from the recesses of like, why do I know that?
The lizard brain is holding on to this makes sense.
Exactly.
For some reason, in case I'm going to need that information one day, how to recognize.
That's the way I'm with my husband with like 80s music and stuff, I'm like, you should
let that go.
You got like new memory tips to put in there.
It gives you a lot of insight into, you know, like all timers or some of the people like
where they store some of those old or core memories, because, you know, I could not tell
you which decade music came from the last two, 25 years, but like in their age range
of the 80s and 90s, I could like almost give you the month that came out, like this core
identity things, and yeah, the worst is when you reintroduce your kids to some of your
favorite stuff, and they're like, this sucks, like, why do you like this dance?
Oh my god, my kids have like, my son Tucker has this playlist that is so perfectly my
high school years.
It's coming, yeah, it's weird, it's coming back.
My stepdaughter is now into like Beastie Boys and ACDC, and it's like, what are you
talking about?
Like, why do you know the Beastie Boys?
There's nothing better coming out right now, so you can't blame them for that.
No, no, but it's like, it is weird to feel like that's your retro, like when they say
this classic kid from, you know, when you were a freshman in high school, it's like,
oh no, I'm classic rock.
Yeah.
On that note, we're set to go.
We're good.
All right.
Well, Missy Hughes, thanks so much for joining us.
Good to see you.
So for voters who don't know you, introduce yourself and tell us why you're running for
governor.
Yeah, so I'm a mother of three.
I've lived in Wisconsin since almost 2000, and we raised our family here.
My husband and I working for Organic Valley, and I worked for Organic Valley for 17 years,
and then Governor Evers asked if I was interested in running economic development for the state.
So for the last six years, I was the head of Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.
Is there a single issue that drives you, or perhaps a lane within the party that helps
define you?
You know, it's all about the economy, and building a strong economy for all Wisconsin
ites.
That's what I did for years working at Organic Valley, helping farmers stay on their farms,
and then at WEDC, building an economy, whether it was in Milwaukee or Anego or Superior all
around the state, working with communities and businesses so that everyday Wisconsinites
can succeed.
How much money do you think you need to raise in order to win this primary?
Oh, you know, the money factor in politics is really interesting, and I have an incredible
network.
I think that the race is going to be anywhere between two or three million dollars for the
primary, but you know, I'm just guessing I'm not sure that I have the best answer for that.
I can tell you that headed into the general, which is what I'm focused on.
It is going to be an incredible race.
All eyes of the nation are going to be on Wisconsin.
But you personally, how do you define the difference between negative campaigning against
a member of your own party versus just defining the differences between two candidates?
You know, I'm excited that Wisconsin has a lot of choices for the Democratic primary,
and my goal is to make sure that Wisconsinites know my story.
I have a story that is fresh and different.
I've never run for office before.
I'm the only one who is from outside of Madison or Milwaukee, so I have a lot to say about
myself.
I'm going to be focused on telling my story.
For primary voters who are tuning in right now, should they be looking for the candidate
where they align most closely on the issues, or should they be thinking about electability?
You know, as a Wisconsinite, I want to make sure that we keep the governor's seat blue
and that we have someone who can lead the state and be successful in building an economy
for the state, and that's why just as a citizen of Wisconsin, I'm focused on electability
and making sure that we get the right candidate winning in November.
For this Democratic primary, most of the candidates have connections to Madison or Milwaukee
Southeast Wisconsin, or even your position ties you to Madison.
What's your goal to reach the rest of the state and let people know that you can connect
with those other areas?
Yeah, well, first and foremost, I live in Western Wisconsin, so I am from outside of
Madison and Milwaukee.
I have worked all around the state.
We've had impact in all 72 counties, so you know, whether it's a small business in Washburn
that we've supported, or Milwaukee tool, or Pfizer, and downtown, Milwaukee, we've
had impact all around the state, and so I can speak to creating a statewide coalition
that carries the day next November.
What will be the impact of Donald Trump on this election?
You know, I think what we're really seeing is just a devastation in the economy.
As I'm talking to businesses, they are pulling back, they're not rehiring people, they're
stopping investments, and as I'm talking to everyday Wisconsinites, they are struggling
to make ends meet.
This is all because of Donald Trump's policies.
This is a man-made crisis that we are in right now, you know, looking at what's happening
with the farmers out in Western Wisconsin, we saw farmers plowing under soybeans, which
is insanity, and now Donald Trump is offering a bailout to try to make up for his failed
policies, and again, this man-made crisis that he has created.
When you look at the diversity that the Democratic primary is offering, we're still
hearing rumors of other candidates out there, why does it seem like there's some people
within the party that want a white guy to get on the ticket somehow?
You know, like I said, Wisconsin is going to have a lot of different choices, and what
I hear from Wisconsinites is they want someone who is not the same old same old, not someone
who is just looking for the next rung up on their career, someone who is really demonstrated
impact and service to the state.
That's what I've done for my entire career, again, working for farmers, working in the
dairy industry and manufacturing, which are huge in Wisconsin, and so I think that, you
know, the more the merrier, whoever, you know, wants to come and join this adventure of running
for governor, but at the end of the day, we need the best candidate who can win next
November, and that's me.
As governor, there's a good chance you could have a Democratic legislature behind you.
In that case, what's your AB one?
What's the first bill you want to sign?
Well, the first thing that the governor comes in and does at any time when there's
a new governor is write the budget, and so I will be working closely with whoever's in
the legislature to make sure that we have a budget that is immediately addressing challenges
that Wisconsinites are facing, things like health care and childcare costs, but also
we have, you know, a real challenge around public education.
We need to reinvest in our teachers and our schools, and we need to make sure that our
university and our tech colleges are funded in a way that helps them move forward.
It's all about investment.
It's all about taking the dollars that we have in Madison and leveraging them around
the state to make great things happen for Wisconsinites.
There's also a good chance that Republicans could control part of the legislature.
What's your history of working across the aisle?
You know, I would say I was confirmed twice by the Republican Senate unanimously as secretary
of economic development, and if you asked any of them, I believe that they would say
they have a record of working with me.
I would also say that I've had a bipartisan board at WEDC for six years, and in that whole
time we had two close votes.
Other than that, the board was practically unanimous in many of our moves approving
our budgets, passing programs, so I have a mindset of working with everybody who is willing
to come to the table and have good discussions and think about how do we make Wisconsin better.
The public service commission is looking at some large utility rate hikes, and we're
seeing data centers being proposed all over the state.
What's your policy on that, and do you think we need to put some laws in place regarding
those issues?
You know, I think the most important thing to remember when it comes to data centers
is we have leverage in those conversations.
The data centers want to be here in Wisconsin.
For the main reason is that it's cold, and it doesn't cost as much for them to cool those
big data centers because of mother nature and just the weather that's all around them.
So if they want to come to our party, if they want to be here, let's invite them, but
let's be at the table making sure that they are good partners for the state, and making
sure that we are negotiating the best deals that we can for the state.
I'm somebody who's been at that table, I've had those conversations, I've worked with
the big data centers and the big providers, I've worked with many big companies in negotiating
for Wisconsin, and I have that experience that I would bring to the table, and I would
be very hands-on in making sure that we're doing everything we can to protect Wisconsin
ratepayers, Wisconsin's environment, but also take advantage of the opportunity that's
offered by the investment we're seeing in technology.
You mentioned public education, does that just need more money, or is there an overhaul
that needs to be involved in that?
You know, right now we're in this situation where we have said that competition is good.
We, decades ago, we decided, you know, competition is going to make our public schools better.
But one thing we're not doing is looking at the rating of how other schools are doing
that are receiving public funds, whether those are charter schools or other types of choice
schools, we need to have a scale that helps us understand how are they competing.
It isn't necessarily that something must be better than public schools, it's let's
have a real accountability, make sure our kids are achieving and getting the quality
that they need in order to succeed.
I will do everything I can to support public schools and public school teachers because
that is so fundamental to how we are as a state, we're based in education, we just
had eight years of an education governor who did tremendous work and I was proud to work
for him, but we need to make sure that we continue to invest and put those dollars to
work in our communities.
When it comes to the voucher system, do you think that needs to be restricted, expanded,
left alone?
I think that we need to look and make sure that we have good accountability and transparency
before we start making decisions about stopping or starting or eliminating, we need to understand
what are they providing for our children and our families because there are families that
are counting on those voucher schools, but at the same time, it can't come at the cost
of public schools and it can't come at the cost of making sure that we're funding a special
education.
What's the number one tax reform that you'd like to see happen?
I would like to see that we're making sure that when Wisconsinites pay into their income
taxes or their property taxes, those dollars are getting reinvested.
Right now, we have a system where the money is coming to Wisconsin to Madison and it is
staying here and not being reinvested in our communities.
When we pay our harden dollars into property taxes or income taxes, we expect those to
be leveraged back across the state and so making sure that we have a system that is
responsibly deploying those dollars is the first thing that I think is most important.
Over the course of the last year, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has rolled back legislative oversight
of the rulemaking process and there have been some people saying that we need to have some
bipartisan reform to put some oversight back in place.
What do you think on those issues?
You know, there is a broken process between the executive branch and our legislative branch.
That broken process has been years and years in the making and it is because we can't find
our way to allow the other side to have a win or to have the other side to have a good
conversation about these things.
What we need to do is get people back to the table and as governor, what I would want to
do is be sitting down with legislators who have concerns around particular regulations,
understanding what those concerns are, but then saying, you know, we got to move these
things forward.
People need to know that government can function.
We can't have these things continually hung up just like the surplus in Madison and not
being answered for the people of Wisconsin.
What would you like to see in terms of funding for local governments?
You know, local governments are really struggling under the weight of a lack of funding and years
of lack of funding.
I had a chance to sit down with the local police department in Vernon County.
I did a ride along and sat and talked with the sheriff and he explained to me some of
the real challenges they're seeing when it comes to taking care of their officers but
also taking care of the people who are in their facilities.
And, you know, when we're making decisions about, you know, whether to support the mental
health care of our law enforcement officers versus making sure that we're providing other
services to Wisconsinites and these are very, very difficult conversations, we need to do
better and make sure that local communities have resources.
My platform of building the economy is really focused on looking at the main streets around
the state saying what do you need, what are your priorities, giving some resources so
that then they can start to generate momentum and be able to have local economies that are
providing good jobs, health care and the services that Wisconsinites need.
Currently there are multiple exploratory mining projects happening in northern Wisconsin that
could develop into full-scale mines.
Do you think that our current mining law is sufficient to deal with that and what are
your thoughts on mining?
You know, I think that we've seen decades of ignoring people's rights when it comes
to some of that land, whether it's our tribal nations in the state and also ignoring the
economic, I'm sorry, the environmental impact on some of our areas.
Natural resources in Wisconsin are the basis of our economy.
We have to protect them while at the same time we have to use them responsibly.
We have to make sure that our mining laws are in tune with current mindset around how
we protect people's rights in the land and protecting the environment with making sure
that we keep using the resources in a responsible way.
Do you have any concerns about your own personal safety in this political environment while
campaigning?
You know, no more than how dangerous it is to drive here from western Wisconsin on an
icy day.
You know, certainly it's disappointing to see the level of noise that is created around
politics these days and Wisconsinites are looking for someone who's going to bring that
noise level down.
That's what I'm going to do and, you know, despite security concerns, despite things
like that, I have the energy to be in this conversation.
That's what Wisconsinites need.
We need leaders who are ready for day in, day out, working through these issues in
reasonable ways and that's what I'm going to do.
What would you like to do in terms of increasing affordable housing across the state?
You know, housing is a vexing problem but it is not insurmountable and what we've seen
at WEDC, the work that we did was to support innovative housing, whether it's bringing
a nursing home into housing, a nursing home that's closed in Gilman.
We were able to support making that into apartments or schools that have closed due
to lack of population turning those into housing but we were also seeing, you know, new housing
being built and so what I would want to do is make sure that local communities have the
resources they need to provide the infrastructure, the water, the sewer for new housing but then
also making sure that we're supporting developers all around the state as they make the move
to build housing.
I think we can do it, we have to find the best practices that are being utilized all
around the state and replicate them but it's one step at a time, it's a mountain that has
to be climbed and the way that you do that is by taking one step at a time.
Right now Governor Evers has an ambitious plan to overhaul the Department of Corrections,
would you carry that plan forward?
I would, I watched that plan be developed, I have great, great respect for the team at
the Department of Corrections who has put that plan together along with Governor Evers'
administration and we need to get moving on that, it might not be perfect but nothing
ever is when it comes to corrections, it's a very difficult situation but we need to
make improvements on that, we need to modernize that system, it is costing us more now to keep
the old system in place than it would be to build a new system and get that rolling.
Would you like to see any changes to Wisconsin's abortion law?
I would like to see it proactively protected, women's right to choose right now is dependent
on court cases and we need to have a law on the on the books that protects women's right
to choose, protects women's rights to take care of everything that they need for their
bodies and puts women first in that conversation.
Alright, Missy Hughes, thanks for your time.
Thank you.
Alright, thank you for coming in, I appreciate it.
Mining laws, Zach.