Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany is proposing a bill of rights for parents and teachers, which includes requiring parental permission for students who want to change their names and pronouns at school and banning transgender students from bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.

Tiffany released his proposal as in-person early voting kicked off last week and with a little over a week to go before Election Day. Tiffany has sought to leverage divisions over cultural policies in schools since he launched his campaign last year. 

Under his proposal, transgender girls would be prohibited from participating on girls’ sports teams and using girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms in schools, schools would be prohibited from placing tampons in boys’ bathrooms and “gender transition procedures” would be prohibited for those under 18.

“Every child deserves a safe classroom, every teacher deserves the authority to maintain order, and every parent deserves to know what is happening in their child’s school,” Tiffany said in a statement.

Last month, Tiffany appeared at a town hall hosted by Moms For Liberty, a right-wing organizing group for parents well known for supporting book bans and targeting schools over policies related to transgender children. Keeping transgender girls out of girls’ sports was one of the first priorities Tiffany mentioned at the Moms For Liberty town hall.

Tina Descovich, one of the founders of Moms for Liberty, who traveled to Wisconsin from Florida for the event, said that the organization is targeting women who don’t ordinarily vote in get out the vote efforts in Wisconsin. She said the election presents voters with a choice that could take the state in two very different directions.

“You can continue with someone who believes that boys should be playing with girls in sports. You can continue with someone that thinks mothers should be called inseminated persons,” Desovich said, using terminology that Tiffany’s opponent, David Crowley, has in fact not endorsed. (Gov. Tony Evers was criticized for the use of the term in budget language referring to artificial insemination.)

Noting Tiffany’s plane crash, Descovich said she thought God saved Tiffany for the state of Wisconsin. 

Tiffany’s proposal would also require that parents be able to review instructional materials, that schools notify parents and obtain consent before letting a student go by a different name or use different pronouns in school, require schools notify parents about violence, threats and crimes that occur on school grounds, implement school report cards, require schools to give parents information about their child’s academic proficiency and classroom behavior twice a year. 

His proposal would allow teachers to remove violent or disruptive students; require behavior intervention plans before a student could be returned to a classroom; prohibit retaliation against teachers for enforcing classroom rules, reporting unsafe conditions, requesting assistance or taking appropriate action to protect students; and establish school safety and parental notification requirements. 

In contrast, Democratic candidate and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has focused his education platform on increasing funding for public schools, including for special education, and providing universal early childhood education for Wisconsinites.

Tiffany’s campaign pointed to the New Richmond school district, which has been the target of an investigation by the Trump administration over its bathroom policies, and a report in the conservative Heartland Post, an online outlet run by talk radio host O’Donnell, about Winneconne High School, where a superintendent retired after controversy over the school district allowing an 18-year-old student to use a preferred name, instead of a legal name, used in the school’s graduation ceremony without the parents’ permission.

Wisconsin Republicans have repeatedly introduced bills that would implement a parents’ bill of rights and require permission before students could go by different names. In the past, lawmakers received help with drafting these measures from the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. 

Gov. Tony Evers has vetoed those bills. In one veto message, he said the bill was “neither aimed at supporting our parents, our kids, and our schools, nor improving student outcomes, nor fostering collaboration and communication to do what is best for our kids,” but was rather “another attempt to divide our schools and communities and inject political ideology in the very last place it belongs — in our classrooms and our schools.”

Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said he would sign a bill to repeal tax incentives for data centers if he’s elected, marking a change in his position on the issue.

Gov. Tony Evers and Wisconsin Republicans approved a provision during the 2023 state budget that exempts data center developers from paying sales and use taxes for the “sale of property and equipment to construct, renovate or operate data centers.” The policy is estimated to have already saved data center developers $1.5 billion. 

However, as data centers have become increasingly unpopular, Democrats and Republicans alike have changed their minds on providing these subsidies. 

A group of Republican lawmakers, some of whom voted for the budget that created the tax subsidies in 2023, introduced a bill earlier this month that would repeal the tax breaks, though the bill won’t go anywhere as the Legislature is out of session.

Crowley said he would “absolutely” sign that bill to repeal the tax subsidies if it were sent to him as governor during an event at the Overture Center on Wednesday evening.

“The fact that these tech companies are getting a billion dollars in tax breaks — it’s being delivered on the backs of hard-working families,” Crowley said. “I want to be very clear about my position. We’re going to be aggressive when it comes down to holding data centers to account, making sure that we protect our land, protect our water, have strict environmental standards, but also communities need to have a seat at the table.”

Crowley had previously been noncommittal when it came to repealing the tax benefit for data centers. He told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he did not “believe Wisconsin should automatically roll back all data center tax incentives” but that he believed that the state needed “a more rigorous review of whether taxpayers are receiving sufficient value for the incentives being provided.” 

Republican candidate and U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany had previously criticized Crowley’s position on the tax incentives, saying that he wanted to give “a blank check to data centers” and that data centers “do not need to be subsidized by us, the taxpayers.” Tiffany has not always been a champion of tough regulation on data centers, either. He previously voted for legislation in Congress that would have banned state and local governments across the country from being able to enforce laws or regulations on AI models, systems, and related digital infrastructure, including data centers, for 10 years. 

Crowley’s changing position comes with less than three weeks left until Election Day and as data centers and AI continue to be unpopular across the political spectrum. A September Marquette Law School poll found that 74% of Wisconsinites say the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits.

This week Crowley laid out an 11-point policy plan for restricting and regulating AI and social media companies. The policies include:

• Requiring platforms to set kids’ accounts and new accounts to the highest privacy setting and cut off unsolicited messages. Users over 18 would have the option to turn the restrictions off. 
• Prohibiting infinite scroll, autoplay and other addictive features for minors’ accounts as well as a ban on push notification for the users overnight and during the school day. 
• Banning surveillance advertising. 
• Allowing parents the option to sue platforms over design choices that harm a child including content promoting suicide, eating disorders and drug sales 
• Regulating AI chatbots by restricting them for users under 13, prohibiting chatbots from posing as doctors and therapists and requiring disclosures on AI chatbots designed to form emotional bonds with individuals
• Increasing the penalties for online predators and sextortion and implementing those same penalties for creating or sharing AI-generated sexual images of children
• Penalizing companies that knowingly make money from scam ads
• Requiring identification verification for advertisers before they can place ads
• Requiring platforms to implement a scam reporting tool that’s easy to use and requiring that they confirm the reports and report the action that they took within a set timeframe
• Funding the state Department of Justice and the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection to support their work to combat online fraud and enforce anti-trust law
• Investing in county and tribal adult protective services and aging and disability resource centers, so victims of scams have support to recover

Crowley said during the Wednesday evening event that the state needs to do something in the absence of the Trump administration and Congress taking action. 

“It’s unfortunate that the federal government has actually not put in these guardrails to protect our young people, protect our families, but also to protect our seniors,” Crowley said. “Look, I’m a father, I have three daughters and I want to make sure I can protect my girls from these chatbots. You have, you know, social media platforms that allow them to chat about sexuality. That’s not what I want my 9 and 7-year-old to be introduced to. My oldest right now is a freshman at Whitewater. I don’t want her having pictures out there, and all of a sudden, she can’t be protected.” 

Crowley said the policies are aimed at putting the burdens on the tech, social media and AI companies, rather than on individuals. 

Tiffany also supports some guardrails for these companies. He said in a statement to the Examiner that the state needs “common sense guardrails that protect children and seniors, safeguard personal privacy, and prevent sensitive data from falling into the hands of foreign adversaries, including Communist China.” His campaign noted that in Congress Tiffany cosponsored a law aimed at strengthening law enforcement’s ability to investigate financial fraud targeting seniors. The legislation covered scams involving AI.

“We cannot allow artificial intelligence to become another tool for harvesting Americans’ personal information or exploiting vulnerable individuals. We must hold Big Tech accountable when its platforms enable the creation of sexually explicit AI-generated images of children or expose minors to sexually inappropriate chatbot conversations,” Tiffany said. 

Tiffany said he would support imposing age verification requirements for app providers, strengthening parental consent protections and “give parents greater control over their children’s online activity.” 

Former President Barack Obama endorsed Democratic candidate and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley in the race for Wisconsin governor in a video posted to social media Thursday.

Crowley faces Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in November in what is anticipated to be a close race in one of the most purple states in the country. If Crowley wins, he’ll be the first Black governor of Wisconsin and only the fourth Black governor elected in U.S. history.

Obama, who was elected the first Black president in 2008, said in the video that he hasn’t known many leaders like Crowley. 

“David’s life story is about overcoming adversity, and his life’s work is about bringing people together,” Obama said. Crowley, a father of three daughters, grew up in Milwaukee, the son of an electrician and a service industry worker. Both of his parents struggled with addiction and mental health issues. While growing up on Milwaukee’s North Side, Crowley and his mother were in unstable housing conditions and faced eviction three times. 

Crowley’s childhood has shaped his career in politics. He started out working as a community organizer and aide to former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold before running and winning a state Assembly seat. In 2020, he ran for Milwaukee County executive, becoming the first Black person to hold the position.

“Like me, David started out as a community organizer, and he happens to be a girl dad, too,” Obama said, noting that Crowley’s daughters have gone to public school. 

Obama added that Crowley has helped create jobs and balanced budgets as county executive.  

“As governor, David will fight to make Wisconsin more affordable, so that you’re paying less at the pump, at the doctor’s office and less at the end of the month. There is nobody better to lead Wisconsin forward, so vote David Crowley for governor,” Obama said.

Obama carried Wisconsin twice, when he was elected president in 2008 and again in 2012 when he was reelected, by margins considered large for the swing state. 

Crowley said he was “deeply honored” to have Obama’s endorsement and that the former president is “someone who defines what leadership is — fighting for everything possible to make life better for everyday Americans.” 

“Thanks to President Obama, millions of Americans were able to get healthcare, millions found jobs, and now he’s passed the baton to a new generation of leaders like myself who want to make Wisconsin and our country the best place to call home,” Crowley said. “I know with President Obama’s support, we can win this election and move Wisconsin forward.” 

President Donald Trump endorsed  Tiffany early during the Republican primary, helping to clear the primary field for the 7th CD congressman. 

In his January endorsement, Trump praised Tiffany for having “always been at my side.” 

Tiffany said then that he was honored to earn Trump’s endorsement. “Just one year into his second term, wages are rising, gas prices are down, our economy is growing and our border is secure,” he  said at the time. 

Since then, gas prices have risen due to Trump’s war in Iran, with diesel prices hitting a record high, averaging $6.22 a gallon in Wisconsin, according to AAA.

Trump’s popularity has also fallen, with 60% of registered voters disapproving of him in the most recent Marquette Law School Poll.

Trump highlighted his endorsement of Tiffany on Wednesday in an announcement that he’d be giving the state nearly $18 million in disaster aid. He said that he had recently spoken to TIffany and reiterated his “Complete and Total Endorsement” for the Republican candidate.

Republican Michael Alfonso, the son-in-law of U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and Democrat Fred Clark, a conservationist and former state lawmaker, faced off Wednesday night in the only scheduled debate in the race for Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District. 

The district, which represents the Northwoods, is currently represented by U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is running for governor. He was first elected in a 2020 special election after Duffy resigned the seat, saying he wanted to focus on his family. 

Duffy, who President Donald Trump appointed transportation secretary last year, has helped bankroll and provide support for his 26-year-old son-in-law’s campaign. 

Alfonso, who is married to Evita Duffy, has spent much of the campaign touting an endorsement from Trump and faced criticism about his lack of work experience. After he went to college, he worked for as a producer on Dan Bongino’s podcast in Florida for about a year. He said during the Republican primary that he has worked as an accountant for a church since moving back to Wisconsin.

Clark, a 67-year-old forester, is looking to flip the seat for the first time in 16 years, though it will be an uphill battle. Prior to Tiffany and Duffy, the seat was held from 1969 to 2011 by Democrat Dave Obey, the longest serving U.S. House member in Wisconsin history.

Wednesday’s debate covered an array of issues, including the cost of housing and gas, data centers, the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline and how northern Wisconsin can keep its residents from leaving. Throughout, Alfonso staked out positions that leaned towards cutting regulation and reducing government involvement, while Clark advocated for a balance of government investments and regulations.

One of the first topics was affordability as well as helping support residents in the 7th Congressional District. Alfonso brought up gas prices and argued that the U.S. needs to be more energy independent. 

“We cannot be relying on nations that hate us for stability in our oil prices,” Alfonso said. “Now, it’s very simple. We need to make sure that we are drilling here and that we’re producing energy here in a safe manner.”

Diesel prices have risen to record highs, in part due to the war in Iran launched by the Trump administration. Clark called for better foreign policy to help address the rising cost of fuel.  

“As Michael Alfonso pointed out, gas prices and diesel prices are through the roof high as a result of this administration’s war in Iran, which was started without a plan with no plan to get out, but the reality here is that oil prices are a global commodity, and what happens in the Middle East affects oil prices here at home, no matter how much we pump,” Clark said. “We’ve got to get smart about a trade policy and a foreign policy that reduces the risk and the chaos that we’ve been experiencing in the last 18 months.”

The war in Iran also came up later in the debate. 

Clark said that Congress needs to take seriously its job of deciding whether the country should go to war. 

Alfonso said that the U.S. needs to stop acting as the world’s “policeman” and needs to stop being involved in foreign conflict altogether — but then pivoted to defending Trump’s decisions in Iran. 

“We are not going to bring peace to the Middle East, but what we can do is stop them from having a nuclear weapon. Iran is a country that has hated us for decades. President Trump had the bravery to step in and make sure that these people do not have a nuclear bomb to use against us,” Alfonso said.  

One of Trump’s justifications for launching a war in Iran was to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon. According to Reuters, there was no credible indication of Iran having a coordinated weapons program in the leadup to the beginning of the conflict, though Iran was enriching uranium.

Alfonso said that he supports Line 5, a 645-mile petroleum pipeline owned and operated by Enbridge that runs through Wisconsin. He criticized Clark for not being supportive of the pipeline.

“Line 5 is one of these things that brings costs down for every single family in Northern Wisconsin,” Alfonso said. “How can you not support it?” 

Clark said that he doesn’t want to shut down Line 5, but said there needs to be some federal guardrails on setting lines. In August, Line 5 had a leak that is the largest oil and gas pipeline spill reported in Wisconsin in more than 50 years.

“The risk of a spill in the Lake Superior watershed, in the river watershed and Lake Superior is extraordinarily high, and the environmental impact of that would affect this area for generations, but it also brings natural gas liquids here to Wisconsin and Michigan,” Clark said. “I’ve not called for it to be shut down, but we do need a law at the federal level to allow basically the opportunity to site these lines. Right now, nowhere in federal law is there any law or any agency that oversees line setting where these things are placed, and we need that just the same way that we needed for transmission lines and other public utilities. I want to see that change.” 

Both candidates also discussed bringing down the cost of housing, though their approaches were starkly different.

Alfonso said the government should cut regulations on home building. 

“The number one thing we can do is cut red tape, especially around housing,” Alfonso said. “I worked in construction, and I know that it costs almost $50,000 before you can even break ground on a new home. If you want to make housing more affordable and have young families move back to the district, that’s a great step to take.” 

Clark said there needs to be programs to help people looking to buy their first home as well as support from the government and private sector that can make manufacturing more affordable, including by using wood from Wisconsin. 

“We need to be smart about it,” Clark said. “It isn’t just eliminating all the rules and regulations.”

Alfonso worked in construction while in school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During the debate, Alfonso criticized “these ridiculous public universities that do nothing but indoctrinate our students” and called for taking away funding from them and putting it towards trade schools, saying that that would help keep young people from moving away. 

“We need to be pushing our young people towards trade schools that will actually teach them a useful skill in sending instead of sending them off to a crazy woke university that will do nothing but indoctrinate them and put them deeper into debt, so it’s even more difficult to buy your first home,” Alfonso said. “The best part about trade schools is the students that graduate from these trade schools stay in Wisconsin.” 

Clark said that he has heard from mayors and small town leaders from across northern Wisconsin that young people aren’t staying in their communities due to a lack of affordable housing, childcare and public investments, which “make people want to live in a place.” 

“Until we change that… our economies are not going to be able to thrive,” Clark said. “There is a smart role for government to do that. It doesn’t mean more regulation. It means the right investments in the right places. It means helping make housing more affordable. It means helping families afford childcare.” 

On the topic of education, Alfonso said he also supports eliminating the Department of Education, saying that he doesn’t think the agency should have any say over what is happening in local Wisconsin schools. 

Alfonso then pivoted the question to being about bathrooms. Alfonso has used the issue of bathrooms being used by transgender students as an issue throughout his campaign.

“So you know what the Department of Education is responsible for? Boys and girls bathrooms,” Alfonso said, mentioning the New Richmond school district, where the Department of Education had launched an investigation over its policies surrounding bathrooms. 

Alfonso asked if Clark supports the federal agency on that issue. 

“I don’t think the federal government needs to be deciding what bathrooms” students use, Clark said. “I trust teachers and school administrators and parents make that decision in their community schools.” 

The candidates also answered questions about data centers, which across the country have become major issues in political campaigns. 

Alfonso said that data centers should use “closed loop” water systems, that they should not raise energy costs and that local communities should have control over whether data centers are built. He said the federal government should not be stepping in to decide those matters.

“If you were to ask me, do I want a data center in Hayward, Wisconsin, where I live? Absolutely not, but I’ll tell you what the federal government does not have a role in stepping in,” Alfonso said.

In response, Clark asked Alfonso, “Are you willing to tell the president that he’s wrong to want to preempt states from having regulations around artificial intelligence and that he’s wrong to let Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos basically run the table wherever they want to when it comes to AI and data centers?”

A provision in Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” Law in 2025 that passed the U.S. House, but was removed in the Senate would have prevented states from being able to regulate AI for 10 years and limited states’ ability to restrict or tax AI data centers. Trump has also signed executive orders aimed at discouraging states from regulating AI. 

“President Trump was actually very clear with this. He said, if you’re a local municipality and you don’t want one, you don’t need one. President Trump truly listens to the people, I mean, we look at issues like the data center issue. It’s very clear people in northern Wisconsin don’t want it, but I can’t say the same for Kansas. I’ve never been there if they want one. It’s not the federal government’s job to step in and say, no, it’s the state or local government,” Alfonso said. 

Trump recently said that communities that don’t want data centers will “end up being backwards and poor.” 

In his closing statement, Alfonso said that the election would be about “common sense versus crazy.” 

“I support getting the government out of the way of business so that we can lower costs for Wisconsin families. That’s my number one priority,” Alfonso said. “I want to work to make sure that everyone in Wisconsin can afford healthcare. I want to make sure that every small business owner is able to grow, and I also want to make sure that the young people that are born in northern Wisconsin have a northern Wisconsin that they can come back to.” 

Clark said in his closing statement that northern Wisconsin has “everything we need to lead good lives with prosperous businesses,” and that its  farms, forests, water and tourism are assets.

“For that to work for all of us, we need a government that works that sets fair rules of the game, and that allows us businesses to grow and make the right investments to help make that happen,” Clark said. “We’re not going to see people moving back to Northern Wisconsin if that doesn’t happen. We’re not going to see businesses thrive and survive. There’s a partnership there that has to work.”

The Wisconsin Elections Commission met Thursday to assess its preparations for the midterm elections in November, review reports on allegations of voter fraud and determine the outcome of two complaints against election officials. 

The commission met as concerns continue to swirl around Wisconsin and the country over the possibility that President Donald Trump and his Republican allies will work to undermine confidence in the results of the election. 

In the meeting, WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe gave the agency’s pre-election readiness report in which she outlined the ways the commission works to keep the state’s voter rolls accurate, train election officials, ensure the election’s security and answer any questions that come from local officials or voters. 

One of the most frequent complaints about the election system made by conspiracy theorists is that Wisconsin’s voter registration database includes the information of “inactive” voters who have moved, died or been convicted of a felony. The critics argue that leaving these files in the database makes it easier for fraud to occur.

The report states that WEC and local election officials have reviewed or updated nearly 500,000 voter files ahead of the election to make sure that only eligible voters cast votes in November. 

“And in total, since the last general election, our municipal clerks have updated or deactivated over a half a million records, and so I think that’s really, really important to highlight how much work goes into maintaining Wisconsin’s voter registration list all day, every day to ensure that anybody that’s lawfully registered will show up on the registration list,” Wolfe said. “They’ll show up on the polls when they go to vote on Election Day, and anybody who is not eligible, so anybody who maybe has been convicted of a felony or is otherwise not eligible, is removed from the list or their record is updated.”

Commission Chair Don Millis, a Republican, said that leaving the inactive voter files in the database actually protects against fraud. 

“Basically, you have one database with 7 million records, and there’s a very good reason why we keep records of inactive voter records, deceased voters, because if you got rid of those, you would lose one of your best tools to combat election fraud,” Millis said.

Wolfe also said that in an effort to provide as much information as possible to voters and clerks, the WEC office is set to open at 5 a.m. in the weeks ahead of the election. 

Commissioner Ann Jacobs, a Democrat, said she appreciates the sacrifice from WEC staff to help people, but that the agency’s 30-person staff is not large enough to handle the demands of the public. 

“We have put in a request for our budget for many more positions because the work we’re doing has expanded dramatically,” Jacobs said. “It shouldn’t be something where people are sacrificing as much as they are. And I want to express my admiration for our staff’s devotion to this work and commitment to it. And also say that our need for additional staff is real. It’s profound. And I hope if any legislators are out there listening, that you treat our budget request for more personnel with great attention, and hopefully give us those staff positions.”

Voter fraud, felon reports 

Commission staff also presented the results of the agency’s regular reports on felons who have voted and reported election fraud. 

As is generally the case, neither report shows widespread levels of election fraud at the level Republicans have regularly alleged in recent years. 

The report shows that since the 2020 general election, nearly 22 million votes have been cast in Wisconsin. Only 445 of those votes, 0.002%, were matched to voters with felony convictions and an even smaller number of those instances were actually referred to prosecutors and charged. 

The commission’s annual report on voter fraud found that in the elections since November 2025, municipal clerks have referred 53 cases of election fraud to local prosecutors. The WEC report, agency staff said, could be an undercount because it’s dependent on clerks reporting the referrals to WEC when they happen. 

Most of the referrals, 44 of them, were made because the “election day registration” postcard delivered to a person’s address after they register at the polls was returned undeliverable. 

Milwaukee Complaint

The commission also voted on Thursday that there is no probable cause to further investigate a voter’s complaint that the city of Milwaukee violated state law by sorting absentee ballots at its central count location behind a curtain. 

The complaint alleged that city staff were conducting “observable” election activities behind the curtain at the city’s central count location during the November 2024 and April 2025 elections. The commission’s discussion of the complaint reopened long-running arguments between commission members — most notably from Republican Robert Spindell, who has long been the WEC member most friendly to election conspiracy theories. 

Spindell argued that people continuing to have doubts about Wisconsin’s elections is evidence that Wisconsin’s elections aren’t run competently or transparently enough. 

“Let’s stop having these problems that we have, where 45% of the citizens of Wisconsin feel that there’s something wrong with this thing,” Spindell said. “I’m sure Mayor [Cavalier] Johnson does not like the bad publicity that comes out regarding the lack of transparency. There’s no reason why that black curtain is up. There’s no reason why all these actions are being blocked if there’s nothing nefarious going on.” 

Jacobs pointed out that the complaint included several blatantly false statements.

“Bob, I’m concerned by your comments because I know you’ve been to Central Count. I know you have seen ballots being opened in the machines. I know you have seen the tables. I know you have seen the poll workers calling out names. I know you have seen all this,” Jacobs said. “And this complaint was by someone who swore under penalty of perjury that those things were happening behind this curtain. This man brought a lie to us, a lie, because he’s so invested in putting forward this conspiracy theory of secret things going on behind black curtains that he’s willing to lie on these documents to us. You and I both know, we’re both there, you and I both know that’s not true and he lies to this commission with the hopes of diminishing the work being done in the city of Milwaukee and I think you should be as offended as I am by that, because I’m pretty darn offended.” 

Mark Thomsen, another Democratic member of the commission, said that it’s Spindell’s repeated indulgence of conspiracy theories that has allowed distrust of the system to continue. 

“For you to turn this discussion about a complaint and a recommendation into the politics of the election, I think that hurts us more than anything,” Thomsen said. “I think that promotes mistrust, and … years and years of this is like it’s like Chinese torture, Bob. I mean, it’s enough.”

Wisconsin’s race for governor is tight with Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley up in the most recent Marquette poll over Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany, but down in fundraising.

“Why on Earth would anyone contribute that amount of money?” Crowley said, addressing supporters at an event on the north side of Madison Wednesday evening, the deadline for campaign finance filings. “Because they know that Congressman Tom Tiffany is willing to sell the state of Wisconsin, our precious state, to the highest bidder.”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany’s September campaign finance report showed that he raised over $26 million between July 1 and Sept. 23, bringing his fundraising total for the year to over $39 million.

Of the money raised since July, over $24 million — or 93% — came from the Republican Party of Wisconsin. The party, which under state law is allowed to transfer an unlimited amount of money to candidates, reported raising $29 million during the period. Billionaire donors Diane Hendricks and Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein contributed $27.6 million of that amount.

State Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison), a former opponent of Crowley, joined the event with Madison’s Northside Action volunteers to tell supporters that Crowley “needs your money.” 

One attendee brought up a recent ad from Texas Senate candidate James Talarico in which Talarico calls his Republican opponent Ken Paxton to propose a debate. Like Paxton, Tiffany has declined a few debate offers — although unlike Paxton, Tiffany has agreed to one debate, to be hosted by WISN-12 on Oct. 21.

“Talarico’s got a lot more money than me,” Crowley said in response. 

While talking to another supporter, Crowley threw up  his hands and shrugged his shoulders, declaring  Tiffany “doesn’t have to fundraise because billionaires.”

Tiffany also reported spending nearly $19 million, leaving him with $12 million on hand. 

Dane County Executive Melissa Agard told the Examiner that she doesn’t think Tiffany’s fundraising dominance will carry him to victory, noting that Elon Musk’s attempts to “buy” a state Supreme Court seat in 2024 did not work. 

“We’ve seen in Wisconsin billionaires try to come in and buy election results, and folks in Wisconsin have woken up to that. It’s not going to work. We take care of each other,” Agard said.

Crowley told the Examiner that he is trying to focus on growing “people power” instead of focusing on “money power.”

“We didn’t get anywhere near $26 million dollars,” Crowley said of his fundraising.

Crowley’s campaign reported raising $10.2 million during the period. He spent $7.8 million and ended with $2.8 cash-on-hand. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin contributed $2.7 million of that total. The state party received two $1 million donations during the fundraising period, one from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and one from Lynde Uihlein.

He added that Tiffany’s $24 million “coming directly from three billionaires means that the rest of this state and those that he reached out to only donated $2 million, which lets me know that folks don’t believe in his leadership,” Crowley said. “They don’t believe that he’s going to do right by this state, and so we’re going to focus on people power, because that’s what trumps money power any day.”

A Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday showed Crowley leading Tiffany among likely voters 49% to 46%, with 5% of voters undecided. 

“There’s been very little movement. These are, I think, obviously, inside the margin of error,” poll director Charles Franklin said. He noted that Crowley’s lead was slightly smaller than it was a month ago, especially among people who said they were likely to vote. Crowley’s support has dropped among independents, more of whom have developed a negative impression of him as the campaign, and a negative advertising blitz, have continued. But, Franklin noted, independents have also not moved to Tiffany. “It’s not yet boosting Tiffany a lot.” 

Among registered voters Crowley led Tiffany by only one point — 46% to 45%.

The number of voters who said they thought favorably of Crowley dropped dramatically, with 13% more respondents seeing him unfavorably than favorably, compared to 4% more favorable than unfavorable in the previous poll. Franklin said much of the change came from Republican voters.

“People have gotten to know him some over this last month, though a quarter say they still haven’t heard enough, but of those people who’ve learned something about him, many more have formed an unfavorable opinion in this month than a favorable opinion,” Franklin said, adding that Tiffany’s favorability fell from -4 to -6. “He’s become just slightly more unfavorable, but very little change relative for him. A lot of change for David Crowley.”

Scot Ross, a longtime Democratic strategist, said he would rather be Crowley than Tiffany in the race, given the friendlier atmosphere for Democrats in the midterms, but he warned that the Marquette poll is a sign that the Republican candidate’s messaging is landing. 

Ross said Tiffany and Republicans have been “lambasting” Crowley with ads that are “98%” negative, while Crowley and Democrats aren’t effectively showcasing Tiffany’s support for President Donald Trump. 

“Tom Tiffany is 100% tied to the most unpopular elected official in American history, and I don’t think Democrats and their allies want to let this get away from them by not properly prosecuting the case against Donald Trump and Tom Tiffany,” Ross said. “And I do think that there has been a lack of advertising on the larger Democratic side attacking and tying Trump and Tiffany together.”

Trump’s approval among Wisconsinites fell to its lowest level in the poll at 38% and 60% said they didn’t approve of the job he was doing. Tiffany was viewed unfavorably by 45% of people. 

Ross said the expected Democratic wave that is being shown in polling doesn’t “exist because of the good things necessarily that the Democrats are doing.”

“It is because, in every possible way, the corruption, the incompetence, the self-dealing of the Republicans under Donald Trump has turned off the American people,” Ross said, adding that Crowley needs to be on television and doing more media that ties Tiffany to the president.

California fundraising

Crowley recently returned from a trip to California for a fundraiser with former Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump in Wisconsin in 2024, and actor Sean Penn. People who attended the event gave contributions of between $500 and $20,000. Crowley’s fundraising in California follows a trend as Democrats travel to the West Coast to seek money, illustrated by a recent analysis by the L.A. Times of congressional campaigns.  

After the trip, Crowley told reporters that he would be open to campaigning with Harris and “anyone who is willing to focus on lowering costs for working families.” 

Asked about the shift in his favorability in the recent Marquette poll, Crowley said, “Well, when you have $15 million being spent on you.” 

“The Republican playbook is to lie, distract, and to defy, and we’re going to bring more people to the table, and that’s what this campaign is focused on,” Crowley said. “Making sure that we can lower costs for our working families, that we can provide and expand childcare and healthcare.” 

Crowley also said his campaign has been working to tie Tiffany to Trump, but that he is more focused on issues closer to home.

“I think that when people see the wave that happens across this entire country, it only has a ripple effect here in the state of Wisconsin, national politics has not really moved voters here in the state of Wisconsin,” Crowley said. “What’s going to move folks in this state is focusing on Wisconsin values.”

But for one Wisconsin resident at the Crowley event, national issues are part of why he is leaning toward Crowley. 

Soham Bhatnagar, a 22-year-old who lives in Verona, said he learned about the Madison event online and decided to hurry over when he got off work early. He identifies as an independent and said he appreciates hearing from political candidates “no matter their persuasion.” 

“At the beginning of the race, it was honestly a true toss-up for me,” Bhatnagar said. 

“As the war has drawn on and the prices have gone on … when you have the congressman who’s not seeming to in a meaningful way break with anything, I believe that in itself injects a national element into this.” 

Erica Bartsch, a mother from the northeast part of the state who posts on social media, supported state Rep. Francesca Hong in the primary, then turned her attention to trying to get people to vote for Crowley. Her advocacy turned to pleading in some of her recent videos as she asked where Crowley has been and urged him to get in front of voters more often.

“We need him to be accessible to the people. How can the people see where he’s at if it’s not even on his website?” Barsch said in one video, noting that she and many Wisconsinites would not be able to pay $20,000 to attend an event like his recent fundraiser in California. 

Hong, who narrowly lost to Crowley in the primary, has been travelling the state to persuade people who voted for her to support Crowley in the general election.

Crowley’s campaign website does not currently include a “Meet David” page, which previously included a list of events where people could meet the candidate. His campaign says the website is being updated. 

His website does include a link to volunteer opportunities, including knocking doors and phone banking, but not a list of events where people can meet Crowley.

Crowley is also traveling across the state, including attending Oktoberfest Parade in La Crosse, the Jackson County Fall Rally in Black River Falls and a community pig roast in Kenosha. Some of  his appearances are not  advertised ahead of time on his website or through social media. The Madison event was advertised not on Crowley’s website, but on the Northside Action Team’s Facebook page. Crowley also has scheduled appearances this week at the Public Market in Milwaukee and in Mauston.

The campaign and the Democratic Party of Wisconsin report attempting to contact more than 500,000 voters since the end of the primary. Crowley’s field campaign is coordinated with the state party.

Bartsch said Hong’s campaign helped bring out people who aren’t always engaged in politics and Crowley could do more to reach those voters and bring Democrats together.

“David Crowley has the plans and policies that can make people’s lives better,” Barsch said. “He just needs to get out and connect with the people on the ground to show that — to show how much he cares about Wisconsinites,” Bartsch said.

The poll found that Crowley is the choice of 98% of Democrats who favor socialist candidates, while 92% of those who do not favor socialists also support him. It also found that 44% of independents favor Crowley, while 18% support Tiffany. Another 38% of independents are undecided. While Crowley is ahead of Tiffany with independents, his support among independents recently fell by 11 points.

Agard said time is running out before the election. 

“Everyone wants to have more face time with the candidate,” Agard said. “At this point, the countdown is on. We’re literally talking days now until our election and some people have already cast their vote, but there are only so many hours in a day. I look forward to more opportunities like this, where David is coming into town and is able to mix and mingle with ordinary people, but also, I encourage people to be curious and do their homework.”

Wisconsin State Superintendent Jill Underly called for the state to overhaul the school funding formula in her sixth State of Education address Thursday, saying that the state “simply cannot afford to wait any longer.” 

Underly delivered the address less than six weeks before the November election, when Wisconsin voters will decide who she will be working with in the governor’s office and in the state Legislature on the next state budget. She will need their support to get the funding for the budget proposals she has begun to formulate.

The Department of Public Instruction so far has only submitted the first part of its budget request, which covered funding for libraries, support for children who are deaf and blind, public libraries, cybersecurity, technology modernization and the investigation of alleged educator misconduct. The agency said last week that it would release the second part of its request, for “categorical aid programs and other critical supports” for Wisconsin’s public schools, in November. The election is scheduled for Nov. 3. 

“The formula used for funding our schools, for years, has failed our children, schools and entire communities,” Underly said during her address. “The reasons are varied and complex, but you don’t need to be familiar with every detail of the funding formula to know that it’s simply not working. The evidence is all around us.” 

More than 75 school referendum requests carrying a total cost of $1.5 billion will go before voters in November. It’s just the latest round in a now-familiar ritual as school districts across the state  seek approval to raise property taxes to make up for a shrinking pool of  state aid. School districts that can’t pass a referendum have had to cut costs including by eliminating programs, staff and in some cases closing or consolidating schools. Districts on a streak of failed referendum requests have faced dissolution. 

Underly noted that the classrooms of the Hustisford School District “sat empty” on the first day of school this year. The district started the dissolution process after its referendum failed in April.

“Every kid felt the impact,” Underly said. “Kindergarteners, who should have been walking through the doors of the school their family chose when they made this beautiful community home, instead traveled to a neighboring town. Meanwhile, seniors who spent the past 12 years as Hustisford Falcons started their last year of school in an unfamiliar building,” Underly continued. “This is what happens when we turn our back on our schools. And when schools close, the impact doesn’t stop with students. It ripples through entire communities.”

Underly said the state funding formula “places value on the wrong things,” including enrollment, district spending and property value, instead of on student needs. 

“It fails to ask the most essential question: How much does it actually cost to educate the students who live in a district so that they have an equal opportunity to succeed? A student’s opportunity for success should not depend on their zip code,” she said. 

School funding will depend on who’s in office. Republican candidate Tom Tiffany and Democratic candidate David Crowley are running to be governor and control of the state Senate and Assembly are up for grabs. 

Some lawmakers have argued that rather than increase funding for schools the state needs to explore more school consolidation given declining enrollment. Asked about when school closure is the appropriate answer to declining enrollment, Underly told reporters she thinks “it deserves some study and conversation to figure out what’s best for kids.”

Underly pointed to the 2019 bipartisan Blue Ribbon Commission while speaking to reporters. The commission, which was created by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and then-Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald in 2017, developed a report offering ideas to address school funding issues, as a guiding document for what the state should be doing. She said that the reports showed that there are kids who need additional support including those in poverty and who have special needs. She said money also needs to be invested in career and technical education, mental health supports and speech and language pathology.

“All these things have been in my past budget requests, and that’s what we will be able to expect in the next one, too,” Underly said. The agency’s 2024 state budget request totaled over  $4 billion. 

Urgent, but possibly not very fast

While Underly delivered her message with urgency, the timeline for changes could look vastly different depending on who wins in November.

Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton), who could become the Senate Majority leader depending on the results of the November elections, has said Democrats will increase school funding in the next state budget, but changing the state’s school funding formula could be a “multi-year” process. 

“We’re also looking at a long-term goal of seeing what other states are doing and how they are funding their public schools, but that’s going to take probably a multi-year task to try to figure that all out and talking to our friends in Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois,” Hesselbein said. 

Crowley has been supportive of increasing school funding, including moving the state toward reimbursing districts for 90% of the cost of special education, instead of the current rate of 38% , but he has also suggested throughout his campaign for governor that there may need to be another Blue Ribbon Commission to study tax issues including school and local government funding. The last Blue Ribbon Commission on school funding took two years to complete. 

Tiffany has said he wants some increases to school funding, but also promises to freeze property taxes if elected. He hasn’t provided clarity on how much he would invest or how he would balance the two issues. Tiffany has focused on issues of accountability and ensuring “high standards” as opposed to school funding when discussing education issues.

Underly has had a strained relationship with Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee, who have declined to invite her to testify in front of the committee, and it’s unclear whether a working relationship between her and Tiffany would be an improvement. Tiffany recently described the state superintendent’s position as a constitutional office as a “problem” at a Moms For Liberty Town Hall in Richfield. He said he would use the state budget, which determines the state’s spending for a two-year period, to try to steer the superintendent  to make the decisions he wants her to make.

Underly said responding to the comments that independence is positive.  

“When you think about my office, my office is nonpartisan. It’s independent. It is not at the whim of any governor and I think that actually strengthens public education,” Underly said. “I think his comments stand on their own.”

In her speech, Underly called for people to look at the candidates’ records on school issues, not their talking points, when making their decisions at the ballot box this November. 

“We have people running for office who have spent a decade or more in government, in positions to make school funding decisions — or who have left state government for another level and now want to return — whose records include repeatedly voting against investments in Wisconsin’s children,” Underly said, apparently referring to Tiffany, who as a state lawmaker served on the budget committee before he was elected to Congress. “Past actions are the best evidence we have of what someone will do when given power again. Wisconsin does not need more people who tell us they support children while their votes tell a different story. We need people in positions of decision-making power who are pro-public school, pro-child and pro-Wisconsin.” 

Two Waukesha County Republicans are asking voters to reelect them to the state Legislature in November while simultaneously campaigning to become the county’s next executive in a December special election. 

Paul Farrow, who had served as the Waukesha County executive since 2015, was a former state lawmaker and previous chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, died in July after a two year battle with a rare and aggressive abdominal cancer. Tom Farley, who previously worked as the county’s lead attorney, was sworn in to serve as the interim county executive on July 30 after being nominated by the county board. 

The race to serve the last few months of Farrow’s four-year term has so far attracted the attention of two longtime GOP lawmakers who are also currently running for reelection to their respective seats: Rep. Adam Neylon (R-Pewaukee) and Sen. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield). 

But the lawmakers concurrently running for two offices sets up a tangle of filing deadlines and election dates. The deadline to file nominating signatures to get on the special election ballot is Oct. 20 and if they both gain access, a primary election will be held Nov. 17 — just over two weeks after they’ll both be on the ballot in the midterm elections on Nov. 3.

Kapenga announced his candidacy on July 13 in an interview with conservative radio host Dan O’Donnell.

“Usually, you get excited about announcing, but this is just unfortunate,” Kapenga said, adding that he was praying for Farrow’s family. 

Neylon announced his campaign in early September. Neylon, who said Farrow was a mentor of his, said he spent time grieving and then mulling the decision. 

“I believe our families deserve leaders who put community first and show up, listen, work well with others, and deliver results to protect the values that built this place, and I think that, given my experience, my background, that I’m the right person for the job,” Neylon told the Wisconsin Examiner. 

After the special election, a regular election for a full term as the county executive will happen in April 2027. 

Both will appear on ballots in November in races for their respective legislative seat. Within 60 days following the certification of the election as county executive, a lawmaker would need to resign from their position. State law prevents legislators from serving in the Legislature and as a county executive. 

Kapenga and Neylon’s decision to seek the job outside the Legislature follows a wave of Republicans opting to not run for reelection this year, including Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester). Though state lawmakers regularly run for open county executive seats. 

Kapenga or Neylon’s departure from the Legislature would be one fewer Republican with legislative experience and would trigger the need for a special election to fill the seat.

Farrow was a state senator when he ran in 2015 and his election created a vacancy that Kapenga filled by winning a special election for the Senate seat that July. Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley, then a state Assembly member, was elected to be Milwaukee County executive in May 2020, and former Senate Minority Leader Melissa Agard ran to be Dane County executive after deciding not to run for reelection. 

With control of the Senate and Assembly at stake in November, the possibility of a legislative vacancy adds another variable for the next legislative session.

Kapenga did not respond to requests for an interview from the Examiner, but during his interview with O’Donnell, he said he expects another Republican to be elected to his seat if he wins the special election and resigns. 

“It’s almost statistically impossible unless somebody really makes a major mistake in this seat to lose it to a Dem so that risk is very low,” Kapenga, who won his last reelection effort unopposed, said.

Kapenga is facing a challenge for the state Senate seat from Mike Van Someren, a Democrat and attorney from the Town of Delafield, in the race for state Senate. 

Van Someren has knocked Kapenga for campaigning for county executive while running for the state Senate, saying in a video posted to TikTok that “it’s clear we’re both out there working for the job we really want.” 

“So in this instance, I just want to wish both luck,” he said.

The Examiner spoke with Neylon about his campaigns. He said he is focused on winning reelection to the Assembly and then will turn his focus to the county executive race.

“It’s going to be a sprint,” Neylon said of the turn around time between elections. “There’s not a lot of people paying attention to the county executive race right now when you have the general election on the horizon. People are talking about the governor’s race. People are talking about the majorities, and I’m part of that.”

In the race for the Assembly, Neylon faces a challenge from Democrat Stephen Tryon, an author. He won his 2024 election in a 59.1% to 40.9% vote against his Democratic opponent. 

Neylon said wants to help Republicans keep their majority as Assembly Democrats are seeking to flip five seats and put Republicans out of power for the first time in 16 years, but that he also has unfinished business in the Assembly that he’d like to work on.

“When I left Madison at the end of last session, I didn’t leave thinking it was over,” Neylon said. “I think it’s actually a positive thing, not something that I’m going to apologize for.”

With Vos and other GOP leadership retirements, Neylon said he wants to be involved in choosing a new leader for Assembly Republicans. He said there is also some legislation that he would want the opportunity to propose, including on AI and regulating Flock license plate readers. 

Neylon said it was a difficult decision, but there wasn’t much strategic thought put into running for both seats. He said he sees an opportunity in the county executive role and thinks he is best suited for the job due to his ability to listen to people and work collaboratively. 

“At the end of the day, the ultimate consideration was, do I want to do this? And I do,” Neylon said. “I think that when you look at the opportunity that Waukesha County Executive presents to be able to be an advocate and a leader in a community that I love, that I care about, that I want to protect for my kids to make sure that they have the same opportunities that we do. It just felt like I had to raise my hand and step up, and I felt a sense of commitment and responsibility to do so.”

Kapenga is known for being a staunch conservative and fiscal hawk, who wants to cut taxes and reduce government services. He has at times been the lone “No” vote on bipartisan legislation, including a law to provide additional coverage for breast cancer screenings. He’s also been part of hardline Republican intraparty feuding that led to legislation failing or Republican leaders turning to Democrats for help getting bills across the finish line.

One issue that has defined the race so far is taxes. Waukesha County is one of two counties in the state that do not impose a local county tax on top of the state sales tax of 5%. During his tenure, Farrow had proposed a plan to implement a sales tax to avoid steep cuts in services. It was withdrawn in January 2025.

Neylon and Kapenga have said they are opposed to implementing a sales tax. 

“Things cost more. Based on the last budget projected deficits into the future at the current levels of spending, so there’s been an interest in looking at different ways to increase government revenues,” Neylon said. “I think we need to be more innovative about the solutions we’re offering to people instead of always just going back to we need to raise tax.”

Neylon said he wouldn’t look to shared revenue from the state to help with the county’s fiscal issues, however, he said he would lobby state lawmakers to allow the county to keep more revenue from fees that currently go to the state. 

Neylon has said he would also bring his focus on regulatory reform to county government, including to rising housing costs by looking to ease zoning and permitting rules that he says slow construction. He has spent much of his legislative career focused on rulemaking, including as the the lead author of the REINS Act, the Walker-era law that requires state agencies to halt the rulemaking process for any proposed administrative rule estimated to cost $10 million or more. He also served as the chair of the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rulemaking.

Kapenga, who has worked as a certified public accountant, told O’Donnell that his experience would help provide a different perspective to county government. 

“I think it really works well with the challenges that we’re facing as we go forward,” Kapenga said.