representative, encouraged me to run for counsel.
She was the mayor, and she said, hey,
I think you would be a great person to serve with me.
I think we'd get a lot of great things accomplished.
And so I decided my entire time on that on the council
was COVID.
And so I was there when the government shut down
businesses, when everything was in lockdown.
I was there during the middle of it,
someone who was not just going to hide under the radar,
but someone who will fight back against this Trump regime,
or this administration, and what they're doing to our country.
And so before I get into it, let me back up a little bit
and let you know how I got to this point.
And so I grew up in Wisconsin, to have
worked with all my parents, actually worked long hours.
They would come home around six o'clock,
and me and my siblings had to take care of each other
growing up.
So my mom started in the manufacturing industry.
So proud to be all these laborary signs behind me,
because we grew up in a very much labor-focused family.
So business fixing computers at a time
when not many people had computers.
So again, I did learn about technology
I really really like.
But I spent my first time working at hand-me-down clothes.
Me and my brothers relied on our school screen lunch program
just to get by my sister dealt with medical issues
her entire life.
And I said to say she, unfortunately, lost a battle to that.
And despite my parents having to go through that heartbreak,
it was not enough why I decided to run for Congress
during this time.
One, as I've said, and I always say,
I feel as though the working class has been left behind,
especially by this administration.
But this is going back further and further.
As someone who knows what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck,
I understand right now that life is increasingly
becoming too unaffordable for individuals and households,
be it grocery prices, now electricity prices, health care.
If you name it, everything is going up.
Gas, I just saw the other day.
It was under $3 and now it's almost $3.20 right now
because of what's happening across the world
thanks to this president.
And so while we are struggling just to get by
just the four basic necessities, we
have politicians in DC who are busy fighting for more power
or participating in insider trading
to make themselves more rich while we, the working class,
the everyday person who keeps our economy going
is struggling just to get by.
So that's reason number one.
Reason number two, and this is probably pretty obvious,
but our current Congressmen, quite frankly, is a clown.
And I could go on and on about his poor performance,
but just a couple of things.
I mean, it's been over a year since Glen Brofmann
has hosted an in-person town hall,
preventing his constituents from even talking,
even just getting basic information
about what's happening in our country.
That is the base level responsibility of a representative
is to let their constituents know what's happening
in our country and what they're doing.
That's not happening.
Glen Brofmann has a 10% rating,
lifetime score with the AFL-CIO.
I was just at a labor dinner last night in Fondelac,
chatting with folks from different unions and labor groups.
And the response every time I said,
hey, I'm running against Glen Brofmann,
it was typically a very nasty response
based on his performance.
Glen Brofmann is not an ally to labor,
to unions, or the working class.
He has evoted for, and part of my language,
but he voted for what I call the bigger bullshit bill,
which adds $5 trillion to the national debt
and cut $1 trillion to our healthcare
where low-income families rely on that
just to get their basic needs met.
And as we've seen and how he has voted,
he does not support releasing the Epstein files
and holding people accountable.
Based on everything we've seen,
he has yet to give a statement on even
the state of things that are happening around that.
He's on the oversight committee.
He is the person who should be asking the tough questions,
who should be holding folks like Pam Bond,
the accountable,
thank goodness she is no longer in her position.
But, instead of asking these tough questions,
holding them accountable,
he spent his time praising her for the work
that she's done.
It's laughable at this point.
And so, like I said, I can go on and on about
Glen Brofmann's poor performance,
but what we've seen and what we know is that
we are not even getting the very basic,
the low bar of basic representation from him.
And so, we're seeing across this district
that people are fed up with it.
And I've talked to Democrats,
independents and Republicans.
And they are not happy about what's going on.
They're not happy with the Trump administration.
Basically, every promise he made
is completely done the opposite of it.
And so, I see a great opportunity
to flip this district this year.
It is a tough district.
We have had Glen Brofmann for the last 12 years.
We've had some great candidates in the past.
But I think a lot of it does have to do with timing.
And this is a time when people are fed up
with what is happening in our country,
the current state of politics,
and they want something new.
It doesn't matter if you're,
what party you have behind your name,
they want someone who is going to engage respectfully,
talk to them like a human being,
someone who has actual policies.
And I look forward to getting into those
and financing your questions about them.
But also someone who is going to call off the bullshit.
When we see it, who is not afraid to say,
no, that's not correct.
You are not accurately representing what's happening.
And I know you all seem on social media
and in the news, the amount of lies
that have come out from this administration
and Glen Brofmann's lack of spine
to stand up to those lies and tell us the truth.
And so, again, I'm Aaron Wojowski or Will Joe.
And I'm really excited to be running for this position.
We're in a very competitive primary.
And I'm honored to be one of the leading candidates
as of this time, having raised the most funds,
having great social media outreach,
and inspiring young people, especially.
We know that the next generation has to be engaged
and they have to be the force that helps us
get over that finish line in November.
And so, I'm incredibly honored to be here,
especially paired up with Cala that will be speaking
after me, a great friend of mine,
and a great legislator leader.
But we have a real opportunity this year to flip,
not just the house, flip our state legislature,
retain the governorship, and make sure that we have
a government that reflects our values,
and that will fight for us,
and actually tell us what's happening in our country.
So, that's my intro.
I'm here to answer your question.
Thank you.
Thank you, Gabe, and I'm delighted to be back here
in Sheboygan County.
I feel like I was just here,
but actually everywhere I go in Wisconsin,
I'm like, I was just here.
I'm delighted to be here.
My name is Kelton Royce,
and I'm running for governor for two very important reasons.
First, we are living in a very dangerous period
in American history.
We have an authoritarian regime in Washington
that is shredding our constitution.
They are undermining the rule of law.
They have unleashed a violent paramilitary force
against us in our communities,
and we need a governor with a spine of steel
who will use every tool at her disposal
to protect us from the many harms of this Republican regime
and to do her best to try to bring our democracy back
from the brink.
Secondly, and this is a more hopeful note,
those of us that have been in rooms like this
over the last 16 years know that for about a generation,
it's Wisconsin's been a pretty tough place to be a Democrat,
and that's because we've had the most gerrymandered
legislator in the history of the country,
but that is coming to an end.
And so now looking forward,
we need a governor who won't just veto bad legislation,
but we have a small window of opportunity in 2027
after we flipped the state Senate Democratic
and with an assembly that is going to be very, very close,
one way or the other,
we could actually get something done in the state.
If we have a governor with the experience,
the knowledge, the scale, and of course,
the commitment to make progressive change,
those are the reasons why I'm running for governor.
So for those of you who don't know me,
I'll give you a little calendar for Rice 101.
I was born in Marshfield, Wisconsin.
I spent my early years in rural Taylor County,
where my family lived in a one-room schoolhouse
and I had a pet goat.
Our closest neighbors were Amish,
and for those of you who are not familiar,
this is Wisconsin.
Medford is roughly there,
and we lived outside of Medford, north of Highway 29.
My family later moved to Madison
where I graduated from high school.
I went to the University of Wisconsin Law School,
where I worked on the Wisconsin Innocence Project.
So if anybody's curious about my thoughts
on criminal justice reform,
we can set aside another five hours
to talk about my detailed plans
for how we can fix our states
and be focused on public safety.
And then after law school,
I didn't do what a lot of my classmates did
and go work for a big law firm and make a lot of money.
Instead, I became the executive director
of Nairout Pro-Choice, Wisconsin.
I spent four years traveling this state,
building progressive power,
and working to expand access not just to abortion,
but to contraception and sex education,
to bring down our state's shameful infant mortality rate.
And that's work that I have continued throughout my career.
I also helped to pass the first pro-choice law
in a generation in Wisconsin,
the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Act.
And when I say I know how to get really difficult,
progressive things done in tough legislative environments,
I wanna let you know that we passed that legislation
when we had a Democratic Senate
and an anti-choice Republican assembly.
So I do know what I'm talking about.
And I've been doing this for 20 years.
I then ran for the state assembly kind of unexpectedly.
I was the underdog candidate,
but I knocked on 20,252 doors.
And when that primary came in in 2009,
which was the last time Democrats had the trifecta,
I was so excited because of course,
there was so much that we wanted to do.
I became vice chair of the health committee
and we helped expand Badger Care
to 80,000 previously uninsured Wisconsinites.
So while a lot of candidates talk about,
oh, I'm gonna expand healthcare,
I've actually done it.
I've helped to do it.
And that was the last time we expanded Badger Care
in this state.
We left a lot undone in that session.
And that's one of the things that haunts me
and drives me in this campaign.
Because I know how fleeting it can be
to have the opportunity to make change.
And I am determined that we will not waste
the opportunity that we are about to have next year.
We all know what happened in the next election
after 2009, right?
Scott Walker came in and we went from a completely blue state
to a completely red state.
And the first thing he did was to attack teachers
and nurses at our public schools and our universities.
And then he went after private sector workers.
And you know what, our economy has never recovered.
From the money that was taken out of families' pocketbooks
over that time.
So one of the things I'm committed to doing as governor
is raising wages, both the minimum wage
and repealing Act 10 and restoring collective bargaining rights
for all workers in this state.
Everyone can have a good day to join me.
Now in 2013, I left the state legislature
and I went on to start my own small business.
It's a tech-enabled real estate company
that makes it easier and more affordable
to sell a house or buy a house.
And I'm very passionate about expanding access to housing
and have a lot of detailed thoughts about that.
But I'm also passionate about small businesses
and making it possible for any Wisconsinite
who, like me, has an idea or a dream,
has a strong work ethic and that little bit of crazy
that you need if you're gonna start your own small business
or run for office for that matter.
And they can actually do that in Wisconsin.
And I've worked as a legislator and as a small business advocate
to try to make Wisconsin a place
where people can start a small business and thrive.
And by decoupling some of the core benefits
that people need, like pay family leave, health care,
access to a secure retirement,
decoupling that from employment,
we can actually unleash a lot of economic growth
and potential in our state by making it possible
for people to start small businesses.
Now, in 2020, I was elected to the state senate
where I now serve and I work on the Joint Finance Committee,
which is the committee that writes the state budget.
Now, this is important because I'm the only candidate
running for governor that actually does have deep knowledge
about the state budget from having worked on it.
I know where the Republicans are hiding their money.
And I also know where it needs to go.
Namely, it needs to go into our public schools.
Our public schools that have been starved of resources
for 30 of the last 32 years.
And also to our local governments
who are trying my ability to provide a high level of service
in the midst of declining state funding.
I'd love to talk a little bit more about public education
because I really view it as our core constitutional
responsibility at the state level.
I was actually sued a few weeks ago in my role
as a member of the Joint Committee on Finance
because education advocates, parents, teachers,
and school districts recognize
that our schools have been so underfunded for so many years
that we are now failing to provide
the quality free public education that is a guarantee
of birthright of every child in our constitution.
And so I welcome this lawsuit
because I think we're right.
Our kids deserve better.
My parents chose to be in Wisconsin
from coming from other places
because they knew as a family of pretty modest means
that their kids could have a good life
because of Wisconsin's high quality public education system.
And we did, you know, first in rural Northern Wisconsin,
great public schools, and then later in Madison.
And I worry that kids today are not getting the same
quality of education.
Our teachers are overworked, they are underpaid,
they do not have the resources and support that they need.
And we can see that in the offerings
that our school districts are able to create
and we can see that in the outcomes.
So as governor, I will be focused on education
from early childhood to K-12 public education
to our great public higher educational institutions.
Wisconsin will be the education state
once again when I'm governor.
And I want to talk a little bit
about where that money is going instead of our public schools.
Certainly a lot of it is going to tax breaks
for millionaires and billionaires and big corporations.
We know that that is true.
But another big piece of it is money
that is going to private unaccountable voucher schemes.
These are private schools that do not meet the same standards
that our public schools are required to.
Many of them are religious in nature
and they are free to discriminate against teachers
and students, even though they get public money.
I am the candidate in this race
that has a responsible plan to bring
this failed voucher experiment to an end
and make sure that that money goes
into our public schools instead.
Couple of other issues
that I think are really important in this race.
Obviously, cost of living.
And the big ticket items really are healthcare,
housing, childcare, and utilities.
And I have detailed plans on my website
to bring down the cost of all of these items.
If you have to put my campaign on a bumper sticker,
you could say,
Cal de Ruiz is going to raise wages,
lower costs, and protect our freedoms.
Because those are the things that are really at stake here.
I want to mention just a little bit about myself personally.
I'm the mom and stepmom of five kids.
I know it's a lot.
I always get a kind of a shocked response.
I'm 46 and my two oldest step daughters
are now in their 20s.
They've turned out beautifully.
We're still working on our 12, eight, and four-year-old.
But I'm deeply committed to this state
being a place where every single person can thrive.
It shouldn't matter who you are or where you're from
or what you look like.
Every single Wisconsinite deserves
a great public education for their kids.
They deserve to make enough money
to be able to support themselves
if they are looking full-time.
They deserve access to affordable quality healthcare,
like my plan to open up the state health insurance
that I enjoy as a state employee to let anybody buy in.
These are the basics.
But we want Wisconsin to be more than just a place
where you can get by
and a place that you can really, really thrive.
I am confident that we can do that if we have a governor
who knows how and is willing to use political power
to get things done to help people.
Our Republican opponents never hesitate for a minute
to use and abuse their power.
But they do it to hurt people,
to divide and conquer, to take rights away,
to destroy our rights and undermine our constitution.
We need Democrats to stop being so shy about using power.
When it comes to being willing to throw a punch
or take a punch for the children, as Nancy Pelosi said,
I am that person.
And that's why I'm the best candidate to be governor.
And I ask for your vote.
I always throw it in November,
August 11th and November 3rd.
Thank you.
You mentioned that private schools
aren't meeting the same standards as public schools.
Can you go into more detail about those standards, please?
Yeah, so specifically, voucher schools.
So if you're a public school,
number one, you have to take every student.
You don't get to cherry-pick
and say, well, we like you, but we're not sure about you.
And let's try you out for a month
and then decide we don't like you,
but we're going to keep the money
that comes along with you.
That's what voucher schools do.
voucher schools can discriminate against a teacher
because she's pregnant and unmarried,
or because he's the wrong religion or gay,
or a student because they have a disability.
And I think that's outrageous.
Public money should be for public schools, period.
Yes.
But here's my plan to responsibly address this voucher scheme.
The first step is you require the same standard.
So your teachers have to be licensed.
You can't just hire some rando off the street
without a background check.
Your kids have to meet the same academic standards.
They have to take the forward exam
so we actually know how they're performing.
And you can't discriminate.
You're not allowed to cherry-pick.
Either students or staff.
And I think that alone is going to render a lot
of the current schools that are receiving
voucher money to just say no.
We'd rather be able to continue running our schools
the way we want to, and we're going to just say no.
The second step is we have to treat Milwaukee and Racine
and their voucher programs differently
from the rest of the state.
And that's because they are far more entrenched.
They have been in operation for longer.
And they serve a much higher percentage of students
in those districts than the statewide expansion.
The statewide expansion is relatively new.
And what we know is that the vast majority of students
that are receiving these vouchers
were already in private school
before the state started picking up the tab.
So we say, at first we require the same standards,
non-discrimination, transparency, accountability.
And then we're going to say starting
at the beginning of next school year,
the state is no longer going to pay the cost of this voucher
in the statewide expansion area.
And parents can choose if they want to move their kid
to the public school, or if they want to do what they were
doing before and just continue paying out of pocket
as they had previously been.
Now for Milwaukee and Racine,
as I mentioned it is more complicated.
And I do not think, at the end of the day
we have to do right by kids.
And if kids are in an environment where they are thriving,
I don't think it's right to take them out of that.
Many of the students in those voucher schools,
the public schools just do not have the capacity
to handle that right away.
So we need to set a date certain and say after this date,
we will not accept new students into the voucher program.
However, we will continue to allow anyone
who is currently enrolled to be able
to complete their education.
And over time, then you can help the public schools
build their capacity so that they can accept
more students.
And we're also gonna give any voucher school
that wants to, the opportunity to become
a public charter school, right?
They can certainly apply to the school board
to become a public charter, but then obviously
they're gonna have to meet the same standards, right?
That's public schools.
So to me, that is the responsible way
to address this while respecting the fact
that public dollars need to be reserved
for our public schools.
Yes.
I'd like to know how in the world
the reimbursement for special education
and the per pupil funding aid
are more for private voucher school students
a lot more than they are for our public school students.
I don't understand how that's legal
or how it's constitutional, I just don't understand.
Well, I think it's outrageous
and it's happened in recent years.
We've had eight Republican budgets in a row
and our kids cannot afford another Republican budget.
Now, I have seen this up close and personal
and the governor Evers writes pretty good budgets.
His budgets have a lot of great ideas in them
and then the Republicans get a hold of it
and they just put it right into the garbage.
They don't even recycle it.
They just literally put it in the trash
and Republicans do whatever they want in the budget.
And the thing that has been the most consistent
and the most important to Republicans
has been cutting taxes for the wealthy
to debase our public treasury
and transferring money from our public schools
to this private voucher scheme
because the long-term goal is to undermine public education.
We know that public education is the key
to having a vibrant, functional democracy.
It is the key to having a strong economy with a middle class.
We can't do that without public education.
But Republicans see a world where education is rationed
based on your parents' wealth,
based on the zip code that they can afford to live in.
That's why they're content to let property taxpayers
pick up the tab for way more
of the public school system than we should
because it's inevitable.
They're doing it because it's inequitable.
Wealthy communities that will afford
to raise their own property taxes
can have wonderful schools
with highly qualified teachers
that are able to be retained in small class sizes
and science labs and sports fields
and areas of the state often urban and rural
that don't have the same property tax base
are really gonna struggle.
And that's fine with Republicans,
but it's not fine with me
because education is a basic fundamental right
and it shouldn't be rationed based on your parents' wealth.
I'll tell you the thing about the referendums.
Yeah.
I'm in school by referendums
and it's been, I was saying a lot of
I had a survey about
hitting elderly taxpayers against our kids, you know.
Right.
That's not right.
It's not right.
And it's so divisive and hurtful for communities
and it's terrible fiscal policy.
I mean, who can budget like that?
You know, the thing that school districts
and municipalities and businesses need is consistency.
They need to be able to plan.
This is one reason that Trump has been so disastrous
for the economy is because you can't plan
if you don't know what the future is gonna look like.
And if you have to, you know,
just on this April ballot that's coming up on April 7th
where we are going to elect my friend, Chris Taylor
for the Wisconsin support.
She and I came up together in the abortion rights movement
and she followed me into the legislature
and it's very exciting that we're,
she's gonna be serving at our court.
So on April 7th, there are, I believe 72 school referendums
that are on ballots all around the state.
Now, 10 of them are capital referendums, right?
For new buildings or projects like that.
Two are combined and the rating 60 are operating referendums.
Just to keep the lights on,
just to keep teachers in the classroom.
And this is not unique.
This has been happening in every single election
year after year.
This is not a case where like,
oh, this school district or that school district
is just bad at managing money.
They don't know how to do it.
This is systemic, it is on purpose.
And it is totally undermining our ability
to provide a high quality public education for all kids.
My property taxes are too high,
your property taxes are too high,
and it is the Republicans fault.
They are the ones that have created this system.
And as much as they're gonna yap about the 400 year veto
and Governor Evers, the truth is,
they control the legislature.
They are the ones who have made these decisions
year after year.
And even in this session,
we have given them many opportunities
to fund our public schools appropriately,
to prevent the very property tax hikes
that we are now experiencing and paying for.
They could have repealed that 400 year veto
anytime they have the votes, they control it.
And a lot of Democrats would join them
as long as they're willing to fund schools.
They refused again and again.
Why?
Because they would rather have a political weapon
to use against Governor Evers,
that you pay for, that we pay for out of our own pocket,
than actually solve the problem.
Yes.
Just to comment, we use the word capacity.
I don't think the state of Wisconsin
has the capacity to support two separate school systems
and give every kid a comprehensive education
and have it affordable.
It's not affordable.
They are backing themselves into a corner
where they're gonna continue to make the decisions
that we're gonna lessen the opportunities
for the people in public schools.
And maybe, and I think the day is coming,
but they're gonna have to lessen the opportunities
for private schools.
What has to happen now is they have to pull up their pants,
whatever you call it as far as making a tough decision
and stop the funding of private schools
and slowly phase out, let the kids finish,
the track they're on to get out of it.
And I emphasize that with my policymakers all the time.
Guys and gals are backing yourself into a corner
where you can't afford it.
And since you can't afford it,
you're gonna reduce the opportunities for kids.
That's bad news.
You're absolutely right.
And you know what?
This is an issue that is not just of concern to Democrats.
I travel to some of the most conservative places
in this state.
On a daily basis, I'm talking with voters
who are independent voters playing
and even Republicans.
I actually have Republicans for Royce.
That's the only affinity group I have for my campaign.
They are concerned about this too.
And that's because whatever differences we may have,
most of us really do want the best for our kids.
We understand that education is the key.
And the vast majority of Wisconsinites
choose public education for their kids.
Not homeschooling, not private education,
even when it's funded by taxpayers.
They choose public education
because they know that is the best for their kids.
And it's up to us to make sure
that we are meeting the needs of kids.
And listen, you know, I'm a parent, I'm a business owner.
I know that just money is not going to equal quality, right?
We have to have high standards for teachers
and for students.
We have to get the distractions and the screens
out of classrooms.
That's why I support a bell-to-bell cell phone van.
I don't think we should have Chromebooks
for elementary schools.
You know, other than if they're learning typing, right?
We have to do other things,
but you can't do it without money.
And the idea that you can have quality schools
but not pay for it is ridiculous.
So you're going to find me arguing for money for schools,
not for its own sake,
but because I want a high quality education,
the best public education for every kid in Wisconsin
and later who they are or where they're from.
Yes.
I agree with you totally,
but I guess my question is,
this seems like a lot of this is a function
of the legislature, not the governor.
You don't get the Donald Trump executive order
over writing Congress power.
So what can you do as governor to move the needle on this?
Well, this is a big difference, I think, between me
and many other good folks who are running for governor.
I have been working to pass progressive policy
and build democratic power for over 20 years in this state.
And again and again,
I have been able to get things passed
in really tough legislative environments,
not just when Democrats were in control,
but when Republicans have been in control
when we've had split control.
And those skills are absolutely essential.
And listen, even if we are lucky enough
to have a democratic trifecta,
the idea that magic will just happen
and we will end up with a properly funded school system
and great healthcare for all, then now it works.
I wish it were, but I was there in 2009.
And I love the legislature.
I have spent 10 years in the Senate and the assembly.
Those cats will not hurt themselves.
There needs to be strong leadership from the governor.
This is not a time where we can afford to wait
for somebody to read a poll to decide,
I don't know, should we fund our public schools
and tax billionaires?
We can't afford to have a blue ribbon commission
to look at the issue of vouchers or whatever.
Or hold our finger up in the air and say,
I don't know, is this gonna be popular?
We need a governor who is ready on day one
who has deep policy, knowledge and convictions
and is ready to use all of her political power
to get things done.
So when I talk about throwing a punch
and taking a punch for the children,
this is what I'm talking about.
We need to have a governor
who will get all of our Democrats into a room
and say, here's what we're gonna do.
Let's share our ideas.
Let's do this together in a collaborative process
because politics is a team sport.
The governor might be at the top of the ticket,
but the governor can do a lot alone, but not a budget.
So we have to get the legislature on board.
However, the governor must provide leadership.
The governor cannot be trying to satisfy everyone.
And that's why it's important to have a governor
who actually knows what the hell she's doing
and knows about these issues
and knows where the money needs to go and where it's hidden
and can help the legislature.
The vast majority of Democrats in the legislature are new.
They're new since COVID, right?
They're brand new to politics,
even though they're smart people
and they're from different walks of life, which is great.
But the vast majority of Dems in the legislature
have never, ever been in power.
And so having strong leadership
in the governor's office is important.
Now imagine a scenario where we've got a Democratic Senate,
which is going to happen.
But we don't have a Democratic Assembly.
We've got a narrowly Republican Assembly.
Well, now you have a different framework, right?
For how do you negotiate?
How do you get something done?
And again, you don't start your negotiations
by saying, well, I'll just sign whatever they send me.
That's how you end up with having a Democratic governor
and yet the largest expansion of money going to vouchers
and no Medicaid expansion, right, year after year.
That's not how I will operate as an negotiator.
And there are many, many ways in which the governor
can exercise power to bring people together.
Procedural, there are carrots and sticks, right?
I am well versed in all of those ways
and I will use every single tool at my disposal
to get our priorities through both budgetary and statutory.
So if you were talking about money,
this is tangentially related in a recent report
from the Wisconsin Department of Administration,
they projected that the state's population
will decrease by nearly 200,000 residents
over the next 25 years.
This is due to an aging population
and declining birth rates.
This demographic decline will shrink the tax bill
and may cause labor shortages.
How do you propose to reverse this trend?
Yeah, listen, Wisconsin is having a demographic shrink.
We are a grain state and this has been a long,
a long time trend.
Now, it's not true in every area of the state.
I actually represent the fastest growing area of the state
in Dane County in the legislature.
But part of the reason is because young people can't see,
this is a place where they can build a life,
the life that they want.
We've had brain drain for decades, right?
Where we raise young people, we educate them
and then they go off to what they perceive
to be greener pastures.
And sometimes like me, they come back, right?
I came back for law school because of in-state tuition
and a scholarship and then I ended up staying.
You know, 16 year old me would probably be appalled.
But I think it turned out pretty well for me.
If we want young people to stay in Wisconsin,
we have to make it possible
for them to buy a house before age 40.
We have to make it possible for them to pursue
the career interest in education that they want to,
whether it's technical college, whether it's the trades,
whether it's the military or a four year university
or starting a business.
We have to make it possible for people to afford
to have children.
As a longtime reproductive justice advocate and as a mom,
one of the things that hurts me the most
about this world that we've created for young people
is when they say, I'd love to have a kid, but I can't afford it.
Because I can't afford childcare.
We recognize society's responsibility to educate kids.
That's why we have public K-12 education and higher ed.
But the most expensive and the most vital years
are birth to five.
That is when 90% of brain development happens.
And we just say parents, you're on your own.
Congrats on your baby.
Give us $100,000 so you can stay in the workforce
until that baby gets to kindergarten.
That's crazy.
That's just crazy.
So we have to have the structure in place
and the public support so that young people
can see themselves being able to thrive here.
And by the way, there's also a cultural inequality of life piece.
I talk a lot about the economics and affordability, right?
But young people don't want to live in a state that's polluted.
Young people don't want to live in a state
that's full of right-wing culture war nonsense
where there's conversion therapy instead of gay marriage
where abortion is criminalized and there's no good sex ed
in the schools.
Young people want to live in a place that is forward-looking
where it feels like the government is there to help them
and solve problems and not to stand in their way
and drag us backwards.
Talking about decrease in population,
this question has to do with what,
are you a environmentalist?
Before you answer that part,
before you answer that part,
you talked about some examples that prove
that you are.
One of the things that's happening right now,
I think the world population is around me.
You all hear all kinds of story,
are we going to be able to support 10 billion people
because we're getting hit approach to that, Mark, very fast.
More and more people that consider themselves environmentalist
are adding one other's solution to dealing with it
and is that control our population,
slow down the growth of our population
so we don't challenge the kind of things that make our Earth less healthy.
So really the best way to do it,
not worry about population growth,
but worry about making sure that that population is dealing with things
that are not going to stress our environment.
So what kind of things have you done as far as
making yourself consider yourself an environmentalist?
Well, I was raised to be an environmentalist
because I was raised in Wisconsin
and to love and appreciate and play in
all the beautiful natural spaces in this state.
You're going to find me on the shores of Lake Superior in March
doing the fastest dip once that ice goes out that I can
and then running immediately back into a warm sun.
You're going to find me biking through our state parks.
You're going to find me taking a hike with my kids,
hike slash,
angle,
depending on who's with me and how fast they are,
how much sugar they've had.
And I do think that in terms of quality of life
is one of the best things Wisconsin has going for us.
By the way, it's also critical for our economy
because tourism is one of our top three industries
along with agriculture and manufacturing.
And agriculture is also heavily dependent on the environment.
Now, Wisconsin has a long history of conservation leadership.
In fact, my stepdad is a conservation attorney
and somebody who has been on the forefront
of putting together the Noles Nelson Stewardship Program
and many of the environmental protections
that we now have been enjoying for generations.
So that is very important to me as an attorney,
as a daughter and as a lawmaker.
I see it from all these different aspects.
There are some very clear things that we know.
Number one, climate change is real
and it's costing us a huge amount of money.
We need to help our state and our communities
be more resilient to climate change,
things like erosion and the Great Lakes
and flooding and drought,
wildfire smoke, right?
All of these things are negatively impacting our quality of life.
We also know that Wisconsin doesn't have any fossil fuels.
So if we want to have energy,
we either have to buy and burn old dinosaur bones
that come from elsewhere,
or we have to make our own energy.
Fortunately, wind, solar and geothermal
work really well here
and they're also the cheapest and fastest
new sources of energy for our state.
So we can help reduce our carbon footprint
and I'd like to get all the coal-fired power plants offline
over the next couple of years and replace them
with lower energy costs and cleaner air.
So we can all get behind that, right?
I'll also say I'm a big one on conservation
and probably this goes to my just being like a cheap,
frugal Midwestern mom.
I love a deal.
The cheapest energy is energy that we don't use, right?
So expanding our successful conservation programs,
our energy efficiency programs
that help optimize our use of energy,
requiring utilities to do integrated resource planning
so we don't end up with over-building
and then all of us have to pay the cost.
This is another really important thing.
We should have a focus on energy program
that is for commercial and for industrial users.
It works great for homeowners,
but we need to really go after the biggest energy users
and help them reduce their footprint.
I have a lot of thoughts about the PSC
and how we can help reduce our energy and decarbonize
and have more clean and sustainable energy,
but I'll leave those if somebody else has a question about it.
You mentioned natural disasters.
Recently, I think it was last year, maybe the year before.
Milwaukee and the surrounding areas were hit by a pretty intense flow.
And to my knowledge,
the Trump administration has not sent any type of relief funding for that
with the kind of hard stance that you're taking against the Trump administration.
How do you see that playing out with, you know,
requesting negotiating federal assistance
and at the same time pushing back?
I think my number one duty as a political leader is honesty.
And I am never going to cow-tow to a dictator,
because I think we'll get funds.
I mean, nobody is nicer than Tony Evers,
and we didn't get the funds.
You just said it yourself, Gabe, right?
So, who knows how that person makes decisions.
But I can tell you this.
He has already reached the apex of his power and his power is declining.
And he will be held accountable.
I don't know if it would be next year or in two years or in three years.
But there will come a point,
and we're already seeing start to happen,
where Republican politicians are not always going to go along with him.
Not every Republican is Tom Tiffany.
Tom Tiffany is a straight-up rubber stamp.
The man has one thought in his head,
and it's what his Donald Trump want me to do today.
That's Tom Tiffany.
But not every congressman is like that.
And I do believe that the way to get what we need as a state
is to advocate clearly for it, to tell the truth, and to fight for it.
Not to try to appease some dictator,
because we think if we say something nice to the dear leader,
that he's going to throw a disaster away far away.
I'm kind of asking a question with the ask of Aaron earlier,
and that is about our elections being the way that we've always had them.
And being worried about being preemptive rather than reactive,
because once those go to the courts and they're contested,
I hate to think what could happen.
What are we doing, or what could you do legislatively?
We have a special session coming up, maybe,
to try to act preemptively to ensure that we have the free and fair election
in November that we've always been used to.
I have never been more grateful for our extremely irritating
and decentralized election system than I have been in recent years.
There is no basis or mechanism for Donald Trump to nationalize the elections
or to stop or halt the elections.
We have free and fair elections in this country.
And the most important thing that we can do,
and all of us need to do it,
is to assure ourselves that we still have our right to vote
and we will demand free and fair elections to proceed as they always do.
If you haven't volunteered as a whole worker, do it.
And bring your 16-year-old granddaughter or niece or nephew,
because it's great to see how elections actually work.
Now, will he try to disrupt?
Yes.
Will he lie and do all kinds of ridiculous propaganda?
Yes.
Will he abuse the court system as he did last time?
Yes, of course.
And I also think that a big part of what he's doing with ICE
is to try to normalize violence and normalize the presence of, you know,
creepy armed paramilitary on our streets,
because it is one way that he can help undermine confidence in our elections
and destabilize us.
All of these things are real, and yet our only option is to continue
to have free and fair elections in the state.
And we can, you know, our Attorney General has been very on top of this
with legal action.
Our clerks, our municipal clerks are well prepared,
because the Wisconsin Elections Commission is absolutely on top of this.
You know, Wisconsin was ground zero for the fake election scheme.
Ron Johnson, our U.S. Senator, somehow still our Senator,
was part of that.
So we are not the people who are working on these issues
are very, very well aware and very well versed
about the challenges and threats that they face.
And I have a lot of confidence in these nonpartisan actors
and in all of the clerks and poll workers across the state
that they are going to be able to administer a free and fair election.
And we don't have another choice.
We cannot give in to the cynicism and the fear.
We can be clear-eyed about who the President is
and what he's going to attempt to do,
and also say it is our job to get out the vote
and make sure that we are doing everything that we can
if you can volunteer to be a legal observer
or an election protection volunteer or a poll worker.
You can drive people to the polls.
You can talk to people about how it is safe to go out and vote.
You can help people to do early voting or vote by mail.
All of these things are great options and places to channel
all of the fear and fury that we rightfully have about this topic.
Yes.
And related to that, one of the worries I have about the election
is the changes to postal rules,
because it does seem to be a way to suppress mail-in voting.
I think people have said just bring it in, get it hand-cancelled,
but it's still going to go to the distribution center
and get a close mark again, so you don't know when you're postmarked.
And I just wonder if that's something that people have your eyes on
because people would have to get mail-in ballots
and well ahead of a, you know, you can't just get it in at last minute
and assume it'll be postmarked.
Right.
And there are many voting rights groups like the ACLU,
the League of Women Voters, that are working to educate voters
about these changes and what are the best ways to get your ballot in.
Obviously, you can turn it in directly to the clerk,
you can get it, mail it back the first day,
and Wisconsin actually has an absentee ballot tracker.
So you can actually go on myvote.wi.gov and see if your absentee ballot was received or not.
And if it hasn't been received, you can actually go on election date
and vote at your polling place.
So there are a lot of failsafe mechanisms in place.
But to your point, one of the things that Democrats must do
in the next session at the state level is expand voting rights.
We need to make sure that people have full longer periods
like we used to to vote early, to vote by mail,
that people should be able to choose voting by mail as their default option.
You shouldn't have to request it every year on New Year's Day.
I say, you know, everybody make sure you, you know, go to myvote.gov
and request absentee ballots this year if that's what you want.
You should be able to be permanently on that list.
We should be able to have automatic voter registration in the state.
We should be able to register students in high school
so that they're ready to vote the minute that they turn 18.
There's a lot that we can do to help elections run better and to expand access,
you know, change our voter ID laws, which are purely a tool of voter suppression.
There's no reason that an out-of-state driver's license or a student ID
or a driver's license that's expired should not be considered valid
for the purposes of voting, right?
There's a lot that we can and will do.
When you become governor,
you're going to have to work with the leadership and the assembly
and the leadership and the Senate.
So, Senator, let me do, is my senator.
Yeah.
And I communicate with him all the time.
And Robin was.
Robin was.
I've got, I have a nickname for him.
I call him boss boss because many times it seems he's running the show down.
He's even more than a governor.
What have you had experiences dealing, especially across the house as far as with him
and certain issues and stuff, talking to him, and then as a governor,
what kind of skills are you going to use to be able to communicate with both?
It seems that so many times those two fellows don't get together with the governor to take care of them.
Well, with each other.
Yeah, and with each other to take care of each other.
Yeah.
Well, let's just talk about it.
So, Democrats are going to control the Senate.
So, Devin Lemon, he was going to be the minority leader or somebody else.
Well, Robin, boss is retired.
And happy tricks.
And that's going to be an opportunity for us because there are many different factions within these caucuses.
And in the absence of the iron fist of boss boss, that will be an opportunity for us to
talk with some of the members that maybe didn't want to go all the way to the far right as boss did.
Right?
I mean, we just saw this happen on the fight over dales law for breast cancer screening.
And finally, becoming the 49th state to expand Medicaid postpartum from just 60 days to a full year.
Right?
So, you know, it was Democrats who demanded that on every single bill they offered those amendments
and forced the Republicans to basically say, go to boss and say, we have to do this or we're going to lose our elections.
You have to let this through even though you don't like it.
And it worked.
So, I will just say, I'm a proud Democrat.
We're all proud Democrats in this room.
But I also have a very strong track record of working across the aisle over 20 plus years.
And I'm really proud of that.
I think anybody who wants to be governor of this state should always be saying, here's not just what I plan to do,
but here's what I actually have done.
Here's my track record of delivering on bipartisan success.
I'll just give you one example.
I already talked about the Compassionate Campaign Victims Act.
For years in the Senate, I was the only Democratic legislator on a bill to call the APR and Modernization Act.
This is a bill to allow advanced practice registered nurses to practice independently to the full extent of their training and their licensure.
And not always have to be directly supervised by a physician.
Now, I thought this bill was really important because we have a provider shortage in this state.
And we also have a nursing shortage, and if we are losing out on our most educated nurses, that's going to have a devastating impact on patient care.
Republicans were actually, they were right on this issue, and the governor, our governor, whom we love, vetoed this bill several times.
And it was hard for other Democrats who agreed with me to go up against our own Democratic governor, but eventually this session,
we were able to compromise and get more Democrats to basically come on board that the governor ended up signing this bill.
And it took a few years, but we got this bill signed into law.
That's an example of me working across the aisle.
It did not endear me to the governor or his staff.
And some of my Democratic legislative colleagues were frustrated at me too.
But at the end of the day, we had overwhelming support for the bill and it became law because it was the right thing to do for Wisconsin.
As governor, I'm going to be very clear about what my values are and what my plans are.
But I will always work with anyone to try to make your life better, whether you voted for me or not.
And I'll tell you right now, I'm not just going to go after Democratic votes.
One of the reasons that I think I'm the best candidate to beat Tom Tiffany is because I already have Republican support.
People who want a governor who knows what to do, who is responsible fiscally and with policy, and who will govern Wisconsin the way that we ought to be governed with good government.
Not MAGA nonsense, not platitudes and bullet points, but actual plans and policies and the political will to get it done.
I really appreciate having this chance to talk with all of you and we have a really important decision to make.
And I spend a lot of time traveling around the state and listening to people.
So much of what I hear is the same.
Whether I'm in Trampalo or Marinette or a boy.
Yesterday I was in O'Sharon, Wapaca, Shano, a boy and Madison.
And I was on Friday, we are on the cusp of reclaiming Wisconsin's proud progressive heritage.
We are a purple state, but we are also a blue state.
And we can be a state where every single Wisconsin, no matter who you are or where you are from, has the freedom to thrive.
If we can elect a governor who is capable and willing to use political power to get us there.
I want you to think about three things, because this is a political group, right?
We're not the casual voters that stroll in on August 11th not having thought about who we're going to vote for.
You guys are on websites.
You're checking out boxes and being like, well, I like what you said about that, but I didn't like this.
So we're not normal.
And I say that with all the love that I have.
That's how it goes if you're in a room like this.
Think about three things.
Think about who can meet Tom Tiffany.
Who can help bridge that urban role to buy?
Who's talking about the issues that appeal to roll voters?
And think about, for instance, Wisconsin's history of who do we elect statewide?
People are like, I'll tell you, who is skeptical?
Madison, Dane County Liberals, my people.
Kind of Dane County Democrat, I mean, statewide.
I don't know.
Who's the most popular elected official in our state right now?
A Wider party.
Anybody know?
Senator Tammy Bolt.
Yes.
Dane County Democrat.
I'm sorry?
He's also from Plymouth too.
We can all think of him.
Madison claims me, but Taylor County gets to claim me too, and Marshfield, right?
We can share.
And Portage, where my stepdad's from, you know, we have a really tough time in this state
electing Democrats from the Milwaukee area.
And I'm not just talking about Mandela Barnes.
I don't know.
I just hop on a really against minors.
I don't know.
I don't think it was the practice.
I don't think it was the pressure and snowmen.
But everyone psychologist, in the way of voting against Democrats from the Milwaukee
area.
And I'm not just talking about Mandela Barnes, and that was a heartbreak race for all of
us.
I'm also talking about Tom Barrett, who ran twice and lost, and actually, Tom Barrett
actually, might be the nicest person in politics, even more so than Tony Evers.
So, we just have not had a good track record with Milwaukee area Democrats being elected
The number one factor is whether or not she has deliverables, whether she can show that she has experience that she's gotten things done.
And we've got a lot of good candidates in the race, but most of them are brand new or just a couple of years into politics.
This is going to be a tough punishing race where the worst people in the world are going to spend $100 million lying about our nominee.
We can't have somebody that's making unforced errors.
We can't have somebody that's going to be caught off guard by a reporter's question and say something dumb and then have to backtrack.
We can't have somebody that's not ready to take the fight aggressively to Tom Tiffany for his terrible record of hurting Wisconsinites.
We need a really strong candidate to withstand that.
And I have been doing this for 25 years.
I cut my teeth. Yes, you can clap for that. You can always clap.
It's not television. I can hear you.
I cut my teeth in my early 20s going on Fox News on the O'Reilly Factor in the Lauren Ingram and Christian Radio talking about abortion.
And I've been a woman on the internet for 20 plus years, so you're not going to catch me.
You know, saying something dumb or being unwilling to go anywhere to talk to anyone to get the votes that we need to win.
I'm going to go after the Evers Johnson voters and the Tammy Trump voters, and that's how we're going to win.
But the second thing you need to think about is who can win the primary?
And we've got a crowded field, but the recent Marquette poll showed to my delight and shock that nobody, well, first of all, nobody's paying attention.
The vast majority of voters are undecided.
But even the candidates that are best known, Mandela Barnes and Rodriguez, have the highest negatives and knowing their name does not translate into support.
So all the candidates are basically in a statistical dead heat.
We're all within 10 points of each other.
That margin of error is 6.5% in that poll.
And I haven't spent a dollar on voter contact, whereas some of the other candidates have spent tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I am running for governor and I know how you need to frugally raise money and spend it at the end on effective voter contact if we want to be successful.
If we want to win.
So this is a wide open race, which means that we can choose the candidate and back her early to help overcome the built in name ID advantage that Mandela Barnes has if we want a different nominee in this race.
But I need your help and your support early, right?
I need you to give money.
I have a little QR code back there and I have envelopes.
I need you to sign up on my little clipboard so we can stay in touch.
I need you to tell your friends and be evangelists and take a little button with my name on it.
That word of mouth is what's going to help us build momentum before I can afford to get on the air, to get my name out there.
And that leads me to the third and most important point.
This is our once in a generation opportunity to put our state back on the right trajectory.
And who of all the candidates running do you think has the experience, the progressive values, the knowledge, and the utter commitment and drive to be best equipped to be our next governor?
I hope you agree that it's me and I hope you'll join Team Kilda and help build it together.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Yeah, that reminds me, I should call me a new secret, because I don't think she's
continued to be at this point, so I don't need to get any support from her.
Okay.
All right.
Okay.
It's a hard feeling.
I feel great.
I feel like I'm getting a huge amount of momentum as I travel across the state, and it's
really a joy to campaign when people are feeling like we're on the cusp of something
different to Wisconsin.
So you mentioned the polling, obviously the 60% undecided, how do you kind of first
that line of like it's way too old a panic about what a poll says, but understanding
like the people you're talking to now are the ones that could influence that 65% are
still out there.
Yeah.
I mean, the truth is that no poll before people actually started paying for communications
is going to tell you anything reliable about the electorate.
The most important thing that I can be doing is talking with voters, and of course, unfortunately
raising money, because that's the system that we have, but I am confident that we are
going to have resources that we need to communicate and to win.
So is there anything of value people should be taking out of the polling this early other
than people haven't started paying attention?
Well, I think they should take away the fact that this is a wide open race, and so people
should back the candidate that they think is the best prepared to be confident, right?
The most experienced one who shares their values or someone who can win.
We're not stuck with a candidate just because they might have a high name ID that really
doesn't translate to support.
In fact, it translates to hiring.
So one of the things that's happening right now, obviously, is the Supreme Court race.
Are you seeing kind of that dovetailed attention that people are starting to wake up to both
things at the same time?
Yeah, I think there's a lot of interest, obviously, amongst activists and donors and volunteers
in the Supreme Court race, and I myself, you know, I'm helping launch canvases and support
Chris Taylor and I raise money, and I'm confident that she's going to win, but I think after
the April election then, more attention will be focused on the governor's race.
Does this kind of serve as a launch period?
You have April, August, and November.
You get them started now.
You can kind of keep that momentum going.
Yes, absolutely.
I mean, you know, I've done a lot of political work over many, many years for a lot of candidates,
and I have to say, I do think that people across the political spectrum really recognize that
this is a crisis moment in our country, and they are looking for strong leaders who are
capable of getting things done in a time when it seems like, you know, government is
either attacking us from the federal level, like cutting our health care, putting these
crazy illegal tariffs on.
They want a state government that is going to be steady and reliable and relentlessly focused
on lowering the cost of living for us.
Is it hard to have to deal with some of the questions of what will you do as governor of
the election, when it's the election itself that will make you governor?
I mean, some of the time table people have that anxiety talking about.
I understand people do have a lot of anxiety, and that's because we have a president who
has shown that he will stop at nothing to try to silence his political opponents to overturn
election results illegally that he doesn't like.
You know, he lies on a daily basis.
You know, he started a war, an illegal war with Iran, and now our gas prices are a dollar
higher than they were a week ago.
So when you have that kind of chaos and corruption and dishonesty at the federal level, it is
understandable why folks are anxious about that.
But it's also important that people know that our elections are safe and secure.
There's nothing that Trump can do to stop our elections from happening, and we are going
to demand that voters be able to cast their ballots and make their voice heard.
Great.
Yeah, thank you.
You too.