WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:08.800 The only mistake that I made is to say, once in a period I said, I'm running for Congress. 00:08.800 --> 00:10.400 I forgot that I'm running for governor. 00:10.400 --> 00:14.000 It was a crazy lunch, but I'm looking to stand up for this dude over here. 00:14.000 --> 00:16.000 He's got this sunshine in here. 00:16.000 --> 00:17.000 Oh, okay. 00:17.000 --> 00:18.000 Yeah. 00:18.000 --> 00:19.800 Actually, we were at a Mandela Barnes event. 00:19.800 --> 00:22.000 He said he has a friend named Tiffany Tom. 00:22.000 --> 00:26.000 And he said her social media is all messed up with him. 00:26.000 --> 00:28.000 You just stand in here. 00:28.000 --> 00:29.000 All right. 00:29.000 --> 00:30.000 Yeah. 00:30.000 --> 00:31.000 You're good? 00:31.000 --> 00:32.000 All right. 00:32.000 --> 00:35.320 I guess we've got the Democratic primary is kind of going a little nuts right now. 00:35.320 --> 00:39.000 What's your reaction to all of them at the chaos over there? 00:39.000 --> 00:43.200 I mean, when you look at the candidates, it's not surprising, especially with the injection 00:43.200 --> 00:47.880 of the big government's socialism that's really being pushed. 00:47.880 --> 00:53.320 And we know, we've always known that that was going to be the end point for them, but 00:53.320 --> 00:54.800 they wanted to get there gradually. 00:54.800 --> 01:00.240 Well, they're boiling the frog fast is what they're doing at this point. 01:00.240 --> 01:04.160 And they just don't want to admit that that's ultimately where they were heading. 01:04.160 --> 01:07.160 There really isn't a time's worth of difference between the candidates. 01:07.160 --> 01:11.800 I mean, they're very similar and whoever comes out of the primary is going to be advocating 01:11.800 --> 01:12.800 for the same stuff. 01:12.800 --> 01:17.200 It's actually hard to translate to voters if someone other than Francesco Hong wins because 01:17.200 --> 01:21.560 it looks like the party's trying to keep it away from her and find if they call it a 01:21.560 --> 01:24.760 more centrist that the voter might believe, oh, they're more centrist than her. 01:24.840 --> 01:29.440 I mean, is that a concern that because of her being there that makes them all look a 01:29.440 --> 01:30.680 little more centrist? 01:30.680 --> 01:32.360 No, no, I don't think so. 01:32.360 --> 01:37.680 I mean, when you have a candidate that said America's founding was awful, when you have 01:37.680 --> 01:45.040 a candidate who could not keep the health insurance in place for county employees, I 01:45.040 --> 01:46.760 mean, they have serious problems. 01:46.760 --> 01:48.520 But that's not what I'm going to be focused on. 01:48.520 --> 01:50.600 I'm focused on the future of Wisconsin. 01:50.600 --> 01:52.560 We're going to make the state more affordable. 01:52.560 --> 01:57.120 We're going to make state government more accountable to the taxpayers and we are going 01:57.120 --> 02:01.200 to revive Wisconsin and make it one of the great states in America once again. 02:01.200 --> 02:07.240 This is a state that has really, really great potential that's that needs to be unlocked 02:07.240 --> 02:08.240 at this point. 02:08.240 --> 02:09.240 We're going to do that. 02:09.240 --> 02:12.000 Talk to me a little about the advantage you've had of like kind of introducing yourself 02:12.000 --> 02:16.240 to the rest of the state that doesn't know you as a congressmen and the advantage of mostly 02:16.240 --> 02:19.040 having the field to yourself and the money to actually advertise. 02:19.520 --> 02:22.880 Yeah, I mean, it was one of the voles from the start was to make sure that people got 02:22.880 --> 02:32.280 to meet me on my own terms because oftentimes when your opponents get to do it, they do not 02:32.280 --> 02:33.280 really it accurately. 02:33.280 --> 02:37.920 I would just put it that way and we're able to tell it in our own terms. 02:37.920 --> 02:38.920 I mean, people see. 02:38.920 --> 02:43.960 I mean, I grew up on a dairy farm like so many people did in Wisconsin. 02:43.960 --> 02:45.720 We learned the value of hard work. 02:45.720 --> 02:50.520 We raised our family, you know, in a middle class setting. 02:50.520 --> 02:53.040 We worked hard as small business people. 02:53.040 --> 02:56.840 It was never easy, but we were better for it. 02:56.840 --> 03:00.840 I mean, we achieved as I said on the stage here, we achieved the American dream here 03:00.840 --> 03:01.840 in Wisconsin. 03:01.840 --> 03:07.280 I just want young people to also be able to achieve their dreams here in Wisconsin. 03:07.280 --> 03:11.720 So what is this contrast going to be like when we flip the script into August 12th and 03:11.720 --> 03:13.560 beyond where you do have an opponent. 03:13.560 --> 03:16.880 You can actually name and identify, start digging into their record. 03:16.880 --> 03:18.720 What will that look like for voters? 03:18.720 --> 03:20.760 It really will be crazy versus common sense. 03:20.760 --> 03:26.360 I mean, when you see these things like abolishing the Senate, abolishing prisons, and when you 03:26.360 --> 03:33.280 see someone with that unfortunate shooting in Madison come out and say the police may 03:33.280 --> 03:37.920 have executed that person, I mean, that's really wild rhetoric. 03:37.920 --> 03:39.280 People from Wisconsin don't want that. 03:39.280 --> 03:43.640 They want to have a steady hand as their governor, and someone who has a vision for 03:43.640 --> 03:48.200 making Wisconsin a really great state once again, and that's what I'm going to bring 03:48.200 --> 03:49.200 is that steady hand. 03:49.200 --> 03:53.360 You were talking about the ads and defining yourself versus letting your opponents, and 03:53.360 --> 03:58.080 I guess the contrast of four years ago or even how do you use race where those primaries 03:58.080 --> 04:03.640 really took the ability away from the candidate to define themselves first, and they got slammed 04:03.640 --> 04:07.560 to so many ads versus the atmosphere you're running in where people are learning about 04:07.560 --> 04:08.880 you from you. 04:08.880 --> 04:09.880 It's completely different, right? 04:09.880 --> 04:15.040 Yeah, well, I mean, we planned our campaign out this way, and we thought we could, I mean, 04:15.040 --> 04:19.320 we've been fortunate, there's no doubt, but this is how we envisioned it in being able 04:19.320 --> 04:23.040 to deliver the message to the people of state of Wisconsin, because we knew this was going 04:23.040 --> 04:25.760 to be a really big election in 2026. 04:25.760 --> 04:30.520 I mean, I could have stayed home and had a safe seat in Congress for probably as long 04:30.520 --> 04:34.680 as I wanted to, but that's not why I got into politics. 04:34.680 --> 04:40.680 I got into politics to make Wisconsin a better state, and we did that back when I was first 04:40.680 --> 04:45.640 elected to the legislature in 2010, when we fixed that enormous budget deficit of $3 04:45.640 --> 04:46.640 billion. 04:46.640 --> 04:51.040 I meant it to fix problems, and that's what we're going to do when I become a governor. 04:51.040 --> 04:55.160 A few months ago, a lot of Republicans were saying, well, it's an off year, it's not 04:55.160 --> 04:59.080 a good year, the presidential is going to weigh down the party, are you seeing more optimism 04:59.080 --> 05:03.000 as people look at your campaign and say, wait a minute, there's a real chance here? 05:03.480 --> 05:04.960 There's really good optimism out there. 05:04.960 --> 05:07.400 I mean, we see it with this event that we're doing tonight. 05:07.400 --> 05:09.880 I mean, there's well over 100 people that are here. 05:09.880 --> 05:14.200 We've been doing these cavern talks all over Wisconsin, and people are really optimistic, 05:14.200 --> 05:16.000 and they are really motivated. 05:16.000 --> 05:18.840 They know what's at stake here in 2026. 05:18.840 --> 05:21.720 They don't want to go the route of big government socialism. 05:21.720 --> 05:26.040 They want to save Wisconsin, and that's exactly what we're going to do. 05:26.040 --> 05:30.560 I think that message is going to resonate all the way from here to November, and I believe 05:30.560 --> 05:32.920 we're going to win as a result of it. 05:33.200 --> 05:39.480 I've really tried to be positive in regards to there's problems. 05:39.480 --> 05:44.640 We need to fix them, but after we've fixed them, we're going to lead Wisconsin in the 05:44.640 --> 05:45.640 right direction. 05:45.640 --> 05:46.640 Thanks for your time. 05:46.640 --> 05:47.640 Really appreciate it. 05:47.640 --> 05:48.640 Always good to join you. 05:48.640 --> 05:49.640 Thanks for that.