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Some Wisconsin Republicans are in Dallas for the GOP's midterm convention.

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Some state away, we talk through the pros and cons of attending a rare event in national

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politics along with other campaign developments closer to home.

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This is Inside Wisconsin Politics.

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I'm Sean Johnson, here with my colleagues Anya Van Wecht and Zach Schultz and Rich Kramer

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in Eau Claire.

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Hey everyone.

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Hello.

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So, I have this distinct memory, it was just two years ago.

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We were all in Milwaukee, it was the RNC.

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You were there, you were there, and you were there Anya.

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What's the deal?

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National conventions are every four years.

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What is this midterm conventions that Republicans are doing right now, and what does it matter?

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You know, I had the same question about a week ago, I like to think I'm fairly tuned

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into national politics.

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It is arguably my job, and I had never heard of a midterm convention, so this is not

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comparable to the events that we all went to in 2024.

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Those were nominating conventions, they've been held since the 19th century.

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This is more of a sort of rally kind of situation that Democrats experimented with in the 70s

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and 80s, and then decided they were not a good idea, that they were kind of a waste

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of time and money and maybe fractured their party.

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But now Republicans are giving it a shot, and so this is the first ever Republican midterm

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convention, and it's, you know, going into a midterm election where they feel like the

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sort of deck is stacked against them as a party.

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They are the majority party at a time that people are pretty unhappy, and so this is

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about sort of revving up the base and really kind of focusing on Donald Trump as the continued

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kind of standard bearer of the party when he won't be on the ballot in November.

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And we're not in Dallas for this one, Rich, but you watched the stream of day one of this

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convention, which featured some, you know, one Wisconsin speaker.

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Did you see, you know, who's there and give us a kind of a sample of the flavor of what

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people heard?

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All right.

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Well, I'll start with who was there, and at the national level, we had some big names.

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Of course, President Donald Trump was the keynote speaker last night.

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He's going to be the keynote speaker again on Thursday night, but regardless, he had

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his cabinet secretaries there, Scott Besent was there, Mehmet Oz was there, Todd Blanche

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was there, and as well as just a host of lawmakers, you know, from Congress, Tom Emmer,

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Steve Scalise, et cetera, et cetera, folks in leadership positions.

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And the flavor was the Republicans really, first of all, speaker after speaker, went

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at length praising President Donald Trump, his accomplishments, et cetera.

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They talked a lot about the 2025 Big Beautiful Bill Act, although they were calling it different

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things.

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And we also just heard a lot about what they thought Democrats are all about.

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In general, the speakers were saying that Democrats are crazy and Republicans are the

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party of common sense.

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I heard one speaker called Democrats evil.

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And that sort of thing, we heard a lot of culture war issues, transgender issues came up

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quite a bit.

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A lot of talk about Democrats loving open border policies, et cetera.

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And also a lot of talk about democratic socialism and kind of a mix of that with straight up

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accusations of communism within the democratic reigns from Republicans.

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And Derek Van Orden, the Republican Congressman from Wisconsin's third congressional district

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was there.

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And among the speakers, here's a little sample of what he told Republican activists.

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You deserve high quality, readily available, and actually affordable health care.

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You know who else knows this?

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Our great president, Donald J. Trump.

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So Zack, Derek Van Orden represents one of the swingiest districts in the country where

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a ton of money is going to be spent, has already been sent trying to flip that seat.

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Why is he delivering this message on health care and Donald Trump at this convention just

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a couple months away from the election?

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Well, clearly he is so closely attached to Donald Trump and running for Congress as a

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federal position, he has no room to separate himself from there and make this about the

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Wisconsin race.

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Like we've seen with Congressman Tom Tiffany who's running for governor and did not attend

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this event because he wants the focus to be on his race for governor, not his connections

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to Donald Trump.

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Derek Van Orden either doesn't have that luxury or is not interested in playing that

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game no matter what, he's going to be associated with the president.

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So for good or bad, he's got to tie himself even closer to that and hope events like this

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boost the president's turnout in his district, which would allow him to go along.

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Remember, he's run behind Trump in these elections in 24.

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Trump got more votes than he did.

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He barely won whilst Trump won his district by a larger margin.

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As for health care, that is one of the issues that he's trying to run on there because it's

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very important to the people in there.

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A lot of people lost health care in that congressional district.

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We've seen hospitals close in that area.

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Van Orden wants to take credit for federal legislation that brought in additional funds.

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There was some rejiggering through the state budget, if you remember, Governor Evers at

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the last minute trying to get a bill through that would authorize a higher reimbursement

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rate for providers here.

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It would try and capture more of those federal funds.

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Van Orden tried to take credit for that.

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He's running in that Democrat saying, well, you're the one who ruined Medicare for a

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lot of Medicaid for a lot of people in this district while they're suffering from it in

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the first place.

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So he views that as his issue to run on and his connection to Trump to boost that turnout

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in that district, which is why he needs to be there.

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Yeah, I mean, Rich, it seems like there's a couple of ways you could go with President

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Donald Trump.

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If you're a candidate, you know, Derek Van Orden has chosen this path.

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It kind of reminds me of Senator Ron Johnson, his last re-election, where he just embraced

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the president completely and even heard the president last night tell delegates, activists,

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hey, pretend I'm on the ballot.

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What's going on there?

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Well, we've heard from Republicans election after election where they don't do as well

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as they'd like that, well, there's just this big group of voters that President Donald

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Trump was able to get to the polls in 2016 and 2024 that others just haven't been able

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to reach.

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So there's essentially speaking to those individuals.

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And if President Trump says, think of the ballot like I'm on it because the last years

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of my second term are on the line here, the hope is that those voters will understand

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that and will play the part and go out and vote for the various Republicans fighting

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to keep the House and the Senate in Republican control.

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So that works.

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We'll see.

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It hasn't in the past, but who knows?

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And you know, as it pertains to healthcare, we should mention that after Van Orden's

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speech, Rich, you reported Democrats were pretty quick to attack and say, hey, this

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is the guy that cut healthcare through the Big Beautiful Bill Act with all these new

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restrictions on Medicaid enrollment.

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Anya, I wonder, we've talked on this program before about, you know, what happens when

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Republicans don't, I guess, sufficiently adore the president for lack of a better

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term.

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Tom Tiffany's not there in that room with Derek Van Orden and is not at the convention.

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Does he face any potential risks by not being there and being overtly supportive?

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Well, you know, he didn't say I'm not going because I wanted to separate myself from the

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president.

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He said that he has campaign events here in Wisconsin.

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And he is not at all the only kind of vulnerable Republican or Republican from a swing state

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to not attend.

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And for different reasons, again, some of them cited family events or other obligations.

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Some of them cited the costs.

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This is also a major kind of fundraising event.

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And so attending costs, tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands of

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dollars, if you're running for sort of a smaller congressional seat or something, maybe that's

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not, you know, a financial calculus there.

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So we don't exactly know what Tom Tiffany's kind of calculus is, except that we know that

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he's running statewide in Wisconsin.

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There is the kind of guaranteed Trump base no matter what.

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But nationally, Trump's poll numbers are not good among the sort of moderate and more

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independent voters that any statewide candidate in Wisconsin needs to win.

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And so maybe this is kind of an easy way to put a little bit of separation.

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They're not have something as clippable as what Derek Van Orden had.

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That is just, you know, when they're when they're making attack ads, it's very easy

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to kind of try to unite those two figures.

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And so he's not kind of handing anything over quite so easily.

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Zach, you just talked to Tom Tiffany and you touched on this convention, I believe.

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What's his general take on why he's not there?

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And you know, what's he talking about right now?

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His main reason is he says he's got a very busy schedule and he does.

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He's doing a lot of campaign events.

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He's doing a lot of press conferences.

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But it's not in his interest right now to be in Texas when he should be in Wisconsin.

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And it strikes me as looking back to 2024, speaking of the Democratic convention that

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year, Tammy Baldwin was up for reelection and she spent almost the entire convention barn

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storming Wisconsin instead of being down in Chicago.

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She showed up for a day to do her due diligence.

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But part of her mentality was I need to be where people see me that will be voting for

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me not to be down in a convention hall.

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Tom Tiffany taking that same approach doesn't mean he's pushing the president off at arms

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lengthened by any stretch.

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However, I will say throughout our entire very long conversation yesterday, I asked many

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questions about Donald Trump and policies and implications.

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He only used Donald Trump's name twice the entire time.

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And that was only referencing how Democrats are trying to connect him to Donald Trump.

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Every other time he talked about the administration or the president at most, otherwise he brought

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it back to Wisconsin at every single point.

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He knows that traditional Republicans who support Donald Trump will vote for him.

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He also knows there are a lot of former Republicans or moderate Republicans or independents that

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don't like the president right now that may vote for him if they don't think of him too

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closely with the president.

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And so he is trying to walk that line between winning those votes and keeping a little bit

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of distance, but not angering some of that MAGA base that is very prickly and very sensitive

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about showing enough fidelity to the president by being there.

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Most of those people will vote for him anyway, so he doesn't have to worry as much about

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protecting that flank because he has very legitimate serious MAGA credentials when it comes to being

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aligned with Donald Trump, even if he stripped most of those from his website and his campaign

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for governor.

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And I think it's safe to say that the view of our governor's race that most people are

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going to see is not through this midterm convention, maybe not through very interesting discussions

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about data centers and flock cameras, but on these TV ads that are going to become more

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and more prevalent in Wisconsin, these little 30-second snippets that take everything out

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of context, rich, what does the race for governor look like from that perspective?

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Somebody who's watching this thing on their phone or on their TV and just getting these

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little samples, what is the debate about right now?

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Well, the latest ad I saw from David Crowley basically talked about affordability, about

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his plan to respond to housing costs, utility costs, et cetera.

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He doesn't go into great details, which is not uncommon with these types of short ads,

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but essentially it's what you would expect from years past.

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It's him with his family sitting down talking about cost being too high and how he has plans

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to solve it.

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From Tom Tiffany, we've seen him kind of go down the road of the whole tough on crime

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Republican and Democrats being weak on crime lane.

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One of his most recent ads focuses on a Milwaukee County policy where inmates in the jails were

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given access to iPads, and there was reporting recently that some of those inmates were reaching

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out and bothering or harassing or threatening witnesses.

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So the ad is essentially saying, look at what David Crowley signed off on, don't let them

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do this for the entire state.

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You know, Zach, one area where we would have gotten more context in the not too distant

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past was through a series of debates between the candidates.

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We're only going to get one this year.

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It turns out the WBA debate, the Broadcasters Association debate that we would have broadcast

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in half for years is canceled.

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So why so few debates?

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What happened this year?

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Well, David Crowley's campaign says he agreed to that second debate.

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He said he would have agreed to more.

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They're already doing, they're still doing one debate on October 21st, but this one would

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have been earlier in the month.

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It was Tom Tiffany who said he only needed to do one debate.

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And when I asked him about it, he said, well, this has been a policy of his.

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And he's been running for Congress.

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He said one debate is more than enough to cover all these issues.

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And it's not a new trend.

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This has been going on for a decade or longer where a lot of these candidates really don't

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need the exposure.

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They have so many ways to contact their voters, either through social media, through mailers,

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through ads that they don't need the free media that they used to rely on 10, 20, 30

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years ago back when it was easier for us to hold a debate.

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Television used to do one for every cycle and it was pretty common to get them to come

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in.

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It was just figuring out the dates and everyone would say, yeah, I can't wait to be in there.

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And we stopped offering because we just couldn't get anyone to say yes to agree at the same

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spot at the same time.

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So this is not new.

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It's a relic of the past.

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And there's the old cycle of who's ever behind in the polls wants to do more debates.

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I don't know if that even applies anymore.

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I think it has more to do with how you limit your exposure and doing one debate says I'm

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willing to do it, doing any more after that is, that's just a risk that something could

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go catastrophically wrong.

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So the new normal perhaps from here on out, I guess there could be a time when we're talking

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about zero debates, but this year it sounds like one.

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Yeah, well, when's the last time we had multiple gubernatorial debates?

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I don't remember.

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And Rich, when's the last time you had a debate between the candidates for the third congressional

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district, Darren Van Orden and Rebecca Cook?

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Boy, I don't think that they did it last time.

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Yeah, I think the last debate that Orden was involved with had was with Ron Kine back in

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2020.

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Okay.

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Yeah.

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So before we wrap up here, we should touch on a couple legal developments and cases that

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you've been reporting on on, first, let's talk about this lawsuit that was filed today

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by Planned Parenthood, challenging some abortion restrictions in Wisconsin.

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What are they looking at there and what's the new approach they're taking?

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Yeah, so this is kind of the new lawsuit kind of following the really major settlement

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of the law of abortion in Wisconsin.

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So people might remember Roe Falls trigger laws going to place in the States, including

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one in Wisconsin.

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And so for many years, we're kind of watching that go through to determine the legality

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of abortion in Wisconsin.

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That was resolved last year.

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And so now there's all of these kind of lesser restrictions in place on abortion access.

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And there has been some hinting that abortion advocates were going to file some sort of

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challenge to one or some of them.

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And so this lawsuit today was challenging a 24-hour waiting period and a requirement

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that a physician has to preside over the administration of abortion.

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What's kind of notable about this is that this is the first week of this new Supreme

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Court's term, which is a five to two liberal majority.

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Two justices have pretty close previous relationships with Planned Parenthood.

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And so this is going to be kind of the first test of how far some of these activists, I

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think, can go in the courts to expand abortion access in Wisconsin.

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Okay.

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And then another case that you've all reported on in some form is this challenge to mail-in

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voting restrictions.

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Rich, what's going on there?

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And what is going on with absentee voting in Wisconsin?

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Okay.

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So, absentee voting is underway.

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Ballots have gone out and are going out.

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The Trump administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to pause a federal judge's order

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that is blocking the U.S. Postal Service's plan to essentially not send ballots by mail

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to people who aren't on these lists that the federal government approves.

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So who knows what will happen with that?

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But absentee voting is underway in Wisconsin right now.

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And Zach, sometimes, you know, of course, we can't control what the U.S. Supreme Court's

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going to do.

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But sometimes states that don't want the court to intervene will make a point of saying voting

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is happening now is not the time.

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Yeah.

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There are a lot of states where ballots have gone out.

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Ballots have already come back and there's a lot of clerks trying to figure out if this

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actually goes forward, how they will work around the chaos because it will be chaos.

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It would be.

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That's a certainty.

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It's how does it go around and how many people actually lose their ability to vote through

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the mail because of it.

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All right.

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Before we go, we wanted to let you know that WPR is making an interactive guide to the

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candidates and we want to know what questions do you want them to answer as they compete

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for your vote?

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Let us know in the comments or at wpr.org slash elections.

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That's all the time we have for today.

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This has been Inside Wisconsin Politics.

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Be sure to follow us on pbswisconsin.org wpr.org YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.