It's beautiful. It's in the mountains.
Right on. I mean, I understand these sort of odd...
With Democratic Governor Tony Evers' announcement that he will not run for a third term,
the November 2026 election for governor is wide open,
and already candidates are lining up on the Republican side,
Whitefish Bay businessman Bill Barian and Washington County Executive Josh Schonman
have entered the race. Democratic Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez
is also formally declared.
Now, there are a whole lot more names potentially throwing their hat in the ring.
For more on this, we turn to our political panelists,
Republican Bill McCuschen and Democrat Scott Ross,
and nice to see you both again.
Great to be with you.
Good to be here.
Bill, what kind of opportunity is this for Republicans?
It's pretty rare. It's the second time in my 60 years on this Earth
where we've had an open gubernatorial seat.
2010 was the last time Scott Walker beat Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett,
so the fact that it's an open seat is an opportunity for Republicans to actually win here.
Both of the national prognosticators, whether it's the Cook Political Report
or Larry Sabados, Crystal Ball, move this race from Lean Democrat,
as soon as Tony Evers made his announcement, to toss up.
So it's an opportunity for the Republicans to potentially take back the governorship
in 2026 here in the state of Wisconsin.
So Scott, as to that toss up kind of status,
how would policymaking change, if in fact a Republican, were to win?
Well, I mean, obviously if the Republican Party,
which is wholly controlled by Donald Trump,
were to win the gubernatorial election and Democrats not pick up either of the chambers,
it would be the most radical extreme partisan handout to special interests and corporate
and the wealthy that we've ever seen in the history of Wisconsin.
But I think that you have to look beyond the sort of toss up numbers when it comes to the cook.
Yeah, if you look at it on face, Wisconsin goes back and forth.
But if you look at the real numbers and where the Republican Party is right now,
if you're not Donald Trump, the Party, Wisconsin voters have rejected you
in statewide election after election after election.
And I think we've only had two of any consequence that have gone Republican in the last like 15 years.
Ron Johnson, of course, who got in there because the DCCC abandoned Mandela Barnes
and he was outspent by $26 million in racist third party ads,
and the Supreme Court race, where Democrats hadn't quite figured out how to lock up those races yet.
Now it's a completely different universe.
And the Republican Party with Donald Trump in full control, the government,
isn't getting more open for, or isn't getting more accommodating for swing voters,
it's getting even more barbaric, more, you know, the cuts that are coming,
the cuts that are already here, you know, the stormtroopers on our streets,
pulling people off in masks and disappearing them.
And that's not the American way.
Bill, as to the Washington influence set of the Congressional District,
Republican Tom Tiffany has been talking about running for a long time.
What's he waiting for?
He says he's going to make a decision sometime around Labor Day.
I hope he does it sooner than that.
There are several Congress people in the House now that are running for governor
in different states, Byron Donald's being at the top of the list in Florida.
I think the president's a little concerned about that because the margin,
the GOP majority in the House is so slim to begin with.
So I don't know if Tom Tiffany's going to get in.
He's got a lot of strong suits for sure, but probably his weakest area is fundraising.
He's got $125,000 cash on hand, which today, and Scott would agree,
that's a good assembly race.
That's not a gubernatorial race.
So fundraising is his biggest shortcoming.
We'll see if he gets in.
At the end of the day, where Scott and I actually do agree,
Donald Trump's going to pick the winner of this primary.
Whoever he endorses in this primary will win the race for sure on our side.
So who else?
Go ahead, Scott.
I'm sorry.
I'd say $125,000 is a good start for an assembly race.
And here's how narrow that House majority is and is in the Congress,
that they have all fled so that they don't have to keep taking votes
to release the Jeffrey Epstein files about how Trump was fully engaged
in what was going on with the sex trafficker and predator who hung himself.
Who else are Republicans looking at, Bill?
I mean, there is a long list of people out there.
Well, other names that are being bandied about are state Senator Mary
Felskowski, who comes from roughly the same geography as Tom Tiffany.
She represents the 12th Senate District up north.
If she won't get in, if Tiffany does get in, but if Tiffany doesn't get in,
I would expect to see her join the race.
You might remember she voted against the state budget.
She's the first Senate president to ever vote against the state budget.
Eric Covey's name still gets talked about.
And I think there's a player to be named later.
Again, because it's an open seat, it's a real opportunity.
So I think there's probably somebody on our side that people aren't talking
about yet who could get in this race.
Remember, we got 375 days between now and the August 11th,
2026 primary.
It was interesting to see that Scott Walker kind of was toying with it
and then said no, he's not in.
Yeah.
Well, he got some attention for himself and for Young America's Foundation.
I think he'll be involved in the race in some way,
just like my former boss, Tommy Thompson will.
Hopefully they'll agree on the candidate in the primary this time.
They didn't in 2022.
For our side, hopefully we learned some lessons about 2022.
You can't destroy your GOP opponent in the primary and hope that the party
can come together during the general election because it won't happen.
If we want to win this thing and it's a real opportunity to win,
we got to hang together and whoever wins the primary, that's our person.
Scott, let's talk about that.
Yeah, that's the way.
Yeah.
I'm sorry.
I just want to say like I think the reason, you know,
part of the challenge that the Republicans have in contrast to the Democrats is that
their two Republicans have no experience.
I mean, you know, God bless Washington County, but it's not even one of the top 10
largest counties in Wisconsin, whereas on the Democratic side,
there is a very long list of people with credentials who have delivered for the
people Wisconsin starting with the lieutenant governor, you know,
continuing with the attorney general who's gotten $750 million back from opioid
settlements, something that the previous Republican administration and previous
Republican attorney general refused to allow us to get.
You've got the county executive in the state's largest county, David Crowley.
You've got a state senator, Kilda Royce, who's, you know, who's on the joint
finance committee and who's run a couple of times before, you know,
there's a long list of people with real credentials about doing the things that
Wisconsinites want.
They want people who are going to lower the cost of living, who are going to get
affordable health care and affordable housing, who are going to make sure that
education is protected and strengthened and make sure that everybody's treated
with dignity, the way that they need to be treated and stop this dividing that's
gone on with the Republicans under this onslaught of whether it's ICE or it's
DEI or whatever prejudice is they're bringing to the table.
The one Scott didn't mention was Ben Wickler, former party chairman.
Nobody has raised more money than Ben Wickler.
He is the best fundraiser on their side or our side.
So if he decides to get in, he'll be formidable.
What do you say to that, Scott?
Oh, absolutely.
Yes.
I mean, Ben's a great guy who's traveled around the state doing the rubber
chicken circuit, you know, for years.
I mean, it's a reason why a lot of us thought in 2022 that Rebecca
Clayfish was going to be the nominee for the Republicans, but the Republicans
have decided they don't want to have a woman at the top of the ticket.
So they went with an out-of-state businessman who lost.
Scott asked to the toss-up status of the governor's race.
How much confidence, though, does the most recent 10-point victory of
Justice Susan Crawford give them?
Well, they're two different races, but it also shows that Democrats are able
to mobilize their voters in a way that Republicans simply have not been
able to do for a very, very long time.
Again, they've won a couple statewide elections, but the margins percentage-wise
and number-wise are so much more narrow than the blowouts that the
Democrats have been able to do because, again, they're talking about the
things that people want.
They want to make sure that people are protected.
They want to make sure that abortion rights are protected and
restored in some cases.
They want to make sure that when you go into court, that you have your
day in court, and it's not balanced towards the rich.
That's completely different to what the agenda of the Republicans are.
Most embodied by the fact that we've got this big, bad bill, which is now
going to bankrupt the country, 270,000 Wisconsinites off of their
health care, snatch snap benefits, literally take the food out of
babies and children, that's the agenda of the Republicans.
And Democrats will continue to run on that in contrast to what we're
trying to do.
I wanted to just jump to the next Supreme Court election, and have you
described the stakes of that?
Well, we have Rebecca Bradley, who hasn't decided whether she's going
to seek reelection or not.
On our most recent finance report, she hadn't raised any money.
My advice to her is, if you're not going to run, get out and give people
time to raise money.
I think one of the dynamics that there's a relationship between the two
races.
I don't think the Supreme Court race is going to be as hotly contested
as the last two were.
I don't think it'll be $100 million race because it isn't for the
majority.
I think the gubernatorial race, now that it's an open seat, will be
the political super bowl in Wisconsin in 2026.
Scott, we know that appeals court judge, Chris Taylor, is running
for Supreme Court.
How formidable is she?
I think she's an incredible formidable candidate and has built a
career on protecting the rights of people in Wisconsin, you know,
whether it is for living with dignity or abortion rights or
whatever.
That is the profile that she has, the record that she has, especially
as a judge.
That contrast, again, with Rebecca Bradley, who's one of the most
divisive, one of the most noxious elected officials that we've had
in the history of the state of Wisconsin.
I think for her, the problem is, if she's waiting for a federal
judgeship, what's the incentive to taking out the incumbent from a
judicial race when, by and large, over decades, and don't agree
with this, the incumbent wins.
Almost used to be unheard of that an incumbent.
Almost 100 percent.
Judicial candidate wouldn't win.
Yeah.
Yeah, the last two Supreme Court justices who have lost were
appointed.
They did not win those seats.
And so she would...
Exactly.
Bradley would be our best shot, for sure.
All right.
We need to leave it there, but really nice to see you both again.
We'll have you on more now that we're heating up into this next
election cycle.
Thank you.
Ready to be with you.
Six minutes over.
Yeah.
There was a lot to cover.
Yeah.
Yeah, you were both great.
I almost had to defend Donald Trump, though, Scott, because we
don't know.
Do we?
We don't know what his involvement was, if any.
We don't know.
Oh, right, right, right.
I was listening.
I was looking at the Jeffries who said they knew.
If Trump said what he said about their late daughter, that he was