that's how I grown up. I'd be closer to Swear engine and some of those guys. You
could have been a Jack Pine Savage like the rest of us. I probably could. Are we
running? Tom Tiffany thanks for joining us. They're voters who don't know who you are.
Introduce yourself and give us a sense of why you're running for governor. Yeah
lifelong resident of Wisconsin. I grew up on a dairy farm in Western
Wisconsin with my seven brothers and sisters. We were up early in the morning
milking cows, feed and calves and all that. I worked my way through UW River
Falls got an agricultural degree and then ultimately settled in the North
Woods where I met my wife Chris and that's where we raised our three daughters.
Is there a single issue that would say defines you or maybe a lane within your
political party that may drive you? You know I think one thing that maybe a lot
of people don't realize the reason I ran for the state assembly back in 2010
when I first gained elected office was because of fiscal responsibility. We had
a three billion dollar deficit at that point and that's always animated me
that government should spend within its means. How much money are you going to
need to raise in this primary and for the general election? Yeah a lot. We're
budgeting to raise 40 million dollars. You will see if we get there but you
know Wisconsin because of that pass through loophole I call it the billionaire
loophole. There's just so much money that comes into Wisconsin but you know you
can cry about it or you can compete. We choose to compete and but we're we're
hoping to raise 40 million dollars. When it comes to a competitive primary how do
you personally define the difference between negative campaigning versus
defining the differences or issues between you and an opponent? You know if
you're just hurling mud at your opponent name calling stuff like that
then I don't I don't think that's how Wisconsin voters respond. As long as
you're talking about issues and you know some people describe negative
campaigning as being that if you point out differences I think that's the
important part of the political process is to point out the differences between
you and your opponent and so that's what I always try to do. As voters are
tuning in should they be more drawn to a candidate that has the issues that align
with them or should they be thinking about electability as well? For the
primary electability is a is a big part of it. I think I think it's a
combination of issues and electability because if you're right on the issues
you're going to gain some voters and that's ultimately what it's all about is
getting 50 50 plus one. Obviously you represent Northern Wisconsin what's
your what's your goal or what's your plan to reach the rest of the state
and introduce yourself there? Well we have a 72-county strategy. Sometimes
Republicans have not done that including ignoring right where we sit
right now in Dane County. We will not ignore Dane County the fastest growing
county in the state and but we have a 72-county strategy and we're going to
cover every bit of it. How much of an impact do you think Donald Trump will
have on this election? You know there'll be some certainly but I know one thing
that Democrat whoever the Democrat candidate is they will try to make it
about Donald Trump and part of the reason for that I think is that they don't have
a strong set of issues that have been animating them that the voters want to
hear. I mean when you see some of the stuff like defund the police or you know
boys and girls sports stuff like that most of voters in Wisconsin are like yeah
we're not buying that stuff and so I think that's part of the reason why they
try to make President Trump the central part of the campaign rather than debating
the issues. I can assure the voters that I will be debating the issues. What's
your view of tariffs and the tariff policy at the federal level? I'm hoping
that it will settle down now and we've seen various tariff proposals go back
and forth. I mean it's very very important that for a manufacturing state like
Wisconsin that we be able to compete on the worldwide stage because we've lost
too much of our manufacturing here in Wisconsin and across America so bringing
some of that back is really important and that was the goal with the tariffs
policy but I think now you want to see it settle down because it does lead to
some uncertainty and you want to pull that uncertainty out and I'm hoping that
we are in a better place now especially with some of the reinvestment that is I
mean we've seen some companies announce major investments here in America. As
governor there's a good chance you'd have a Republican legislature behind you.
What's your AB1? What's the first bill you want to sign? Boy you know I don't
think we have any choice at this point but we got to deal with education. I just
saw some data this week where almost half of first graders cannot read at
grade level. We have fallen behind Mississippian education. That is unacceptable.
I don't care if you're Republican Democrat or whatever political persuasion.
We have always had a long proud tradition of educating children well and we've
got to get that back. Otherwise our state cannot succeed but I think next is the
cost of living and it is getting the cost of energy down reducing taxes things
like that that make Wisconsin more affordable. One of the major things
that I'm going to roll out is a red tape reset because it doesn't matter
whether you have a daycare or any other kind of business. We are so
over regulated in Wisconsin that costs a lot of money and that overregulation is
oftentimes duplication. Conversely there's a chance as governor you could have
Democrats in control of one of the chambers. What's your track record of
working across the aisle? So I've done bills when I was in the legislature and
as well as in Congress working on a bipartisan basis and we're going to try
to do the same thing. The thing that I won't get away from is my principles
though and number one is we got to make sure that we have balanced budgets. We
cannot spend too much money. The second thing is we got to do a better job with
our educational system. Public, private, parochial, homeschool, whatever. Every
kid in Wisconsin should expect to get a good education regardless of their zip
code and then we have to reduce regulations in Wisconsin because it is
costing us so much money. We're the second highest regulated state in the
Midwest next to Illinois and anytime we are compared to Illinois we're in the
wrong spot. The Public Service Commission is looking at utility rate hikes and
data centers are being proposed all over the state. What's your policy on those
issues? So in regards to energy we need an all over the above approach and we
got to bring energy prices down. We used to be the second lowest in the Midwest
like 20 years ago. We are now the second highest and that is hitting people in
the pocketbook and it's one of the things that I really disagree with the
Evers administration where we have two billion dollars in counting of rate hikes
in the time that he's been governor that hits people every month with their
utility bills. We need to bring the cost of energy down and we can. I think we
should embrace nuclear. We should not be closing down base load power plants
that we currently have and we got to make sure that we have affordable energy in
order to be able to prosper here in Wisconsin. And what about data centers?
Yeah so in regards to the data centers exciting new technology I think we need
to make sure on the energy side of it that we do not harm existing rate payers.
So residential rate payers and manufacturers it would be unfair to
existing manufacturers for them to pay much higher electricity rates just
because a new industry came in. So we're going to probably have to find a new
template if AI and the data centers specifically come into Wisconsin we're
probably going to have to find a new template of how we deal with energy and
the data centers. You mentioned public education before does that include
new investment or is an overhaul of regulation what needs to happen
specifically. So I'm I would be fine if we put more money into education in fact
I expect that we will but we need to make sure that it goes to
children and families. We should pay good teachers more and I think we should
reward administrators that are successful in their schools. We have to
get back to where we reward success in education and I think that's one of the
way we we fix this problem of us falling behind Mississippi and but I'm not
adverse to putting more money in but it had there has to be accountability.
What about the voucher system? What do you want to see happen with that? You know
we've had choice in Wisconsin and it's worked for thousands of families across
the state of Wisconsin and we should continue to have that program but I'm
a product of public schools as well as my seven brothers and sisters. All three of
my daughters went to public schools up in the Monocua area and public schooling
has a long proud history in Wisconsin. We need to make sure that we have a
strong private public and parochial system regardless of how you choose to
educate. We've got to make sure we have a strong educational system and I think
it's important to remember I have a little bit of a different perspective
than perhaps some Republicans on this having grown up in a small town where
your school is the that public school is the only place you're going to get in
education. We got to make sure our public schools are strong also. What's
your number one tax reform idea? Property taxes. First of all we need to bring
property taxes down. I would get rid of the 400 year property tax increase that
Governor Evers put in place. Talk about death and taxes. That is the 400 year
property tax increase so that should go away immediately and then we should
freeze property taxes. People should be able to afford to stay in their homes
because it is really a problem especially for young people to be able to afford
to buy a new home and part of that is being able to pay the taxes. Over the
course the last year the Wisconsin Supreme Court has eliminated legislative
oversight over a lot of the agency rulemaking process. Would you like to see
some of that restored? I think there should be a balance between the three
branches of government and it's been disappointing to see Governor Evers and
his administration take advantage of that because that has a long term that
will do long-term harm to the state of Wisconsin when you do not respect that
delineation of authority between the three branches of government. I will
respect the three branches of government. What would you like to see in terms of
funding for local municipalities? As a locally elected, I serve two terms as a
locally elected official, I think we need to make sure that they are well funded.
I think especially on the infrastructure side in regards to roads because that's
oftentimes the biggest thing for local units of government. We need to make
sure that they have good funding to be able to maintain their infrastructure
especially roads and bridges. There are multiple mining exploration projects
going on right now in the north woods. You helped write the mining bill that
we have in place. Is that where you'd like to keep it or do you think there
needs to be changes to welcome mining? I thought we did a good job of writing the
last mining bill for two reasons. One is we made sure that we had the toughest
mining law in the United States so that we are going to protect the environment.
We also provided for local control. I think it's really important for locals to
be able to have input in regards to these projects. But this is something, I
mean we've got a long great history. I mean we have a miner on our flag, right?
And we have a long, proud history of mining here in Wisconsin. And when you
look at, we talked about data centers earlier, when you look at like wind and
solar, it takes seven, what is it, seven thousand pounds of copper in a typical
wind turbine. If we're going to have these alternate sources of power, we're
going to have to mine and we can't just be reliant on China, especially like for
the rare earths. We're going to have to produce some here in America and
Wisconsin has a very rich endowment and as long as we do it safely, both in
terms of the people that work there as well as the environment, I think we
should be able to do that. Do you have any concerns over your own personal safety
in this modern political environment? You certainly think about it a little bit,
especially in light of the assassination of Charlie Kirk and of course the
attempts on President Trump's life in 2024 where he almost lost his life. So we
do think about it more at this point, but I just, I try to tune it out because
I'm going to do my job and Wisconsinites are almost everyone is really good
about this stuff, whether I'm knocking on doors, seeing people, whatever, people
are almost always respectful and I think it's important for us to be out
amongst the public and I'm not going to stop doing that just because some people
have their life threatened. What would you like to see in terms of increasing
affordable housing in Wisconsin? So first of all, we need to get control of
property taxes at a minimum, freeze them, I would get rid of the 400 year property
tax increase, but I think we can do a lot of it via regulatory reform and I
refer to it as a red tape review. You look at the state of Virginia, they did
something like this and they reduced their regulations largely by getting
rid of duplication by about 25%. They reduced the cost of building a new home
by about $24,000. We've seen studies by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and
Liberty where they've said as much as $80,000 goes in to the cost of a new home
that has nothing to do with building materials. So I think we can get control
of some of that by reducing duplication and regulations and I think also some
local communities need to look at their zoning codes because I've contacted
regularly by local communities saying, you know, can you help us, affordability
is a real problem, and I always say to them, you've got to look at your local
zoning code first because that's where a lot of the cost lies that has nothing
to do with building materials. We're in the middle of Governor Evers planned
overhaul the Department of Corrections and the prison system. Would you carry
that forward? We have to reform the Department of Corrections. Governor Evers,
when he ran against Governor Walker, he said, I'm going to take care of that
including Lincoln Hills and he has not followed through on it. And when you
look at the debacle over in Wapon with I think there's been a couple deaths
over there. I mean, that's unacceptable. We need reform in the Department of
Corrections and I will, I don't know that I'll go in the same direction as
Governor Evers, but clearly we have to reform our correctional system. Would
you like to see any changes to Wisconsin's abortion law? No, so I voted for the
current law, which 10 years ago when I was in the state legislature, which is
you can have an abortion up to five months, and I voted for that law and as
Governor, I will uphold it. All right, Tom Tiffany, thank you so much for coming
in. It's great to join you, Zach. All right, thank you so much. I really
appreciate it. Enjoy your trip back up. Yeah, rapid fire. This is excellent. Watch
out. You're still tethered there.