I think voters are feeling pretty betrayed as I would be and frustrated.
Our campaign has always focused on accountability, transparency, and honesty.
That's how I want to lead as well, and I hope that folks will continue to engage in the campaign and know that there are candidates and elected officials who hold themselves to the highest standards of integrity when it comes to especially campaign finance.
I know when we checked in before there were a lot of people early on who made up their minds but a lot of people were very undecided, all the polling indicated that is how much as that group of undecided shrunk in your opinion.
Who's left to win at this point in the last month?
I think that there are many voters who were going to see who was left in the field.
I think the percentages of undecided voters, I can't speak to them right now, we know that no matter what zip code you're in or where you're at, we want to have a conversation and make sure that we make our case for our vision for permanent affordability.
Is one that will make your life easier?
There's been a narrative developing, I'm sure in the media, where it's guilty as any one of the progressives versus centrist. Do you think that's a fair way to group candidates in this race?
I think people are looking at policy agendas and how folks are able to build a coalition and making sure that, like ours, that's a grassroots and community powered campaign.
It's resonating when you're hearing from your neighbors or a different community member, not just from the campaign, about why you're supporting Hong for Governor.
Tom Tiffany's had the field to himself for quite a while to run positive ads, portraying himself as the guy at the end of the bar, your neighbor down the road.
Is that creating too much of a buffer for him and the eyes of voters that may have never heard or don't know him that well and what's it going to take to put his record out there from the Democratic point of view when the primary is over?
Tom Tiffany has been the front runner of presumptive nominee for months, still be doing intro ads as a little bit embarrassing.
Think to have that much money to still try to introduce yourself to voters, portray yourself as an everyday guy when you are someone who is a pedophile protector who voted to gut health care and take food away from kids and support a national abortion ban.
Wisconsin voters are smarter than that. They want someone who will lead with a steady hand and focus on delivering to make lives easier and more affordable for all Wisconsinites.
Now that we've gotten past the Fourth of July, are you feeling momentum change? I mean, that was a pretty packed room here in Ozaki County.
I know this is one of those kind of bellwether counties that Democrats have been looking at growing some of that suburban realignment.
What's it mean to you to come into a room like this and have standing room only in the back?
It's exciting that Democrats here in Ozaki County are engaged and have been organizing.
They're doing the work to make sure we've got great candidates running as Democrats up and down the ballot.
I'm grateful that they took time out of their day to hear our remarks and our plan.
I think that seeing this enthusiasm, I hope folks.
I know our campaign and our volunteers have worked hard to earn this enthusiasm and we're going to work even harder to earn their votes in August and in November.
Is that something that you're seeing everywhere? I mean, it's Ozaki County any different than other counties that we haven't followed you with?
We were excited to see over a hundred people in Dunn County when we had an event kind of last minute too in Menominee.
We had a great event at Casey's Kitchen. We want to uplift our small businesses when we were demanded to walk over 80-some people there.
In our first round of counter-protesters, I think that kind of means maybe we're making it.
It's interesting that people look at primaries and they think only the die-hard traditional Democrats are going to come out for a primary in August,
but do you feel like you're bringing in people who may not have voted in primaries in the past that are ready to hear their voices heard now?
Absolutely. It's imperative that we grow a coalition and the electorate for Democrats to win power and maintain power.
We have to make sure that our coalition is multi-generational, multi-faith and with representatives it goes from all across the state.
It's exciting to hear folks have their plan to vote and it's their first time to vote.
We've got fundraising numbers coming in. How should people that don't dig into the details? What can they take away?
What advice would you give them to be the best barometer of what any of those numbers mean?
How many people have donated to a campaign? What is the average donation and look at how much was raised through smaller individual donations
and maybe one versus one individual that gave the maximum $20,000?
We're looking forward to showing that we are the people-powered grassroots campaign and this is going to be the year of the money and not just the money.
Thanks so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Good to see you again.