Green Bay, a central Brown County, you know, I'm not, you know, generally talking a lot
about how I'm running to be, you know, part of the team blue and Madison.
And so, I think, you know, some people get interested and excited about it and, you know,
some people, I mean, the average voter politics is a huge part of their life.
You know, people who've got a lot of interest in politics are a minority and, you know,
certainly people who run for office are a small minority of the population.
So you got to, you got to meet the voters where they are.
Yeah.
Do people here understand that it's rare for, that they have competitive and really important
significant races at almost every level of the ticket from Congress to Senate to president?
It's crazy when you think about it.
I mean, there's, there's no shortage of politics in Brown County and, you know, often I say,
look, you're going to be sick of me before this is over, so sorry about that.
And, you know, people are, you know, a month ago, we're rolling their eyes with all the
presidential ads that we're seeing in the state and the U.S. Senate race has obviously
been a big deal for folks too.
And just the tone of a lot of those ads is tough.
I mean, a friend of mine has got his son is maybe seven or eight and, like, he saw Trump
ad and started crying afterwards.
I mean, some of those ads are so tough and so much in your face, they're hard to ignore.
I understand why people, you know, don't want to be bombarded, you know, every day for
months and months about this stuff.
So I mean, we're, the voters can be hearing a lot more from me and presumably from my
opponents, you know, as we get, we're only six, seven, eight weeks now, whatever it is
before, before the election, but I think, you know, the downside of living in the epicenter
of American politics is you got to deal with a lot of politics, you know, and that's going
to be exhausting for people, I think.
Yeah.
When you look at people at doors, do they surprise you sometimes?
Like, I'm sure you walk up to some houses and put them in the things they're throwing
at you and who they say, they will support at each level of the ticket.
Yeah.
I mean, look, I mean, I'm walking up to a door and I'm always glancing around to see if
there's, you know, a sign or a sticker or something, you know, to give me a clue is what kind of
people live here.
I mean, what they, what they might be interested in.
But yeah, I have learned that you can't, you can't assume too much because people surprise
you both ways.
You see somebody, you think, oh, this, this, this person is probably pretty sympathetic
and they're not or vice versa happens to.
So you just got to, you just got to ask them and let them talk if they want to talk, not
everybody does and see where they see where they end up.
Yeah.
How often are you actually coming across independent split ticket voters, undecideds, big, big
people that, you know, those mythical people that every politician's chasing, but are you,
are they coming across?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I wouldn't say like everyone's like that, but I mean, there are legitimate.
I mean, I, a couple of times a day, somebody tells me, you know, I vote for the person,
not the party and there are, there are plenty of those people out there.
They, you know, they, they look into things and, you know, there, there are other people
who just don't pay as much attention and aren't, aren't, as, as plugged in and there's
nothing wrong with that, you know.
So yeah, I mean, they, they exist and yeah, I talk to them.
So, but, you know, and there are obviously people who are partisans on either side and,
you know, they, they'll, they'll tell you that.
Usually they're not too terribly shy about it.
Usually they're not mean about it either.
I mean, we're still kind of Wisconsin nice here.
Now when somebody asks you what party you are, you know, they, they ask because they
want an answer, generally, you know, and I only have one answer to give.
So say, okay, we'll see, we'll see what they're looking for here.
Sometimes you're surprised.
We've seen in, in prior years where statewide Democrats, Tammy Baldwin told me heavers have
won and they've actually carried down ballot districts to state Senate or assembly seats
that were won by Republicans down ballot.
Oh, sure.
Yeah.
And, you know, Robin Boss has claimed less because Republicans run better campaigns and we speak
to the local issues that people care about what it, and then that includes this area
up here.
Oh, yeah, of course.
We've seen them do well.
So what is the difference in terms of you being able to go out and flip this district
to show that, you know, but you may vote for Tammy Baldwin, but you can vote for me too.
I will support you at the state level.
Well, I mean, obviously the, the smaller the district gets, the more you're able to actually
reach out and talk to your voters individually and that's what doing doors is about.
It's not especially efficient, you know, most doors you knock on, nobody answers.
A lot of doors, somebody answers, but it's not the voter you want.
It's somebody else, you know, and you talk to them too.
So I mean, one, one thing that has changed with the new maps is that there's an awful
lot more competitive races than there ever were before.
The large Republican majorities in the legislature were pretty much baked in to the old system
and it didn't really matter what the voters thought.
Now what the voters think actually matters and I think you've seen a lot more interest
from candidates in these races.
I sure as heck wouldn't be running in the old maps.
That was a fool's errand and I, you know, have a perfectly nice life that I put to the
side for a few months here to work on this.
But you know, if you work, if you get out there and I'm working and I'm getting out
there talking to people, I've been handing out packer schedules at community events
for months and I've been knocking on a lot of doors as well.
I mean, I think, you know, that can make a difference and, you know, you can't, if you're
running for president, you can't knock in the door of every voter in the United States,
but if you're running for state assembly or state senate, you can make a, you can make
a difference.
When you, when we see the results and it come out and if we say, okay, well, Harris is
going to win the state by just a thin margin or Tammy Baldwin, maybe you were going to
quit ahead, is that, is that the signal you need or do you think your race can be separated
out from, especially some of those bigger races at the top of it?
I mean, I think, no, I think you can, you can run ahead or behind, depending on if you're
a good candidate who works or a bad candidate who doesn't or something in between.
I mean, there are laws of political gravity.
I mean, nobody's going to be out there running 30 points ahead of the top of the ticket,
you know, unless they're, not unless their opponent got arrested in Halloween or something,
you know, and that happens every once in a while, but you sure can't count on it, you
know, once every 20 years.
So, yeah, I mean, you do control some things and look, you can, you can drive yourself
crazy in this business about it, you know, because there's no end to work to be done.
But, you know, there's things you control, which is, you know, how hard you work and,
you know, are you talking to voters?
Are you talking to other people who can help you?
And there's a lot of things you don't control and, you know, certainly what's going on with
the presidential race.
I mean, neither Donald Trump nor Kamala Harris are calling me up and asking me for advice.
So, you know, you've just got to kind of let the chips fall on that one, see what happens.
Yeah.
It was only about six weeks ago that we were looking at enthusiasm among Democrats, which
were for Joe Biden was at an all-time low.
Sure.
Donald Trump went under the RNC and unified the Republican Party.
Right.
And then we have seen a complete sea change since then.
What's that been like for you in terms of what have you noticed at the doors or what
have you felt?
Yeah, I mean, have you seen that same thing that?
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
I mean, it's, it was a bit of a roller coaster, but I mean, like, like I just told you, I mean,
just to stay sane, I told myself to focus on what, what I can do, you know, not try
to get too carried away about what was going on at a national level.
But yeah, we've seen, we've seen some volunteers come out of the woodwork and, you know, immediately
after Biden dropped out of the race and, you know, and Harris kind of, you know, came
in as the nominee.
And I didn't feel like I was kind of running a roving therapy session for relief Democrats
at the door as occasionally because everyone who, you know, was a partisan was wanted to
talk to you about that and how they felt about it.
And, you know, I was just human, nothing wrong with that.
But yeah, I mean, I do think that there was definitely a roller coaster and, you know,
whenever that was going on, is it only six weeks?
It feels like about a lifetime ago now, but I'm sure you're right.
Yeah.
You said it would be therapy session at the door, but I'm sure there was catharsis for
some of these people to be able to, you know, talk about some of the feelings.
Oh, yeah.
And people were worried.
I mean, you know, look, you, you can be a good person, but for Donald Trump, and, you
know, and you could, you know, but there were a lot of people who were very worried about
the prospect of a second Trump presidency.
And there's a lot of people that are very excited about it too.
And, you know, there was, there were a lot of emotions, not just for people running for
office, but for, you know, your average voters, sure.
What difference does enthusiasm make in terms of the difference for a campaign, especially
at your level where it is about shoe leather?
What is the, what is the end result difference when you've got people that are excited to
vote for you versus just willing to vote?
Oh, well, I mean, I think it's a big deal because, you know, campaigns at this level
campaigns at any level run in part in, you know, with volunteer help and more excited
people are about, you know, you as a candidate or whatever's going on around you, the easy
it is to get people to help you.
So that's, that's certainly a good thing.
And you know, obviously where the rubber meets the road is in the voting booth in November
5th.
And if people are psyched to get in there and cast a vote, they're, that's going to help.
That's going to help.
It's aside from, well, yeah, I guess I should.
And that was kind of the feeling we all had a couple months ago.
And now I think more of our voters are, are psyched and I've, you know, I'm, this is
all public information.
I mean, Marquette Pol came out yesterday and it showed that, you know, statewide at least
Democrats are pretty excited about, about this election now and they weren't a couple
of months ago.
So that could make a difference in a close race.
Sure.
Because I mean, in some respects, an enthusiastic vote accounts the same as a reluctant vote.
Right.
But that voters were more likely to actually cast that vote is what I tell you.
And do they bring other people with them?
Oh, sure.
Yeah.
I mean, are they willing to go out and knock doors for you?
Because you may be working your hardest, but at the top of the ticket is depressed because
people.
Sure.
I mean, the presidential race.
Like I said, there's things you control and the things you don't and things you don't
control can sink in or they can make you, but, but that's why it's best just to focus
on what you can control it, you know, and doing what I'm doing.
When you go out, do you talk about the whole ticket?
He's obviously there's a competitive congressional race to get assembly seats.
If people want to talk about it, yes, but not always, not often, to be honest.
Yeah.
Okay.
Anything else you want to add along these lines that we've been talking about?
No.
I mean, I mean, we've talked a lot more about kind of the process of running and about
the politics of running than I expected, but there's nothing wrong with that.
No.
I mean, I guess I, I mean, I did give you my honest assessment of what I'm hearing at
the doors.
I mean, can't you guys work together and a little worried about the cost of living and
then maybe some schools and streets and reproductive rights thrown into a good measure.
Yeah.
All right.
That's all we need from here.
Okay.
Great.
Sounds good.
So hopefully we can go do some doors.
Yeah.
Yep.
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