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The Democratic primary for governor of Wisconsin has changed both dramatically and barely at all since the start of this year.

The size of the field, which remained stagnant at seven major candidates for months, shifted rapidly in the span of 10 days in July that included both the exit of Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez from the race after she revealed problems with her campaign finance reports and the reentry of Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who secured a historically rare endorsement from Gov. Tony Evers. 

As of Sunday, the race includes former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, former Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan, Crowley, Madison state Rep. Francesca Hong and Madison state Sen. Kelda Roys. 

Here is what hasn’t changed: Hong, a self-described democratic socialist, led her opponents in the third consecutive Marquette University Law School poll released last week, which was conducted prior to Rodriguez’s exit from the race. Internal polling released by Barnes and Crowley’s campaigns also showed Hong in front. 

A fractured field means support continues to be spread out across the remaining five candidates and could result in a winner on primary Election Day with far less than 50% of the vote. Meanwhile, Republicans have coalesced around likely nominee U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany for months.

“Hong could certainly win the nomination with 35 to 40% of the vote,” said Anthony Chergosky, an associate professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. “All available evidence indicates that Hong is below 50% of the vote, but she doesn’t even need 50% of the vote if the field remains so fragmented and divided.” 

At the same time, the percentage of undecided voters continues to be higher than those who have selected any specific candidate. The Marquette poll found nearly half of registered voters surveyed in mid-July were undecided. 

Wisconsin Watch traveled to forums, farm tours and meet-and-greets around the state as the five remaining candidates have continued to lay out their vision to voters and explain why they are best suited to lead Wisconsin. 

The stakes of the race are high. Democrats see 2026 as an opportunity to win control of the Capitol for the first time since 2010, which could result in dramatic new progressive legislation. After Republicans won the governor’s office and majorities in the Senate and the Assembly in 2010, they used that power to dismantle public sector unions, increase pension and health insurance contributions for public employees, cut taxes, freeze UW tuition, restrict abortion, permit concealed carry of firearms, end the state’s land conservation program and enact gerrymandered legislative maps that protected their majority from a Democratic wave in 2018. 

It leaves a lot for voters to digest as in-person early voting begins Tuesday and two weeks remain before the partisan primary on Aug. 11. Two key moments this week could reshape the race — a debate hosted by WISN on Tuesday evening and a new Marquette Law School Poll of the current field expected to be released on Wednesday. 

Barnes takes aim at political establishment

The same day the Wisconsin Elections Commission determined tech businessman Elon Musk likely broke state election laws during the 2025 state Supreme Court race, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes slammed the influence of money in politics at a town hall with End Citizens United, a political group that quickly endorsed him upon his entry in the governor’s race in December.  

Wisconsinites rejected Musk’s financial influence last year and must continue to fight against a “rigged system” that doesn’t support policies for working people, like raising the minimum wage, Barnes told the small group gathered at the Goodman Community Center in Madison. 

“These are the same industries that are making money hand over fist, the same people in industries that continue to make it hard for folks to get paid,” Barnes said. “You talk about people working harder and harder but life also getting harder and harder. It’s more difficult to get into the middle class. It’s more difficult to be able to purchase that first home. It’s more difficult to be able to even think about the American Dream now.” 

Barnes grew up in Milwaukee with a mother as a public school teacher and a father who belonged to the United Auto Workers union. He is a former organizer who served two terms in the state Assembly, ran for and lost a state Senate seat and was elected lieutenant governor during the 2018 blue wave. He has led a voter turnout organization and a clean energy advocacy group, but hasn’t run any large organizations, which opponents have highlighted as a weakness for someone seeking to be the state’s chief executive.

In 2022 he won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate after opponents dropped out ahead of the primary, but narrowly lost to Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson. While the race has driven his name recognition in the gubernatorial primary, that 26,000-vote defeat still eats at him, he told guests at the Wisconsin Democratic Convention in June. 

The loss has opened him to criticism from other Democrats who have questioned whether he can win in a year when the party is striving for a trifecta in the governor’s office and the Legislature. 

While he trails in the polls behind Hong, Barnes insists he remains the most battle-tested candidate to take on obstacles for Democrats after the primary. The recent Marquette poll shows only Barnes leading in head-to-head matchups against Tiffany among the remaining candidates in the race, although last week’s poll did not include Crowley.

Barnes has campaigned on what he calls “The Wisconsin Way,” a policy agenda that includes raising taxes on the rich, expanding BadgerCare, passing universal child care and freezing utility rates, though some experts question whether Barnes would have the legal authority to freeze rates as governor. 

At a Democratic forum in Belmont, Barnes criticized the political moves that led Crowley to reenter the governor’s race with Evers’ endorsement. It’s another example of a system that leaves people frustrated with politics, he said in a clip shared on social media. 

“The only people who win when we continue to play these insider politics games are corporations and special interests,” he said. “We deserve so much more.” 

Brennan brings state government experience

Joel Brennan arrived at an East Troy farm ready to listen. 

Brennan nodded as Jim Stute, a research agronomist, explained how precipitation levels have changed on the property he has lived on for nearly three decades. Brennan leaned against a headless scarecrow in a white lab suit among the neat rows of research crops as Stute described his tactics to scare away sandhill cranes.

It’s a window into how Brennan, a longtime city dweller who grew up in Brookfield and lives in Milwaukee, has approached his campaign for governor. 

“It’s got to be about learning and listening. If we’re going to get stuff done, it has to be around … data-driven decisions and personal stories,” Brennan explained. “For me it is about how do I get out here and do this, how do I learn from people who have been doing it, what are the successes, what are the ways the state’s been involved, and what’s the opportunity for us?” 

Brennan is unabashedly running as a moderate Democrat, often aligning himself with the Evers administration that he helped lead as the secretary of the Department of Administration. He highlights his willingness to continue working across the aisle to get things done for Wisconsinites.

Like many of Brennan’s primary opponents, his campaign has focused on ways to make life more affordable in Wisconsin, such as expanding Medicaid and providing a public option for BadgerCare. But his ideas have often differed from some of the large-scale policies of his primary opponents. While the other Democrats have backed universal child care, Brennan has instead favored tax credits for child care businesses, caps on out-of-pocket costs for families and expanding eligibility for the existing Wisconsin Shares program. 

He entered the race in mid-December and has leaned on his career experience holding executive-level roles in businesses and nonprofits, including serving as CEO of Discovery World and president of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. In 2018, Evers tapped Brennan to lead the DOA, the top state executive agency tasked with overseeing financial management of state agencies and helping the governor draft the biennial budget. Brennan left that position in 2022. 

Brennan is the only one of the remaining candidates who has not held elected office before, which has limited his name recognition. Though he was the first Democratic candidate to launch a campaign ad in June, he only mustered 5% support in last week’s Marquette poll. 

Still, he has tried to find ways to push through the crowd, including questioning the electability of front-runners or his primary opponents’ leadership decisions. He was the first to attack Rodriguez with pointed questions after she fired her campaign manager over inaccuracies in her financial reports and released an ad last week criticizing Hong, Barnes and Crowley as unelectable in a general election. The ad, however, received pushback from Black Democrats, who called the spot racist for specifically highlighting candidates of color. It left out mention of Roys, who is white like Brennan. 

Brennan insists his executive experience gives him an edge over the candidates with legislative experience who “don’t have defined duties.” 

“That’s what I’m going to keep leaning into,” Brennan said. “That, plus listening and learning, I think, gets you to a point where people can see me doing the job, know that I could win and could be effective as governor. Those are the ingredients that get me to where I need to get to.” 

Crowley returns with Evers’ endorsement

The first question for Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley from a smattering of people gathered at the Concordia Ballroom in La Crosse was about why he dropped out of the governor’s race in early July. 

“It’s a long story,” Crowley said. He explained he initially chose to leave the race based on the numbers and campaign ad buy announcements that seemed to show Rodriguez with the best path forward, but more information came out about Rodriguez’s financial position that showed it was not the case. 

Crowley restarted his campaign on July 18. While Crowley acknowledged he may be the “double Dutch candidate” in the race, he told the group in La Crosse he feels a momentum propelling his campaign that was not there before. 

The most significant boost came from Evers, who endorsed Crowley on July 18 over the remaining candidates who served in his administration. Evers in a statement described Crowley as “the right candidate for the people of Wisconsin.” 

“He’s not just a candidate who can win in November,” Evers said. “But he’s the kind of person who cares about doing the job right, he has the experience to make tough decisions, and he’s proven he can work together with others to get good things done.” 

Crowley, at 40, is both the youngest and first Black person to serve as Milwaukee County executive, the job that oversees the most populous county in Wisconsin. It’s a role previously held by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker. “I’m not like him, though,” Crowley said with a chuckle to a guest in La Crosse.

Crowley grew up in Milwaukee and navigated challenging early years as his parents struggled with mental health and addiction and his family faced evictions. He credits public schools with his path to success and eventually became a community organizer. 

His entry into politics first began with work on former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold’s campaign. Crowley was first elected to office in 2016 when he ran for state Assembly. He served two terms and left the Legislature in 2020 to run for Milwaukee County executive. 

Crowley tells audiences at campaign events how, as county executive, he has not shied away from working with anyone, including lawmakers across the aisle, to improve the lives of people in Milwaukee County. In La Crosse, he told the group about his efforts in passing the 2023 shared revenue law that has helped Milwaukee County pay off debts incurred from the pension scandal in the early 2000s, although Crowley acknowledged the law did not solve all municipal funding problems across the state.

Crowley has focused his campaign on an affordability plan referred to as the “Badger Basics,” which includes proposals such as building more housing, creating a public option for BadgerCare and easing child care costs for families with a child under age 5 by capping their costs at 7% of their household income. 

The key question for Crowley’s campaign is whether any momentum following his reentry into the race can actually push Crowley to the front of the field with just two weeks left to go. 

The new Marquette poll this week will provide a window into if his support has grown among registered voters, but in recent days, Crowley has also had to field questions about profane social media posts on an account he said he once shared with others. Crowley’s campaign told news outlets that although he had access to the account, he did not write any of the posts. 

Crowley said Evers’ endorsement shows the governor, whose job performance remains favorable among Wisconsin voters, believes in Crowley’s judgment.

“I think indirectly, people are wondering, ‘OK, who the hell is this dude, and why did Governor Evers pick him?’” Crowley said. “So, people are showing up. They’re paying attention to our social media posts, and they’re coming out to volunteer and donating their hard-earned money to support this campaign because they trust his judgment.” 

Hong rides momentum into final weeks of primary campaign 

Francesca Hong diced tomatoes for pico de gallo as she told guests at Dan Wegmueller’s farm in Monroe about the top question she hears on the campaign trail. 

Why is she a democratic socialist? 

“It’s less about the labels and more about the solutions,” Hong explained as her knife hit the cutting board, a familiar task for the chef and former restaurant owner. “When we are focusing on local, on the means of taking care of people and lowering costs, that has to mean being less reliant on industry. Right now, our community is being dominated by billionaires and mega corporations not paying their fair share, and then deciding a lot of the pricing and the way that we live our lives.”

Hong, a 37-year-old state representative from deep-blue Madison, has emerged as a top contender in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary. Her surprising rise comes as democratic socialists are winning primaries across the country and rejecting establishment policies. Hong has led in three Marquette polls since October and finished second behind Rodriguez in the WisPolitics straw poll at the Wisconsin Democratic Convention in June. 

If Hong wins the nomination, the key question for Democrats in swing-state Wisconsin is whether her policies appeal to voters across the state. The Marquette poll last week showed more registered voters have an unfavorable view of the democratic socialist label than a favorable one.

Republicans appear to be rooting for her nomination. A recent ad from the Republican Governors Association ominously casts her as being too liberal, opposed to President Donald Trump and supportive of abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement — all statements that could entice Democrats to vote for her in the primary.

Hong has had to answer questions about controversial democratic socialist views, such as her past social media posts in support of defunding and abolishing the police. She told radio station WTMJ in July that she does not believe police funding should go away. At the same time, Hong has faced backlash from Republicans for her statement that described the fatal shooting of Corey Ruiz in Madison as “an execution.” 

Hong also has had to fend off questions about appearing on a fundraising live stream with Hasan Piker, the controversial political commentator and streamer, who has been criticized for antisemitic comments. Hong told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she disagrees with some of Piker’s comments, but said candidates should not give up opportunities to address large audiences. 

Hong, a single mother who was elected to the Assembly in 2020, has leaned on her service industry background and economic policy proposals, including universal child care and a moratorium on data center construction, to connect with voters.

In the final weeks, Hong said she plans to continue to show up in communities not expecting to see a candidate and engage in one-to-one conversations to drive curiosity about her vision and policies. People underestimate the extent that policy matters more than labels and existing political boundaries, Hong said. 

“I’m lucky that I get to say and show up as a chef, a mom, a renter, a service industry worker,” Hong said. “That from worker to worker we’ve got to talk about how we’ve got to fix this.”  

Roys has teachers union endorsement, campaign experience

Kelda Roys, sitting center stage in Evansville High School’s auditorium, eagerly chose a bucket brimming with education questions as the first category of the night during a forum on rural issues in early July. Just three candidates — Roys, Hong and Republican Andy Manske — participated. 

It was an obvious move for the Madison state senator, who won the endorsement of Wisconsin’s largest teachers union and bills herself as the “education candidate” in this year’s Democratic primary. 

Roys used the question — explain your position on separation of church and state regarding public schools in Wisconsin — to share her broader vision for public education in the state. 

“What my kids are getting in our public schools is not the same as what my sisters and I got, and it’s not OK with me,” Roys told the crowd. “A huge part of that reason is because we are diverting public resources into private unaccountable vouchers, many of them religious in nature. So, as governor, I will fully fund our public schools.” 

Gubernatorial forums are familiar spaces for Roys. She ran for governor in 2018, when 10 candidates competed in the Democratic primary for the chance to unseat then-Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Roys finished third far behind Evers, who defeated Walker that November. 

Before that, she served two terms in the Assembly from 2009 through 2013, which overlapped with the early years of the Republican trifecta control of state government and the passage of Act 10. Roys led protests against the law that dismantled collective bargaining rights for most public employees while serving as the Assembly’s Democratic caucus chair. 

In 2012, she ran for Congress and lost the Democratic primary to now-U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan. Roys returned to the Legislature when she was elected to the state Senate in 2020 after winning a seven-candidate Democratic primary on Madison’s west side and ran unopposed in 2024. She is also an attorney and a real estate agent. 

Roys has focused her campaign on funding public schools, but also lowering costs and raising wages. Her policies include plans to open the state’s insurance plan to all Wisconsinites to decrease the cost of health insurance. She also proposes universal access to Wisconsin Shares, the state’s child care subsidy program for low-income families, with costs capped at 7% of parents’ income per child. The state would fund its portion of the costs through legalizing marijuana. “You’re going to be able to get baked for babies,” she said to laughs in Evansville. 

She is quick at campaign events to describe the Trump administration as a “dangerous authoritarian regime,” while promising to safeguard Wisconsinites and their rights from attacks by the federal government.

Roys, though, has not made inroads in polling over the course of the primary, and last week’s Marquette poll shows her at the bottom of the pack among registered voters with support at just 2%. 

Still, Wisconsin needs an experienced leader in this moment when Democratic control is on the line, and her experience in the Legislature makes her best suited for the job, she said. 

“For over 20 years I have been turning progressive ideas into law in the toughest of political environments, and that is the kind of experience and deliverables that we should expect from our next governor,” Roys said. “Not just somebody with good ideas, because we’ve got six (now five) great Democrats running … but you’ve got to be able to turn them into law.”

Wisconsin’s Democratic primary for governor has changed a lot since January — and not much at all is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Mandela Barnes energized Democrats when he ran for U.S. Senate in 2022, but his narrow loss that year tarnished his reputation with some in the party. He's urging Democrats to give him another chance in the 2026 race for governor, even as party leaders look elsewhere.

The post Mandela Barnes is asking Democrats for another chance in governor’s race appeared first on WPR.

Democrat Joel Brennan is campaigning for governor as an everyman with experience running a major agency in Gov. Tony Evers' administration. In the primary's closing weeks, he's trying to simultaneously introduce himself and make the case he's the candidate best equipped to win.

The post Democrat Joel Brennan says he can win the governor’s race — if voters get to know him appeared first on WPR.

A partial poll of Democrats' contentious primary for governor shows Madison Rep. Francesca Hong leading the the field, but Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley wasn't included in the survey after dropping out of the race only to jump back in days later.

The post Hong leads latest Marquette poll, but most voters undecided in Democratic primary for governor appeared first on WPR.

Amid the political battle for the governorship and control of the state Legislature, the Republican Party of Wisconsin has raised millions more this year than at the same point in the 2022 midterm election.

The post Wisconsin GOP has raised millions more than it did at this time 4 years ago appeared first on WPR.

WASHINGTON — New data reveals the number of women running in the 2026 elections is slightly up from 2024, but experts say there is still progress to be made with women’s representation in public office overall. 

The number of women running for governor has reached an all-time high this election cycle, and the number seeking a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives could also set a record, according to July 20 data from The Center for American Women and Politics, or CAWP. 

The center, part of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, collects data on women’s representation in federal, state and local government. 

The center also conducts research and runs educational programs on the role of women in politics. Its mission is to increase female involvement in public life. 

Women in the midterms

There are 85 women major-party candidates running for governor across 36 states this year, a number that significantly exceeds the previous record of 69, set in 2022. 

Fifty-one of those women are Democrats, another record, and 34 are Republicans. 

On the congressional level, 580 women are currently major-party contenders for the U.S. House, a figure that is just three away from the 2018 and 2020 record of 583 women candidates. 

That record could be broken once Louisiana reaches its candidate filing deadline for the House on Aug. 7, according to CAWP.  

The number of Democratic House candidates who are women has already reached an all-time high at 387. The remaining 183 women running are Republicans. 

In the Senate, 64 women from major parties are running for a seat, exactly half of them Democrats and half of them Republicans. The record for women Senate candidates was set in 2022 at 70. 

Fairly high numbers of women would need to emerge as Senate candidates in Maine and South Carolina to beat that record of 70, said CAWP Director of Data Chelsea Hill during a media briefing with other CAWP research experts on Tuesday.

A day before the briefing, Republican Sen. Darline Graham of South Carolina, who was sworn in July 14 to replace her late brother, Lindsey Graham, announced plans to run for a full six-year term following the encouragement of President Donald Trump. 

Although record numbers of congressional women candidates have not yet been reached in either the U.S. House or Senate, the overall number of women running for Congress is up compared to the last election cycle. 

In 2024, the number of women who sought seats in Congress dropped after having previously increased for three consecutive cycles, a phenomenon that CAWP later described as “evidence of stalled progress toward gender parity,” Hill said. 

Despite the increase in women seeking office over the years, female representation is still low when taken as a percentage of all candidates running for Congress and state governors. 

According to another set of CAWP data from July 20, women make up 27% of total candidacies for the U.S. House and 23.9% of the total for the Senate in 2026. About 25% of gubernationarial candidates are women. 

Milestones within reach 

But at the same time, CAWP experts said at the media briefing, there are many milestones women could achieve in the 2026 election cycle, including firsts for women in certain government positions and for “women of specific racial and ethnic backgrounds and within either party.” 

They pointed to current Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, a Republican, and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a Democrat, who are both running to become the first women to serve as governors of their respective states. 

And Deb Haaland, the former U.S. secretary of the Interior currently running in New Mexico, could become the first-ever Native American woman governor in any state if she wins in November. 

At the congressional level, names such as Milat Keros, Aisha Wahab, Denise Powell and more have the potential to break barriers for women in public office. 

Keros is in place to become the first Black woman to represent Colorado, Wahab the first Middle Eastern or North African woman to serve from California and Powell the first Democratic woman to represent Nebraska in Congress.

At the end of the media briefing, CAWP Scholar and Director of Research Kelly Dittmar said the center’s 2026 candidacy data could be used as a tool to study and open up a broader discussion about women’s political pathways, nodding particularly to Blackburn and Klobuchar’s gubernatorial runs. 

“When we think about women moving to be chief executives of a state as a potential pathway to the presidency, (it’s) also something we need to always keep our eye on,” she said. 

CAWP’s data focuses on major party candidates and will continue to be updated regularly to account for upcoming state filing deadlines and congressional primary results. 

Madison state Sen. Kelda Roys is leaning on her experience and attention to detail as she tries to distinguish herself in the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor.

The post Kelda Roys leans on experience, attention to detail in second bid for governor appeared first on WPR.

The contentious Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor has given Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany a chance to campaign on his own terms. He's presented himself as quintessentially Wisconsin but down played his partisan voting record and his ties to President Donald Trump.

The post As the Democratic primary heats up, Republican Tom Tiffany has campaigned for governor on his own terms appeared first on WPR.

While the Democratic primary field has narrowed in recent weeks, Hong has remained the only Democrat who supports a statewide moratorium on new construction for AI data centers.

The post What would Francesca Hong’s proposed data center moratorium mean for Wisconsin? appeared first on WPR.

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A 2023-25 budget provision granting a sales tax exemption to data centers was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in July 2023. 

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau said in March that the tax break will cost the state more than $2 billion in sales tax revenue, mostly from massive data centers in Beaver Dam, Port Washington and Mount Pleasant. When the budget was approved in July 2023, hyperscale data centers were so new the fiscal bureau didn’t estimate how much an exemption would affect state tax collections.

While the high cost has drawn scrutiny, the incentive was originally designed to drive economic growth. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 38 states offer tax incentives on data centers.

Wisconsin has about 50 data centers, largely in the Milwaukee and Madison areas.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

• Wisconsin Watch: Wisconsin data center tax break to cost state more than $2 billion
• Legislative Fiscal Bureau: 2023-25 Wisconsin State Budget
• Data Center Map: Wisconsin Data Centers
• National Conference of State Legislatures: Subsidizing Servers: How States Are Competing to Attract Data Centers

Was a Wisconsin data centers tax break put in place solely by Gov. Tony Evers?  is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley jumped back into the race for governor Saturday in a last minute attempt to take control of the contest just 24 days before the August primary.

The post Crowley returns to governor’s race in last-minute effort to win Democratic primary appeared first on WPR.

Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez has ended her bid to be Wisconsin's next governor, capping a tumultuous string of events that saw her campaign fall apart seemingly overnight.

The post Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez ends bid for Wisconsin governor appeared first on WPR.

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Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez abandoned her Democratic primary campaign for governor on Friday, citing financial concerns she said would be a distraction were she to continue running in the Midwestern battleground state.

The move comes just days after Rodriguez, a leading establishment Democrat from the pivotal Milwaukee suburbs, fired her campaign manager after discovering her campaign had hundreds of thousands of dollars less on hand than expected.

“As we have continued to dig into our financial reports, it has become clear there are issues that would be an ongoing distraction,” Rodriguez said in a social media post Friday. “Part of being a leader is taking swift action, doing the right thing and being as honest as possible when there’s a problem.”

“And because I believe that, I cannot, in good conscience, allow these questions to become a cloud over an election Democrats need to win,” she added.

The shake-up comes less than a month from the primary election on Aug. 11, when Democrats will be choosing a successor to Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat who opted not to seek a third term.

Rodriguez had been endorsed by Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who quit his campaign on July 8, over remaining Democratic candidates, including Francesca Hong, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and others.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup. This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.

Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez quits Democratic governor’s race over campaign finance problems is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Some Democrats, including Francesca Hong's opponents, say the GOP's $2.2 million ad buy is aimed not at tearing Hong down but at building her up with the Democratic primary electorate.

The post GOP-funded ads attack Hong as too liberal. Dems say they’re trying to boost her profile. appeared first on WPR.

Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and Madison Rep. Francesca Hong led the Democratic field for governor in fundraising for the first half of 2026, as Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez reported just $35,000 cash on hand. Republican Tom Tiffany outraised the entire field, raising more than $8 million with the help of the state GOP and three megadonors.

The post Barnes, Hong lead Democratic fundraising as Rodriguez stumbles appeared first on WPR.

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If the 2026 Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor seems large, 2018 certainly had it beat.

That year, 10 names were on the Democratic primary ballot, plus an 11th write-in candidate, according to results of the 2018 partisan primary kept by the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Two Republican candidates and two additional write-ins appeared on the 2018 GOP primary ballot. 

The Aug. 11, 2026, primary ballot includes seven Democrats and two Republicans.

In both years, a few candidates dropped out of the race, but their names remained on the ballot due to approval deadlines. 

As of July 14, that includes Democrats Missy Highes and David Crowley. So, only five of the Democrats on the Aug. 11 ballot are still campaigning.

In 2018, two higher-profile candidates had also dropped out by late June: Andy Gronik and Dana Wachs, though both appeared on the ballot.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

• Wisconsin Elections Commission: 2018 Fall Partisan Primary Results: Ward by Ward – Governor
• MyVote Wisconsin: What’s On My Ballot
• Wisconsin Elections Commission: Commission Meeting June 9, 2026 – Ballot Access
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Democrat Missy Hughes drops out of Wisconsin governor race
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee County Exec David Crowley withdraws from governor's race

Did more Democrats run for Wisconsin governor in 2018 than in 2026? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, a Democratic candidate for governor, has fired her campaign manager less than a month before the Aug. 11 primary, citing “serious mismanagement and inaccuracies” in the campaign finance reports she prepared.

The post Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez campaign short hundreds of thousands after campaign accounting errors appeared first on WPR.

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Wisconsin Democratic candidate for governor Sara Rodriguez said Monday that she discovered her campaign has hundreds of thousands dollars less cash than she thought after campaign ads slated to run last week did not air because of unpaid invoices.

Rodriguez, the current lieutenant governor, announced late Sunday night that she had fired her campaign manager after discovering contributions had been double counted and expenses were undercounted, leading to her campaign having far less money than she thought.

Rodriguez, at a news conference surrounded by supporters, vowed to remain in the race.

“This campaign is going to move forward,” she said in the appearance at her campaign headquarters.

Rodriguez is in a competitive primary for Wisconsin’s open governor’s race against democratic socialist Francesca Hong, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and three others. The winner of the Aug. 11 primary will advance to the general election against Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, who faces only token primary opposition.

Last week Rodriguez announced a $1 million television ad campaign buy. But when the ads didn’t start running as she expected, Rodriguez said she began asking questions and discovered the problems in the campaign reports.

“I am hurt, angry and deeply disappointed by someone I trusted to run my campaign,” Rodriguez said of her fired campaign manager. “I was continually getting inaccurate reports from my campaign manager.”

Rodriguez’s next report covering money raised and spent over the first six months of the year is due on Wednesday.

Rodriguez said her campaign immediately notified the Wisconsin Ethics Commission on Monday and was working with them to correct the report filed in January that covers donations and expenditures made last year.

Rodriguez would not say exactly how much her filing was off by because the work to reconcile the books was ongoing. But she said her campaign had raised about $1 million and had about $200,000 cash on hand.

After she announced the $1 million ad buy last week, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley dropped out of the race and endorsed Rodriguez. Another former Democratic candidate, former state economic development director Missy Hughes, endorsed Rodriguez after she ended her campaign last month.

Democratic challenger Joel Brennan, a former top aide to Gov. Tony Evers, called the errors by Rodriguez’s campaign “disqualifying.” Evers has not endorsed anyone in the primary.

Rodriguez said she was being up front about what happened.

“If I were trying to hide something I would be here today telling you about it,” she said at the news conference. “Most people are not going to stand in front of this many cameras and microphones to talk about fixing an error.”

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Joel Brennan was taking a break from his shift at a Sheboygan County Dairy Breakfast on a sunny Saturday morning in June. Outside the sprawling barn where he’d  been handing out sausages to hungry customers, he met up with Rosemary Verheyen.

A Wisconsin native who moved back to the state after spending most of her career in California, Verheyen, 66, had looked up Brennan’s campaign for governor on Facebook — part of a personal project to meet all the candidates before casting her ballot.

She sent Brennan a direct message asking for a chance to meet him in person. She got a reply the same day and learned about his upcoming dairy breakfast gig.

Verheyen and Brennan talked for 10 or 15 minutes. Brennan asked her about the younger generation in her extended family and what concerns were on her mind. The talk turned to housing, and Verheyen explained she owns a mobile home but has to rent the lot where she keeps it.

“My rent goes up by more than my Social Security does every year,” she said. In California, she explained, state law caps how much rental mobile home lots can increase their rental costs annually — but not in Wisconsin.

At the end of their conversation, she took a selfie with Brennan.

“You should keep after me when I get elected,” he told her with a smile. “I will!” Verheyen replied cheerfully.

Recalling their conversation a few weeks later, Verheyen told the Examiner that Brennan had impressed her right away. “He looked me right in the eye when he said ‘hello,’” she said. “So that right there made me feel like, oh, my gosh, he actually can see me. Because if I can’t be seen, how can I be helped, right?”

An outlier in the race

Joel Brennan is counting on moments — and impressions — like that one as he pursues the Democratic Party nomination in the 2026 election for governor. Among the five remaining hopefuls in the field, he’s something of an outlier — the only one who is not either a current or former elected official.

Brennan, 56, served as Department of Administration secretary for the first three years of Gov. Tony Evers’ eight-year tenure, then left to become executive director of the Greater Milwaukee Committee. He’s currently taking an unpaid leave from the civic group made up of business and nonprofit leaders.

As an Evers cabinet member Brennan was very much in the background. That’s a political disadvantage when it comes to name recognition, a baseline asset for anyone running for office.

“That’s my biggest challenge, simply that I am not well known enough,” Brennan says. To overcome that, he adds, “It’s shoe leather and trying to organize around the state.”

Although he entered the race in early December, months after most of the other Democratic hopefuls, a campaign finance report filed in mid-January showed that he had already raised more than $500,000. He decided to spend money on early advertising to introduce himself to the public.

“I got in the race late, but I was able to get general parity with the rest of the field, who had three months to raise money, and I had just a couple weeks,” Brennan says. “That is a demonstration, I think, of some of the support that I had, and the network that I’ve got around the state, and I’m leaning into that.”

When he tells people he meets at campaign events and meet-and-greet sessions why he’s running and “the path that I want to lay forward for Wisconsin,” Brennan says, he gets a positive reception. “I think that truly undecided minds — I win more of them than I don’t.”

Policy laundry list

Brennan’s  policy positions  overlap those of most of his rivals. His campaign website issues section has at least as many provisions and goes into at least as much detail as any of the others. It includes break-out sections on healthcare, housing and  democracy, as well as proposals addressing property taxes, education, the environment and other topics.

The website includes general assurances about “How we pay for it,” pointing out that some of his proposals will save taxpayers money, advocating for closing tax loopholes, requiring community benefit agreements for data centers and assessing the sources of pollution for the cost of cleanup.  

Although they may differ on some details, he and the four other Democrats in the race have all called for restoring public employees’ collective bargaining rights, repealing other laws passed during former Gov. Scott Walker’s two terms that weakened labor unions, and passing budgets that increase funding for public schools and reduce school districts’ dependence on property taxes.

Brennan endorses a paid medical and family leave program funded through employer and employee contributions, a free school lunch program, and measures reducing childcare costs for families while bolstering childcare providers’ resources.

He has publicly criticized the Trump administration on tariffs, healthcare cuts, other federal program cuts and abuses by federal immigration officers. Yet Brennan’s approach is less pugilistic than that of some of the other Democrats. “Joel doesn’t wake up looking for a fight,” his website states. “There’s a difference between fighting and getting something done. Joel intends to do both.”

Emphasizing experience, competence

For all his policy specifics, Brennan rests the case for his candidacy on a three-decade-plus history of executive jobs in government and nonprofits — both for the experience he has gained and the connections he has forged.

“I grew up in a large family, and relationships were absolutely central to that, and they’ve been central to every part of my career,” Brennan says.

Brennan was born in the Milwaukee suburbs, the second youngest of 11 children. He grew up there and in the city and graduated from Marquette University, where he majored in English literature and political science. Brennan interned for a Massachusetts member of Congress one summer, and served on the staff of U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett before working in public affairs at Miller Brewing Co. and then at the Greater Milwaukee Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Brennan has also been a behind-the-scenes political insider. He managed two Barrett campaigns — for governor in 2002 (Barrett lost the primary) and mayor in 2004. After Barrett won that race, Brennan worked in the Milwaukee redevelopment authority during Barrett’s first three years as mayor.

Before joining the Evers administration, Brennan was CEO at Discovery World, a Milwaukee museum and education center for science and technology.

In his campaign trips around Wisconsin, Brennan has earned “some credibility because of the company I keep,” he says. “Those people who have been supportive and been part of my career — I’ve got to demonstrate to them that I can do the job, and they want to kick the tires on me, but those are opportunities that I’ve gotten because of some of the relationships that I’ve developed and I’ve cultivated over the course of my career, in the course of my life.”

When Barrett ran for governor in 2010 against Scott Walker, then the Milwaukee County executive, Brennan was drafted to play Walker in debate rehearsals. He repeated that role with Barrett in the 2012 recall election and again for Mary Burke, the Democratic candidate who challenged Walker for reelection in 2014.

The Democrats nominated Evers to run against Walker, seeking a third term, in 2018, and Brennan was asked if he’d do a repeat performance as the Republican governor.

“I said, ‘Great, I’ll be happy to do it again, but we’ve lost the last three times I’ve done this,’” he recalls. Despite his demurrals, “they wanted me to do it again,” he says. “My job was to toughen him up for the debate prep with Scott.” When Evers won the election, he says, “I was thrilled.”

Brennan says he didn’t actively seek a job in the new administration, but he had several connections with the Evers transition team and was soon tapped to lead DOA.

“Really the job is to help the governor run the executive branch,” Brennan says. The Department of Administration helps the governor’s office put together the state budget proposal, serves as the human resources department for the state’s 35,000 employees and manages Wisconsin’s real estate — the Capitol, the executive residence in Maple Bluff and the state’s office buildings. It’s also the face of state government in its interactions with local municipalities and negotiates compacts with the tribes located in Wisconsin.

Making appeals to the undecided

After the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, the department was responsible for managing more than $4 billion in federal relief funds, first in the 2020 CARES Act in the last year of the Trump administration and then in the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act that President Joe Biden signed about two months after taking office.

Brennan has been emphasizing those experiences when he meets voters.

“I can tell you that most every room that I go into, if there are undecided people in them, or if there are people who don’t know who I am, they walk away thinking, One, ‘Here’s somebody who’s got a history of accomplishment, and who, over the course of two decades, has almost exclusively executive experience, more executive experience than anybody else in the race,’” Brennan says.

“‘Two, he’s demonstrated that he can do the job, he knows state government, he knows the context around Madison, he’s got passion,’” he continues. “I think everybody who sees me walks away with that, and you know, more often than not, I believe I’m walking away with more of those people for me than for somebody else.”

Translating those small-group connections into a message that will reach a lot of voters is a challenge, he acknowledges. “I can’t do that in groups of 25 and 50 forever,” Brennan says. “I’ve got to find a way to speak to a larger audience.”

Brennan has looked for other ways to garner attention.

An early campaign ad featuring his teenage children pokes fun at him for telling “Dad jokes.” 

Brennan was one of a handful of politicians who volunteered to serve at the Sheboygan County Dairy Breakfast. (The presumptive Republican nominee, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, did as well — handing out slices of ham at a table right behind Brennan.)

Recently, as his Democratic  rivals began issuing  negative statements about each other, Brennan’s campaign released a 99-page opposition research report on himself. Perhaps its harshest bullet points were public statements that criticized his opposition as Greater Milwaukee Committee CEO to a Milwaukee Public School referendum that narrowly passed in 2024.

“My life has pretty much been an open book — and here are 99 pages of data that demonstrate it,” Brennan said in a written statement accompanying the oppo research report. “I might even be the only gubernatorial candidate in the country willing to take this step — but more should. And voters would be better off if we did.”

The report didn’t refer to an April Urban Milwaukee column by Editor Bruce Murphy, which cited an anonymous source who said Brennan’s campaign had been pitched to donors as a safe “white centrist.” Brennan flatly denies the characterization.

“I am somebody who has demonstrated throughout my career that I’m about trying to give opportunity to everybody, and there’s nothing I have to do to respond to that, except to say I never said that,” Brennan says. “I don’t control what somebody says outside about me, and it’s offensive to me that anybody else would do that, and if they had the guts, they’d identify who they are.”

When Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley dropped out of the Democratic primary and joined former candidate Missy Hughes in endorsing Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Brennan expressed his admiration for Crowley but reaffirmed his commitment to stay in the race.

“David Crowley made the campaign for Governor – and the eventual Democratic nominee – stronger and better through his work. I am honored to still be able to call myself a constituent and friend,” Brennan wrote on Facebook.

In answer to a question from the Examiner, his campaign manager replied, “We respect David Crowley and wish him well. Joel is focused on making his case to Wisconsin voters between now and August 11.”

A new environment?

Brennan says he admires his old boss, Evers, for integrity, “his commitment to kids” — and for the role the governor played in drawing new legislative maps.

When Evers took office, “he didn’t have many conversations with legislative leaders in the first two years,” Brennan says.

He doesn’t blame the governor for that. The art of maintaining personal relationships among lawmakers, including across party lines, “has been lost in Wisconsin,” Brennan says, “and I lay that at the feet, to be honest, of Scott Walker and the Republicans in 2010, where they took over, they gerrymandered things so that they could protect their majority, and they legislated in a way that was about vengeance.”

Referring to the new, more politically balanced voting maps Evers signed into law, Brennan told Verheyen during their chat at the dairy breakfast, “This is a very different environment. That’s Tony Evers’ great gift to us.”

Unlike some of his rivals who seem to be counting on a Democratic sweep in legislative races this year in order to accomplish their goals, Brennan emphasizes his ability to work across the aisle.

He says he believes that  Democrats could win both houses of the state Legislature this year. “But even without that — or even with that — there will be only a one- or two-seat majority,” he says. “So it’s going to require a level of cooperation and conversation that just didn’t exist in the early years of the Evers administration.”

He argues that he can best navigate the change in temperature that he believes will be essential in the next term, whether Democrats achieve trifecta control  or the November election produces divided government.

“All I can tell you is, on my phone right now there are probably 10 Republican legislators whose cell phone numbers I have,” he says. Meanwhile, the current crop of Democratic lawmakers includes many first-term members who took office after he left state government. That can make it possible to shed some old baggage, he suggests.

“I’m going to be accessible to the Republicans, but also, absolutely, to those Democrats,” Brennan says. “In the course of the way we’re going to have to govern over the next eight years, I want to make sure that people have a personal relationship with me. And I think that also enables us to not make this the kind of blood sport that we oftentimes see.”

Brennan contends he can “stand up passionately around the issues that I care about and the progressive Wisconsin values that are absolutely ingrained in me” yet still be able to work cooperatively with Republicans.

“But if this election is just about how do we get back at the other side, how do we rub somebody’s nose in it? How are we just about vengeance? How are we just about grievance? Then I don’t think that’s worthy of who we are as Wisconsinites, and that’s not who I’ve been over the course of my career,” Brennan says.

“I am absolutely going to defend democracy, I’m going to defend people’s rights, I’m going to make sure we’re promoting our Wisconsin values, but at the end of the day, I think people need to know … they want to see that we’re in a position to get something done,” he says. “We’re poised to be able to do that in Wisconsin, and I think I’ve got the personality, the temperament, the background and the vision to do that.”

Editor’s note: The Examiner is running periodic profiles of the contenders in the Aug. 11, 2026 gubernatorial primary as well as the candidates in the general election Nov. 3. 

UPDATE: After suspending his campaign Wednesday, Crowley endorsed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez Thursday morning, saying she is the candidate who will best unite Democrats. 

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley announced Wednesday that he is dropping his bid to be governor, a decision that narrows the Democratic primary field for the second time in recent weeks. 

Crowley, a former state lawmaker who has served as the top executive of Milwaukee County executive since 2020, launched his campaign in September, saying his executive experience  would serve him well in the governor’s office and that he wanted to work to address the state’s affordability crisis. He pitched himself to voters as someone who could build bridges among communities across the state.

“It has become clear that I will not be the Democratic nominee for Governor, so today I am stepping out of this race, but I am not stepping away from the work. Politics should not be about who talks the loudest. It’s about showing up, working with anyone who wants to solve the problem, and delivering results people can see in their own communities,” Crowley said in a statement.

The news of Crowley’s exit, first reported by WisPolitics, is the second in recent weeks as former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporations CEO Missy Hughes dropped out at the end of June. It leaves the Democratic primary a five-way race between Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), state Sen. Kelda Roys and Joel Brennan, the former head of the Department of Administration under Gov. Tony Evers. 

While Crowley appeared to be building some momentum at the beginning of the campaign, including leading the Democratic field in early finance reports, he was also unable to break into the top tier in the polls. In a February Marquette Law School poll, he had the support of 3% of voters. In a straw poll conducted by WisPolitics at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin convention last month, he came in fourth behind Rodriguez, Hong and Roys.

Unlike Hughes, who endorsed Rodriguez, Cowley did not issue an endorsement in his announcement.

Crowley said the most important thing for Democrats to do is to unite behind whoever wins in August and defeat U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the presumptive Republican candidate who has the endorsement of President Donald Trump. 

“Tiffany’s record in Washington does not reflect Wisconsin’s values, and the people of this state deserve a governor who will fight for working families, protect our natural resources, invest in our communities, and be beholden to the people of our state, not Donald Trump,” Cowley said. “While I will not be the candidate, I will still do everything in my power to ensure that we win in November.” 

Crowley said that the state’s next governor needs to focus on the basics including “making this state affordable, making sure care shows up for families before a crisis instead of after and building real opportunity from the classroom to a good-paying job.”