1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,800 The only mistake that I made is to say, once in a period I said, I'm running for Congress. 2 00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:10,400 I forgot that I'm running for governor. 3 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:14,000 It was a crazy lunch, but I'm looking to stand up for this dude over here. 4 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:16,000 He's got this sunshine in here. 5 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:17,000 Oh, okay. 6 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:18,000 Yeah. 7 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:19,800 Actually, we were at a Mandela Barnes event. 8 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:22,000 He said he has a friend named Tiffany Tom. 9 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:26,000 And he said her social media is all messed up with him. 10 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:28,000 You just stand in here. 11 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:29,000 All right. 12 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:30,000 Yeah. 13 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:31,000 You're good? 14 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:32,000 All right. 15 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:35,320 I guess we've got the Democratic primary is kind of going a little nuts right now. 16 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:39,000 What's your reaction to all of them at the chaos over there? 17 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:43,200 I mean, when you look at the candidates, it's not surprising, especially with the injection 18 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:47,880 of the big government's socialism that's really being pushed. 19 00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:53,320 And we know, we've always known that that was going to be the end point for them, but 20 00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:54,800 they wanted to get there gradually. 21 00:00:54,800 --> 00:01:00,240 Well, they're boiling the frog fast is what they're doing at this point. 22 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:04,160 And they just don't want to admit that that's ultimately where they were heading. 23 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:07,160 There really isn't a time's worth of difference between the candidates. 24 00:01:07,160 --> 00:01:11,800 I mean, they're very similar and whoever comes out of the primary is going to be advocating 25 00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:12,800 for the same stuff. 26 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:17,200 It's actually hard to translate to voters if someone other than Francesco Hong wins because 27 00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:21,560 it looks like the party's trying to keep it away from her and find if they call it a 28 00:01:21,560 --> 00:01:24,760 more centrist that the voter might believe, oh, they're more centrist than her. 29 00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:29,440 I mean, is that a concern that because of her being there that makes them all look a 30 00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:30,680 little more centrist? 31 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:32,360 No, no, I don't think so. 32 00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:37,680 I mean, when you have a candidate that said America's founding was awful, when you have 33 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:45,040 a candidate who could not keep the health insurance in place for county employees, I 34 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:46,760 mean, they have serious problems. 35 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:48,520 But that's not what I'm going to be focused on. 36 00:01:48,520 --> 00:01:50,600 I'm focused on the future of Wisconsin. 37 00:01:50,600 --> 00:01:52,560 We're going to make the state more affordable. 38 00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:57,120 We're going to make state government more accountable to the taxpayers and we are going 39 00:01:57,120 --> 00:02:01,200 to revive Wisconsin and make it one of the great states in America once again. 40 00:02:01,200 --> 00:02:07,240 This is a state that has really, really great potential that's that needs to be unlocked 41 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:08,240 at this point. 42 00:02:08,240 --> 00:02:09,240 We're going to do that. 43 00:02:09,240 --> 00:02:12,000 Talk to me a little about the advantage you've had of like kind of introducing yourself 44 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:16,240 to the rest of the state that doesn't know you as a congressmen and the advantage of mostly 45 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:19,040 having the field to yourself and the money to actually advertise. 46 00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:22,880 Yeah, I mean, it was one of the voles from the start was to make sure that people got 47 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:32,280 to meet me on my own terms because oftentimes when your opponents get to do it, they do not 48 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:33,280 really it accurately. 49 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:37,920 I would just put it that way and we're able to tell it in our own terms. 50 00:02:37,920 --> 00:02:38,920 I mean, people see. 51 00:02:38,920 --> 00:02:43,960 I mean, I grew up on a dairy farm like so many people did in Wisconsin. 52 00:02:43,960 --> 00:02:45,720 We learned the value of hard work. 53 00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:50,520 We raised our family, you know, in a middle class setting. 54 00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:53,040 We worked hard as small business people. 55 00:02:53,040 --> 00:02:56,840 It was never easy, but we were better for it. 56 00:02:56,840 --> 00:03:00,840 I mean, we achieved as I said on the stage here, we achieved the American dream here 57 00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:01,840 in Wisconsin. 58 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:07,280 I just want young people to also be able to achieve their dreams here in Wisconsin. 59 00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:11,720 So what is this contrast going to be like when we flip the script into August 12th and 60 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:13,560 beyond where you do have an opponent. 61 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:16,880 You can actually name and identify, start digging into their record. 62 00:03:16,880 --> 00:03:18,720 What will that look like for voters? 63 00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:20,760 It really will be crazy versus common sense. 64 00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:26,360 I mean, when you see these things like abolishing the Senate, abolishing prisons, and when you 65 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:33,280 see someone with that unfortunate shooting in Madison come out and say the police may 66 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:37,920 have executed that person, I mean, that's really wild rhetoric. 67 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:39,280 People from Wisconsin don't want that. 68 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:43,640 They want to have a steady hand as their governor, and someone who has a vision for 69 00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:48,200 making Wisconsin a really great state once again, and that's what I'm going to bring 70 00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:49,200 is that steady hand. 71 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:53,360 You were talking about the ads and defining yourself versus letting your opponents, and 72 00:03:53,360 --> 00:03:58,080 I guess the contrast of four years ago or even how do you use race where those primaries 73 00:03:58,080 --> 00:04:03,640 really took the ability away from the candidate to define themselves first, and they got slammed 74 00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:07,560 to so many ads versus the atmosphere you're running in where people are learning about 75 00:04:07,560 --> 00:04:08,880 you from you. 76 00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:09,880 It's completely different, right? 77 00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:15,040 Yeah, well, I mean, we planned our campaign out this way, and we thought we could, I mean, 78 00:04:15,040 --> 00:04:19,320 we've been fortunate, there's no doubt, but this is how we envisioned it in being able 79 00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:23,040 to deliver the message to the people of state of Wisconsin, because we knew this was going 80 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:25,760 to be a really big election in 2026. 81 00:04:25,760 --> 00:04:30,520 I mean, I could have stayed home and had a safe seat in Congress for probably as long 82 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:34,680 as I wanted to, but that's not why I got into politics. 83 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:40,680 I got into politics to make Wisconsin a better state, and we did that back when I was first 84 00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:45,640 elected to the legislature in 2010, when we fixed that enormous budget deficit of $3 85 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:46,640 billion. 86 00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:51,040 I meant it to fix problems, and that's what we're going to do when I become a governor. 87 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:55,160 A few months ago, a lot of Republicans were saying, well, it's an off year, it's not 88 00:04:55,160 --> 00:04:59,080 a good year, the presidential is going to weigh down the party, are you seeing more optimism 89 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:03,000 as people look at your campaign and say, wait a minute, there's a real chance here? 90 00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:04,960 There's really good optimism out there. 91 00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:07,400 I mean, we see it with this event that we're doing tonight. 92 00:05:07,400 --> 00:05:09,880 I mean, there's well over 100 people that are here. 93 00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:14,200 We've been doing these cavern talks all over Wisconsin, and people are really optimistic, 94 00:05:14,200 --> 00:05:16,000 and they are really motivated. 95 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:18,840 They know what's at stake here in 2026. 96 00:05:18,840 --> 00:05:21,720 They don't want to go the route of big government socialism. 97 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:26,040 They want to save Wisconsin, and that's exactly what we're going to do. 98 00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:30,560 I think that message is going to resonate all the way from here to November, and I believe 99 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:32,920 we're going to win as a result of it. 100 00:05:33,200 --> 00:05:39,480 I've really tried to be positive in regards to there's problems. 101 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:44,640 We need to fix them, but after we've fixed them, we're going to lead Wisconsin in the 102 00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:45,640 right direction. 103 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:46,640 Thanks for your time. 104 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:47,640 Really appreciate it. 105 00:05:47,640 --> 00:05:48,640 Always good to join you. 106 00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:49,640 Thanks for that.