
lot of great things accomplished.
And so I decided my
entire time on that, on the council
was COVID.
And so, I was there when the
government shut down businesses,
when everything was in lockdown, I
wasn't there during the middle of
it. Someone who is not just gonna
hide under the radar, but someone
who will fight back against this
Trump regime and this administration
and what they're into our country.
And so before I get into it,
let me back up a little bit and let
you know how I got to this point.
So I grew up in Wisconsin to
a working home. My parents actually
worked long hours.
They would come home around 6
o'clock and me and my siblings had
to take care of each other growing
up. So my mom started in
the manufacturing industry.
I'm so proud to be, you know, all
these labor science behind me
because we grew up in a very much
labor focused family.
So in business fixing computers
at a time when not many people
had computers. So again, I did learn
about technology at a really early
age.
But I spent my first
time working hand-me-down
clothes. Me and my brothers relied
on our school's free lunch program
just to get by.
My sister dealt with medical issues
her entire life.
And I'm sad to say she unfortunately
lost a battle to that.
And despite my parents having to go
through that heartbreak, it was not
enough why I decided to run for
Congress during this time.
One as I've said and I
always say I feel as though the
working class has been left behind
especially by this administration
But this is going back further
and further as someone who knows
what it's like to live paycheck to
paycheck I understand right now that
life is increasingly becoming
too unaffordable for
you know individuals and households
Be it grocery prices
now electricity prices health care
you name it everything is going up
gas I just saw the other day it was
under $3 and now it's almost $3.20
right now because of what's
happening across the world Thanks
to this president And
so.
While we are struggling just
to get by, just to afford basic
necessities, we have politicians
in D.C.
Who are busy fighting for
more power, or getting
in, you know, participating in
insider trading to make themselves
more rich, while we, the working
class, the everyday person who
keeps our economy going, is
struggling just get by.
So that's reason number one.
Reason number two, and this is
probably pretty obvious, but our
current congressman, quite frankly,
is a clown and I,
you know, I could go on and on about
his poor performance, but just
a couple of things. I mean, it's
been over a year since Glenn
Grofman has hosted an in-person town
hall, preventing his
constituents from even talking,
even just getting basic information
about what's happening in our
country.
That is the the base
level responsibility of
a representative is to let their
constituents know what's happening
in our country and what they're
doing. That's not happening.
Glenn Grossman has a 10% rating,
a lifetime score with the AFL-CIO.
I was just at a labor dinner last
night in Fond du Lac chatting with
folks from different unions and
labor groups and the
response every time I said, hey, I'm
running against Glenn Grossman, it
was typically a very nasty
response based on his performance.
Glenn Grossmen is not an ally
to labor, to unions, or
the working class.
He voted for,
and part of my language, but he
voted for what I call the bigger
bullshit bill, which adds
$5 trillion to
the national debt and cut $1
trillion to our healthcare
where low income families relied
on that just to get their basic
needs met.
And as we've seen and
how he has voted, he does not
support releasing the Epstein files
and holding people accountable.
Based on everything we've seen,
he has yet to give a
statement on even the state of
things that are happening around
that. He's on the oversight
committee. He is the person
who should be asking the tough
questions, who should be holding
folks like Pam Bondi accountable.
Thank goodness she is no longer in
her position.
But instead of
asking these tough questions and
holding them accountable, he spent
his time praising her for the work
that she's done.
It's laughable at this point.
And so, like I said,
I can go on and on about Glenn
Ropman's poor performance, but what
we've seen and what we know is that
we are not even getting the very
basic, the
low bar of basic representation
from him.
And so we're seeing across this
district that people are fed up with
it. And I've talked to
Democrats, Independents, and
Republicans, and they are not
happy about what's going on.
They're not happy with the Trump
administration.
Basically every promise
he made he's completely done the
opposite of it.
And so I see a
great opportunity to
flip this district this year.
It is a tough district.
We have had Glenn Broklin for the
last 12 years.
We've had some great candidates in
the past, but I think a lot of it
does have to do with timing.
And this is a time when people
are fed up with what is happening
in our country, the current state of
politics, and they want something
new. It doesn't It doesn't matter
what party you have
behind your name.
They want someone who is
going to engage respectfully,
talk to them like a human being,
someone who has actual policies,
and I look forward to getting into
those and answering your questions
about them.
But also someone who's going to call
off the bullshit when we see it, who
is not afraid to say, no, that's not
correct, you are not accurately
representing what's happening.
And I know you've all seen on social
media and in the news the
amount of lies that have come out
from this administration.
And Glenn Grossman's lack
of spine to stand up
to those lies and tell us the truth.
And so.
Again, I'm Aaron Wojowski, or Wojo,
and I'm really excited to be running
for this position.
We're in a very competitive primary,
and i'm honored to be one of the
leading candidates, as of this time,
having raised the most funds,
having great social media outreach,
and inspiring young people
especially. We know that the next
generation has to be
engaged and they have to
be the force that helps us
get over that finish line in
November.
And so I'm incredibly honored to be
here especially paired
up with Kelda who will be speaking
after me a great friend of mine and
a great legislator and leader but
we have a real opportunity this year
to flip not just the
house flip our
state legislature retain the
governorship and make sure that we
have a government that reflects
our values and that will fight
for us and actually tell us what's
happening in our country so
that's my intro I'm
here to answer your questions.
Thank you, Gabe, and I'm delighted
to be back here in Sheboygan County.
I feel like I was just here, but
actually everywhere I go in
Wisconsin I'm like, I was here.
I'm glad to be here.
My name is Kel DeRoyze and I am
running for governor for two
very important reasons.
First, we are living
in a very dangerous period in
American history.
We have an authoritarian regime
in Washington that is shredding our
Constitution.
They are undermining the rule of
law, they have unleashed a violent
paramilitary force against
us in our communities, and we need
a governor with a spine of steel who
will use every tool at her disposal
to protect us from the many harms
of this Republican regime and
to do her best to try to
bring our democracy back from the
brink.
Secondly, and this is a more
hopeful note, those of us that
have been in rooms like this over
the last 16 years know that
for about a generation, Wisconsin
has been a pretty tough place to be
a Democrat.
And that's because we've had the
most gerrymandered legislature in
the history of the country.
But that is coming to an end.
And so now looking forward
We need a governor who won't just
veto bad legislation, but
we have a small window of
opportunity in 2027
after we flip the state Senate
Democratic, and with an assembly
that is going to be very, very
close, one way or the other, we
could actually get something done in
the state if we
have the governor with the
experience, the knowledge,
the skill, and, of course, the
commitment to make progressive
change.
Those are the reasons why I'm
running for governor.
So for those of you who don't know
me, I'll give you a little Cal
DeRoy's 101.
I was born in Marshfield, Wisconsin.
I spent my early years in rural
Taylor County, where my family
lived in a one-room schoolhouse and
I had a pet goat.
Our closest neighbors were Amish,
and for those who are not familiar,
this is Wisconsin.
Medford is roughly there, and we
lived outside of Medford, north of
Highway 29.
My family later moved to Madison
where I graduated from high school.
I went to the University of
Wisconsin Law School, where I worked
on the Wisconsin Innocence Project.
So if anybody's curious about my
thoughts on criminal justice reform,
we can set aside another five hours
to talk about my detailed plans
for how we can fix our state
and be focused on public safety.
And then after law school, I didn't
do what a lot of my classmates
did and go work for a big law firm
and make a lot money.
Instead, I became the executive
director of NARAL Pro-Choice
Wisconsin.
I spent four years traveling the
state, building progressive
power, and working to
expand access not just to abortion,
but to contraception and sex
education to bring down our state's
shameful infant mortality rate.
And that's work that I have
continued throughout my career.
I also helped to pass the first
pro-choice law in a generation
in Wisconsin, the Compassionate
Care for Rape Victims Act.
And when I say I know how
to get really difficult, progressive
things done in tough legislative
environments, I want to let you know
that we passed that legislation when
we had a Democratic Senate and
an anti-choices Republican assembly.
So I do know what I'm talking about,
and I've been doing this for 20
years.
I then ran for the state assembly
kind of unexpectedly.
I was the underdog candidate, but I
knocked on 20,252
doors and won that
primary and came in in 2009,
which was the last time Democrats
had the trifecta.
I was so excited because, of course,
there was so much that we wanted to
do.
I became vice chair of the health
committee and we helped expand
BadgerCare to 80,000
previously uninsured Wisconsinites.
So while a lot of candidates talk
about, oh, I'm going to expand
healthcare, I've actually done
it. I've helped to do it.
And that was the last time we
expanded badger care in this state.
We left a lot undone
in that session.
And that's one of the things that
haunts me and drives me in this
campaign, because I know how
fleeting it can be.
To have the opportunity
to make change, and I am determined
that we will not waste the
opportunity that we are about to
have next year.
We all know what happened in
the next election after 2009, right?
Scott Walker came in and we went
from a completely blue state to a
completely red state.
And the first thing he did was
to attack teachers and
nurses and our public schools
and our universities.
And then he went after private
sector workers. And you know what?
Our economy has never
recovered from
the money that was taken out of
families' pocketbooks over that
time.
So one of the things I'm committed
to doing as governor is
raising wages,
both the minimum wage and repealing
Act 10 and restoring collective
bargaining rights for all workers in
this state.
Everyone should have the ability to
join me in.
Now in 2013 I left the state
legislature and I went on
to start my own small business.
It's a tech-enabled real estate
company that makes it easier and
more affordable to sell a
house or buy a house.
And I'm very passionate about
expanding access to housing and
have a lot of detailed thoughts
about that.
But I'm also passionate about small
businesses and making it possible
for any Wisconsinite who,
like me, has an idea or a dream.
Has a strong work ethic, and
that little bit of crazy that you
need if you're going to start your
own small business, or run for
office for that matter, then they
can actually do that in Wisconsin.
And I've worked as
a legislator and as a small business
advocate to try to make Wisconsin a
place where people can start a
small businesses and thrive.
And by decoupling some of the
core benefits that people
need like paid family leave,
health care, access to a secure
retirement, decoupled that from
employment, we can actually unleash
a lot of economic growth and
potential in our state by making
it possible for to start small
businesses.
Now, in 2020, I was
elected to the State Senate where I
now serve, and I
work on the Joint Finance Committee,
which is the committee that writes
the state budget.
Now, this is important because I'm
the only candidate running for
governor that actually does have
deep knowledge about the state's
budget from having worked on it.
I know where the Republicans are
hiding their money.
And I also know where it needs to
go.
Namely, it needs go into our
public schools.
Our public schools that have been
starved of resources for 30 of the
last 32 years.
And also to our local governments
who are trying mightily to provide
a high level of service in the midst
of declining state funding.
I'd love to talk a little bit more
about public education because I
really view it as our core
constitutional responsibility at
the state level.
I was actually sued a few weeks ago
in my role as a member of
the Joint Committee on Finance
because
Education advocates, parents,
teachers, and school districts
recognize that
our schools have been so underfunded
for so many years that we are now
failing to provide the
quality free public education that
is a guarantee of birthright
of every child in our constitution.
And so I welcome this lawsuit
because I think we're
right.
Our kids deserve better.
You know, my parents chose
to be in Wisconsin from coming
from other places because they knew
as a family of pretty modest means
that their kids could
have a good life because of
Wisconsin's high quality public
education system.
And we did, you know,
first in rural northern Wisconsin,
great public schools, and then later
in Madison.
And I worry that kids
today are not getting the same.
Quality of education.
Our teachers are overworked.
They are underpaid.
They do not have the resources and
support that they need and
we can see that in
the offerings that our school
districts are able to create
and we can that in outcomes.
So as governor, I will be focused on
education from early childhood
to K-12
public education to our great
public higher educational
institutions.
Wisconsin will be the education
state once again
And I want to talk a little bit
about where that money is going
instead of our public schools.
Certainly a lot of it is going to
tax breaks for millionaires and
billionaires and big corporations.
We know that that is true.
But another big piece of it,
is money that is going into private,
unaccountable voucher schemes.
These are private schools that
do not meet the same standards that
our public school are required to.
Many of them are religious in
nature, and they are afraid to
discriminate against teachers.
Students, even though they
get public money.
I am the candidate in this race that
has a responsible plan to
bring this failed voucher experiment
to an end and
make sure that that money goes into
our public schools instead.
A couple of other issues that I
think are really important in this
space.
Obviously cost of living.
And the big ticket items really
are health care, housing,
child care, and utilities.
And I have detailed plans on my
website to bring down the
cost of all of these items.
If you have to put my campaign on a
bumper sticker, you can say, Kel
DeRoy's is going to raise wages,
lower costs, and protect our
freedoms.
Because those are the things that
are really at stake here.
I want to mention, just a little
bit about myself personally, I'm the
mom and stepmom of five kids.
I know, it's a lot, I always get
kind of a shocked response.
I'm 46 and my
two oldest stepdaughters are
now in their twenties.
They've turned out beautifully.
We're still working on our 12, 8,
and 4 year olds.
But I'm deeply committed to this
date being a place where every
single person can thrive.
It shouldn't matter who you are or
where you're from or what you look
like.
Every single Wisconsinite
deserves a great public education
for their kids.
They deserve to make enough money to
be able to support themselves if
they are working full time.
They deserve access to affordable,
quality health care, like my plan to
open up the state health insurance
that I enjoy as a state employee
to let anybody buy in.
These are the basics, but we
want Wisconsin to be more than just
a place where you can get by, and a
place that you can really, really
thrive. I am confident that
we can do that if we have a governor
who knows how and
is willing to use
political power to
get things done to help people.
Our Republican opponents never
hesitate for a minute to
use and abuse their power,
but they do it to hurt people,
to divide and conquer, to take
rights away,
to destroy our rights and
undermine our Constitution.
We need Democrats to
stop being so shy about
using power.
When it comes to being
willing to throw a punch or take a
punch for the children,
as Nancy Pelosi said,
I am that person.
And that's why I'm the best
candidate to be governor.
And I ask for your vote on
August 11th and November 3rd.
Thank you.
You mentioned that
private schools aren't meeting
the same standards as public
schools. Can you go into more detail
about those standards, please?
Yeah, so specifically voucher
schools.
So if you're a public school, number
one, you have to take every student.
You don't get to cherry pick and
say, well, we like you, but we're
not sure about you.
And let's try you out for
a month and then decide we don't
like you. But we're going to keep
the money that comes along with you.
That's what voucher school is do.
Voucher schools can discriminate
against a teacher because she's
pregnant and unmarried or because
he's the wrong religion or gay or
a student because they have a
disability. And I think that's
outrageous.
Public money should be for public
schools, period.
Yes. Yes.
Here's my plan to
responsibly address this voucher
scheme. The first step is
you require the
same standards.
So your teachers have to be
licensed. You can't just hire some
rando off the street without a
background check.
You have to, your kids have to meet
the same academic standards.
They have to take the forward exam
so we actually know how they're
performing.
And you can't discriminate.
You're not allowed to cherry pick
either students
or staff.
And I think that alone is
going to render a lot of the
current schools that are receiving
bachelor money to just say no.
We'd rather be able to continue
running our schools the way we want
to, and we're going to
just stay now. The second
step is...
We have to treat Milwaukee and
Racine and their
voucher programs differently from
the rest of the state.
And that's because they are far more
entrenched, they have been in
operation for longer, and they serve
a much higher percentage of students
in those districts than the
statewide expansion.
The statewide expansion is
relatively new, and
what we know is that the vast
majority of students that
are receiving these vouchers were
already in private school.
Before the state started picking up
the tab.
So we say, first
we require the same standards,
non-discrimination, transparency,
accountability.
And then we're gonna say, starting
at the beginning of next school
year, the state is no longer
going to pay the cost of
this vouchers in this statewide
expansion area.
And parents can choose if they wanna
move their kid to the public school
or if they want to do what they were
doing before and just continue
paying out of pocket as they had
previously been.
Now, for Milwaukee and Racine,
as I mentioned, it is more
complicated, and I do not think –
at the end of the day, we have to do
right by kids, and if kids are in an
environment where they are
thriving, I don't think it's right
to take them out of that.
Many of the students in those
voucher schools –
the public schools just do not have
the capacity to handle that
right away. So we need to set a date
certain and say after this date,
we will not accept new students into
the voucher program.
However, we will continue to allow
anyone who's currently enrolled to
be able to complete their education.
And over time, then you can help.
The public schools build their
capacity so that they can
accept more students.
And we're also going to give any
voucher school that wants to the
opportunity to become a public
charter school, right?
They can certainly apply to the
school board to become the public
charter, but then obviously they're
going to have to meet the same
standards, right, as public schools.
So, to me, that
is the responsible way to
address this while respecting.
The fact that public dollars need to
be reserved for our public schools.
I'd like to know how in the world
the reimbursement for
special education and
the per pupil funding
aid are more for
private voucher school students,
a lot more than they are for
our public school students.
I don't understand how that's legal
or how it's constitutional,
I just don't understand.
Well, I think it's outrageous.
And it's happened in recent years.
We've had eight Republican
budgets in a row.
And our kids cannot afford
another Republican budget.
Now, I have seen this up close and
personal.
And the Governor Evers writes pretty
good budgets.
His budgets have a lot of great
ideas in them.
And then the Republicans get a hold
of it, and they just put it right
into the garbage. They don't even
recycle it. They just literally put
it in the trash.
And Republicans do whatever they
want in the budget.
And the thing that has been the most
consistent and the most important to
Republicans has been cutting taxes
for the wealthy to
debase our public treasury
and transferring money
from our public schools to
this private voucher scheme because
the long-term goal is to
undermine public education.
We know that public education is
the key. To having a
vibrant, functional democracy.
It is the key to having a strong
economy with a middle class.
We can't do that without public
education.
But Republicans see a world where
education is rationed based on your
parents' wealth, based on the zip
code that they can afford to live
in. That's why they're content to
let property taxpayers pick
up the tab for way more
of the public school system than we
should, because it's inevitable.
They're doing it because it's
inequitable. Wealthy communities
that will afford to raise their own
property taxes can have wonderful
schools with highly
qualified teachers that are able
to be retained in small class sizes
and science labs and
sports fields and
areas of the state, often
urban and rural, that
don't have the same property tax
base are really going to struggle.
And that's fine with Republicans,
but it's not fine with me.
Because education is a basic
fundamental right, and it shouldn't
be rationed based on your parents'
wealth.
And also the thing about the
referendums, funding school
by referendum.
And I've seen a lot
of market survey about
pitting elderly taxpayers against
our kids.
Right.
That's not right.
It's not right, and it's so divisive
and hurtful for communities, and
it's terrible fiscal policy.
I mean, who can budget like that?
You know, the thing that school
districts and municipalities and
businesses need is
consistency.
They need to be able to plan.
This is one reason that Trump has
been so disastrous for the
economy is because you
can't plan if you don't know what
the future is going to look like.
And if you have to,
you know, just on this April ballot
that's coming up on April 7th, where
we are going to elect my friend
Chris Taylor to the Wisconsin Swim
Court. That's what it's all about.
That's its main point.
She and I came up together in the
abortion rights movement.
And she followed me into the
legislature. And it's very exciting
that she's going to be serving on
our court.
So on April 7, there are, I
believe, 72 school
referenda that are on ballots all
around the state.
Now, 10 of them are capital
referendums for new buildings or
projects like that.
Two are combined.
And the Raining 60 are operating
referendum just to keep the lights
on, just to keep teachers in the
classroom. And this is not unique.
This has been happening in every
single election, year after year.
This is not a case where like, oh
this school district or that school
district is just bad at managing
money. They don't know how to do it.
This a systemic, it is on purpose,
and it is totally
undermining our ability to provide a
high quality public education for
all kids.
My property taxes are too high,
your property taxes are too and it
is the Republicans' fault.
They are the ones that have created
this system.
And as much as they're going to yap
about the 400-year veto and Governor
Evers, the truth is
they control the legislature.
They are ones who have made these
decisions year after year.
And even in this session,
we have given them many
opportunities.
To fund our public schools
appropriately, to prevent the
very property tax hikes that we are
now experiencing and paying for,
they could have repealed that
400-year veto anytime.
They have the vote.
They control it. And a lot of
Democrats would join them as long as
they're willing to fund schools.
They refused again and again.
Why?
Because they would rather have a
political weapon to use
against Governor Evers.
That you pay for,
that we pay for out of our own
pocket, then actually solve the
problem.
Has the capacity.
Support two separate school
systems and give every kid
a comprehensive education and
have it affordable.
It's not affordable.
They are backing themselves into a
corner where they're going to
continue to make the decisions that
we're going to lessen the
opportunities for the
people in public schools and
maybe, and I think the day is
coming, but they're gonna have to
less than the opportunities for
private schools.
What has to happen now is they
have to pull
up their pants, whatever you call
it, as far as making a tough
decision, and stop
the funding of private schools,
and slowly phase out.
Let the kids finish the
track they're on to get out of it.
And I emphasize that with my
policymakers all the time.
You guys and gals are backing
yourself into a corner where you
can't afford it.
And since you can afford it, you're
going to reduce the opportunities
for kids. That's bad news.
You're absolutely right, and you
know what? This is an issue that is
not just of concern to Democrats.
I travel to some of the most
conservative places in this state.
On a daily basis, I am talking with
voters who are independent,
voter-swinged, and even Republicans.
I actually have Republicans for
Royce. That's the only affinity
group I have for my campaign.
They are concerned about this, too.
And that's because whatever
differences we may have,
most of us really do want the best
for our kids.
We understand that education
is the key.
And the vast majority of
Wisconsinites choose public
education for their kids.
Not homeschooling, not private
education, even when it's funded by
taxpayers.
They choose public educational
because they know that is the best
for their kid.
And it's up to us to make sure that
we are meeting the needs of kids.
And listen, you know, I'm a parent.
I'm business owner.
I know that just money
is not going to equal quality,
right? We have to have high
standards for teachers and for
students.
We have get the distractions and the
screens out of classrooms.
That's why I support a bell-to-bell
cell phone ban.
I don't think we should have
Chromebooks for elementary schools,
you know, other than if they're
learning typing, right.
There, we have to
do other things, but you
can't do it without money.
And the idea that you can have
quality schools, but
not pay for it, is ridiculous.
So, you're going to find
me arguing for
money for schools, not for
its own sake, but because
I want a high quality education,
the best public education for
every kid in Wisconsin, no matter
who they are or where they're from.
I agree with you totally but
I guess my question
is this seems like a lot of this
is a function of the legislature
not the governor you
don't get the Donald Trump
executive order overriding Congress
power so what
what can you do as governor
to move the needle on this
Well, this is a big difference, I
think, between me and many of the
other good folks who are running for
governor.
I have been working to pass
progressive policy and build
democratic power for over 20 years
in this state.
And again and again, I have be able
to get things passed
in really tough legislative
environments.
Not just when Democrats were in
control, but when Republicans have
been in control and we've had split
control.
And those skills are
absolutely essential.
And listen, even if we are lucky
enough to have a Democratic
trifecta, the idea that
magic will just happen and we will
end up with a properly funded school
system and great healthcare for
all, that ain't how it works.
I wish it were, but I was there in
2009.
And I love the legislature.
I have spent 10 years
in the Senate and the Assembly.
Those cats will not hurt themselves.
There needs to be strong leadership
from the governor.
This is not a time where
we can afford to wait for somebody
to read a poll to decide,
I don't know, should we fund our
public schools and tax billionaires?
We can't afford to have a blue
ribbon commission to
look at the issue of vouchers or
whatever.
Or hold our finger up in the air and
say, I don't know, is this going to
be popular?
We need a governor who is ready on
day one, who has deep policy
knowledge and convictions, and is
ready to use all of her political
power to get things done.
So, when I talk about
throwing a punch and taking a punch
for the children, this is what I'm
talking about.
We need to have
a governor Thank you very much. Have a great day.
Who will get all of
our Democrats into a room and say
here's what we're going to do.
Let's share our ideas Let's
do this together in a collaborative
process because politics is a team
sport You know the governor
might be at the top of the ticket,
but the governor can't can do a
lot alone But not a budget so
we have to get the legislature on
board However,
the governor must provide leadership
The governor cannot be
trying to satisfy everyone, and
that's why it's important to have a
governor who actually knows what the
hell she's doing, and knows about
these issues, and knows where the
money needs to go and where it's
hidden,
and can help the legislature.
The vast majority of Democrats in
the legislature are new.
They're new since COVID,
right? They're brand new to
politics, even though they're smart
people and they're from different
walks of life, which is great.
But the vast majority
of Dems in the legislature have
never, ever been in power.
And so having strong leadership
in the governor's office is
important.
Now imagine a scenario where you've
got a Democratic Senate, which is
going to happen, but
we don't have a Democratic assembly.
We've got a narrowly Republican
assembly. Well now you have a
different framework,
right, for how do you negotiate,
how do you get something done.
And again, you don't
start your negotiations by saying,
well, I'll just sign whatever they
send me.
That's how you end up with having a
democratic governor and yet the
largest expansion of money going to
vouchers.
And no Medicaid expansion, right?
Year after year.
That's not how I will operate
as a negotiator.
And
There are many, many ways
in which the governor can exercise
power to bring people together.
Procedural, there are carrots and
sticks, right?
I am well-versed in all of those
ways, and I will
use every single tool
at my disposal to get
our priorities through, both
budgetary and statutory.
So you were talking about money,
this is tangentially related,
in a recent report from the
Wisconsin Department of
Administration, they projected
that the state's population will
decrease by nearly 200,000
residents over the next 25
years. This is due to an aging
population and declining birth
rates.
This demographic decline will shrink
the tax pool and may cause labor
shortages. How do you propose
to reverse this trend?
Yeah, listen, Wisconsin is
having a demographic
shrink.
We are a graying state, and this
has been a long time trend.
Now, it's not true in every area of
the state. I actually represent the
fastest growing area of
this state in Dane County in the
legislature.
But part of the reason is because
young people can't
see this is a place where they can
build a life, the life that they
want.
We've had brain drain for decades,
right, where we raise young people,
we educate them, and then they go
off to what they perceive to be
greener pastures.
And sometimes, like me, they come
back, right? I came back for law
school because of in-state tuition
and a scholarship.
And then I ended up staying.
You know, 16-year-old me would
probably be appalled.
But I think it turned out pretty
well for me.
If we want young people
to stay in Wisconsin, we have
to make it possible for them to buy
a house before age 40.
We have to be make it for them
pursue the career interest and
education that they want to, whether
it's technical college, whether it
is the trades, whether its the
military or a four year university,
or starting a business.
We have make it a possible for
people to afford to have children.
As a longtime reproductive
justice advocate and as a
mom,
one of the things that
hurts me the most about
this world that we've created for
young people is when they say, I'd
love to have a kid, but I can't
afford it, because I can
afford child care.
We recognize society's
responsibility to educate
kids. That's why we have public K-12
education and higher ed.
But the most expensive?
And the most vital years are
birth to five.
That is when 90% of brain
development happens.
And we just say, parents you're on
your own, congrats on your
baby, give us a hundred thousand
dollars so you can stay in the
workforce until that baby gets to
kindergarten.
That's crazy.
That's just crazy.
So we have to have
the structure in
place and the public support.
So that young people can
see themselves being able to thrive
here. And by the way, there's also
a cultural and a quality of life
piece. I talk a lot about the
economics and affordability, right?
But young people don't want to live
in a state...
That's polluted.
Young people don't want to live in a
state that's full of right-wing
culture-worn nonsense where, you
know, there's conversion therapy
instead of gay marriage, where
abortion is criminalized and
there's, you know, no good sex
ed in the schools.
Young people want to life in a place
that is forward-looking,
where it feels like the government
is there to help them and solve
problems and not to stand in
their way and drag us backwards.
Talking about decrease in
population of this this question has
to do with what Are
you a environmentalist?
But before you answer that yes
before you can to that part and talk
about some examples that prove that
you are You know
one of the things that's happening
right now I think the world
population is around eight billion
you all hear all kinds of story
are good Are we going to be able to
support 10 billion people?
Because we're
getting hit, approaching that mark
very fast.
More and more people that consider
themselves environmentalists are
adding one other's pollution to
dealing with it, and as that control
our population,
slow down the growth of our
population so we don't
challenge the kind of things that
make our earth less
healthy.
So really the best way to do
it, not worry about population
growth, let's worry about making
sure of that population is
dealing with things that are not
going to stress our environment.
So what kind of things have you done
as far as making yourself consider
yourself an environmentalist?
Well, I was raised to be an
environmentalist because I was
raised in Wisconsin and to
love and appreciate and play
in all the beautiful natural
spaces in this state, you know.
You're gonna find me on
the shores of Lake Superior in March
Doing the fastest
dip once that ice goes out
that I can and then running
immediately back into a warm sauna
Right, you're gonna.
Find me biking through our state
parks You're going to find me
taking a hike with my kids hike
slash amble
depending on who's with me and how
fast they are how much sugar they've
had and I
do think that in terms of quality of
life It is one of the
best things Wisconsin has going for
us.
By the way, it's also critical for
our economy because tourism...
Is one of our top three
industries, along with agriculture
and manufacturing.
And agriculture is also heavily
dependent on the environment.
Now, Wisconsin has a long history of
conservation leadership.
In fact, my stepdad
is a conservation attorney and
somebody who has been on the
forefront of putting together the
NOLAS Nelson Stewardship Program and
many of the environmental
protections that we
now have been enjoying for
generations. So that is
very important to me as an
attorney, as a daughter, and as a
lawmaker.
I see it from all
these different aspects.
There are some very clear
things that we know.
Number one, climate change
is real and it's costing us a huge
amount of money.
We need to help our state and our
communities be more resilient
to climate change.
Things like eroding in the Great
Lakes and flooding
and drought,
wildfire smoke, right?
All of these things are negatively
impacting our quality of life.
We also know that Wisconsin doesn't
have any fossil fuels,
so if we want
to have energy, we either
have to buy and burn old dinosaur
bones that come from elsewhere, or
we have to make our own energy.
Fortunately, wind, solar,
and geothermal work really
well here, and they're also the
cheapest and fastest new sources
of energy for our state.
So we can help reduce
our carbon footprint, and I'd like
to get all the coal-fired power
plants offline over
the next couple of years and replace
them with
lower energy costs and
cleaner air.
So we could all get behind that,
right?
I'll also say I'm a big one
on conservation, and probably this
goes to my just being like a
cheap, frugal, midwestern mom.
I love a deal.
The cheapest energy is energy that
we don't use, right?
So expanding our successful
conservation programs, our energy
efficiency programs that help
optimize our use of energy,
requiring utilities to do integrated
resource planning so we don't end up
with overbuilding and then all of us
have to pay the cost.
This is another really important
thing. We should have a focus on
energy program that is for
commercial and for industrial users.
It works great for homeowners, but
we need to really
go after the biggest energy users
and help them reduce their
footprint.
I have a lot of thoughts about the
PSC and how we can help
reduce our energy and
decarbonize and have more clean and
sustainable energy, but I'll leave
those to if somebody
else has a question about it.
You mentioned, like, natural
disasters recently.
I think it was last year, maybe the
year before, Milwaukee and
the surrounding areas were hit by a
pretty intense flood.
And to my knowledge, the Trump
administration has not sent any
type of relief funding for
that.
With, you know, the kind of hard
stance that you're taking against
the Trump Administration, how
do you see that playing out with,
you know, requesting, negotiating,
federal assistance, and at the
same time, pushing back?
I think my number one duty,
as a political leader, is honesty,
and I am never going to
kowtow to
a dictator because I
think we'll get funds.
I mean, nobody is nicer than Tony
Evers, and we didn't get the
funds. You just said it yourself,
Gabe, right?
So, who knows how
that person makes decisions, but
I can tell you this.
He has already reached the apex
of his power, and his power is
declining.
And he will be
held accountable.
I don't know if it will be next
year, or in two years,
or in three years.
But there will come a point, and
we're already seeing it start to
happen, where Republican
politicians are not always gonna go
along with him.
Not every Republican is Tom
Tiffany.
Tom Tiffany is a straight-up
rubber stamp.
The man has one thought in his head,
and it's, what does Donald Trump
want me to do today?
That's Tom Tiffany.
But not every congressman
is like that.
And I do believe.
The way to
get what we need as a state
is to advocate clearly for it,
to tell the truth, and to fight
for it. Not to try to appease
some dictator, because we think
if we say something nice to the dear
leader, that he's gonna throw
disaster relief our way.
I'm kind of asking a question that
was asked of Erin earlier,
and that is about
our elections being
the way that we've always had them,
and being worried about
being pre-emptive rather
than reactive.
Because once those go to the courts
and they're contested,
I hate to think what could happen.
What are we doing, or what could you
do legislatively?
We have a special session coming
up maybe.
To try to act preemptively
to to ensure
that we have the free and fair
election in November that we've
always been used to.
I have never been more grateful
for our
extremely irritating and
decentralized election system than
I have been in recent years.
There is no basis
or mechanism for Donald
Trump to nationalize the elections
or to stop or halt the elections.
We have free and fair elections in
this country and
the most important thing that we can
do and all of us need to do
it is to
assure ourselves that
we still have our right to
vote and we will demand
free and fair elections to proceed
as they always do.
If you haven't volunteered as a poll
worker, do it.
And bring your 16 year old
granddaughter or niece or nephew
because it's it's great
to see how elections actually
work.
Now, will he try to disrupt?
Yes. Will he lie and do
all kinds of ridiculous propaganda?
Yes.
Will he abuse the court system as he
did last time?
Yes, of course.
And I also think that a big part
of what he's doing with ICE is to
try to normalize violence
and normalize the presence of,
you know, creepy armed
paramilitary on our streets
because it is one way that he
can help undermine confidence in
our elections and destabilize us.
All of these things are real and
yet our only
option is to
continue to have
free and fair elections in the state
and
We can you know our attorney
general has been very on top of
this with Legal
action our clerks
our municipal clerks are well
prepared because the Wisconsin
Elections Commission is absolutely
on top Of this you know
Wisconsin was ground zero for the
fake electors team Ron Johnson
our u.s.
Senator somehow
still our center,
was part of that.
So we are not,
the people who are working on these
issues are very, very
well aware and very well versed
about the challenges and the threats
that they face, and I
have a lot of confidence in
these nonpartisan actors
and in all of the clerks
and poll workers across the state
that they are going to be able to
administer a free and fair election.
And we don't have another choice.
We cannot give in to the cynicism
and the fear.
We can be clear-eyed about
who the president is and what he's
going to attempt to do, and
also say it is our job
to get out the vote
and make sure that we are doing
everything that we can.
You can volunteer to be a legal
observer or an election protection
volunteer or a poll worker.
You can drive people to the polls.
You can talk to people about how it
is safe to go out and vote.
You can help people to do early
voting or vote by mail.
All of these things are great
options and places to channel.
All of the
fear and fury that we
rightfully have about this topic.
Kind of related to that,
one of the...
Worries I have about the
election is the changes to the
postal rules Because
it does seem to be
a way to suppress mail-in voting
People have said just bring it in
get it and canceled But it's
still going to go to the
distribution center and we can't you
know get a postmark again So
you don't know when
you're postmarked,
and I just wonder if that's
something that people have eyes
on because people
would have to get mail-in ballots in
well ahead of it.
You know you can't just get it in at
the last minute right and assume
it'll be post-mortem.
Right and and there
are many voting
rights groups like the ACLU the
League of Women Voters that are
working to educate voters about
these changes
and what are the best ways to
get your ballot in.
Obviously you can turn it in
directly to the clerk, to
the municipal clerk.
You can get it,
mail it back the first day.
And Wisconsin actually has an
absentee ballot tracker.
So you can actually go on
myvote.wi.gov and see
if your absentees ballot was
received or not.
And if it hasn't been received you
can actually go on election
day and vote at your polling place.
So there are a lot of fail-safe
mechanisms in place.
But, to your point,
one of the things that Democrats
must do in the next session at
the state level is expand voting
rights.
We need to make sure that
people have full, longer periods
like we used to to vote early,
to vote by mail, that people should
be able to choose voting by mail as
their default option.
You shouldn't have to request it
every year on New Year's Day.
You know, everybody make sure
you...
You know, go to myvote.gov
and request absentee ballots this
year if that's what you want.
You should be able to be permanently
on that list.
We should be to have
automatic voter registration in
the state. We should register
students in high school so that
they're ready to vote the minute
that they turn 18.
There's a lot that we can do to
help elections run better and
to expand access, change
our voter ID laws, which are
purely a tool of voter suppression.
There's no reason that an
out-of-state driver's license or
a student ID or
A driver's license that's expired
should not be considered valid for
the purposes of voting, right?
There's a lot that we can and will
do.
When you become governor,
you're going to have to work with
the leadership in the assembly and
the leadership of the Senate.
So Senator Lemmon, who is my
senator in this history,
I communicate with him all the time.
And Robin Boss, I
have a nickname for him.
I call him Boss Boss, because
many times, it seems he's running
the showdown in Madison even
more than the governor.
What have you had have
you've had experiences dealing
especially across the house as far
as With his with him
and certain issues and stuff talking
to him and then as a governor
What kind of skills are you going to
use to be able to communicate with
both? It seems that so many times
those two fellows don't get together
with the governor To go
with each other.
Yeah, then with each.
Other to take care of it.
Yeah. What would you do to fix that?
Well, let's just talk about it.
So Democrats are going to control
the Senate, so Devin Lemahue is
going to be the minority leader, or
somebody else will.
Robin Boss is retiring.
And happy trips.
Day
And
And that's going to be an
opportunity for us, because there
are many different factions within
these caucuses.
And in the absence of the iron
fist of boss boss,
that will be an an opportunity to
us to.
Talk with some of the members that
maybe didn't want to go all the way
to the far right as
Voss did.
Right? I mean, we just saw this
happen on the fight over Gale's Law
for breast cancer screening and
finally becoming the
49th state to expand
Medicaid postpartum
from just 60 days
to a full year.
Right? So, you know, it was
Democrats who demanded that on every
single bill they offered those
amendments and force the Republicans
to basically say.
Go to Boston and say, we have
to do this or we're going to lose
our elections. You have to let this
through, even though you don't like
it. And it worked.
So I will just say,
I'm a proud Democrat.
We're all proud Democrats in this
room.
But I also have a very strong
track record of working across the
aisle, over 20 plus years, and I'm
really proud of that.
And I think anybody who wants
to be governor of this state should.
Always be saying, here's
not just what I plan to do, but
here's what I actually have done.
Here's my track record of delivering
on bipartisan success.
I'll just give you one example.
I already talked about the
Compassionate Capable Rape Victims
Act.
Four years in the Senate, I was
the only Democratic legislator
on a bill called
the APRN Modernization Act.
This is a bill to allow advanced
practice registered nurses to
practice independently to
the full extent of their training
and their licensure.
And not always have to be directly
supervised by a physician.
Now, I thought
this bill was really important
because we have a provider shortage
in this state.
And we also have a nursing
shortage, and if we are losing out
on our most educated
nurses, that's going to have a
devastating impact on patient care.
Republicans were actually, they were
right on this issue, and the
governor, our governor,
whom we love, vetoed this bill
several times.
And it was hard for other Democrats
who agreed with me to
go up against our own Democratic
governor. But eventually this
session we were able to compromise
and get more Democrats to
basically come on board that
the governor ended up signing this
bill. And it took a few years but we
got this bill signed into law.
That's an example of me working
across the aisle.
It did not endure me to the governor
or his staff.
And some of my Democratic
legislative colleagues were
frustrated at me too.
But at the end of the day,
we had overwhelming support for
the bill and it became law because
it was the right thing to do for
Wisconsin.
As governor, I'm
going to be very clear about what my
values are and what my plans are.
But I will always work with anyone
to try to make your
life better, whether you voted for
me or not.
And I'll tell you right now, I am
not just going to go after
Democratic votes.
One of the reasons that I think I'm
the best candidate to beat Tom
Tiffany is because I already
have Republican support.
People who want
a governor who knows what to do,
who is responsible fiscally
and with policy, and
who will.
Govern Wisconsin the way that we
ought to be governed, with good
government, not MAGA
nonsense, not
platitudes and bullet points,
but actual plans and policies and
the political will to get it done.
Thank you.
Well, I really appreciate having
this chance to talk with all of you,
and we have
a really important decision to make.
And I spend a lot of time
traveling around the state and
listening to people.
So much of what I hear is the
same, whether I'm in Trempealeau,
or Marinette, or
Beloit. Yesterday I was in
Oceania and Wapaka, Shawano,
Beloit, and Madison.
And I
was in Milwaukee on Friday.
We are on the cusp
of reclaiming Wisconsin's
proud progressive heritage.
We are a purple state, but we are
also a blue state.
And we can be
a state where every single
Wisconsinite, no matter who you are
or where you're from, has the
freedom to thrive if
we can elect a governor who
is capable and willing to
use political power to get us there.
I want you to think about three
things, because this is a political
group, right?
We're not the
casual voters that stroll in
on August 11th, not having
thought about who we're going to
vote for.
You guys are on websites,
you're checking out boxes and being
like, well I like what you said
about that, but I didn't like this.
So we're not normal, and I say that
with all the love in my heart,
right.
That's how it goes if you're in a
room like this, think about 3
things.
Think about who can beat Tom
Tiffany, who can
help bridge that urban role divide,
who's talking about the issues that
appeal to rural voters, and
think about for instance Wisconsin's
history of who do we elect
statewide.
People are like, I'll tell you who
is skeptical, Madison, Dane
County liberals, my people,
can a Dane county Democrat win
statewide?
I don't know who's the most popular
elected official in our state right
now of either party.
Senator Tammy Boldt, yes,
Dane County Democrat, and a very
important mentor of mine.
Tony Evers, Jim Doyle, Russ
Bangold, Dain
County Democrats.
Who do I'm sorry?
Also Plymouth, he's from Plymuth.
He's also from Pymuth too, yes.
We can all claim him.
Like Madison claims me, but Taylor
County gets to claim me too, and
Marshfield, right?
We can share, and Portage,
where my stepdad's from.
We have a really tough time in this
state electing Democrats from the
Milwaukee area.
And I'm not just talking about
Mandela Barnes and that was a
heartbreak race for all of us.
I'm also talking about Tom Barrett
who ran twice and lost.
And actually, Tom Barret actually
might be the nicest person in
politics, even more so than Tony
Evers.
So we just have not had a good
track record with Milwaukee area
Democrats being elected statewide.
Can a woman win?
Absolutely.
But if you're trying to elect a
woman as governor,
the number one factor is
whether or not she has deliverables,
whether she can show that she has
experience that she's gotten things
done. And we've got a lot of good
candidates in the race, but most of
them are brand new or just
a couple of years into politics.
This is going to be a tough,
punishing race where the
worst people in the world are going
to spend $100 million lying
about our nominee.
We can't have somebody that's making
on four stairs.
We can have somebody that's going to
be caught off guard by a reporter's
question and say something dumb and
then have to backtrack.
We can not have somebody that's
not ready to take the
fight aggressively to Tom Tiffany
for his terrible record
of hurting Wisconsinites.
We need a really strong candidate
to withstand that.
And I have been doing this for 25
years.
I cut my teeth.
Yes, you can clap for that.
You can always clap. You can always clap.
This is, it's not television,
I can hear you.
I cut my teeth in my early 20s
going on Fox News on the
O'Reilly Factor and Laura Ingraham
and Christian Radio talking about
abortion.
So you know, and I've been a woman
on the internet for 20 plus years,
so you're not going to catch me.
Saying something dumb or being
unwilling to go
anywhere to talk to anyone to
get the votes that we need to win.
I'm going to go after the Evers-Johnson
voters and the Tammy Trump voters,
and that's how we're going to win,
but the second thing you need to
think about is
who can win the primary,
and we've got a crowded field,
But the recent Marquette poll
showed, to my delight
and shock, that nobody,
well first of all nobody's paying
attention, right, the vast majority
of voters are undecided.
But even the candidates that are
best known, Mandela Barnes and
Rodriguez, have the highest
negatives and knowing their name
does not translate into support.
So all the candidates are basically
in a statistical dead heat.
We're all within ten points of each
other that margin of error
is six point five percent in that
poll and I
haven't spent a dollar on voter
contact. Whereas some of the other
candidates have spent tens or
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I Am running for governor and I
know How you need to
frugally?
Raise money and spend
it at the end on effective voter
contact if we want to be successful
if we So this
is a wide open race, which means
that we can choose the candidate and
back her early to
help overcome
the built-in name idea advantage
that Mandela Barnes has if
we want a different nominee in
this race.
But I need your help and your
support early, right.
I need you to give money.
I have a little QR code back there
and I have envelopes.
I needed you to sign up on my little
clipboard so we can stay in touch.
I knew you to tell your friends and
be evangelists and take a little
button with my name on it.
That word of mouth is what's going
to help us build momentum before
I can afford to get on the air to
get my name out there.
And that leads me to the third and
most important point.
This is our once in a generation
opportunity.
To put our state back on the right
trajectory.
And who, of all the candidates
running, do you think
has the experience,
the progressive values,
the knowledge, and
the utter commitment and drive
to be best equipped to be our
next governor?
I hope you agree that it's me,
and I hope that you'll join Team
Kelda and help build it together.
Thank you so much.
I'm sorry.
You're open.
Yeah, yeah, thanks.
I do. Yeah.
No, no, no.
I worked at a lobby
in Philadelphia with no
success.
Is it because he's not interested
in these? That's the only thing I
can think of. Yes, there was one.
And he needs the qualifications,
since he has not been affected.
But the Greenland one, and
then that law school, said that they
could not work there, I thought.
They could have called for
his to be taken off
by the time they had the
correspondence. I've even
corresponded with the elections
commission. Oh, I know, they don't
like it.
I wouldn't think it would be good
for my reputation. Oh, I know. They don't like it. I wouldn't think it
would be good for the reputation.
Even the Republicans don't.
It's not right.
No, it's not. It's a black eye.
Exactly. Thank you for coming.
Oh, yes, of
course. I can call.
Ah, yes.
So I just want to give a shout out.
So what?
Someone else's endorsement.
Okay, please do.
Yeah, that reminds me, I should call
Panty Seeker, because I don't think
she's committed to me yet.
So I need to get Panties over here.
Okay.
Um, yes, I will.
Thank you for your work,
okay, yeah, appreciate it.
Okay. So how are you feeling?
I feel great.
I feel like I'm getting a huge
amount of momentum as I travel
across the state.
And it's really a joy to campaign
when people
are feeling like we're on
the cusp of something different in
Wisconsin.
So you mentioned the polling,
obviously the 65% undecided.
How do you kind of parse that line
of like, it's way too early to panic
about what a poll says, but
understanding like the people you're
talking to now are the ones that
could influence that 65%
that are still out there.
Yeah, I mean the truth is that
no poll before people have actually
started paying for communications is
going to tell you anything reliable
about the electorate.
The most important thing that I can
be doing is talking with voters and
of course, unfortunately raising
money because that's the system that
we have, but I am confident that we
are going to have the resources we
need to communicate and to win.
So is there anything of value people
should be taking out of the polling
this early other than people
haven't started paying attention?
Well, I think they should take away
the fact that this is a wide-open
race, and so people should back the
candidate that they think is the
best prepared to be governor, right,
with the most experience or who
shares their values or someone who
can win. We're not stuck with
a candidate just because
they might have a high name ID.
That really doesn't translate to
support. In fact, it translates to
higher negatives.
So one of the things that's
happening right now, obviously, is
the pre-court race.
Are you seeing kind of that
dovetailed tension, that people
starting to wake up to both things
at the same time?
Yeah, I think there's a lot of
interest obviously amongst activists
and donors and volunteers in
the Supreme Court race and I myself,
you know, I'm helping launch
canvases and support Chris
Taylor and raise money and
I'm confident that she's going to
win, but I think after
the April election then more
attention will be focused on the
governor's race.
You just kind of serve as a launch
period that you have April,
August, and November. You get them
started now, you can kind of keep
that momentum going.
Yes, absolutely.
I mean, you know, I've done a lot of
political work over many, many years
for a lot of candidates and I have
to say I do think that
people across the political spectrum
really recognize that this
is a crisis moment in our country
and they are looking for
strong leaders who are capable of
getting things done in a time
when it seems like, you know,
government is either attacking us
from the federal level, like cutting
our health care, putting these crazy
illegal tariffs on.
They want a state government that is
going to be steady and reliable and
relentlessly focused on lowering the
cost of living for us.
Is it hard?
Did you have to deal with some of the
questions of what will you do as
governor of the election?
When it's the election itself that
will make you governor?
I mean, instead of the timetable, if
people have that anxiety...
I understand people do have
a lot of anxiety, and that's because
we have a president who has shown
that he will stop at nothing to
try to silence his political
opponents, to overturn election
results illegally that he doesn't
like, you know, he lies on
a daily basis.
He started a war, an illegal
war with Iran, and now our gas
prices are a dollar higher than they
were a week ago.
So when you have that kind of chaos
and corruption and dishonesty
at the federal level.
Understandable why folks are anxious
about that, but it's also important
that people know that our elections
are safe and secure.
There's nothing that Trump can do to
stop our elections from happening
and we are going to demand
that voters be able to cast
their ballots and make their voice
heard.
All right, that's all I need from
you now. Thank you. Great, yeah,
thank you. Good to see you. Thank you
for letting us know about. You too.