In a show of unity following a divisive and chaotic primary, Democratic gubernatorial nominee David Crowley met for breakfast with the losing candidates in the primary along with lieutenant governor nominee Sarah Godlewski and top Wisconsin Democrats.

Democrats are competing to hold onto the governor’s office against Republicans U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany and David Varnam and hope to flip control of the state Senate and Assembly in November.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Devin Remiker, Joel Brennan, state Sen. Kelda Roys and state Rep. Francesca Hong gathered with the nominees at a cafe in Middleton. Crowley sat at the head of the table next to Godlewski and Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton).

The elected officials and losing primary candidates departed the breakfast while Crowley and Godlewski addressed reporters. 

Crowley, who in July restarted his campaign 10 days after he dropped out, said Gov. Tony Evers, who endorsed him, was his campaign’s “secret weapon.”

“He has a lot of trust and he’s done a lot of work. He’s one of the very few governors that we know has continued to deliver year after year,” Crowley said, adding that Evers’ message and experience helped as well. “We’re not going to win this race focusing on ideology alone. It’s about focusing on Wisconsin values. We cannot allow Washington politics to creep up into our own backyard.”

Godlewski, who won the nomination in an uncontested primary and introduced Crowley, said national politics are a “clear distinction from that guy, Tom Tiffany, who is an election denier, career politician who only cares about the wealthy and corporations.”

“That’s not who Wisconsin is, and that’s not who we are going to elect this November,” Godlewski said

Hong did not speak to reporters, but released a statement congratulating Crowley around the time of the breakfast.

“This campaign was not about getting one person into office. It is about building a movement for permanent affordability and a government that puts working people first. Our movement is strong, and the work isn’t done,” Hong said. “I fully support [Crowley] and look forward to working with him to defeat Congressman Tiffany in November.” 

Crowley also criticized Tiffany and promised to ensure that northern communities, many of which are represented by Tiffany, are not forgotten.

“We’re going to make sure they’re a part of this process and we can lend their voices to the solutions. We know no one has been listening to them across this state,” Crowley said, adding that Tiffany has not been hearing the concerns of his constituents and is only loyal to President Donald Trump. 

Tom Tiffany in Deforest

Tiffany, who has Trump’s endorsement, met with supporters in the afternoon at a bar in Deforest alongside lieutenant governor nominee David Varnam and attorney general nominee Eric Toney.

“Well, it appears that Thanksgiving may be safe this year,” Tiffany said, referring to the late-in-the-race controversy over a post made by Hong about canceling the holiday. The joke got  laughs in the bar. 

Ahead of the election, Republicans spent millions on ads to help boost Hong’s campaign, hoping she would become the Democratic nominee. 

In his remarks Wednesday, Tiffany tried to tie Crowley to Hong.

“There is not a dime’s worth of difference between the candidates that ran for the Democrat,” he said. “David Crowley will do the same stuff that Francesca Hong would have. He just didn’t say it.”

Tiffany also criticized Crowley for his leadership of the state’s largest county, including a lapse in health insurance coverage for Milwaukee County employees and the projected future budget deficits that the county faces, despite  Crowley’s talking point that he has only signed balanced budgets as county executive. 

Tiffany was also asked whether Crowley’s nomination changes his approach to the race. 

“It’ll be the same stuff, the same socialism, whether it’s David Crowley or anyone else,” Tiffany said. “You know, he was in the race, then he was out of the race, and then he was asked to get back in the race. He didn’t know whether he wanted to be governor or not. I want to be the governor of the state of Wisconsin, and we’ve had a plan from the very beginning that we’ve been sharing.” 

The Republican ticket will include Jay Schroeder, who won the GOP primary for secretary of state. Schroeder wants to eliminate the Wisconsin Elections Commission and put it back under the control of the secretary of state. 

Tiffany did not disavow the idea of eliminating the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which was created under former Gov. Scott Walker. 

“We’ll assess that after I am elected,” he said. “It should be easy to vote but hard to cheat, right, and we’re counting on that happening here with this election here in November.” 

Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Brian Schimming told reporters that it is a new race and that he wouldn’t put much stock in polling or primary results. 

“Democrats spent the last several months fighting with each other. It took them three candidates to finally get to one that they could push through the primary, and the fact is that the last four or five months has been all about stopping Francesca,” Schimming said. “So it’s a new race.” 

Schimming added that “a primary winner will get a bump, you know, so I’m not going to be surprised by anything I see in the polls in the next week or two.”

Data centers and young voters 

In the Democratic primary for governor, Hong built much of her campaign on motivating young voters and leveraging her stance on AI data centers. She supported a one-year moratorium. Both Crowley and Tiffany addressed how they would approach the issue Wednesday. 

Asked about winning over Hong voters, Crowley said young people should have a seat at the table. 

“They need to be a part of creating the strategy and making sure that you know they have opportunities as well,” Crowley said. “Young people don’t feel that they can look into their future right now. When the average home-buying age is 40 years old, when right now they’re looking at data centers and artificial intelligence taking the jobs in the future, and so we have to focus on making sure that we’re lifting up their voices and protecting what they believe needs to be protected.”

Tiffany said that his message to young voters is “we’re going to make life more affordable for you.” He said he would do that by cutting property taxes by eliminating Evers’ 400-year veto that gives school districts authority to bring in more revenue by raising taxes, and by cutting regulations on homebuilding to make it more affordable to build a home. 

“I understand the frustration. I mean, I have three daughters in their twenties, and it’s not easy to make ends meet at this point,” Tiffany said. 

Crowley, who has said he supports banning nondisclosure agreements for data center projects, did not offer his support for a moratorium on AI data centers when asked by a reporter.

“We have to focus on making sure that we have accountability with these data centers,” Crowley said. “They have to pay their own way, they need to pay for their own infrastructure and they need to bring their own new clean energy. I am committed to working with the state Legislature to make sure we have as many guardrails as possible.”

Tiffany said he would end subsidies for data centers that were signed into Wisconsin law under Evers, work to ensure that utility rates don’t go up and would ban nondisclosure agreements. 

“Well it sounds like David Crowley will give a blank check to data centers,” Tiffany said. “They do not need to be subsidized by us, the taxpayers, and we’re gonna make sure that people’s electricity rates do not go up. We’re going to make sure that we have full transparency.”

U.S. Rep Tom Tiffany easily defeated challenger Andy Manske in the GOP primary for governor. The AP called the race at 8:21p.m. With 45% of the ballots counted, Tiffany was leading 92.4% to Manske’s 3.8%.

Tiffany’s victory was a foregone conclusion. He was endorsed by the Republican Party after President Donald Trump endorsed Tiffany and two other GOP hopefuls who had launched campaigns dropped out.

Manske, a 27-year-old medical service technician from suburban Milwaukee, has said he entered the race to ensure GOP voters had a choice. On his website he said he was campaigning “to challenge a political system that’s stopped working for everyday Wisconsinites and to fight for a state that works for all of us.”
Tiffany’s running mate will be David Varnam, who defeated Will Martin, a former staffer in the administrations of Tommy Thompson and Scott Walker during their terms as governor, in a surprise upset. Martin had been endorsed by the state party.

David Varnam was mayor of Lancaster, Wisconsin, from 2016 to 2022 and previously a Common Council member. He has worked as a congressional aide and as a policy analyst for the Christian organization Focus on the Family. He ran in the 2022 Republican primary for lieutenant governor, finishing seventh.

Varnam defeated Martin 54.1% to 45.5%, with 69% of the vote counted. AP called the race at 9:36 p.m.

With both Martin and Tiffany having the Republican Party’s endorsement, the two campaigned together. Tiffany was a guest on the weekly radio show Martin hosts on Milwaukee radio station WNOV, and the two appeared jointly during the summer in community parades.

Ahead of Election Day, Democratic candidates had been discussing uniting following the primary to defeat Tiffany.

Democrats, including Lt. Gov. candidate Sara Godlewski, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, plan to meet for a unity breakfast Wednesday morning in the Madison area, seeking to move past the divisiveness of the  primary with less than three months until the general election.

It’s hard not to get caught up in the increasingly contentious Democratic primary battle that’s mostly being waged online this week. But outside of the social media echo chambers, people who are taking the brunt of a vicious, authoritarian regime are asking deeper questions about how to build political power.  

Union and immigrant-rights organizers in Wisconsin held a joint press conference Thursday to talk about their efforts to get Latinos, newly naturalized citizens and struggling workers to the polls to elect people who will take a stand against the Trump administration’s terrifying crackdown on immigrants as well as Trump administration policies driving the crushing cost of living.

Roselia Navarro, a naturalized citizen who leads Voces de la Frontera’s New American program, helps guide other immigrants through the process of becoming citizens. She gave a touching account of how much citizenship and participating in American democracy means to her. She described it as a privilege to help other immigrants, many of whom have waited as long  as 20 years to obtain their naturalization papers and become eligible to vote. 

“I’m very proud to say I’m the first person that is able to vote within my family,” she said. “And that feels rewarding because when I vote, I feel that I’m not only making decisions for something that would benefit my kids, but it also inspires my family to see that I’m motivated and I’m involved.”

“I want to also invite the people in our community, especially the Hispanic community, that we can come together and we need to vote,” she added. “It’s extremely important for us to be part of the decisions that are being made in our state.”

First-time voter Yondo Borrera, who sat next to Navarro on the panel at the Voces office in Milwaukee, told reporters, “I will be voting to make a change in my community. I don’t like how everything is super expensive right now — gas, food, housing, rent. And I don’t like how ICE is in the community snatching people up, deporting people, taking people away from their families, and that’s something that I’m trying to change.”

Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Voces’ executive director, described the power of Latino voters in Wisconsin, a tippy purple state where elections are often decided by razor-thin margins. Over the last decade, “the Latino population, including the Latino voting population, has continued to grow in force statewide,” she said. She cited data from the 2024 election that showed high turnout among registered Latino voters about 84.9%  of whom voted, “yet this only represents 63% of the estimated eligible Latino citizen voting age population statewide,” she said. 

Immigrant rights’ organizers aim to drive the participation rate higher.

There is something poignant about that aim, which, in other election years, would seem like a run-of-the-mill exercise in civics. This is no ordinary election year, however. 

Armed federal agents have been dragging people out of their cars in Milwaukee. A young mother with no criminal record who fled violence in Colombia and was going through the U.S. asylum process, checking in with the government regularly as her case progressed, was grabbed along with her 8-year-old son out of their home in the Wisconsin Dells and is now incarcerated along with her little boy in an ICE detention facility in South Texas. 

This is just one case of the thousands across the country. Neumann-Ortiz described a few more in Wisconsin. “We’ve seen mothers and fathers and children and the larger community traumatized by the violence and the persecution and the racism, which is completely unchecked right now,” she said.

People who have full legal status are wary of being grabbed by rogue ICE agents looking to fill quotas in the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign. Going to the polls in this environment is fraught. And yet, advocates say, it’s more important than ever. 

“We are in an unprecedented time of income inequality, with unwanted wars in the Middle East, and a quarter of a trillion of our national budget being used for the violent persecution and racial profiling of Black and brown people, Asian people, and shifting away these critical resources from healthcare and public schools and childcare and things that people need,” Neumann-Ortiz said. 

The only way to change all that is for people who are suffering under this terrible regime to grab control of their government.

Adrian Bracy, a worksite representative for the Service Employees International Union, spoke on the panel to people who feel that their vote doesn’t matter, that the system is too broken to be fixed at the ballot box. 

“Working for a union for 20 years, I know that uniting and standing strong and fighting firmly for what we believe in, it can make the difference,” she said. “It can definitely change things.” She urged people to encourage their friends and neighbors to vote.  “Let them know how important it really is, and that they do matter,” she said. “It does matter. It makes a difference …  in spite of the tactics they may use to intimidate or discourage or discredit our voters.”

As it happens, the effort to discourage and discredit voters is led by Wisconsin’s representatives in Congress. U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Janesville), who chairs the House Committee on Administration, is demanding information from the state Department of Corrections on voting by felons. The case that prompted Steil’s letter to DOC Secretary Jared Hoy involves a man convicted of theft who was one day shy of having served his full sentence on community release. Had he voted the following day, his ballot would have been legal. This single case, which did not affect the outcome of any election, is fodder for a campaign Steil is spearheading to cast doubt on the legitimacy of elections and disenfranchise likely Democratic voters by making them jump through hoops before they can vote, all in the name of rooting out exceedingly rare cases of voter fraud.

The main targets of this campaign are, of course, the supposed masses of noncitizens casting ballots and tilting elections to Democrats. 

U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Prairie du Chien), like Steil an enabler of election conspiracy theories, also took a big stand this week, demanding that Gov. Tony Evers turn over the personal data of FoodShare recipients in an effort to root out “fraud.” People who get food assistance in Wisconsin are already seeing their benefits cut, just as grocery prices skyrocket, under the massive tax cut and spending bill both Van Orden and Steil supported.

These attacks are related. After voting for policies that make life much worse for the people they represent, our Republican members of Congress are trying to make sure voters can’t hold them accountable. 

“The challenges facing our economy and our democracy are inseparable,” says Taifa Smith Butler, president of Demos, a nonprofit progressive public policy organization. Demos rolled out its 2026 national policy agenda this week:  “Power Policies: How to Get and Keep People Power in the United States.” 

“For too long, public debate has centered on short term wins, but the more important question is what happens after power shifts,” Smith Butler said at a press conference announcing the new report. “History shows that periods of political upheaval can also create opportunities for transformative change. Previous generations have used these moments to advance civil rights, expand democracy, and build economic security.”

Rising authoritarianism is linked to the erosion of both economic and political power for most people, Alix Gould-Werth, Demos’ chief of programs and strategy, said at the same event. It’s important to stop that erosion in order to fight back.

The solutions the group lays out in its progressive policy plan include affordable housing, universal childcare and a robust national wealth tax, as well as nonpartisan redistricting and automatic voter registration.

Rebuilding democratic institutions in the current environment seems like a huge hill to climb. But starting on the state and local level, it’s possible to protect “laboratories of democracy” that will serve as models for a larger shift, Gould-Werth said. 

Community housing grants and low-cost loans are one example Demos offers.

Here in Wisconsin, which long ago served as the laboratory for New Deal programs and progressive reforms that grew into lasting federal institutions, there is an opportunity to stand up and defend a better vision of society. 

It’s scary. And it’s challenging. But it’s a relief to see advocates at both the local and national level light a torch and keep us focused not just on the short-term crisis we are enduring, but how it fits into the long-term fight for a better world. 

In his announcement dropping his bid for governor, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said Democrats will need to coalesce around a candidate who can defeat Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in November. He provided his answer Thursday for who he thinks can win in the general election: Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez.

Crowley is the second candidate to drop out of the race in recent weeks, leaving five candidates competing for the Democratic spot on the November ballot. Along with Rodriguez the Democratic candidates who remain are state Rep. Francesca Hong, state Sen. Kelda Roys, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and Joel Brennan, former head of the Department of Administration under Gov. Tony Evers. The winner of the August primary will likely face Tiffany, who is endorsed by the state GOP and President Donald Trump.

“I’ve said all along that the next governor’s job description is simple: make this state affordable, make sure care shows up for families before a crisis hits, and build real opportunity that runs from the classroom to a good-paying job,” Crowley said in a statement Thursday. “That was the mission of my campaign, and it’s exactly what Sara Rodriguez has spent her career doing. She doesn’t just meet that job description; she’s lived it, on the front lines, for the people who need it most. That’s the governor Wisconsin needs, and that’s why I’m proud to stand with her.”

Crowley announced his decision to suspend his campaign after failing to break into the top tier of contenders in  public polling. A Marquette Law School poll showed  he had about 3% of Democratic primary voters’ support. The next Marquette Law School poll will be released on July 22.

“We share a belief that government should solve problems and put people first,” Rodriguez said about Crowley in a statement. “We may have started this race on different paths, but today we’re united in the same fight: delivering for Wisconsin families.”

It’s the latest big change in the Democratic primary field as Rodriguez has started to gain some momentum in the race, finishing first in a straw poll at the state party convention last month. Former Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. CEO Missy Hughes, who dropped out in late June, also endorsed Rodriguez. 

At a press conference Thursday morning in Milwaukee, Crowley said nobody called him to ask him to step out and there was “no establishment process” behind his decision. He was answering a question about what he would say to voters who are concerned that mainstream Democrats may be consolidating behind Rodriguez in order to stop Democratic Socialist candidate Francesca Hong.

Hong is running on a platform of universal childcare, paid family and medical leave, establishing a public grocery store and bank as well as implementing a one-year moratorium on data center construction. She has had growing support behind her over the course of the campaign including polling at the top of public polls. 

Hong came in second after Rodriguez in a straw poll of party activists conducted at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin convention.

“I think it’s extremely important that all of us as candidates start to make decisions about how we win this race and making sure that we are keeping the Democratic party, keeping the people at the center of these decisions,” Crowley said, adding that he made the decision himself.

Rodriguez, responding  to the question about whether her supporters are seeking to push out a more progressive candidate, said people should look at her campaign website: “Look at what I’ve done for the state of Wisconsin. Look at what I’m planning to do.”

Rodriguez has served with Evers as lieutenant governor since 2023 and previously served in the state Assembly for one term. Prior to that she worked as a nurse and then in leadership positions for a couple of healthcare organizations, including at Advocate Aurora Health. 

Democratic candidates seek to show strength

Crowley’s departure from the race left other candidates seeking ways to show their campaigns’ strength.

The Barnes campaign shared an internal poll with reporters that was conducted from April 17-23 with 800 likely Democratic primary voters in Wisconsin. The poll showed Barnes polling at 30% support, Hong at 23% and Rodriguez at 17%. Crowley had 5%. The campaign said the internal poll, which also asked voters about their second choice, “suggests Crowley’s exit significantly increases Mandela’s paths to victory, with the majority of his voters going to Barnes.”

The campaign also noted an internal poll from the Rodriguez campaign conducted in May that showed Barnes polling at 26%, Hong at 22% and Rodriguez at 15%. 

In a social media post after Crowley’s announcement, Barnes highlighted that both of them are from the same zip code in Milwaukee.

“David has a life experience that is far too often missing from our politics, and that life experience has driven him to deliver real results for Milwaukee County families,” Barnes said in a social media post. “I hope all those inspired by David’s campaign can find a place in our movement to end the rigged system that’s holding back Wisconsin families. It’s time for us all to come together to beat Tom Tiffany.”

Barnes also launched a six-figure ad buy Thursday that will run in the Milwaukee in the run-up to the primary. An outside group backing Barnes, Impossible Until It’s Done, has also started a $500,000 TV ad for him.

Ahead of next week’s campaign finance filing deadline, Roys’ campaign announced that she raised over $1.2 million for the June 30 filing deadline. The campaign said the money ensures Roys will be able to communicate with voters ahead of the Aug. 11 primary.

Roys spokesperson Jalen Knuteson said in a statement that the campaign’s internal polling shows that her “message performs the best of all the candidates’, and she doesn’t need the most money to win — she just needs enough to get her message out.”

According to the campaign, her second ad will launch next week.

Responding to questions from the Examiner about the state of the race and Roys’ path forward, Knuteson said in a written statement that “voters should decide who the Democratic nominee for governor is, and we would be failing to learn lessons of past elections if we try to crown a candidate without an earnest primary.”

Update: This story has been updated to include additional comment from the Roys campaign.