Well, there's a whole event coming up on data centers, too.
It'll never.
All right.
Obviously, things move rapidly in campaigns, and we're looking at this last home stretch
here.
Last time we checked, it was a couple of months ago.
How are you feeling going into this final one?
That's 28 days, right, of four weeks from today.
And what I feel is, like, there's wind at my back on things.
My challenge from the beginning has been that I am just not as well known as other candidates,
not as well known, in some parts of the state.
I think when people have seen and heard from me, they understand my experience, the work
that I've done, the vision that I have, like, I win over lots of those people.
So, you know, I feel like there is wind at my back, but there's still a long way to go.
And as you say, campaigns change in very short order.
There have been big changes in this one just in the last couple of days.
How does that impact things?
As you talk to voters, are they still making up their minds?
Are they down to, like, a candidate or two, or how were they deciding?
It was nice to me, I just talked to a guy who voted, already voted for me.
So, people are voting.
People who vote by mail are doing that.
But I think more and more people are now starting to pay attention.
You know, I mean, we're here amongst Democratic Party people.
There are lots of people who are active and who have been engaged for several months,
and I love that, and we need more of that.
But in the general public, and the voting public is like the general public, too.
And a lot of them are just starting to tune in.
And so I think there's still a huge opportunity for defining who I am, what I stand for,
what's different about me than the rest of the field, and how I can be the best person
to be Tom Tiffany and start governing on day one.
Like, those are the things that are still the most important thing for me,
and they're not different than they were on day one.
There's a growing consensus among a lot of political observers that want to try
and, like, loop the Democratic primary into a couple of ways.
Like, a centrist government moderate lane and, like, a more progressive farther left lane.
Is that fair? Do you put yourself in that?
I think we better all be in the, let's get something done lane.
It should be in the, let's win, let's be able to govern,
and who is going to be equipped to bring along a Democratic majority in the state legislature,
and then the expectation is for people who are hurting for farmers in Wisconsin,
who have been challenged, like, who is actually going to be there and be ready to hit the ground
running on day one to address issues around childcare, around education, around healthcare costs,
utility costs for people, like, who is the one who is there?
So, rather than putting any ideological markers or ideological purity tests on this,
I think it should be, and it is for most people who is actually going to demonstrate
that they can get stuff done.
There's always a tendency, like, a year or more out from an election for people to fall in love
with maybe a candidate that's a little farther out, the bigger, bolder ideas,
but then as the election gets closer, they go, now, I just want to win.
I'm more nervous about having my party win than maybe the person who's, you know,
got the biggest, dreamiest ideas. Are you sensing that, too?
I mean, I certainly have the sense that winning always is important.
This year, it feels existential.
The harm that's being done to Wisconsin at the federal level,
the fact that cynically, the worst harms when it comes to Medicaid, when it comes to SNAP and food
share, like, those are pushed off until after the midterms because they're hoping that people
won't know what's coming. Like, I think people understand what the stakes are,
and I think people are elevating this race both nationally and in Wisconsin about that.
Like, they, there are real problems that we need to solve,
and if we're only going to get half measures, if we, if there are, you know,
we're going to be so ideologically pure that we can't get stuff done,
we will have a very short time in the sunlight, or we won't win at all.
And I think this is something that people are starting to pay more attention to.
When we talk about campaigns, one of the first things that you can demonstrate it,
and aside from your past history, it's like, how well do you run a campaign?
How much should that matter when there are candidates who have had some issues with
having consistency in people or fundraising, or like those, how big of a sign is that,
or signal to voters that, like, you know how to get the job done.
Campaigns should be about competence. Governing is about competence. For the last 20 years,
I've had nothing but executive experience, including running the state's most important
agency at the Department of Administration and doing it during times of COVID.
Today is July 14th. Tomorrow is July 15th when we turn in our campaign finance report.
I'll be the last person to see it, and I'm going to make sure that I know every detail on it,
the same in January. For somebody to say that they didn't know until last week that hundreds
of thousands of dollars are missing, I think that's something that's a question for voters to answer.
Is that person, if they're not competent to do $600,000 on a campaign,
how are they going to put together a $110 billion budget? How are they going to manage
the complexities around state government? I know my approach to that because I've already done it,
and I did it during COVID. I know, you know, what people can see that what's in my past,
I put out all of the stuff that with all the negative research I could find on myself.
I may be the only candidate in the country who's done it, but I did it because it's important for
people to know before they vote for the primary. It's important for people to know as we head into
the general election. For people that are kind of making big national comparisons,
obviously the Democrats had some issues in Maine. There are other states where there's
some a lot more intra-party fighting. Is it fair to bring any of that or is this
simply about Wisconsin voters? I mean, what we do in the United States is we have 50
statewide elections, whether you're running for president, whether you're running for governor.
The issues in Wisconsin are going to be determined by Wisconsin people. So, you know,
yes, there are national issues. There is national harm that's being done by Donald Trump to people.
If you're a farmer in Wisconsin, like everywhere else, every input cost for you has gone up,
the cost of health care, you know, pitting property tax payers against kids. Like,
those are some of the things that we're dealing with and some of them have national implications,
but Wisconsin voters determine Wisconsin elections. Wisconsin runs Wisconsin elections,
which is another issue we better be prepared to defend. But like, you know, the idea that
there's some national wave of things, I think it's still about individual voters making individual
decisions and making sure that every candidate is up to snuff for them.
Well, this primary has been going on. Tom Tiffany has had a lot of free play to
paint himself positively, and he's done a lot of ads showing him as a folksy regular guy that
everyone would love to hang out with. How much is that going to be a burden to overcome once you
get into past the primary of like making sure you can redefine his agenda, his track record,
and redefining yourself? Yeah, well, one, I have people harking back to 2018 where Tony
Evers won in a primary that was bigger than the one we have now in Wisconsin. And he came out of
that not running against, you know, somebody who also wasn't a sitting governor, but he was running
against Scott Walker. And so, you know, Scott had all that time to do this too. Whoever wins this
primary is going to come out with wind at our back with momentum. And then will be the time where
Tom Tiffany can't just look over his shoulder and talk about his mother. He's going to have to look
over his shoulder and talk about Donald Trump and his relationship to Donald Trump and the fact that
nobody has been closer to Donald Trump. Nobody has been more of an acolyte of the work that Donald
Trump has done. And that has done harm to Wisconsin farmers, to Wisconsin families, to people in our
state. And you know, these are the things that he's going to have to answer to. So he'll have his
time for the next four weeks and come August 12th, he will have to answer to a whole different set
of questions than what he does now. But but I again, I remind people that Tony Evers came out of that
crowded primary. He had momentum. He was able to get that bounce. I expect that that will be the
same for me as we head into the general election. Are you still feeling positive the grind hasn't
gotten to you as you come down the stretch here? Are you kidding on a beautiful day like today?
We're in shade and the wind is coming through? No, I mean, in some ways, I think the last few
weeks have been energizing for me. My family is involved on the campaign. I'm here with my wife
today. We're able to do things together. Like, this is the time, you know, one, it's winning time.
And I've always been a competitive person. And two, it's the time when people finally are starting
to pay attention. Like, I will tell you, every candidate, we've been working at this for seven,
eight, nine months. And we think that every day is, you know, like, we are building, building,
building, we want to start to see that stone roll downhill. Now is when I think people are
starting to decide and where I'm starting to see, you know, much more attention than we did even
just a few weeks ago. So as you saw, at least a couple candidates drop out along the way,
how did you gauge that decision that they were making? Is that like, it's a positive? Is the field
narrows or is it? I think it's, first of all, it's a personal decision for everybody. You know,
this is something that is all encompassing. And I think they have to look at things about
were they able to raise the money? Were they getting the kind of reception that they need? Like,
you know, we still have lots of people who have their decisions to make. But I think if you don't
have the resources to be able to communicate to them, that makes it harder and harder. We've
already spent money. You know, I won't tell you what's going to be on my report tomorrow.
But we've already spent half a million dollars on television around the state. We were the first
candidate to do that. And that was an effort to try to raise my name recognition and do,
you know, address the biggest challenge that I have, which is people just don't know enough
about who I am. When they learn, when they see the work that I've done, the work that I did with
Governor Evers doing COVID and the vision that I have for taking the state forward, I win that.
But my challenge is still that they still got to get to know me. That's why I'm here today,
talking to people here. And, you know, while I'll be in Wasah today in Merrimack tomorrow and
somewhere else the next day, like, we just keep going. And what is the value being in this part
of the state? I mean, because this is not where a lot of Democrats are spending their time.
Yeah, well, there are Democrats all over the state. And there are parts of the state that
haven't had a lot of democratic success that are paying attention more because of the harm that's
happened at the national level, because they are looking for somebody who can answer the question
of, will you do something to make my life better? And Democrats are not always trusted to do it.
In fact, we have less trust in statewide polls than the Republicans do. And we need to be in a
position where we can demonstrate to people that we're going to get stuff done. My career has been
about solving problems and actually getting stuff done for people who live in this part of the state
during COVID. If you were a family farm and you needed support or otherwise you were going to get
foreclosed on, I was part of the state government that helped. If you were a small business and you
were in danger of closing your doors, we were there. Like, government doesn't have the answer to
everything, but I have seen it in opportunities where it had to work and, you know, where it had
the responsibility of working and we made it work. Like, that's, I think, what government needs to do
in times of crisis and even for what passes normal times, because we don't live in normal times,
but we better be prepared to do it now. Anything else you want to add? I don't think so. I mean,
you know, I guess you're not doing as much directly on Sarah and her pride brought that in,
but, you know... No, it's relevant, but, you know, we'll be addressing that on Friday's show.
This will probably air in a bigger grouping afterwards. We work on different timelines in
the daily news, but by the time this airs, that will have been addressed three times.
Maybe, and I don't have any idea. Again, I mean, I will just tell you that the dynamics of the
races change quite a bit. You know, last week we saw what happened with Graham Plattner in Maine,
and in some ways it wasn't directly as a result of that, but I paid somebody to go out and do
research of me, and it's a hundred pages, and I welcome you to go read it. Maybe you have at a
time where you were having trouble going to sleep one night, but the reason I did it is because
the stakes are so high about making sure that we can elect somebody who can get things done
related to healthcare, related to education, related to housing, you know, economic development,
and if people don't know what they're getting, if we're hoping that somebody's not going to
have the bad stuff revealed about it, we're naive, and we need to know who we're getting as we enter
into the general election, and I have been as transparent as anybody. Like, you know, you can
hold a press conference and say that that's transparency, but pay somebody to go out and dig
up if there's anything negative about you and land that out in voters. I take that as transparency
as well, and I think that that's what we need to do. I may well be the only person in the country
who's doing this who's running for governor this year, but I shouldn't be, and there should be
more people who are willing to do that, and willing to show people that this is what you get.
All right. That's what we need. Thank you. Appreciate it.