- Governor, thanks for your time today.
- You bet. - As we look ahead to 2022,
what do you see as the biggest challenge facing the state?
- Well certainly the challenge
that we're facing right now around the pandemic,
it certainly is something that is impactful on our economy.
It's impactful on people's health.
It stretches our great health system
and hospital system we have in our state.
That continues to be an,
obviously we have to work on other things at the same time
our issues around broadband and making sure
that our roads are fixed
and we have good health care systems, but overall,
a lot of focus will continue to be on that.
- Compared to where we were a year and a half ago,
in terms of being able to handle the Coronavirus.
Do you think the advances we've made in boosters
and vaccines compensate for the general fatigue among people
in handling the virus and also within our healthcare system?
- Great question.
Because the answer's yes.
I mean, certainly we know much more.
That's the glory of science,
is that people discover things
and usually things for the good
and we have vaccines
that take care of whatever variant people have.
And so, you know, we have the testing materials
that are available.
All the things that we need to do going forward
are in place.
Obviously we need better vaccination numbers
than we have now.
And I'll tell you Zac,
the thing that gives me hope is that,
having seen several situations over the years,
but I'll use Waukesha and the Boscobel tornado,
is that when people are in trouble,
neighbors help neighbors
and they do everything they can to be good, resilient people
and embrace their neighbors troubles.
We need that same thing going on here with this pandemic.
If people get a shot, they can avoid,
they can avoid dying.
People get a shot,
they can avoid their neighbor becoming ill
and possibly dying.
It's the same theory of action.
We need to.
We need to set the politics aside.
I know that's going to be next to impossible,
but we have to continue to work on this.
We need,
we're getting thousands of people,
shots in arms every single day.
I would be happy if it was 50,000 people a day,
but we have to,
we can't give up because that's the answer for us.
We have to get vaccinated.
- In the 2020 election,
there was the thought that Republicans might be punished
by voters for their laissez-faire approach
to handling the Coronavirus from the state's perspective.
And they weren't,
they were largely re-elected.
Looking ahead to next year,
do you think you will be rewarded by the voters
for how you've handled the virus?
- I think overall people are satisfied
that I follow the science
and that I understand how important it is to have the PPE
and the testing materials
and all the things that we've done.
In addition,
we've been able to use the federal money that's available
to help our small businesses, to help our farmers,
help people that are in the tourism industry.
Those that have been most impacted by a financial,
by this pandemic.
And frankly, as a resolve,
we have one of the lowest
or the tied for the lowest unemployment rate
in our state's history.
And so I believe whether people reward me or not,
I'll leave that for pollsters to figure out.
I bet, I think people understand
that I followed the science.
I will continue to do that.
We'll continue to provide resources
for those industries that fail
so that our economy can continue to bounce back.
I think to me, that's a winning combination.
I'll leave the pollsters to figure out the impact.
- The Republicans in Wisconsin have led a series
of investigations into the last elections
with a wide range of accusations from minor mishandling,
all the way up to criminal negligence.
What's the overall impact on these constant cries
of illegitimacy and fraud?
- Well, that's it, it does have an impact.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If you're going to take, essentially, lies
and try to make them into truth, of course,
there's going to be people that are going to be saying,
you know, is the system broken or not?
So I'm disappointed that the leadership
in the Republican party has decided to take this tactic
because it's self-fulfilling.
I mean, for them to say, as well,
people don't trust the system.
Well, it's because you've told them that.
You've told them that with no data,
you've told them that with frankly lies.
And so it's a clown show, frankly, that needs to end.
We need to, we have a good system.
It's secure.
And, and we will,
I will make sure that we will do
whatever we can to make sure that people of Wisconsin
can feel comfortable that the system works
and frankly, and encourage people to vote.
Instead of discouraging people to vote.
- Democrats across the country are accusing Republicans
of attacking democracy itself.
Do you think Republicans in Wisconsin
are attacking the democratic process?
- Of course they are.
Voting is the most pure and important part of a democracy,
whether it's in Wisconsin or the country,
and people are out there spewing lies and mistruths
and fulfilling their own prophecy,
that things are, things aren't right.
That is a, that's an attack on democracy.
And I am here to say to the people in Wisconsin,
that the system is good.
It's secure, it's fair.
It was created by the Republicans and it has worked.
And so we are going to make sure that every eligible person
that is a voter in the state of Wisconsin
has that opportunity to vote.
We hope they do vote.
- Democrats have spent most of the last decade,
championing redistricting reform.
You created the people's maps commission
to create fair maps.
And yet the maps you just submitted
to the Wisconsin Supreme Court
didn't come from that commission
and never had a public hearing.
Was the creation of fair maps realistic
in this political environment?
And how will your supporters feel
about what will eventually become the map?
- Well, first of all,
that map commission did an outstanding job.
I followed their work daily.
I thought they did an excellent job.
If I had a magic wand, I would have taken what they did.
Obviously the Supreme Court decided
they had different criteria.
They, for some way, determined
and it was important that we recognize,
not recognize,
but they essentially said to people of Wisconsin,
well, what happened 10 years ago is okay,
nothing's changed since.
Obviously that isn't accurate.
That's a kind of a strange criterion in our belief.
We did create different maps to submit to the...
Because if we'd taken People's Maps to the Supreme Court,
they was throwing it out.
We needed to make,
we need to make progress.
So we created new maps that took the data
from the Maps Commission,
that they held public hearings on,
especially around communities of interest,
which is a much broader concept.
And that's what we use going forward.
So it wasn't that it was done in secret.
We use the information that the maps commission gave for us.
We're hopeful that we're successful in the Supreme Court.
The court said, we, you know,
the Federal Courts still may take a look at this.
So even though it's a bit murky at this point in time,
we expect,
we would love to make some progress on this.
And I think we can.
- But no matter the map,
it seems evident Republicans will maintain control
of the legislature.
Does that put even more focus on your re-election?
- Not necessarily.
It's you know, it's part of,
what's baked into our geography here in Wisconsin,
but my re-election is going to be
about not necessarily maps.
Do I continue to support fair maps?
Absolutely.
Do I support a independent group of people
making those decisions?
Absolutely.
But at the end of the day,
people of Wisconsin want to get things done.
And we were, we've been able to do that
even with Republican help during the last three years,
especially around issues of broadband,
especially around issues with our roads.
We fix, we fixed over 1,700 miles of roads
in the state of Wisconsin.
We bought broad, high quality broadband,
to over 300,000 households in the state of Wisconsin.
We've had success.
We've had success around income tax and infrastructure.
Those things are what people of Wisconsin care about.
And that's what we're going to be talking about.
- And finally, President Biden's approval ratings
are not healthy in a lot of polls.
And as you're well aware
that doesn't spell good news for Democrats next Fall.
So how important is it that Democrats were able
to pass the infrastructure bill
and how key is it that they passed some portion
of the rest of the president's agenda?
- Well, I think all those are important,
especially the infrastructure bill was very important,
but at the end of the day,
it's about what we have been able to accomplish
as the state of Wisconsin.
It is very difficult, it's difficult for me
and I'm a politician,
to follow exactly what's going on in Washington DC,
to make any judgments about whether it's good or bad
and the impact in Wisconsin.
So I feel confident that people will recognize
the opportunities that we've brought during the pandemic
using federal money,
and also what we've been able to do through our budgets
around for our schools and for our infrastructure
and frankly, lowering income taxes
and having the lowest unemployment rate at 3.0,
that we've ever seen before.
We have made progress.
And those are the things that are important.
- All right, Governor Evers.
Thanks for your time. - Thanks a lot, Zac.