Bill Berrien, shown here in a screenshot from his campaign launch video, dropped out Friday from the contest for the GOP nomination in the 2026 race for governor. (Screenshot from campaign ad)
Whitefish Bay manufacturer Bill Berrien is dropping his bid for governor after a turbulent week for his campaign, saying he doesn’t see a way for him to win the Republican nomination.
Berrien, the owner and chief executive officer of Pindel Global Precision Inc. and Liberty Precision New Berlin and a former Navy SEAL, entered the race about three months ago, saying the state needed a businessman in charge and trying to compare himself with President Donald Trump as a way of appealing to people.
His exit leaves two Republicans in the race: U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is considered the highest-profile candidate, launched his campaignthis week, and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann launched in May.
Berrien cited two reports from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week as his reason for leaving the race, saying they were “clearly targeted to force me out of the race.”
“As a result of our politics today, I cannot focus on the issues I know will turn Wisconsin around. I have come to the conclusion I do not have a path to the nomination,” Berrien said in a statement.
The Journal Sentinel articles found that Berrien had scrubbed his activity on the online publishing platform Medium.com where he followed Jiz Lee, a queer, trans nonbinary adult film performer, along with other authors of sexually explicit essays. Berrien had entered the race boasting of his conservative values, including saying he’d “keep boys out of our daughters’ sports and locker rooms,” a reference to the issue of transgender girls participating on girls’ sports teams.
The Berrien campaign attempted to downplay the news this week, but it quickly traveled across the internet, even garnering the attention of Jiz Lee, the Journal Sentinel reported in a follow-up article. They wrote in a post on Bluesky it is “okay to follow trans porn stars” and “to read articles about sex and relationships,” but that “what’s not okay is the hypocrisy of backing forceful legislation that restricts what people, trans and otherwise, can do with their own bodies.”
“That is shameful,” they said.
Berrien downplayed his online activity in his statement, saying he followed over 5,000 people across various platforms, subscribed to over 100 newsletters and has hit the ‘like’ button on 20,000 posts.
“It was a major attack piece and we confirmed opposition research started in January of this year, if not earlier,” Berrien said. “And for what? For reading! Nothing illegal, nothing unethical and nothing immoral. Just reading. Wouldn’t you want your political and business leaders (and all of society, frankly) to be widely read and thoughtful and aware of different perspectives and ideas? Yet, when a supposedly major metropolitan newspaper condemns someone for reading, we have ourselves a problem.”
The primary for the open governor’s race, scheduled for August 2026, is still about a year out.
Ahead of the news on his online activity this week, Berrien had already found pushback to his candidacy from Trump-aligned conservatives because he supported Nikki Haley in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, including donating over $30,000 to her campaign.
Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesperson Philip Shulman highlighted Trump’s influence in the Republican primary in a statement about Berrien’s exit, saying it is a “lesson” for GOP candidates.
“If you don’t show complete and total loyalty to Trump — past or present — then you better pack your bags and head for the door,” Shulman said. “His failure, despite his resume, financial investment, and doing somersaults to earn Trump’s love, shows just how far the other GOP candidates are going to have to go to win the nomination.”
While the Republican field is shrinking, the Democratic field for governor is still growing with at least eight candidates in the race.
Announced Democratic candidates include Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, state Sen. Kelda Roys, state Rep. Francesca Hong, former state Rep. Brett Hulsey and beer vendor Ryan Strnad. Others considering a run include Attorney General Josh Kaul, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes.
Rep. Tom Tiffany made his intention to run for governor official Tuesday after teasing his plans for weeks. (Congressional photo)
Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany launched his campaign for governor Tuesday afternoon — becoming the third, and highest profile, candidate in the 2026 Republican primary.
The 2026 race for governor in Wisconsin will be the first open election in over 15 years as Gov. Tony Evers decided to retire at the end of his second term. Two other Republicans are already in the race: Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann and Whitefish Bay manufacturer Bill Berrien.
“In 2026, Wisconsin will have a choice between opportunity, security, and freedom or following the path of failure seen in Minnesota and Illinois,” Tiffany said in a statement after officially launching his campaign on a conservative talk radio show hosted by Dan O’Donnell. “I will not allow our state to be dragged down that woke and broke road.”
Tiffany, who lives in Minocqua, had been teasing a run for governor for months and is expected to have an official launch event in Wausau on Wednesday evening.
The 67-year-old said in a statement that he would seek to “freeze property taxes, protect our farmland from Communist China, and fight every day for families, for farmers, and for the hardworking people who make this state great.”
In contrast to the short list of Republicans running so far, the Democratic primary field has become increasingly crowded in recent weeks. Official candidates include Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, state Sen. Kelda Roys, state Rep. Francesca Hong and beer vendor Ryan Strnad. Others considering a run include Attorney General Josh Kaul, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes, who recently announced she would be stepping down from her position in the Evers administration.
Tiffany was elected to represent Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, a massive area that encompasses the northern part of the state, in the House of Representatives in a special election in 2020. He took over from current U.S. Transportation Secretary and former Republican Rep. Sean Duffy, who had resigned to care for his family.
Before going to Washington, D.C., Tiffany was in the state Legislature, first in the Wisconsin State Assembly for about three years, followed by nearly eight years in the state Senate. During his tenure, he served on the state’s Joint Finance Committee, which is responsible for writing the state budget. Before that, Tiffany was the Town Supervisor of Little Rice and managed petroleum distribution for Zenker Oil Company.
Tiffany said that he could stay in Congress for much longer if he wanted to, but that he thinks he can do more as governor and is in the race to “uphold conservative principles.”
“It really is time for new leadership and I believe I have the vision to be able to lead the state of Wisconsin and make us one of the great states of America once again,” Tiffany said.
In Congress, Tiffany is a member of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus and has been a consistent ally to President Donald Trump. Tiffany also supported attempts to overturn former President Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election. So far this year, Tiffany has supported Trump’s tariffs and crack down on immigration, including targeting the H-1B visa program.
“I support them,” Tiffany said of Trump’s tariffs in his interview with O’Donnell. “At the end of the day if the tariff regime is handled properly, we are going to bring manufacturing back to the United States of America.”
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Devin Remiker criticized Tiffany in a statement, calling him “Tariff Lover Tom” and saying he “has been jacking up prices on Wisconsin families with his blind support for a trade war that is making everything from beer to beef to school supplies way more expensive — working Wisconsin families can’t afford Tariff Lover Tom being in charge.”
Tiffany said that he would also seek to uphold Wisconsin’s 20-week abortion ban. He has supported federal legislation in the past that would ban abortion at six weeks.
“I do support that law, and I will uphold it as governor of the state of Wisconsin,” Tiffany said. “I think back to the debate that we had 10 years ago, and you had people on both sides. You had some that were, like, we want unlimited abortions. We had others that said there should be no abortions allowed in the state of Wisconsin, and ultimately, the people of the state said we really want to see something in the middle.”
Tiffany also said he would work to reduce taxes in Wisconsin, including freezing income taxes. He didn’t commit to a flat income tax or eliminating the income tax as some Republicans have proposed.
“I also believe we can reduce income taxes. Can we take it down to zero? I don’t know the answer to that,” Tiffany said.
State Sen. Kelda Roys calls attention to the issue of child care funding during a June press conference alongside her Democratic colleagues. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Democratic state Sen. Kelda Roys of Madison said she will fight back against “extremists” as she launched her campaign for governor Monday morning.
Roys, 46, is now the fourth candidate to enter the open Democratic primary. She joins Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley as well as Mukwonago beer vendor Ryan Strnad.
“I’ve been protecting our freedoms when others didn’t even see the threat coming. That’s leadership. See the problem. Build the coalition, deliver results,” Roys said in her campaign announcement ad. “I’ve done it while raising five kids and running a small business, because when something matters, we find a way.”
Roys gave two reasons for why she is running for governor in an interview with the Wisconsin Examiner.
“I’m running because Wisconsin needs a governor who’s going to stand up to what the Republican regime is doing and protect Wisconsinites from the harms that they are causing us,” Roys said. “And also because this is a time of incredible opportunity for Wisconsin, and we need a governor who knows how to get things done, how to deliver meaningful change for families across the state.”
Promising to push back on the Trump administration, Roys said that means that “as people are losing their health care coverage because of the federal budget, as farmers don’t have the workforce to help harvest their crops, as small businesses are struggling with the high cost and uncertainty caused by Trump’s policies, I’m going to do everything in my power to help Wisconsinites thrive.”
Roys said the Democratic Party is struggling with low approval ratings because people aren’t seeing Democrats do enough to combat Trump.
“When I talk to folks all around the state, it’s because people are angry that Democrats don’t seem to be meeting this moment and ringing the alarm bells the way that we need to be right now,” Roys said.
Roys was elected to the Senate in 2020 and has served as one of four Democrats on the Joint Finance Committee, which is responsible for writing the state’s biennial budget, since 2023. Prior to this, she served two terms in the state Assembly, including one under former Gov. Jim Doyle and one under former Gov. Scott Walker.
Roys said her experience in the Legislature would help inform the way she would lead as governor.
“Much to my chagrin, when you look at the governors who have been effective at cementing their legacies into the law, it’s the governors that have come from the Legislature,” Roys said. “Tommy Thompson and Scott Walker are really the top examples that we have, because they understood how to work with the Legislature.”
Roys said the makeup of the state Legislature will not change her determination to get things done, though she is “bullish” in her belief that the state Senate will flip Democratic in 2026 and possibly the state Assembly, too.
“My feeling is that you’re never going to get anything done alone. You always are going to need a team, and the job of the governor is to build that so that you can make durable change, and I will continue to maintain a strong relationship with Republican and Democratic legislators,” Roys said. “As governor, I’m going to be always looking for opportunities to partner with the Legislature, to reach across the aisle, because this is a purple state.”
Roys said her history shows her ability to advance her priorities, even in a Republican Legislature, and that is what sets her apart from other Democratic candidates in the race.
One accomplishment, she noted, was her experience as a law student working with the Wisconsin Innocence Project to help pass Act 60, a criminal justice reform law aimed at helping prevent wrongful convictions, in a Legislature dominated by Republicans. Roys also noted the when she was executive director of NARAL Wisconsin, she advocated for the passage of the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Act, which requires Wisconsin hospital emergency rooms to provide medically accurate oral and written information regarding emergency contraception to victims of sexual assault and to dispense emergency contraception upon request.
Roys has been an outspoken advocate for reproductive rights during her service in the Legislature as well, calling for the repeal of the 1849 criminal law that ended abortion services in the state for a year and a half after Roe v. Wade was overturned, and the loosening of other abortion restrictions in the state.
Roys, who voted against the recent state budget, said she did so in part because of the lack of education funding. As governor, she said she would want to improve public education and ensure that “we’re not perpetually forcing our schools to go to their neighbors and ask them to raise their own property taxes just to keep the lights on and keep teachers in the classroom.”
Beyond funding, Roys laid out a couple of priorities for schools on her campaign website, including “using evidence-based learning, keeping smartphones out of the classroom, retaining high standards, engaging parents and community members as stakeholders and ensuring high quality professional development for educators.”
This is Roys’ second time running. She came in third in the Democratic primary in 2018, when Evers was first elected, behind Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin.
Wisconsin’s gubernatorial primaries are about 11 months away, scheduled for August 2026.
The Republican primary is still taking shape as well. Whitefish Bay manufacturer Bill Berrien and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann have officially entered the race. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany has said he will make a decision about entering the race by the end of the month.
Berrien said in a statement about Roys’ campaign launch that Wisconsinites were not going to “elect a career politician who views the governor’s mansion as another stepping stone in her career” and that voters had already rejected her “extreme, far-left policies and Medicare for All Agenda.”
“As governor, I’ll create prosperity for all through work because it doesn’t matter who the Democrats nominate, I will beat them,” Berrien said.
Roys said she hadn’t seen Berrien’s full statement, but it sounded “laughable.”
“I’ve actually spent more of my career in the private sector than in the public, but I still have way more experience than any of the Republicans thinking of running for governor,” Roys said.
In the six-year gap between her service in the Assembly and Senate, Roys founded Open Homes, an online real estate service, in 2013, as a way to “lower fees and make it easier for people to buy and sell their homes,” according to her campaign announcement. She first got her real estate license at 19 when she lived in New York City to help pay for college, according to the business website.
As for Berrien’s charge that she is “extreme,” Roys says, “there is no place for violence or violent rhetoric in our politics, but you have to look no further than the President that these Republicans support, who has unleashed an incredible amount of violent rhetoric that is meant to scare and intimidate Americans who disagree with him, and it’s not just his words, but it’s his actions.”
Roys noted Trump’s pardons of January 6th insurrectionists.
“I don’t know what you can call those pardons, if not a permission slip for violence,” Roys said. “I don’t want to hear one word from Republican candidates about extremism, until they denounce their own president and his contributions to the terrible situation that this country is in.”
Roys said the biggest challenge that Democrats face in competing statewide in 2026 is a group of “very, very well funded billionaires and right wing extremists that gerrymandered our state and have been trying to buy elections here for a generation.” She said she would work to combat that by “building a strong statewide grassroots campaign of people from across the political spectrum who want to see Wisconsin actually solve our problems and move forward again.”
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley launched his campaign for governor Tuesday morning, saying that his story is “Wisconsin’s story” and he wants to work to address the “affordability crisis” that many Wisconsinites are facing.
Crowley had already said he was planning to enter the race just a day after Gov. Tony Evers announced he wouldn’t be running for a third term in 2026. Evers’ decision not to run has created the first open race for governor in 16 years.
In a campaign ad, Crowley, 39, highlighted his difficulties in his childhood and his journey to becoming the youngest and first Black person to serve as Milwaukee county executive.
“I didn’t grow up in the halls of power. I grew up here and here and here,” Crowley said as photos of his previous homes flashed on screen, “Evicted three times as a kid, having to pick up yourself and everything you own off the curb, it’ll break you or it’ll make you.”
The field for the Democratic primary is still shaping up. Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez was the first to launch her campaign, following Evers’ announcement. State Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) has also said she is “very likely” to enter the race. Others considering joining the fray include former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Attorney General Josh Kaul and state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison).
The primary election is just under a year away.
Crowley said in an interview that Evers has served as a “great, steady, calm strength” that the state has needed over the last decade and he “knew that we were going to need some experienced executive leadership to take over” and someone “who’s going to fight for Wisconsinites all across this state.”
Crowley was elected to be Milwaukee County executive in 2020. He highlighted the fact that he has managed the state’s largest county, including its $1.4 billion budget, guiding it through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Crowley also represented Milwaukee in the state Assembly from 2017 to June of 2020.
“I didn’t want any child to go through that,” he said of his struggles with poverty and eviction in his early life, “so I became a community organizer. I went on to serve in the state Assembly, where I saw what happens when extremists had total control, and I’d had enough,” Crowley says in a new campaign ad. “At 33, I returned home elected to lead the largest county in Wisconsin, helping create thousands of new jobs, cutting our carbon emissions in half, balancing the budget, all while delivering the largest property tax cut in our history and convincing Madison to return more money right back to every local community across the state. But the progress we’ve made isn’t nearly enough.”
Crowley told the Wisconsin Examiner in an interview that his experience in the Legislature combined with his executive experience set himself apart from other potential candidates. He said he knew on Day One he “would hit the ground running to be able to move our entire state forward.”
Crowley will have to run and win statewide, something he hasn’t done before, before he can accomplish that.
Asked about challenges Democrats could face in competing statewide in 2026, Crowley said it’s important to recognize people’s frustrations with the Democratic party, especially nationally. He said he has shared the frustrations.
“We haven’t had a cohesive national message that we could get around that would help energize our base and get folks out,” Crowley said.
Crowley noted that his experience isn’t just with the city of Milwaukee — the county itself is made up of 19 municipalities with varying needs.
‘When we talk about the issues that we have focused on — balancing the budget, being able to cut taxes, tackling the opioid epidemic, expanding access to mental health services — these aren’t partisan issues. These aren’t rural or suburban or urban issues. These are issues that are affecting every community,” Crowley said. “My goal is to go and talk to all communities, to let them know that I’m not only willing to listen but am willing to allow those voices on the ground, at the grassroots level, to be able to be part of the solution.”
Crowley said that he has helped deliver for communities outside of Milwaukee County. He takes credit for leading on Act 12, a 2023 bipartisan law that overhauled local government funding in Wisconsin, boosting state payments for communities across the state and provided Milwaukee with the ability to raise its sales tax.
Crowley said that Act 12 was “definitely historic in nature” — providing funding that communities were able to invest in fire and safety, roads, infrastructure and public services — and gave Milwaukee County and other communities a “bit of reprieve,” but it “didn’t fix all our problems.”
“We’ve had a Republican-controlled Legislature for the better of more than 15 years, and so [Evers has] had to work across the aisle, and this is what divided government looks like,” Crowley said when asked if he would’ve done anything different in recent budget negotiations, which left many Democrats dissatisfied. “It’s not the sexiest or the prettiest, but it means that you have to find compromises… I want to make sure that we continue to do what’s right, but also know that there’s more that we can do for working families.”
Crowley said that’s why it’s important that Democrats pick up seats in the state Legislature in 2026 in addition to keeping control of the governor’s office. Democrats are two seats away from flipping the Senate and five seats away from flipping the Assembly. To do so, Crowley said they cannot “continue to defend the status quo.”
“We have to look forward. We have to talk about the new vision of what Wisconsin needs to look like,” Crowley said. “What fully funded public schools really means? What does it mean to support families who are in need of child care across this state, and making sure that they have access not to just affordable housing, but we need attainable housing that is available for folks at all different income levels.”
Crowley said these issues are all at the root of helping address the “affordability crisis.”
“People are getting less even if they are making more money, and they need a little bit of relief,” Crowley said. “They’re struggling — trying to figure out how they’re going to put food on the table, how they’re going to keep up with rent or their mortgage, and I know exactly what that’s like. I had two loving parents, who had their own issues and struggled to put food on the table.”
On education, Crowley noted that Wisconsin used to provide about two-thirds of the funding that school districts needed.
“We at least need to revisit that and figure out how we can get back to that level,” Crowley said.
Child care was one of Evers’ top issues during the most recent state budget negotiations and he secured $110 million in state funding for direct payments to child care providers. That program will sunset in June 2026.
Asked whether he would take a similar approach to funding for child care centers, Crowley said that the state should “look at the public-private partnerships when it comes down to funding anything and everything.”
“As it relates to the services that we’ve provided in Milwaukee County, we can have limited resources, but based off of the partnerships that we have created, we’ve been able to move the needle on many of the programs and services that we offer,” Crowley said. “How do we bring the child care providers into the fold and help them come up with ideas that we need in order to fund them, and I do think that businesses can play a role.”
On affordable housing, Crowley said that the state needs to work to cut down on bureaucracy and “red tape”.
“There’s a lot of bureaucracy, even if the state wanted to invest in both affordable and attainable housing. You have to wait for local approval, and I think both sides of the aisle understand that we can’t wait for the bureaucrats, and we need to cut the red tape with a type of housing that communities are looking for.”
Crowley added that “what works in Milwaukee may not work in La Crosse, may not work in Wausau, may not work in Green Bay” and that he wants to ensure that the state is listening to people in their communities about what is best.
Crowley added that there’s “going to be time for us to talk about specific policies,” but he is planning on using “the next couple of weeks, next couple of months, to hear directly from those who are impacted and see what solutions they want to see brought to the table.”
Crowley added that it would take working with the Legislature to get these things done.
“I absolutely think that one of the things that we have lost in politics is the art of compromise,” Crowley said. “Now, compromising means that you’re finding ways to bring results, and that’s what voters care about. They care about the results, not necessarily the process, but compromising doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re giving up our values to get to a place.”
Crowley said he would commit to having office hours to work with legislators and hear their ideas “no matter what side of the aisle or what letter is behind their name.” He said this type of communication also needs to extend to every community across the state.
“The issues affecting communities — there isn’t a cookie cutter solution to them, and there’s no one size fits all solution to the issues that are affecting all of our communities,” Crowley said.
In his campaign video, Crowley also took aim at President Donald Trump.
“With costs shooting up, we’re all getting less, even if you’re making more. And Donald Trump’s chaos and cruelty means that the Wisconsin that we cherish will perish unless we unite and fight back,” Crowley said.
Trump will likely be a major factor in the race for governor in Wisconsin, especially in the Republican primary where the field is also still taking shape, but all of the candidates who have announced so far have closely aligned themselves with Trump.
Crowley said he doesn’t doubt Trump and other national Republican groups will try to “put their thumb on the scale for their particular candidate.”
“We’re going to run a tight grassroots campaign crisscrossing to every community across this state, letting them know my vision, and I want folks to know whether you’re Democrat, Independent or Republican, there’s a place in this campaign for you, because I’m looking to be the governor for all of us,” Crowley said.
On the Republican side, Whitefish Bay manufacturer Bill Berrien and Washington Co. Executive Josh Schoemann have officially launched their campaigns. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who has spoken to President Donald Trump about running according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, has said he plans to announce a decision by the end of the month.
In a statement, Berrien called Crowley’s campaign launch “another career politician” jumping into the race.
“After years of failed leadership from bureaucrats like David Crowley and Tony Evers, Wisconsinites are ready for a builder to take the reins and lead our state to a bright and prosperous future,” Berrien said. “It doesn’t matter who the Democrats nominate — I plan to beat them.”
Crowley said he isn’t worried about “which Republican” he faces in a general election.
“My fear is any Republican who has the potential of winning this race, and that’s why I’m entering this race now, because we have to unify our party. We have to bring new voices to the table. We have to bring independents back into the fold and build a broad coalition that’s not only going to help me become the next governor, but that’s going to help us win the Senate and the Assembly moving forward.”
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